Overnight Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal

  When I first started this blog I would have never thought that I would be so into researching, testing and making my own recipes, photographing the end result, and then submitting my photos to several sites to get traffic and feedback. It can be hectic and tiring when juggling school, home life (owning of a lot of crazy animals), having lupus, and  all the while trying to figure out what I want to really do with my life.

Cinnamon Sticks

   When I first started this blog, I was posting about 4 times per week, but recently I have been posting only about twice each week. It can be somewhat frustrating when I have a good amount of recipes that I want to share all at once, but I also don't want to be that kind blogger who will post 5 times one week and then maybe will skip a week or two (without notice) and then will just post once a week after that. I want to be as  consistent with my posting as I possibly can so I think I will go back to posting 3 times a week; that may mean I might post all food posts one week and then the next I will show some of my recent photos or DIY projects.

  I had originally found a recipe for overnight oatmeal in a food magazine, but when I looked it up on the internet I found that it had really poor reviews. I ended up going with a recipe from Monica's blog The Yummy Life. I made a few changes to fit our tastes and it came out good. I've noticed that when steel cut oatmeal gets cooked, that it can become very thick, sometimes too thick. You can easily fix that by adding some more milk into your bowl and stir until you get the consistency you want. This oatmeal is very fragrant, but isn't too sweet which is good because even though I like sweets, I don't want to have a ton of sugar in my breakfast.

Overnight Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal

recipe based off one from The Yummy Life

serves: 6

2 apples, cored & chopped up

1 1/2 cup soy milk

1 1/2 cup water

1 cup steel-cut oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup golden raisins

pinch of salt

2 tbsp butter, optional

Additions: chopped nuts, more milk, maple syrup, honey, brown sugar...

1. Spray a 3 1/2 quart (or larger) crock pot with non-stick cooking spray. 

2. Add all of the ingredients, except the additions to the crock pot. 

3. Stir, cover and cook on low for 7 hours.  Serve & top with any of the additions, if desired.
-I topped off our bowls with 2 tbsp soy milk & added some more brown sugar.

The additions are completely up to the preferences of who is eating the oatmeal. You can add chopped nuts, raisins, maple syrup, more sugar, or more milk to your bowl of oatmeal to get the flavor and consistency you prefer. 

To reheat single servings: Add 1 cup of oatmeal into a microwave-safe bowl and add a few tablespoons of milk, until you get the desired thickness. Microwave on 1 minute on high, stir, and microwave some more until its hot.