Thursday, February 28, 2013

Rice cooker oats

We're still in Brattleboro today, and Josh made some wicked awesome chili. To go with it he made oat groats in a rice cooker. Oat groats can be cooked just like brown rice in most recipes. Generally, you want to use two parts water to one part oats, and a pinch of salt.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Toasted Muesli

Back in Brattleboro today. My brother had a package of muesli, which was mostly oats with flax seeds, dates, raisins, and other tasty things. I decided to toast the muesli in a little brown butter and then serve it with milk. It was quite a delicious breakfast.



Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Miss Portland Diner

Today we were in Portland, ME for the day, and we went to the Miss Portland Diner for breakfast. They had pretty good oatmeal that came with milk, and optional additions of banana and raisins. I also got a side of poached eggs and mixed those into the bowl. It was a very filling and nutritious breakfast.


Oatmeal to go!

Seraphine and I were on the road all day today. Having a baby in the car makes a 4 hour drive take about 8 hours.

We drove from Schenectady to Portland, and drove through Vermont and New Hampshire. En route, we stopped for to meet Josh for lunch at the Vermont Country Deli in Brattleboro. While we were there I found a locally made granola bar for the road that had oats as the first ingredient.

I got a Monkey Chew Granola Bar, that had peanut butter and dried fruit and chocolate. I broke my no-sugar rule,it's hard to follow a diet on the road. Aside from having sugar, it was pretty healthy, and quite tasty.









Sunday, February 24, 2013

Healthy banana nut muffins

I woke up this morning craving bad carbs. I just want to eat cookies and graham crackers and cake. To satiate my desire for delicious carbs, I decided today's oatmeal would be a bread of some sort.

We had a couple ripe bananas, so I made banana walnut muffins. These have no added sugar or flour, so they are only mildly sweet.

I used a blender to mix up this batter, since I was using rolled and steel cut grains, but no flour. The blender helps grind up the grains fine enough.

Healthy Banana Walnut Muffins

1 2/3 cup rolled multigrain hot cereal
1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 dash salt
1 Tbsp unsalted butter (plus some for greasing muffin tin)

In a small bowl, combine steel-cut oats and buttermilk, allow to sit for a few hours.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tin for 6 large or 12 medium sized muffins.

In a blender combine buttermilk-oat mixture, eggs, bananas, butter, spices, and salt. Blend on high until smooth. In a small bowl, mix together most of rolled grain cereal (reserve a little for garnish) with baking powder and baking soda. Add to the blender and briefly blend together. Finally fold in the walnuts, reserving some to garnish the muffin tops.

Pour batter into greased muffin tin, filling to 1/4 inch from the top of each cup. Garnish the tops of the muffins with walnut pieces and rolled grains. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges.



Saturday, February 23, 2013

Asparagus

I felt like I was overdue for a savory oatmeal. So today's oatmeal is white cheddar oatmeal with sliced asparagus and sliced almonds.

Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup steel cut oats
1 cup water
1 dash of salt
1 dash white pepper
1 pat butter
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1.5 ounces of grated white cheddar
5 asparagus spears, thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons sliced almonds

Bring water, oats, salt, pepper, and butter to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover for 30 minutes. Add sliced asparagus, yogurt, and grated cheese and stir. Top with sliced almonds.


Friday, February 22, 2013

Thanks George!

In honor of George Washington's Birthday, I added some dried cherries to my oatmeal this morning. And I cannot tell a lie, they were delicious.

Today's oatmeal: Steel cut oatmeal cooked with a little bit of almond meal and cinnamon, topped with dried cherries and yogurt cream.

Cream top yogurt used to be easy to find, but it has all but vanished from supermarkets. A company called Brown Cow still makes it, which I was able to find at the Green Grocer. You can mix in the cream, or scoop it off to use like creme fraiche or sour cream. It makes everything taste delicious.

creme freche

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Almond joy

Today's oatmeal; just a simple bowl of steel cut oatmeal, heaped with unsweetened coconut, sliced almonds, and a little bit of dates and currants for sweetness. This would go really well with carob chips, but unfortunately I haven't made it out to the Green Grocer in a while.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Oatmeal shampoo

I found a lot of recipes online to make dog shampoo out of oatmeal. If it makes good dog shampoo, why not an oatmeal shampoo for humans?

all natural conditioning shampoo using oatmeal
So I came up with this recipe for an all-natural, conditioning oatmeal shampoo.

1 cup distilled water
1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/3 cup Organic Castile Liquid Soap Baby Mild - 32 oz (Google Affiliate Ad)
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tsp coconut oil
Optional: a few drops of your favorite essential oil

Materials needed:
Small sauce pan
Strainer
Bowl (preferably Pyrex)
Funnel
Whisk
Empty bottle

In the sauce pan, boil the steel cut oats in the distilled water for 2 minutes. Cover and leave on low for an additional 10 minutes. Pour the oatmeal through a stainer into a Pyrex bowl. Whisk in the baking soda and coconut oil. Allow to cool till just barely warm, then stir in the Castile soap. Finally stir in a few drops of essential oil (optional). Use a funnel to pour the shampoo into an empty bottle.

This recipe is very mild, so it's great for those with sensitive scalps.




Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Make your own oatmeal

We had some family and friends stay the night last night, so today I made a big pot of oatmeal. I decided to make a party of it and made a platter of different toppings so people could fix up their own bowl how ever they liked.

We had walnuts, almonds, raisins, dried cherries, dried strawberries, brown sugar, milk, maple syrup, and butter.

This was a fun and healthy brunch for the whole family.







Monday, February 18, 2013

Mmm... Pancakes...

Yesterday I set some steel cut oats in some buttermilk and let them sit in the fridge overnight. Today I made banana oatmeal pancakes. These were so good, even my picky kid sister liked them.

I had mine with natural peanut butter and banana slices. The kids had theirs with maple syrup. Super yummy

Here's the recipe:

1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups buttermilk

2 ripe bananas
3 eggs at room temperature
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 dash salt
2 tsp butter (for greasing pan)

In a bowl combine oats and buttermilk 24 hours beforehand. Leave in refrigerator, take out 30 minutes prior to making pancakes.

Beat oat mixture with 3 large eggs at room temperature and 2 ripe bananas. In a separate bowl, sift flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.

Fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Cook pancakes on a buttered griddle at medium-low heat. Flip when outer 1/3 of pancake looks dry. Makes 12 6" pancakes.




Sunday, February 17, 2013

Versatility

I've run into oats in a variety of unrelated products and I thought I would share.

This morning Seraphine had a peach banana oatmeal organic baby food from Earth's Best. She liked it. I tried it as we'll and it was quite tasty. I will have to replicate this at some point.

While at the grocery store, I saw some cat grass. I was surprised that the grass used was oat grass. I never really thought about what kind of grass cats preferred.

I also found some date pieces at the Green Grocer that were covered in oat flour, to prevent them from sticking together. This is a much healthier choice than sugar coated date pieces, though I must say, they're not quite as tasty to snack on.

The Brattleboro Co-op had milky oat tips in their herb section. At the time I had no idea what they were for. Apparently, they are used in herbal medicine as a tonic and antispasmodic.

We're used to seeing corn being used for everything, it's neat to see another grain's versatility for a change.







Saturday, February 16, 2013

Pb & b

Not feeling particularly creative this morning. We had ripe bananas, so I made banana peanut butter oatmeal. Tomorrow I'll come up with something good.

Seraphine can't have peanut butter yet, so she is having banana yogurt oatmeal. Which she doesn't seem to be too into this morning. I don't know why, she usually loves all of those ingredients separately.



Friday, February 15, 2013

Put some cheddar on it!

Today I made a pot of steel cut oatmeal and started mixing delicious things from the cupboard into it. Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, dried currants, almond meal, vanilla, and dates. It was bound to be delicious, but also rather boring. Haven't I made this oatmeal before?

I racked my brain for a way to make this oatmeal different. Still delicious, but also creative and inventive. White cheddar! I love cheese platters that pare different cheeses with dried fruits and nuts. So why not grate some cheddar into this oatmeal?

The result was phenomenally good. Warm and sweet, with that rich sharp taste of Vermont cheddar.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Red Velvet Oatmeal

For Valentine's day I decided to attempt a red velvet oatmeal, and I am so glad I did. This came out much more like delicious chocolate pudding than like oatmeal. I used a banana and dates for sweetness, and beet juice for the red color. These flavors all went beautifully with the rich dark cocoa powder.

Here is the recipe:
1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 cup water
1 cup beet juice
1 cup buttermilk
1 banana
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup date pieces
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp carob powder

Topping: whipped cream cheese or Greek yogurt (I used Greek yogurt but would have used cream cheese if I'd had any.)


In a sauce pan, boil oats and water, with half of the beet juice. Reduce heat an cover. In a blender, combine banana, the remaining beet juice, cocoa, carob, dates, vanilla, and buttermilk. Blend until smooth.

After the oats have simmered for 30 minutes, add the contents of the blender to the sauce pan. Stir at a low heat until desired warm temperature. Serve and top with a scoop of Greek yogurt or whipped cream cheese. Serves 2.


Happy Valentine's day!


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Gone crackers

Today I found a recipe on food.com for oatmeal crackers, and just had to try it out. You can find the recipe here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/oat-crackers-133160

I modified it slightly, of course. I rarely just follow recipes. I substituted almond meal for the walnuts, multigrain hot cereal for rolled oats, and buttermilk for milk.

My crackers stuck to the pan a bit. Next time I will grease the pan more liberally. They're not very pretty, but quite tasty. I'm very pleased with how they came out.



Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Happy Mardi Gras!!!

I really wish I lived somewhere that celebrated Mardi Gras, it seems like a super fun holiday. I thought about making an oatmeal Kings cake, but I'm still trying to abstain from sugar. So I instead I made up a big pot of shrimp gumbo, thickened with steel cut oatmeal instead of a roux, and to replace the rice.

Here is the recipe:
1/2 cup steel cut oats
2 cups vegetable broth
1 red pepper (diced)
1 green pepper (diced)
2 medium onions (diced)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup diced celery
1/2 lb sausage (I used spicy chicken sausage links, cut into 1/4" slices)
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 T butter
1 T chili powder
1 T garlic powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

In a sauce pan, boil the broth and oats, cover and reduce heat to low. In a large Dutch oven, sauté the veggies, spices, and sausage in the butter until the sausage browns a bit and the onions have softened. Add the can of tomatoes. After the oats have simmered for 30 minutes, add the oatmeal to the Dutch oven and stir. Cover and simmer for another 20 minutes. Add the shrimp, and stir until shrimp is fully cooked. Serves about 6.


Hot and spicy and savory, this dish almost made me feel like I was somewhere warmer and more festive. Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Peanut butter...

I wasn't feeling particularly creative today. There was a jar of natural peanut butter out on the counter, so I decided to through some of that in my oatmeal. Then I remembered the unsweetened carob chips in the cabinet.

I've really grown to love carob. It's not chocolate, but it's close. I love that it's naturally sweet, and goes well with pretty much everything chocolate goes with. Today's bowl of oatmeal was reminiscent of peanut butter cups. Quite yummy.



Sunday, February 10, 2013

Oatmeal gratin

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. Steel cut oatmeal with white cheddar cheese. I based this on my favorite mac & cheese recipe and seasoned it with garlic, white pepper, dry mustard, nutmeg, and paprika. I would normally use cayenne pepper, but we're out.

This dish was intensely satisfying. Both oatmeal and mac & cheese have always been comfort foods to me. This dish combined my favorite aspects if both. I will definitely make it again some time.

Today I served it up with a fresh salad, but I think it would pare really well with some sautéed beet greens and a nice medium rare steak.



Saturday, February 9, 2013

Oatmeal baby

While at the Green Grocer the other day, I found some organic baby oatmeal. HappyBellies (tm) organic oatmeal cereal with DHA, pre & probiotics, and choline. This cereal is full of vitamins and minerals too.

Seraphine has had some other mushy oatmeal, but I thought I'd see how she likes this one made especially for babies.

At first she made a yucky face, I guess it wasn't what she was expecting. She quickly started to like it though. We're an oatmeal family alright.



Friday, February 8, 2013

Snow day!!

Well I'm not in school anymore, but snow days are still exciting. My step sister is having a play date with her friends, and they all have mini iPads and are wondering around looking for the best wifi spot. I've turned into a grumpy old person lecturing kids about "in my day..."

To celebrate the snowstorm I made a big bowl of hot oatmeal with dried currants, dates, walnuts, cinnamon, and topped it off with a spoonful of Greek yogurt. Let it snow.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

That's the way the cookie crumbles...

Today I went to the Green Grocer in Half-Moon to continue my search for unsweetened carob chips. This little store was surprisingly really great, and they had carob!!! Sunspire unsweetened carob chips are naturally sweet, so they're great for those of us avoiding sugar. They are kind of a let down if you're expecting chocolate though. so just think of them as something almost, but not quite, unlike chocolate.

While I was shopping, I realized I did not yet have any vegan oatmeal dishes. So I set out to make a vegan, slow-carb oatmeal cookie. I was perhaps a bit too ambitious.

Here is the recipe:
4 tablespoons natural peanut butter
4 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup carob powder
1/2 cup dried currents
1/2 cup unsweetened carob chips
1/2 cup date pieces
2 teaspoons baking powder
Dash of cinnamon


I just kinda mixed all the ingredients together in no particular order, then spooned it onto cookie sheets. Then baked for 15 minutes.

I didn't add any flour; I let the carob powder, almond meal, and oats provide all the starch. The sweetness came from the carob, currants, dates, and applesauce. And I hoped applesauce would work instead of eggs. This was where I went wrong I think.

The result was a tasty, mildly sweet, sorta chocolatey, crumbly mess. They looked like cookies, until you bit into one and they completely fell apart. Next time, I will use egg-replacer.

(Photo taken with a glass of unsweetened almond milk)


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Grits?

One of my favorite things to eat for breakfast is grits with poached eggs, butter, and hot sauce. So today I made up my oatmeal just like I would a bowl of grits. It definitely hit the spot.

Here's a cool trick for a perfect poached egg: pace a few drops of water in a small bowl. Crack an egg in it and cover it with a saucer or small plate. Then microwave for 45 seconds, though individual microwaves may vary.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Lox

Woke up this morning to find bagels and lox in the kitchen. The bagels were whole grain, but I wasn't sure if they had sugar added, so I decided to dress up my oatmeal as if it were a bagel.

Today's oatmeal: steel cut oatmeal topped with smoked salmon, dill yogurt sauce, roasted red peppers, pesto, and a touch of paprika.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Granola!

Today we went to the Trader Joe's in Albany looking for some unsweetened carob chips. I should have stocked up on these at the Brattleboro Co-op, because the Trader Joe's employee we spoke to had never even heard of carob.

So instead I bought a multigrain hot cereal with oats, barley, and rye. I also got some almond meal, coconut oil, and a few different unsweetened dried fruits.

So tonight I made up a batch of toasty warm granola, served on plain yogurt, with a little bit of balsamic vinegar. This should have been breakfast, or possibly desert. It's good to eat breakfast for dinner once in a while.
Here is the recipe for this granola:

1/2 cup multi grain hot cereal
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried strawberries
1/4 cup dried apple pieces
1 dash of apple pie spice
1 tablespoon coconut oil




In a medium bowl combine the first 6 ingredients. Add coconut oil to a hot skillet. When the oil has melted, add the granola, stirring constantly. Stir for 2 or 3 minutes, serve warm with yogurt.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Back in NY

I wish I had thought ahead and made a Super Bowl themed oatmeal dish, but instead I just threw one together to go with a roast my parents were making.

So for dinner tonight was roast beef with steel cut oatmeal with roasted red peppers, olives, Parmesan cheese, and basil pesto. I really like these flavors together. I will have to make another dish sometime with a similar flavor profile.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Steak...

Today we made steel cut oatmeal with yellow peas, cumin, and chicken broth. Served this with sirloin tips, spinach, and sautéed mushrooms.

This will likely be my last post from my brother's place in Vermont. I've been here way longer than I anticipated, it's been a blast. Tomorrow morning we'll be heading back to my dad's house in Schenectady.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Chèvre

Today I made a yogurt oat bread, and filled it with bourbon soaked raisins and goat cheese. This is another dish that would have benefitted from the edition of brown sugar.

This bread was inspired by an Irish recipe I once made: St. Brigid's Oat Cakes. February 1st is the feast of St. Brigid, in Ireland. It is also the Celtic pagan holiday Imbolc, which is the cross quarter day between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. So happy Imbolc everybody, make sure you eat your oatmeal.