Recipe Review: Chcolate Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Good Saturday Morning!  This week I am participating in my first blog hop yay!  I am not totally sure what it is, but it seems like a good way to find some really great blogs so I figured I would give it a chance :)

For breakfast this week we tried Slow Cooker Chocolate Oatmeal.  The original recipe was found here.  I made a few modifications to suit our taste and food preferences and to increase the serving size.  My recipe is found below.

Thoughts on this recipe:

1. It was very chocolatey, but not at all sweet.  In fact it was quite bitter from the cocoa powder.  This could be from the fact that I left out Stevia (not using artificial sweeteners right now), but I increased the honey to account for this.

2. Next time I will increase the extract to add a bit more flavor to the oats and a bit less liquid.

3. Cooking time was MUCH longer than expected (other slow cooker oats I have tried took 4 hours max).  This ended up needing a full 8 hours which will make it a great overnight oats recipe yippee!!

All in all, this was a realy yummy breakfast, after a few toppings.  To counteract the bitterness of the cocoa powder, I topped it with a teaspoon of nut butter and 10 dark chocolate chips and it became a truly decadent chocolate delight!  With the changes and additions this is going to become a definite regular in our breakfast rotation.

Happy Eating! :)

Image Credit: scrumptousspoonfuls.wordpress.com

Slow Cooker Chocolate Oatmeal
Ingredients:
2 cups steel cut oats
5 cups water
2 cups fat free milk
2tsp peanut butter extract
2tsp cinnamon
4-6T honey
8T cocoa powder

Directions:
Insert slow cooker liner or spray liberally with cooking spray. 
Mix all ingredients in the slow cooker.
Cook on low for ~8 hours (or overnight to wake up to a super yummy chocolatey treat!)
Top with peanut butter, chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, etc...