Chilly day comfort: Aromatic Spiced Milk And Slow Cooker Apple Oatmeal

Are you freezing?? Need some comforting? Have a cold and sore throat, like me??

I have 2 suggestions for you all to try. The first is aromatic spiced milk which is good for adding to oatmeal or hot coco. I'm even toying with the idea of making this into a creamy homemade ice cream.

You will need:

Whole cloves

Cinnamon sticks

Star anise

Heck, if you want to toss in some vanilla from the bean, that's good too! Just add to a sauce pan with milk and heat on low until the milk simmers. Remove it from the heat and allow to steep up to 30 minutes or until the desired spice is achieved. Less spice? Just don't steep as long. Easy peasy.

My plan is to use this in conjunction with a recipe from the Fix It And Forget It Big Cookbook. Phyllis Pellman Good has a couple of recipes in here that incorporate walnuts, brown sugar and/or apples with oatmeal cooked overnight in the crock pot or slow cooker. Cinnamon apple oatmeal with aromatic milk sounds cozy to me!

Below is the recipe I plan to try. This is from the cookbook I referenced above. My suggestions are in ( ). BTW, I've not yet tried this recipe so I'm trusting that the author got it right.



Slow Cooker Oatmeal by Phyllis Pellman Good


2 cups dry rolled oats ( or steel cut oats maybe?)

4 cups of water

1 large apple, peeled and chopped

1 cup raisins ( I would imagine these are optional, I'd use blueberries, myself)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1-2 TBS. orange zest


1.) Combine all ingredients in your slow cooker.

2.) Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours.

3.)Serve topped with brown sugar, if you wish, and milk.