The New Oatmeal

The most recent breakfast fetish in our home:
1/2 cup rolled oats made with 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup almond milk, sea salt and vanilla
topped with:
maple nut granola (recipe below)
1/2 banana
Greek yogurt
maple syrup
flax seeds

Maple Nut Granola:
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 tsp sea salt
5 tsp veggie oil
5 tablespoons maple syrups
1 tsp vanilla extract

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

*Next time I would add 2 tbsp of olive oil and 3 tbsp of honey. It was a little dry...apple juice might help also. This is great on top of yogurt though!

original recipe from everyday food jan/feb 2010

Frittata with Biscuits

The recipe for the frittata is from Everyday Food and the recipe for the biscuits is from an ooooold edition of a Better Homes and Garden's cookbook. Yes the biscuit recipe uses shortening, but if this is only the second time I've ever used shortening I think we'll be alright. The important thin is that they are my first fluffy and light biscuits EVER! We ate them with copious amounts of salted butter and orange blossom honey. The frittata is especially good with extra shredded cheese and lots of Tapatio.

Spinach and Cheddar Frittata:

3 large eggs + 4 egg whites

6 tablespoons shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 teaspoons whole milk

salt and pepper

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely minced

4 1/2 cups baby spinach

Place 4, 8 oz lightly oiled ramekins on a baking sheet and preheat oven to 450. Place the baking sheet with the ramekins in the oven while you prepare the frittata.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together eggs, 1/2 of the cheese, milk, a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

In a medium sized skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook 1-2 minutes. Add spinach a handful at a time and cook until just wilted. Add spinach mixture to eggs. Remove ramekins from oven and immediately divide the egg mixture among them. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and return to oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the frittata is puffed up and beginning to turn golden brown.

Fluffy Biscuits:

2 cups sifted AP flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup milk

Cut the shortening into the sifted dry ingredients until mixture resembles course crumbs. Make a well in the center and add the milk all at one time and stir quickly with a fork until dough follows the fork around the bowl (DO NOT OVER MIX!)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently for 30 seconds (DO NOT OVER-KNEAD!). Roll dough to 1/2" thick and cut with biscuit cutter; do not twist or turn biscuit cutter while cutting-just go straight up and straight down. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Best served warm.

"It Tastes Like a Doughnut!"

We've still been eating lots of oatmeal these days and have stumbled across our favorite topping mixture yet....as Micah said, it tastes like a doughnut.

3/4 cup Rolled Oats

1/4 cup Oat Bran

1 1/2 cups Water

1/2 cup Almond Milk

dash of Salt

a few drops of Vanilla

Place all ingredients in saucepan and cook over medium heat 5-8 minutes or until liquid is fully absorbed.

Pour into 2 bowls and top with:

Honey Graham Oh's

Strawberries

Almond Butter

More Almond milk

Sweet Potato Muffins

For the muffins:
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground pumpkin pie spice
2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup raw sugar
2/3 cup applesauce (no sugar added)
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the Streusel:
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup walnuts, very finely chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To make the streusel topping, combine the first seven ingredients, cutting in butter with either your fingers or a pastry cutter. Once you have a lot of small crumbs, add in the walnuts. Set aside.
In a medium bowl combine oatmeal, flours, salt, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. In a separate small bowl, mix together sweet potato, sugars, applesauce, yogurt, milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour liquid mixture into a well in the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened, being careful not to over-mix. Scoop into muffin tins, covering each muffin with small amount of streusel, and bake for 16-18 minutes.

(This recipe was derived from here)

"Morning Glory" Muffins

I have the bad habit of going to work for five or six hours and not bringing anything substantial to eat. Possibly because we have neither a refrigerator nor a microwave at my place of employment, which limits my options since I'm weird about food being left out for long. As I was getting tired of eating peanut butter and jelly pretty much everyday I wanted to come up with an alternative that was easy to pack and very filling while still being nutritious. I found a recipe for Morning Glory Muffins and thought it was a great base to use and I could change the fruits and proteins that are in it to keep things interesting.

1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour

1 cup oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup non fat yogurt
2 mashed bananas
1 egg

1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
3/4 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flours in a large bowl. Using a whisk, add the next four ingredients to the flours and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, mash the banana and add the yogurt and egg. Stir until thoroughly combined. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the yogurt mixture. Gently stir all ingredients until just combined, being careful not to over-mix. Carefully fold in the dried fruits, walnuts and coconut. Drop about 1/4 cup (or slightly less) batter into 18 lined muffin cups. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Next time I would add a little bit of olive oil, raw sugar instead of brown sugar and some other protein, like ground almonds on top. Other things you could add/substitute/sprinkle on top would be:
-Oat Bran
-Wheat Germ
-Flax Seed (ground or whole
-Shredded apple or apple chunks
-Blueberries
-Dried Cherries
-Fresh ground peanut butter
-Fresh ground almond butter
-Chia Seeds
-Toasted almonds
-Pecans
-Shredded Carrot
-Shredded Zucchini
-Sunflower Seeds

The Magic of Oats

Oatmeal is the most perfect breakfast I know. It's warm and filling and you can put pretty much anything on top of it. Lately I've been "whipping" (stirring very aggressively) a banana into the oats while they cook so that the texture becomes extremely thick and creamy. I also like to mix a drop of vanilla into it and top it with some sort of nut (almonds, peanut butter, walnuts, pecans) and dried fruit. Here is a recipe for Butterscotch Walnut Oatmeal:
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup 2% milk
Dash of salt
1/2 banana cut into tiny chunks

Place all ingredients in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Stir to incorporate and then "whip" the oatmeal to emulsify the banana. Add a drop or two of vanilla and continue to stir until the oats are cooked through (5 minutes). Top with a sprinkle of walnuts, a sprinkle of butterscotch chips and a splash of milk.

Pumpkin Muffins

It is a tradition in our family that every Halloween I make Pumpkin Muffins. Each year the recipe has been different, but this year's was my favorite. I'm going to put a link to the recipe because I didn't change anything and it's sort of a long process (it took me about 2 hours, all told) but it was so completely worth it. We still have a bag full of them in the freezer that I've been slowing putting a dent in. They are especially good heated up so that the cream cheese filling gets really gooey and melty. Best served with a steaming cup of coffee.

Banana Bread

I borrowed this recipe from a wonderful food blog that I just ran across the other day called "Whipped". I didn't change a thing about it, and it turned out great. The only thing I would do differently next time is instead of making two short loaves (in the 7x3 pans) I would like to make one great big loaf. This is especially good lightly toasted and topped with lots of butter! Fat? What's that?

1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3-4 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. In medium size bowl, roughly mash banana. Add eggs to the banana mash and whip lightly until yolks are completely broken and incorporated into banana. Fold the banana mixture and butter into the dry ingredients. Pour into 2 7x3" loaf pans or 4 mini loaf pans and bake 40-45 minutes.
Allow to rest for 5 minutes, then turn onto baking sheet and allow to cool completely before wrapping them up...if they last long enough to be wrapped up! Ours didn't!

Punkin Scones!

In a medium sized bowl, combine:

2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Using your hands or a food processor cut 6 Tbsp very cold butter (cut into 1/4" cubes) into the dry ingredients until mixture resembles tiny course crumbs

In a separate medium sized mixing bowl, thouroughly whisk together:

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
5 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp raw sugar
3 Tbsp half and half
1 egg

Fold liquid mixture into dry ingredients until well incorporated, being careful not to over-mix or the scones will become tough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a large round about 1/2" tall. Cut into 6 triangles and place on baking stone. Bake in 415 degree oven for 13-15 minutes.

While scones are baking, make the glaze.

Whisk together:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp + 1 tsp whole milk
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pour over scones while they are still warm (but not hot).

These are so so good.
I slightly modified my recipe from this recipe.

Sandwiches for Breakfast

2 Ciabattinis lightly toasted

2 eggs, cooked medium well

1 piece of cheese, cut in half and placed on each egg (after you flip the egg, of course)

Tomato slices

Avocado slices

Olive oil mayo
French's mustard

Assemble all ingredients on the bread and eat it up.

Hello, Pancake!

Yesterday morning I was feeling a little feisty and decided to make some pancakes from scratch! I haven't done that in months, but it ended up being quite successful. I used another recipe from Everyday Food (I use that resource all the time, and is one of the only places I will follow a recipe without modifying it.) Here it is:

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsb baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk (could use buttermilk instead)

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

In a medium sized bowl, mix together dry ingredients. In a large bowl whisk together milk, butter and egg. Once well incorporated, pour in dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated-lumps are fine. You don't want to over mix.

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Heat a medium sized non-stick (or in my case, cast iron) skillet over medium heat and rub with olive oil. Pour 1/4 cup portions into skillet and flip when edges begin to bubble up. Once finished cooking, place on an oven safe plate and slide into the oven to keep warm.

I also fried some eggs and my sweet husband made coffee in the Bialetti.

I put strawberry jam, butter and some of the granola I made the other day on mine.

Yum.

This Morning

I made granola. The recipe was for blueberry almond granola, but having neither dried blueberries nor sliced almonds I omitted those and added some other things instead. The original recipe is here. But this is mine:

2 cups thick rolled oats
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
Place in large baking sheet with edges

combine:
2 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Tbsp Raw Honey
1 tsp Vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt
pour over oat mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once removed from the oven add 3/4 cup raisins. Let cool and place in airtight container for up to a month.