It’s FALL! Ok well Fall doesn’t “officially” start till next week and it’s going to be like 80 here…  but the Pumpkin Spice Latte has shown up at Starbucks, so that’s a good indications that we’re getting close. In fact, all things pumpkin and spice have been popping up; Pumpkin Spice Candles, Pumpkin Spice Lotion, Pumpkin Spice Muffins… It’s a pumpkin and spice phenomenon.

With the mornings getting a little bit crispier, I’ve been looking for warm and delicious ways to start the Big Kid’s school days. He LOVES oatmeal, so I figured why not combine his love for oatmeal and my love for Pumpkin? Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal is the easiest thing in the world and the whole house smells delicious and amazing when you get up on those cold fall mornings. It’s also a pretty healthy way to start the day, considering there’s ¾ of a can of pumpkin in the recipe and therefore chock full of vitamin A! The pumpkin also adds a beautiful color and creaminess to the oatmeal that you don’t get with anything else.

The best part of this recipe is that it’s made with steel cut oats, which have a fabulous texture and stick to your ribs consistency that can’t be beat. They also freeze up amazingly well and are MUCH cheaper than buying the frozen steel cut oats from Trader Joes! My recipe makes about 8 servings, but my kid eats so dang much of this stuff that we go through it in about a school week. In fact, I’m off to grab more steel cut oats to whip up another batch for the kiddos. It’s cheap , easy to make and oh so pumpkin-y.

Pumpkin Spice Crockpot Oatmeal

(Makes 8 Servings… unless you have my kids and then it only makes about 5)

Ingredients 

2 Cups of Steel Cut Oats (Irish Oats, or Pinheads)

7 Cups of Water

1 Cup of milk (I use 2% but whatever you have on hand… whole milk is good too)

3/4 Can of Pumpkin

1 Cup of Dried Cranberries

2 TB of Cinnamon or Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar – I try to under sweeten my oats, because when you eat them you can always add more. Too much and you’ll be having dessert for breakfast, which would be delicious but I try not to send my kid to school hopped up on sugar. His teacher would KILL me.

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients, making sure to mix well and break up the chunks of canned pumpkin. Also make sure to get the oats really incorporated because if they aren’t well mixed they will sit on the bottom and get burnt.

Turn on the slow cooker to low and let cook for about 8 hours. My crockpot has a timer, then switches to warm when it’s finished so they don’t burn.

How easy was that???

If you want to freeze them up in containers it’s pretty easy to reheat them as well. Just pop the oatmeal out of the containers, place in a microwave safe bowl with a few tablespoons of water and reheat on 80-90% for about 5 minutes. This is going to depend on how powerful your microwave is, but just keep checking to make sure they are cooked through.

Enjoy the advent of fall and crispy back to school mornings with the warmth of pumpkin spice oatmeal!!!