Baked Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker

In 2008, Stephanie O'Dea used her slow cooker every day of the year. Every. Day. She blogged about it and hers was one of the first food blogs I followed regularly. Since then, she's written a cookbook called Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking and followed it up with another one because she's that popular. Her blog is alive and well! Check it out here.

I tried her baked oatmeal recipe 5 years ago and I've made it nearly every week since then. It's perfect for a healthy breakfast on the go. I usually eat it at my desk at work with Greek yogurt. I made a few variations because this recipe can easily be tailored to your specific tastes.

Ingredients & Tools

• 3 cups of rolled oats [do not use instant]
• optional 1/4 cup ground flaxseed 
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of 2% milk
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1 mashed very ripe banana
• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/3 cup of dried cranberrires
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• nonstick cooking spray
• slow cooker

Combine the dry ingredients--oats, flaxseed [if you're using it], baking powder, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Mash the banana and add it to the wet ingredients--eggs, milk, and vanilla.

Add the dried fruit to the dry mixture and stir in the wet ingredients. Less than a minute of stirring combines everything well.

There's little sugar in the recipe, but excellent sweetness from the ripe banana and dried fruit. If your family prefers dried apricots or something else, use it. This recipe is very adaptable. I tried fresh blueberries a few times, but they just explode and don't add much flavor. When they're in season, I do add fresh berries when it's already baked, right on top of the yogurt.

It'll look and smell delicious even at this stage.

Spray the slow cooker's stoneware with a nonstick spray and pour the mixture in. Evenly distribute it.

Cover and cook on low for 2-3 hours. The cooking time will depend on the size of the slow cooker. The bigger it is, the faster it will cook. This is one of the few things that can burn in the cooker. Check on it after two hours, but do not continuously remove the lid. Heat and moisture will escape and the total cooking time will increase.

This is not like granola. The consistency is somewhere between cake and cookie and so, so good.

Serve alone or with yogurt.