Maple-Hazelnut Oatmeal

Another delicious meal, courtesy of my Cooking Light Slow Cooker cookbook. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, my camera battery died before I could get the "finished" shot. Sorry readers, the above picture is the best I could do. I thought this recipe was absolutely delicious, and this is coming from a girl who normally doesn't put a lot of effort into breakfast. Especially since I've been on a health kick lately, I'm much more the "grab a bowl of Cheerios and slice up a banana" type of person. However, this oatmeal just looked too good to pass up. The only thing that's slightly problematic about this recipe is the timing. It was my goal to have a hot, fresh-from-the-slow-cooker bowl of oatmeal first thing in the morning when I woke up with Tony (which, if I'm lucky, is around 7am). However, this oatmeal needs to cook for 7 hours in the slow cooker. So what was I going to do? Press the "cook" button at midnight? Yeah right. I ended up making it in the middle of the afternoon, and then just put the finished oatmeal in tupperware in the fridge overnight. I'm pleased to report, it was absolutely delicious the next morning! I will definitely be making this again!
Source: Cooking Light Slow Cooker cookbook

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups fat free milk
1 1/2 cups water
2 Gala apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 3 cups)
1 cup uncooked steel-cut oats
2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 T butter, softened
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Cooking spray
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 T chopped hazelnuts, toasted


Directions:

1. Bring milk and water to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.

 

2. Place hot milk mixture, apple, and next 5 ingredients in a 3-quart electric slow cooker coated with cooking spray. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 hours or until oats are tender (I personally found 7 hours to be too long; I think 6 to 6 1/2 hours would be better).

3. Ladle oatmeal into individual serving bowls; top with maple syrup and hazelnuts.