Cranberry-Orange Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker

Check out the neat inside of a cranberry!

I think about oats a lot and I love new oatmeal ideas.  I even follow a blog called The Oatmeal Artist.  Lauren blogs great ideas about new oatmeal flavor combos, and she's definitely more daring than I am since she eats savory oatmeal.  This oatmeal recipe doesn't come from Lauren's blog, but I think this is one she might be interested in.

I liked this multi-serving of steel-cut oats made in the slow cooker, typically how I roll when I'm making oatmeal, several servings in one big batch.  
I've tried to make overnight steel-cut oats in the slow cooker once before, but it didn't work out.  That was my fault, I didn't know the right setting for cooking and they were raw still when I woke up.  So I was a little hesitant to try the concept again, but it was great!

 Inspiration

Jennifer's Kitchen Cock-pot Cranberry Oatmeal

The original recipe used orange juice concentrate, but I needed to use up a carton of orange juice, so I replaced both the water and concentrate with orange juice.  And it only called for 1/3 cup chopped cranberries, but that didn't look like enough to me since I really like tart cranberries in my oatmeal.  So I kept pouring out more cranberries and chopping them until it looked like the amount I wanted. 

Measuring out some OJ.

Ingredients

serves 4-5

• 1 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2 cups milk (I used almond milk)
• about 3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries (I would use even more next time)
• 1 cup steel-cut oats
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Check out that curdled almond milk! 

Put everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for about 8 hours.  I started mine before bed and it was certainly ready in the morning.  I would actually look into adding a little more water next time because I wouldn't have wanted to cook it any more, it was quite thick.   

Divide the cooked oatmeal out into five bowls or containers. 

I eat my oatmeal with a "float" of 1 Tablespoon of non-dairy creamer and 2 Tablespoons of almond milk poured on top.

Verdict

Deliciously tart and creamy! Need more now!

I was a little uncertain about mixing orange juice and almond milk since the acid in orange juice will curdle even non-dairy milk, but the taste was great.  The orange juice and almond milk mix was similar to orange sherbet, so it was super yummy.  I would even make this again without the cranberries, and maybe add some canned mandarin oranges.  Or both!

The tart cranberries were the perfect balance between the sweetness of the orange juice.  I'm glad I increased the cranberries, I would go with even more the next time I make this, and I will definitely make it again soon.  I think my next batch of steel-cut oats in the slow cooker will be apple-cinnamon with chopped almonds or maybe a creamy orange-pineapple using crushed canned pineapple.

I was originally planning this would only be 4 servings and I was afraid that this wouldn't be a large enough to keep me full, but once I saw it cooked, I decided it was actually going to be big enough to make 5 servings, and I was happy with that decision.