On Friday mornings Allan leaves at 5 AM to participate in a men’s group at our church. This last Friday was the first time that he has gone since Joshua was born, therefore it was my first time having to be up early to feed the hungry boys on my own. To make things even more exciting, we have MOPS every other Friday and this happened to also be a MOPS meeting Friday, meaning we all had to be ready to leave by 9 AM.
On top of those two events, the house had to be picked up so our cleaning lady could clean (Yes, since Joshua was born and we started homeschooling we have had someone clean our house every other week – I know that we are very fortunate to be able to afford this luxury and I am SO thankful!). To say that our morning was a little busy would be an understatement.
Knowing that the morning would be rushed and I may be stuck on the couch nursing Joshua for a majority of the time I did a few things on Thursday to make Friday morning easier. During nap time on Thursday I picked up the house and put away most of the lose items that inevitably don’t make their way back to their homes and I soaked a cup of gluten-free steel cut oats in 2 cups of water, a pinch of sea salt and a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar.
As you know, we don’t eat many grains, and always ensure that any grains we do consume are gluten free. With the weather getting cooler, I have been craving oatmeal. Although it doesn’t agree with a few people in our house to eat oatmeal every day, we can enjoy it every once in a while without anyone suffering. Oatmeal is all of the boys’ favorite breakfast option, so I knew it would be an easy meal to serve that would require minimal supervision.
The boys loved it and silently finished their bowls topped with coconut butter and a side of bacon.
Crockpot Apple Pie Oatmeal
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 6-8 hours
Keywords: slow-cooker breakfast fall winter toddler approved dairy-free gluten-free low-fat low-sodium low-sugar nut-free soy-free sugar-free unsweetened vegetarian American fall winter
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1 cup steel cut oats, gluten free if necessary
- 3 cups water, divided
- 1 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
- 4-5 green apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1/2 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise
- pinch sea salt
Instructions
Optional step, but will make the oatmeal easier to digest:
Combine steel cut oats, 2 cups water and apple cider vinegar in a medium bowl, cover and let sit for 6-12 hours. Reserve remaining 1 cup water for next step, after soaking.
Note: It’s best to use a smaller (3 quart) crockpot for this recipe, as the texture will still be oatmeal-like. If you use a larger crockpot your oatmeal may be thicker and stick/burn more to the edges of the crock.
The night before:
Lightly grease the crockpot insert with coconut oil.
Once the oats have soaked, peel and chop the apples and add to the crockpot. Peeling is optional, but results in a better texture.
Add the cinnamon sticks, vanilla bean and soaked oatmeal with the soaking water to the crockpot.
Whisk the eggs into the additional 1 cup water and 1 cup coconut milk. I use the same bowl that I soaked my oatmeal in so that I don’t have to wash another bowl. Pour this into the crockpot and gently stir everything together.
Set the crockpot to cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Enjoy topped with nut butter, coconut butter and a side of scrambled eggs, sausage or, like we did, bacon.
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