We Love Our Crock Pot Oatmeal

We store our oatmeal in this vintage canister.

McCann's Steel Cut Oats

Dan and I are both very fond of oatmeal for breakfast.  We prefer the steel-cut oats because of their nutty texture, and they are the healthiest because of their high fiber content.  It takes 30 to 45 minutes to cook these on the stove top, but cooking them in the crock pot over night has breakfast ready when we get up.

I bought a small crock  pot (1 ½ quart) that I use just for cooking oatmeal.  I butter the inside of the crock pot with a tablespoon of butter to keep the oatmeal from sticking.   Place  4 cups of water and 1 cup of steel-cut oats in the crock pot.  We prefer McCann’s Irish Steel Cut brand, but use whatever we can find.

1 cup of steel cut oats.

1/2 cup of diced apples.

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Often I will add ½ cup of diced apple in which case I decrease the water to 3 ½ cups. 

Cook over night on low setting.

Cook this overnight in the crock pot on the low setting or for about 8 hours.  This makes 4 servings.


In the morning, breakfast is ready.  We top our oatmeal with raisins,  brown sugar, walnuts or pecans, if we have them, and half and half .  Or at least we use whole milk. This is one dish where we don’t use skim milk.  We love our slow-cooked oatmeal for breakfast!

Breakfast is ready!

I posted this back in 2011, but on this snowy day when we are happy to have oatmeal again, I will repost this.

Low Sodium Sloppy Joes

When we were in Key West a few weeks ago, we ate at the famous Sloppy Joe's Saloon, and I had a Sloppy Joe sandwich.

Sloppy Joe at Sloppy Joe's in Key West.

That was the first I had had probably since my children were small.  I had forgotten how much I liked a Sloppy Joe.  We are trying to stay on a low sodium diet whenever possible, so I decided to make some low sodium Sloppy Joes.

I found this recipe online at this website.

This is another quick sandwich meal that will cook while you are out. Small children and teenagers seem to like this too, so it's great for a party or family get together. Hunts makes a low sodium catsup that seems to be pretty widely available.

1 1/2 lb Ground Beef
1 Onion,Chopped
1 c Low Sodium Catsup *
1 Green Pepper,Chopped
2 T Brown Sugar
1/2 t Garlic Powder
2 T Prepared Mustard
3 T Vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar.)
1 T Worcestershire
1 t Chili Powder

 * I used about 1/4/ c low sodium catsup, 1/4 c low sodium tomato paste, and 1/2 c salt free pureed tomatoes.

In a skillet, brown beef and onion. Drain. Stir together remaining ingredients in crockpot. Stir in meat and onion mixture. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours.

Yield: 8 Servings

Beef and onion in skillet.

Brown beef and onion.

Mix remaining ingredients in crock pot.

Add meat and onions to crock pot.

I cooked for six hours on low in crock pot.

Ready to eat.

These were very good, and I really didn't miss the salt.