Crockpot Oatmeal

You must have noticed that I don’t have any breakfast recipes here. I’ve become a non-breakfast person in the last 10 years or so. But one of my New Year’s resolutions is to eat breakfast every day. So, another try at crockpot oatmeal was a must. I’ve been experimenting with this for a few months on and off and yesterday, I was telling a friend of mine how quick, easy, and healthy a crock-pot oatmeal is.
My experimenting involved different proportions as well as different things I added and when I added them. In one of the earlier versions, I’d add the dried fruit right away, but the raisins plumped up and were a little sour, the dried apricots became a yummy mush but the texture was barely tolerable, and dried cherries were really sour. Also, it seems that a 1:4 proportion of oatmeal to water seems to work well for me (1 part oatmeal to 4 parts water).
This recipe makes 2 generous portions or 3 average portions (in a 1.5QT crock-pot). I always have leftover oatmeal that I don’t know what to do with.
But here is the recipe that worked out:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup oatmeal (use steel cut oats, not instant)
2 cups water
brown sugar (a little less than a 1/3 cup)
pinch of salt
cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (I used about a teaspoon of cinnamon and a generous pinch of nutmeg)

Optional Additions:
Nuts (I used a handful of chopped pecans)
Dried fruit (I used 3 apricots I cut up in quarters and a handful of dried cranberries)

Steps:
1. Combine all ingredients in the crockpot and mix them up a little, except the Optional Additions.
2. Turn on the crock pot to “warm” and leave on over night (about 8-9 hours).
3. Half hour before the oatmeal is done, add the dried fruit of your choice and add the nuts when you are ready to enjoy.

The reason I use the “warm” setting instead of “low” is because I noticed that there’s less oatmeal that sticks to the sides and burns.