Last year I discovered the joys of slow cooked steel cut oats. Ever since trying them, I’ve never been able to buy pre-packaged, processed, and flavored oatmeal that you see in boxes of single serving packs at the grocery store.

I’ve been making small variations on a basic recipe a couple times a month for about half a year now. And yesterday, with some nice fresh peaches from the store, I made the best batch so far.  I tweeted about it this morning and quickly got a request for the recipe, so here it is.

You’ll need a small crock pot (or slow cooker). We use the Proctor Silex 33015 1.5-Quart Round Slow Cooker bought on Amazon just for this purpose.

• 2 fresh peaches, cut into 1″ pieces
• 1/2 – 1 cup of dried cherries
• 3/4 – 1 cup of steel cut oats
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 spoons of light brown sugar

Combine all ingredients in the small crock pot and cook overnight (8-9 hours). Enjoy in the morning, optionally topped with freshly chopped banana and/or strawberries and a little bit of brown sugar.

Serves 2-3 adults.

All I can say is YUM! You have no idea how good oatmeal can taste until you’ve tried this. And there are so many variations you can use–different fruits, syrup, and so on.