Cherry Vanilla Irish Oatmeal

Are you a fan of oatmeal for breakfast? This is the time of year when my slow cooker sits on my kitchen counter daily and I even use it for making my morning oatmeal; nothing like a bowl of hot, tender, pearly oats, all creamy and delicious. The trick to making slow cooker oatmeal is using steel-cut oats.

• 4 cups vanilla-flavoured soy, almond or coconut milk beverage
• 4 cups water
• 1 ¾ cups steel cut oats
• ½ cup dried cherries or cranberries
• 2/3 cup pure maple syrup, divided
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground allspice
• ½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed if frozen
• ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Method...

1. In a slow cooker, combine milk beverage, water, oats, cherries, ½ cup maple syrup, salt and allspice.
2. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours. Turn off slow cooker and go to bed. (If your slow cooker has a WARM setting, cook the oat at WARM for up to 12 hours).
3. The next morning sit in stir in remaining maple syrup. Serve into bowls and garnish with berries and nuts.

Makes 6 to 8 servings