Overnight Crockpot Cereal

Hello Tired People Who Are Too Exhausted to Wake Up and Cook Breakfast! I am here to save you. I have found, and slightly modified, this lovely recipe for overnight crockpot cereal. Throw the ingredients into your slow cooker the night before, and wake up to an incredible-smelling, indubitably delicious, wildly comforting breakfast. Cereal with fruits, nuts, cinnamon, and vanilla.

I know, I know. You're skeptical. I don't blame you. Who wants to eat a pot of brown sludge reminiscent of wall-paper paste for breakfast? No one. And that's why I'm not giving you a recipe for that. I'm giving you a recipe for this. And it is delicious. It reheats in the microwave fabulously. My kids love it and that is saying something. They'll happily eat it all week when I make a giant batch. So easy. So good.

And now you are the best parent in the world, because you have attended to the most important meal of the day. Here ya go:

Ingredients:

1 cup EACH: cracked wheat, rolled oats, cream of rice (If you don't believe in gluten, this recipe is perfect for you, because it takes pretty much any substitution. So go to town. Try barley, brown rice, corn meal, rolled spelt, or quinoa. Unless you don't know that quinoa is pronounced "keen-wah" and not "kwinn-oh-uh". If you don't know that you don't get to cook with it.)

10 cups water

1 banana, sliced (This really is enough. And it kind of disappears into the cereal.)

1 apple, cored and diced (This is enough too. But I added more this time.) (you can peel it, or not)

1 handful dried cranberries

1 handful pecans, broken (I add more than a handful because I am in love with pecans and want to marry them.)

1 Tbsp. butter

Brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla to taste (Just eyeball it. You can do it. I know you can.)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Method:

-Place all ingredients in crockpot before bedtime. Cook on low all night. Don't stand over it watching. Or stirring. Just go to bed. It knows how to cook itself without you. Promise.

-In the morning, serve in a bowl with milk. Not ALL of it. That would require a bowl the size of your kitchen. Just spoon out what you want and chow down. Refrigerate leftovers. Reheat in microwave. Reheats very well. For days.