This is a new favorite breakfast recipe, and it makes an enormous amount that can just be heated up in the microwave during the week. I usually add a poached egg on top, especially now, when we are getting between 8 and 11 eggs every day! If you are not up on your fiber, ease into this---just a word to the wise... This probably has a full day's ration in one serving. Can be halved if your slow cooker is smaller than mine.
Slow Cooker Porridge:
1 1/2 cups mixed whole grains (I commonly use 1/2 cup hard white wheat, 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup barley, but I've also used rye, wild rice, hard red wheat, whatever is in the cupboard)
1/2 cup dried fruit
1 t vanilla extract
1 t lemon juice
8 cups water
Put it all in the slow cooker, cook on high until the water starts to steam, then on low for 12 hours.
That's it! I find it plenty sweet just like that, but you could add maple syrup when serving. It's dynamite with a couple of poached eggs on top, and there's something about a big bowl of grains that makes my belly happy all the way through to lunch time.
That does sound tasty. Have you tried it with oats? I'm also wondering about topping it with yogurt, I used to mix an egg, yogurt and berries into my oatmeal in the morning--haven't done that in a while.
ReplyDeleteI noticed in one of your earlier blogs that you dried a lot of apricots. What other fruits did you dry? I used to do that but haven't in years--you are inspiring me. ;-)
I think it would work with oats, but you'd have to use whole oats, I'm guessing. Rolled oats would probably turn gummy with this long cooking time. Let me know if you try it! As for fruits, I've used all kinds of things---peaches, nectarines, apples, apricots, but lately we are down to raisins, which are still very tasty! I've also used our home-canned fruit, added when I reheat it later. Of course, that's totally awesome. ;)
ReplyDeleteApples were our most successful drying effort this year. We have a little hand-crank machine that slices them in no time, and an electric food dryer. Depending on the year, this works better than the screens. If it's too humid, the fruit rots first. Haven't yet made the solar dehydrator that we want to make, but it's on the list! Still. I was wandering around with little bags of dried apples until the end of January, which was a huge return on a small investment, since I will voluntarily choose them instead of potato chips!
I remember having an electric food dryer once, used to dry all sorts of fruits and vegies in it. I think I loaned it out to someone years ago. I seem to recall that I made some screens too, but liked the electric one better.
ReplyDeleteMy current inspiration is to try and grow tomatoes this summer. I'm finding that I'm using them more and more in my recipes and it's so hard to find just tomatoes in glass jars. Time to start planning.