Unfortunately every recipe can’t be a winner.
I set out to make some creamy banana steel cut oats in the crock pot last night and had high hopes for the end result as I went to sleep.
When I went to scoop the oats into a bowl this morning, they stuck to the sides of the crock pot and looked pretty horrendous. I added a splash of milk and stirred everything up so they were at least salvageable, but they definitely weren’t something to write home about.
I topped the oats with peanut butter, unsweetened coconut flakes and pecans.
The oats actually ended up tasting pretty darn delicious, but at first glance they looked awful. I just scooped around the oats that stuck to the sides and all was fine.
I’m hoping to give a few more crock pot breakfast recipes a try as the Crock Pot Challenge continues. I’ve seen some phenomenal ones out there! Hopefully they’ll be a little more successful than today’s attempt.
Workout
Today’s workout began with 20 minutes on the elliptical before it was time to make my abs burn with a core circuit workout from Tina’s Best Body Boot Camp.
One again, the scorpion exercise absolutely schooled me. Yikes!
Question of the Morning
- What is the last recipe you attempted that didn’t quite work out the way you thought it would?
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Crock pot recipes can be kinda interesting over night…. one time I badly burned black beans over night. How? I have no idea! Hah.
Yes, that scorpion move is tooouugggh
I always use crock pot bags! There are a snap when it comes to clean up time. I recently tried an overnight oatmeal, it looked pretty horrible, but tasted great. Guess looks can be deceiving.
Even though they didn’t turn out as great as you’d hoped they still look really delicious to me!!! A few times, I have made different muffins or breads that have turned out not as sweet as I would have liked but I just top them with PB or something sweet and it saves them 🙂
I only make crock pot oats in my smaller, 1 quart crock pot. Slow cookers work the best when they’re about 2/3 of the way full, so you were probably using a crock pot that was too large. Here’s my method: http://www.kellytheculinarian.com/2012/02/cooking-with-kelly-crock-pot-oatmeal.html
Last week, I made bacon-wrapped wienies (we call it “pork on pork” .. lol!) and planned to bring them to my in-laws for a football party. I didn’t have any issue making them..they looked and smelled delicious. But unfortunately..dumb me FORGOT THE CROCK POT on the counter at home when we left. FAIL! Needless to say, we returned home to some veeery burnt wienies.. 🙁
It doesn’t look so bad with the added toppings!
I tried to cook a roast in the crock pot one time on high but didn’t give it enough time for its size – it was so tough and raw in the middle. The vegetables weren’t even cooked – it was terrible!
Sorry bout your breakfast bummer. I rarely ruin anything because I hardly ever stray from my 15-20 go to recipes. Luckily the Mister likes to stick to his favorites. Makes my life easier and we waste less food on me flubbing all the time (because I probably would!).
There was a spaghetti squash recipe that involved ground turkey and goat cheese with an odd assortment of spices (can’t remember what they were) that seemed so promising.. and after one bite, everyone in my family was BEYOND done!!!
I’ve had major fails with oatmeal in the slow cooker as well. I’m going to try putting a smaller dish inside the slow cooker, as other readers have suggested. However, here are a few tips that worked for me….
Make sure you have at least a 5:1 ratio between liquid and steelcut oats. Spray the slow cooker with Pam before you put anything in. Don’t use all milk (soymilk, almond milk) — instead, the liquid should be at least half water. I’ve found that using all almond milk, while making the oatmeal very creamy, also increases the likelihood it’s going to stick/burn. The crockpot should be about 2/3 full. Lastly, consider stirring in some oil, like flaxseed oil or flavored olive oil. In addition to helping with the sticking issue, you get some healthy fats, too!
I have one really bad crock pot fail….orange chicken. Essentially it was breaded chicken with some orange juice concentrate, soy sauce, etc. It came out hard as a ROCK. The chicken was far overcooked and the breading was solid around it. The sad thing is, I ate it all. Me and my post grad budget just couldn’t justify throwing it away 🙁
Try this recipe! http://alidamron.com/2012/03/apple-cinnamon-oatmeal/ I think it’s really good:)
I am doing this round of Tina’s BBBC as well, and those scorpions are just killer every time! A very humbling exercise, for sure, but SO effective. I’m already feeling the burn in my core and glutes from today’s workout, and I haven’t even done the cardio intervals yet….LOVE IT!
You sure made your “fail” look delicious. haha 🙂
Two tips for crock pot oats!
1) use a RICE COOKER instead of a crock pot — they are nonstick (the slightly nicer ones are at least) and they do a muuuuuch better job, I promise! 🙂
2) if you still want to use a crock pot, try a water bath — put a couple inches of water inside the crock pot, then stick a heat-safe bowl inside so the water comes up around the sides. Then put the oats in the bowl. This doesn’t work for everyone, but I’ve tried it and it came out great!
Good luck! 🙂
My mom and I tried crockpot meatballs from Pinterest, and it was a disaster. I don’t think we browned them enough , so when we put them in the crockpot they turned to mush. Our dogs wouldn’t even touch it!
I make crock pot steel cut oats almost every day and you just have to make sure the amount of water you put in is the right amount for the amount of time you’re cooking them! I usually put about 1/2 cup steel cuts in my big crock pot, add about 3 cups water and leave it on low overnight and i’ve never had a problem! I LOVE them!
They look so creamy!! Yum! I’ve had that happen with overnight oats before though, where I don’t add nearly enough liquid so it just ends up being totally solid and chewy. Totally edible though so that’s all that matters right? 😉
A few years ago, I decided that I was going to make some “Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies” from scratch. Needless to say, I had a very sticky mess to clean up afterward…
I make crock pot cranberry sauce every holiday season that in past years has been delicious! I made it last year and put it away right after making. When I got it out and took a taste, it was awful! I couldn’t figure out what went wrong until I realized I had grabbed and used turmeric instead of cinnamon, and the recipe has LOTS of cinnamon. EPIC FAIL.
Ooohh. Tumeric instead of Cinnamon?
That’s a tough one! 🙂
Well from the picture, you certainly can’t tell it was a fail! I think the toppings cover it up nicely 🙂 Put peanut butter on anything and it is instantly better.
I tried a butternut squash soup recipe this weekend and, while it was good, it was lacking some flavor. It only had 5 ingredients and only 100 calories (and zero fat!), but I think I’d add something more to it the next time around!
I’m not very adventurous when it comes to new recipes but my dad certainly is. He was watching the Food Network one day and saw them make chipotle coleslaw which he then decided to try and make. Needless to say, he made gallons of it and it was way too hot to eat. It was definitely worth the laugh though!
I have so many failed recipes, haha! The last one I can think of is this ‘special’ oatmeal cookie I wanted to make that ended up becoming chewy granola 0_0 it was probably one of the worst kitchen flops I’ve ever had 😛
I used greaseproof paper in instead of baking parchment in the pan for my baked pancake this morning…it stuck and was completely un-salvageable! Kath over at Kath Eats always makes oats in her crockpot, you should pop her a tweet to see how she does it!
check out my blog about cute workout gear: http://runningathousandmiles.blogspot.com/2013/01/affordable-and-fashionable-workout-gear.html
I thought I read the title of your post wrong when I saw these pictures because those look delicious! I always just top my oats with PB but I think I need to start trying just normal nuts/coconuts/granola.
I definitely learned to try and avoid trying to “healthify” a recipe because sometimes when it calls for 3 TBS. of butter, you just need to suck it up and use the butter.
crock pot oats definitely need A LOT more water than you think or what the recipe may call for. Nothing that nut butter can not fix, though! 🙂
I LOVE my crockpot! I’m actually making dinner in it tonight 🙂 I know how you feel about the recipe fail though. I’ve had it happen plenty of times. They can’t all be winners, I suppose!
Great job trying to salvage the food! I once made these healthy pumpkin bars that were WAY TOO heavy on cloves. The texture was also horrendous. I threw out the entire batch.
Hi Julie!
I was just wondering why you’ve stopped blogging as much? Haven’t seen many dinner posts in a while and miss hearing about your healthy lifestyle outside of morning breakfast, workout and lunch.
Hope 2013 is treatin’ ya well!
hey stephanie! i am hoping to share some more dinner ideas/recipes in the coming weeks (thanks, in part, to the crock pot challenge)! i’ve actually been focusing a lot on outside projects and am doing my best to step away from the computer at night rather than blog after dinner, but i’m not sure if the change is permanent. thanks for taking the time to comment. i definintely want to blog more about dinner in the future!
I had BIG plans for a roasted butternut squash/apple soup recipe and it was something I’d planned to share on my blog. It SUCKED LOL!!! I ended up throwing it out — I’m not sure where I went wrong but it definitely needs to go through a few more trials before I’ll be sharing it with anyone!
I love my crock pot. In the Winter I use it 3-5 times a week sometimes. Last night I made a delicious rump roast with lots of spices in there with homemade bread. So good!
I tried making The Pioneer Woman’s meatloaf and it looked awful, tasted awful.. Nothing went right! I’m not a huge meatloaf person anyways so I wasn’t too bummed.
I ALWAYS have that issue with steal cut outs even when I simply boil them in a pot. I think I read that adding a little bit of salt helps keep it from sticking, although I could totally be pulling that out of my butt!
I was making
CrockPot Hot Fudge Cake and used SALT instead of SUGAR!!!
It was like licking a salt block!
It was at my inlaws, too! Everyone was so excited to taste…Oh, grr!
(My husband’s grandmother puts her baking products in containers (that are unmarked) and I didn’t pay attention.) I am definitely more cautious now….:)
I’ve seen several people make oats in the crock pot, there’s GOT to be a way to do it without them sticking too horribly.
Well hey, you win some and you lose some. It’s a good thing that basically all of your recipes are winners! And at least they still tasted pretty good! 🙂
i have to be brutally honest and say your chick pea garam masala crock pot recipe from the other day was TERRIBLE when i made it!!! I was so sad, as i was so excited and had to buy all the ingredients especially for that, and it was terrible! I thought it was so bland! are you sure you didn’t mean tablespoons of the garam masala versus teaspoons? I even added more of the spice from the beginning because I do like very flavorful dishes, and still found it extremely bland. My poor boyfriend equated it to hash–and literally choked it down after dousing it in hot sauce to give it any sort of flavor! When thinking about it, I think all the components are really bland–chick peas, cauliflower, chicken, and crushed tomatoes. do you think i did anything wrong?? it literally tasted like mush. I know recipes all can’t be winners but i can’t believe you raved about it so much!! anyone else have the same issues? it was just so bland! sorry julie 🙂
Yum! I was going to say this looks bloody tasty! My only issue with the crock pot would be- is it annoying to clean?
I make steel cut oats in my crockpot all the time. When I first started my looked a lot like you described. What I found after a bunch of Googling was that crockpots these days are much different than years ago. Low = high etc. So now I put mine on keep warm overnight and the last 90 minutes of so turn it to high. It makes the perfect consistency and doesn’t get all stuck to the crockpot.
http://iowagirleats.com/recipes/?recipe_id=6036508
This recipe is awesome! I made it for Christmas morning and it was a big hit. Next time I’ll try adding yellow onion, some other spices, and maybe hot sauce? Yum.