In a hurry in the morning, but want a hot nutritious breakfast? I have a 45 minute commute, so unless I want to get up at crazy o'clock in the morning, I have to make my breakfast to-go. This crock pot apple pie oatmeal has been the perfect breakfast for me that was fast, easy, and delicious. Pack up a week's worth of ingredients, pour a packet into the crock pot before bed, and load up a mug in the morning.

Note: I carpool with a couple colleagues and make this on days when I'm not driving. Please don't try to drive while eating this. Best case scenario, you get oatmeal on your clothes.

Materials:

Mini Crock Pot

Non-Stick Aluminum Foil

Sandwich Bags

Fruit Preserver (optional)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup steel cut oats

handful of pecans

2 tbs baking sucrose (or sugar)

pinch of salt

dash of cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 apple (A very sweet crisp apple is best. I like fujis.)

1 tbsp brown sugar

Step 1: Dry Ingredient Pack Prep

To make each night's prep quicker, pack up dry ingredients in foil that will also serve to make the cleanup significantly quicker.

Tear off 5 pieces of non-stick aluminum foil. Add the following ingredients to the center and fold into a packet. Repeat for each piece of foil.

1/4 cup steel cut oats

handful of pecans

2 tbs baking sucrose (or sugar)

pinch of salt

dash of cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

Note: I prefer to put the butter in with these dry ingredients. If you want to make up more than a week's worth of these packets, you may consider putting the butter in with the wet ingredients listed in the next step.

Step 2: Apple

If you're only making this occasionally, you can cut up your apple and add it directly to the crock pot. However, if you tire of cutting up an apple every night, you can cut and freeze your apples in sandwich baggies.

In the case of mass prepping apples, I recommend using an apple peeler and apple slicer. These tools make the process a lot faster, though they aren't necessary. Cut your apples up into small pieces, soak in a fruit preserver, and place approximately one apple in each sandwich bag. Repeat with as many apples as you'd like. Store the baggies flat in the freezer.

Step 3: Before Bedtime

Unfold a packet of dry materials and place it in the crock pot. Add your apples, and the following ingredients.

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

Stir, set the crock pot to low, and enjoy a good night's sleep. Between setting and serving the oatmeal is about 8 hours for me, but I imagine it would last for around 10 before it would start to get overcooked and dry. Alternately, it would likely be good to eat at around 6 hours, if you get less sleep.