Whole Grain Crockpot Porridge

I've posted this before. (See Breakfast-When you need it now.) But Now I'm giving it it's own separate entry and title so you can find it easier. Enjoy.

1 cup whole oats-hulled
1 cup whole barley-hulled
1/2 cup millet
5-6-7 cups of water
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup dried fruit (Raisins, apples, cranberries, prunes, apricots, etc.)

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low. feeds 4-5 hungry people. To keep the outside from getting crunchy you can put a bowl with the combined ingredients in it inside the crock pot. Fill the crock pot itself with water that goes about halfway up the outside of the bowl.

Turn on the crock pot just before you go to bed, and turn it off as soon as you wake up. Serve with milk or cream or yogurt, maple syrup, fresh berries, my husband likes to add brown sugar; whatever you like. The longer you sleep, the more water you need to add so it doesn't burn or dry out. Also, if you have leftovers, take them out of the crock pot right away and put them in something else so that they don't dry out from the residual heat.

It's great having breakfast ready when you get out of bed, and it smells good too.

The end of Nablopomo

Well, this is post 30. Pantry basics will continue in a few days but tonight we are going to the in-laws for Shabbat, and staying until Sunday because my MIL's Birthday is tomorrow, so I won't be cooking, or at least, not from my pantry. I'm taking with me some salvaged bread and a pastry that I kept and froze for today. Oh, and a present. (Must stop blogging and finish present.)

Pantry Basics will pick up in a few days when I'm back at my pantry.

Today's lunch will be leftover rice, and leftover black beans from earlier this week.

I will give you a meal I made last week, and really liked.

I bought a wild rice mix at Big Lot's a while bag for $.70. I didn't realize it was parboiled and covered in a nasty boxed sauce powder. So I put it in a strainer and washed off all of the seasoning, but kept the dried onions. I put in in the bottom of the crock pot. I added one can of chickpeas and stirred them together. On top I put one gigantic chicken leg that I bought for $.49/pound, with the skin removed. You could use two regular chicken legs. Atop the chicken I put salt and pepper and thyme and spread this olive tapenade that we got at Trader Joe's that we didn't really like a whole lot as a tapenade. I added a tiny amount of water, about 1/2 cup and put the lid on to let it cook for 5 hours. This is the kind of crock pot recipe you want to do while at home, because the rice can burn if you leave it an extra hour or two and if you add more water, you just end up with mush. Once the chicken was cooked, I pulled the meat off the bone stirred it in with the rice and chickpeas, kept the bones for broth, and served it with a salad.

We had a dinner guest that night and there was enough for all of us, and it tasted really great.

Chicken-$.50
Rice-$.70
chickpeas-$.69
tapenade-$.50 (I used about 1/4 of a $2 jar.)
Green Salad-$1

Total cost of meal-$3.39