Steel cut crock pot oatmeal is a super easy, super cheap meal. We frequently have it for dinner on cold winter nights.
All you do is put oats, milk, syrup and cranberries in your crock pot for a couple of hours. Voila! Perfect steel cut crock pot oatmeal!!
Perfect Steel Cut Crock Pot Oatmeal
Steel cut oats made in the crockpot in just a couple of hours. Creamy, delicious, and nutritious!
Ingredients
- 4 cups organic steel cut oats
- 8 cups raw milk (or half water, half milk)
- 1/2 bag of a 12 oz bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1/2 cup organic sugar
- 1/4 cup syrup
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
Put all ingredients in the crock pot.
Stir.
Turn crock pot on high.
Stir after 1 hour.
Stir after another 30 minutes. Pour in more milk or water if it's too thick or sticking to the crock pot.
Ladle into bowls and enjoy hot, nutritious, filling oatmeal.
Notes
Can make with all milk, all water, or half of each.
Can make with all sugar, all syrup, or half of each.
Why I love Steel Cut Crock Pot Oatmeal
- Uses a lot of milk when our cow is giving a lot and our fridge is overflowing.
- Costs about $10 to feed my entire family dinner of oatmeal and smoothie (see below.)
- The child in charge of dinner can make it himself.
- Only 4-5 ingredients.
- Throw it in the crock pot in 5 minutes. Turn it on and 2 hours later your house smells delicious.
- Creates cozy memories of cold winter evenings eating a porridge-like supper.
- Only one pot to wash, one spoon, and one measuring cup. (I use the 1 cup for all ingredients.)
- A great opportunity to eat cranberries, which I don’t eat often enough. They fight against cancer, UTI’s, liver disease, cavities, and gum disease. They are anti-inflammatory, good for your heart, and great for your eyes too. (https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/health-benefits-cranberries) Fresh cranberries are easily found at Christmas so I grab 5 bags and plan to have oatmeal at least 10 times throughout the winter. I also grab at least 5 bags for smoothies too. They freeze well.
Cost of this steel cut oatmeal recipe:
- One 24 oz organic steel cut oats at Walmart = $3.72. Uses 3/4 of the container = $2.79
- One 12 oz fresh bag of cranberries at Walmart =$1.50. Uses 1/2 bag =$0.75
- Milk (or water) = free
- One 32 oz bottle syrup at Sam’s Club = $12.98. 32 servings (2T per serving) per bottle = $0.40 per serving. Uses 2 servings (4 T or 1/4 cup) = $0.80
- One 6 lb bag of organic cane sugar at Sam’s Club = $6.98. 1/2 cup = $0.12
Total cost is $4.46!!
For a family of 12! If your family is smaller, it’ll be even cheaper. You can cut the recipe in half or have the pot last 2 meals. And if you use sugar instead of syrup, that is a savings too. It’s probably around $3 to feed your family heart healthy oatmeal.
You can add a spoonful of peanut butter to your bowl of oatmeal to add some extra protein (although it has a lot if you’re using 8 cups of milk) and that will add about $0.16 per person (based off $4.59 for organic peanut butter). You can also add a side dish of scrambled eggs. This is also free because of our chickens but then we have to use a plate and a bowl for our dinner. With 10 kids that adds a lot of extra dishes! So I tend to just do oatmeal for dinner with no sides except a juice shake/smoothie for a drink (that has kale, spinach and cucumbers in it for our veggie.) It’s supposed to be a light winter supper. Then after our evening chores we will sit around the fire reading and I’ll make popcorn as a healthy bedtime snack.
Oatmeal + smoothie =$4.46 + $6.06 =$10.52. That’s less than a dollar per person for a healthy winter dinner full of antioxidants and vitamins! That’s the price of one person’s meal if we were eating out. And it wouldn’t be nearly as nourishing and satisfying. This meal makes me feel alive.
FYI Cost of smoothie:
- Bananas $0.27 each = $0.54 for 2
- Pineapple juice $4.78 for 64 oz = $1.19 for 2 cups
- Blueberries = free from our blueberry patch
- Organic strawberries = $2.64 for the entire 10 oz package. But when Walmart is out of stock I buy regular strawberries in the 64 oz bag for $8.76 and that would only cost $1.36. So organic is twice as much. I also frequently find sales at other stores for organic fruit buy 3 bags, get 1 free. But I’m just calculating for normal Walmart prices.
- Mango = $8.47 for 48 oz =$1.69 for 1/5 of the bag. It usually lasts me 5 smoothies.
- Cucumbers, kale, and spinach = free from our garden. I stock the freezer with these and they last me all winter.
- Yogurt = free b/c I make it from our raw milk.
Total is $6.06 with organic fruit. Less if you use regular fruit. Of course the price will vary with different fruits. I make a new one almost every time. Sometimes with frozen cherries, blackberries, or cranberries instead of any one of those fruits. Just noticed this is twice the price it was in 2021. Food sure went up recently!
