Are you worried that your new college student won’t get the healthy breakfast they need while living in a dorm room? Do you worry that your son or daughter may stay up late studying, worried they’ll burn the midnight oil, partying with friends, and then try to get extra sleep by skipping breakfast? Put your worries to rest by sending your new college student off to their dorm room with a mini slow cooker.  

College students are busy. I know. My daughter is a junior in college right now, and the last thing on her mind is a healthy breakfast. But when your student wakes up to the aroma of seven -grain cereal simmering away with cinnamon and dried fruit all night, she will bounce out of bed. Dried oatmeal, stored in packets, pales in comparison to the nutrition in fresh steel-cut oats, seven-grain cereal, or brown rice and quinoa.  The fresh, whole grains pack more nutrition and stick-to-your-ribs energy than any of the boxed-up, freeze-dried, instant mixes. And steel cut oats, seven grain cereal, and other grains can be stored attractively in pint or quart-sized canning jars. Next to the cereal, a jar full of dried fruit—a mixture of cherries, apricots, cranberries and blueberries—looks beautiful sitting on a student’s bookshelf.  You might want to send care packages filled with supplies for the slow cooker every few months. New recipes and jars filled with ingredients will make great care-packages and help ease your worries about your child’s diet.

Instructions for making breakfast in the mini slow cooker are easy. Simply mix together ¼ cup of cereal, 1 cup of water , two tablespoons of dried fruit, 1/8^th teaspoon of cinnamon.  Then plug it in! If your student is cooking for her dorm mate, too, she’ll simply need to double the recipe. The small one-and-a half quart cooker is large enough to make two servings. Most dorm rooms have refrigerators available where students can store a pint of milk, or many students have refrigerators in their own room.  And by using the slow cooker, breakfast will cost less than two dollars, depending on the cost of bulk grain in your area.

For special occasions, or late-night study parties, your student can find any number of recipes for chocolate fondue. During a quick trip to the grocery store your student can pick up a bunch of fresh bananas or strawberries and a bag of chocolate chips. After melting the chocolate in the slow cooker for fifteen to twenty minutes, your student can add a background flavor of vanilla, almond, or orange. After a quick stir with a wooden spoon, the dipping can begin. Your student will never have to study alone if their partners know chocolate fondue sits waiting for the study break.

And the homey, quart jars filled with seven grain cereal, quinoa and brown rice, or steel cut oats, sitting next to quart jars filled with mixtures of dried fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips are a healthy reminder of home.