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!