Crockpot Oatmeal & Oatmeal Muffins

My women's Bible study meets Wednesday mornings.  We all take turns bringing breakfasty treats.  Last week was my turn.  We had enjoyed a unusually warm early autumn until then, but Tuesday was looking and feeling like autumn.  It was briskly cool and windy, with low skies full of dark puffy clouds, hinting at the possibility of cold, soaking rain. All of which put me in the mood for oatmeal.

I've heard friends talk lovingly of crockpot oatmeal, but had never sampled it.  The recipe wasn't on the back of the oatmeal canister, so I hit the internet and found several.  None of them was quite right for what I wanted - basic creamy oatmeal.  I read the reviews of each, picked the most likely candidate and made it mine.  Here's the recipe I started with:  Crock Pot Fruited Oatmeal and this is what I did:

Basic Creamy Crockpot Oatmeal
Day 1 (the night before serving)
2 cups 1% milk
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup steel cut oats
Day 2
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1/4 to 1 cup water
1 cup chopped apples
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Spray the inside of the crock very well with nonstick.  Add all Day 1 ingredients, stir.  Cover. 
Use the delay feature on your crockpot and set it to cook on low for 6 hours, to be ready in the morning.  I don't have a delay feature, so I plugged my crockpot into a timer (the kind you use for holiday lights).
The next morning, stir in the Day 2 ingredients.  Use a much or as little as you like. Don't worry if you have a brown crust coating the inside of your crockpot.  It's not burnt.  Scrape a bit off and taste it to reassure yourself that it doesn't taste burnt.  Then scrape it down and stir it into the oatmeal.  It gives a nice toasted "oatmeal cookie" flavor.
Makes 5-6 1 cup servings.

I made a double batch, because my Bible study group has 12 members.  Unfortunately, only half of them attended last week.  I had 5 cups of leftover oatmeal.  BUT, I have a really great muffin recipe.

Oatmeal Muffins
1 cup flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts OR raisins OR dates
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup leftover oatmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F.  Place paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and nuts or raisins.  In another bowl, combine oil, eggs, oatmeal and vanilla.  Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fill muffin cups two thirds full.  Bake 18-22 minutes or until muffins test done with a toothpick.  Muffins will be flat on top.
Makes 12 - 13 muffins.

I made 5 dozen muffins.  I used walnuts until I ran out of nuts, then raisins until I ran out of raisins, then finished up with dates; using up the last of the eggs, brown sugar, dates and oatmeal.  These muffins freeze well, and taste fresh baked when thawed.  Walt took a dozen to work, I took a 1/2 dozen to the Extraordinary Women conference and we have 3 dozen in the freezer.  The last 1/2 dozen?  Yum.