Pinterest Recipe Fail – Slow Cooker Apple Oatmeal

I recently bought a slow cooker and am now obsessed with finding good slow cooker recipes. I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be yummy. Like apple crisp, but oatmeal style. Here’s the picture that lured me in:

This is the recipe that was in the pin caption. The pin of course didn’t link to the original recipe post, just a random tumbler home page, so I have no reference link for you (I hate you pinners that do that!).

Throw 2 sliced apples, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour 2 cups of oatmeal and 4 cups of water on top. Do NOT stir. Cook overnight for 8 – 9 hours on low. Yummy breakfast!

LIES! LIES! I’m talking to you, word “yummy breakfast!”

First off, please note that the recipe doesn’t ask you to peel the apples. If you make this recipe, I beseech you, peel the poor apples! Who wants apple skins in their oatmeal? Also, I felt like it was a little bland, needed more spices maybe?

I don’t really know where I went wrong, but I was so excited about this breakfast, and it did not live up to my expectations. Let me know if you try it and it’s better. Maybe I need to try it with a different kind of apple?

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Apple Muffins

I found this recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything, which is a great recipe blog. I’ve made a few other recipes from there. This recipe was submitted by one of her readers. I was trying to find a recipe that didn’t require me to go out and buy any ingredients, and this fit the bill! I made a half recipe and brought it to work with the pumpkin muffins.

My coworker who is gluten-free, ate a bit of these muffins – without me guilting her into it! – and thought they were awesome. So I’m considering this quite an accomplishment. Enjoy!

Apple Muffins

Source: Marissa Pinon

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar (or use 1 1/2 cups for a less sweet muffin)*
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce**
1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (around 3 apples)
Brown sugar for topping (around 1/2 cup)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.
Cream together sugar, eggs, oil/applesauce, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the diced apples.
Fill paper liners almost to the top, about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes. Makes 18 muffins.

*They’re pretty sweet. I would probably go with less than 2 cups of sugar if you’re trying to limit your sugar intake.

**Or a full cup of oil. I’m an applesauce-subber, can’t help it. (That’s not a word, but let’s roll with it!)