I'm trying a new way of cooking steel cut oats tonight. Over night in my crockpot, using the bain-marie technique. I put one cup oats, 4 cups liquid of your choice, milk, water, whatever, and seasonings of your choice in a glass bowl fit inside your crockpot.Rest the bowl on a rolled up ring of aluminum foil. Fill the crockpot up with water till the water in the crock is at the same level as the stuff in the bowl inside the crockpot. Put the lid on the crock, set on low. Cook overnight. This prevents the dried up layer left on the crockpot if you cook directly in the pot. They say it results in a lovely creamy oatmeal, and no mess to clean up. The foil keeps the crock pot itself from cracking. I put in a little bit of maple syrup, chopped pecans, cinnamon, vanilla, salt, chopped peeled apple. I'll let you know how it turns out. What I don't eat for breakfast, I'll freeze in serving sizes. I'll be able to do this a couple times a week. .

That sounds interesting, please keep us posted. I have heard of cooking it in the crock pot before, but not quite like that. I can see how this would definitely eliminate the crusty layer that is so hard to scrub off!

I do overnight in a thermos. Easy as well as easy clean up.

I have done them in the thermos, as well. Not sure exactly why, but mine just don't seem to be cooked through by morning. Perhaps not a high quality thermos, but won't be investing in a high-grade thermos just for steel cut oats. But, I know others have done it successfully this way, too.

Very delicious and easy to clean up. I either have to make one 1/4 C serving at a time or freeze the extra portions immediately. This is easy to binge on if you let yourself get hungry, lol. Don't ask me how I know this. On second though, I think I will cook separate servings all at once in the crockpot using the 1/2 pint or pint canning jars. It is very delicious. Creamy texture.

Hey, nice idea with the jars! All divided up and then easy to stick in the freezer. No worries about plastic containers that are not freezer-proof, or messy plastic bags (I am a recycler, so I would not go for the plastic baggies, anyway).

My wife and I were winter hiking, last year. Some one had a thermos they got at wal-mart - that they said worked wonderful.
So last summer, we purchased two of these (cheap, at about) $14 Sportsman Series THERMOS.
Its only about 7 in tall and label states keeps cold things cold for 9 hours, and Hot things hot for 7 hours.
.
Let me tell you. After seeing how things were for that person on that hike. we decided to try it.
We fill them up with freshly boiled water, place two tea bags in and seal them at about 7 or 8 AM.
Load the car, drive 1-1/2 to 2 hours to our hike meet-up point. Start hiking about 1/2 hour later.
Hike a couple of hours, and then have lunch. So from about 7:30 Am until about around 1 PM on average.
We open them up.
After hiking and the thermos in my back-pack in 30 def F weather - the Tea is still too hot to drink!
I have to leave the lid off, and let it cool down a couple of minutes before i can drink it!
They really work!
And they're not the old glass-lined type.
.
Might be worth a try for oatmeal.
By the way, my wife uses hers every day with Tea bringing it to work.
Still hot by the end of her teaching day.