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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Tutorial Tuesday: breakfast while you sleep!

Crockpot (whole, multi grain) Cereal with Applesauce!

I'm so excited to be participating in Lindsay's blog carnival. I have really gotten into the idea of cooking with my crockpot so her "Nourshing Crockpot Carnival" will be the PERFECT place to find new recipes and ways to incorporate my favorite kitchen gadget!

This week my Tutorial Tuesday is also partly sponsored by Musselman's Applesauce. I wanted to make a nourishing meal with their Natural (unsweetened) applesauce. I've used it many times as a substitute for oil but this time I wanted to incorporate it as a main ingredient.

So, when i could combine Musselman's Applesauce with Tutorial Tuesday AND a blog carnival, then, phew! It couldn't get much better!


Ingredients
  • Nonstick cooking spray
  • 5 cups water
  • 2.5 cups Natural Musselman's Applesauce (OR your own homemade applesauce, as featured last week on Kelly's tutorial!)
  • 1.5-2 cups dried unsweetened dried fruit (i used raisins)
  • 1 heaping tsp ground ginger*
  • 2 heaping tsp ground cinnamon*
  • 6 Tbl steel-cut oats
  • 6 Tbl wheat bran
  • 1/2 cup long-grain brown rice
  • 1/4 cup pearled barley
  • 3 Tbl yellow cornmeal
  • 2 Tbl flaxseed*
  • 1/4 tsp coarse sea salt*
  • UPDATED-OH MY!-I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT TO ADD THIS! 1.5 tsp Vanilla. CRUCIAL.
*Note: these are not pictured. Sorry! i always leave something out in my ingredient list pictures!

Usually i buy all of my grains in bulk but this week I'm at my parents' house and not close to my natural food store. Thankfully, I could find almost everything I needed at Publix!

1. Lightly coat the inside of your slow cooker with cooking spray. (I may have gone overboard. I'm not used to seeing my spray show up on a black crockpot as ours at home is white.)

2. Measure out 2.5 cups of applesauce OR conveniently dump the entire container of a 20 oz Musselman's Applesauce jar into a LARGE mixing bowl

3. Add 5 cups of water (yes! that seems like a lot!) and stir to combine

4. Add your dried fruit. I LOVE raisins so I used them and added ~2 cups but you can just use 1.5 cups. Also, feel free to substitute with dried apples, cherries, cranberries, etc--you just don't want to add any dried fruit that is already sweetened. Blech.

5. Add all your grains...this is a lovely picture of the cornmeal:

and here come the steel-cut oats:


6. Add the spices--ginger and cinnamon. NOTE: next time I make this recipe, I'll be adding the spices to the applesauce FIRST and then adding everything else. it was quite hard to stir everything together without it spilling over.


7. Add a dash of sea salt.

8. Pour your mixture into the prepped crockpot


9. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

note: i love my parents' crockpot! it automatically shuts off!

10. Wake up!

11. Stir before serving. We added a bit of cold almond milk for added nutrients and to cool and thin the cereal. Feel free to add any other kind of milk or yogurt/kefir, almonds or honey.

12. Feed to your family:

13. and make sure to finish every last spoonful (in other words, a HUGE hit with Cutie Face!):

Side Note: I think this breakfast would be a GREAT way to start your Thanksgiving morning. You'll fill up on some whole grain foods before the "big feast" and, because it is so nutritious, this breakfast meal will stave off hunger until you're ready to dine!

Make sure to head on over to Passionate Homemaking to see more great wholesome slow cooker recipes! I can't wait to add to my recipe arsenal!

10 people think...:

Kari said...

This sounds great. I love using my crockpot. I love to cook healthy. And this would be great on those busy mornings when we are getting ready for school or church! Thanks for posting this :o)

Amy@NewNostalgia said...

Oh. My. Word.
I have been keeping my eye out for a healthy recipe to make into a dry mix for my friends (the ones that care about healthy eating:)) and THIS IS IT! It looks yummy, its dump in a crock pot easy, the cute lil' guy in the pictures devoured it, it is perfect.
I may even make a little gift basket and included the jar of applesauce!
Thank you, thank you for posting!

Leah said...

MMMM...this is Thanksgiving breakfast for sure! Well...I won't be able to wait until then to start using it.
Question: I am allergic to corn (corn meal) and Barley, could I leave them out, or could I substitute with something else like arrowroot powder and uh, some other grain or something...what do you think?

Unknown said...

Oh, this sounds so great. So great, that I might just get my crock pot out tomorrow and try to make it: ) Great idea about Thanksgiving morning breakfast!

SnoWhite said...

sounds wonderful! thanks for sharing.

Felicia said...

I'll have to try this one! I've tried the recipe that Jolly Mom put up.. this one looks delicious too.

Amy@NewNostalgia said...

Well I did it. I made it into a dry mix, packaged it cute(tried), took a pic so I could submit it to The Nourishing Gourmet homemade gifts carnival, unpackaged it, and dumped it in my crockpot where it is now cooking!!
Looking forward to morning, thanks again for the recipe!

ps so sorry I called your cutey face a lil' guy in my last comment. I didn't look close enough of the pics of her in her cozy pj's, but after getting more familiar with your blog, I see she is SO a girl and such a beautiful one!

the monkeys' mama said...

I responded to Leah directly but just in case anyone else is curious, I think you can easily substitute the cornmeal for the arrowroot powder and the Barley for another whole grain like quinoa, spelt, kamut, etc.

The Barley is a harder grain than the ground up cornmeal so that is why i'd recommend using another harder grain as a substitute.

Crystal said...

How well does this do as leftovers? Does it reheat well? I'd love to make a pot of it that would get me through the week if at all possible!

Mandy said...

I lOVE this recipe. I used it in our regular breakfast rotation last winter season, and I am excited to pull it out again tomorrow, now that it is finally starting to get cool here in NorCal. My husband and two young daughters both love it and eat every last drop. Thank you for such a fabulous start to our day!
mandykaybaker@yahoo.com