Asian Chicken Sliders

I love slow cooker meals, they're so convenient. With a little prep ahead of time, you can have a meal ready to eat when you get home. I prefer slow cooker meals that also have veggies, so it's all-in-one and you don't need to do anything extra, but I will make exceptions for something that sounds interesting.  This is one of those dishes, there are no veggies in it, but you could easily add some diced carrots, celery, bok choy, etc.

Inspiration

Ingredients lineup

Healthy. Delicious. Asian Pulled Chicken Sliders

Ingredients

• 8 oz unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 small onion, minced
• 2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon five-spice seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 8 small dinner rolls

All ingredients, ready to go.

I went with my usual chicken thighs instead of breasts and substituted unsweetened applesauce instead of apple butter. I added an extra 1/2 tsp of ginger because my five-spice powder smelled only like cinnamon and I didn't want apple-cinnamon chicken!

Directions

Start of the cooking

I mixed the first seven ingredients together in a slow cooker and added the chicken thighs and spread the mixture on top.  I cooked it on 'medium' for 8 hours.

I went home for lunch so I was able to check on it in the middle of cooking.  I smashed the meat up with a spoon and spatula so it was "pulled" or shredded.   I thought there was a lot of liquid, so I turned the slow cooker to 'high' and left the lid off for half an hour to cook off some moisture.  This probably wasn't necessary since I could have thickened it with arrowroot powder or cornstarch later, but I figured I would try it out.  I also tasted it, it was nice, but seemed like it needed to be more "Asian", but I didn't adjust it at all since I wanted to try it as written.

The final mixture

We ate this on mini potato buns for slider sandwiches.   

Verdict

This was nice, but only decently popular.  We weren't fighting over the leftovers but we did eat them. Husband Jeff had some leftovers on rice and a couple more sliders, I ate leftovers on top of greens for an Asian salad.  As a sandwich, I would prefer the sauce to be thicker so it clings to the meat rather than soaking all over the bun.

Asian food is about balancing flavors.  In my opinion this was a little too sweet, but I liked how it was different than what I would normally make and uses ingredients I have on hand.  Next time I would add a little more soy sauce to balance out the sweetness and maybe some fresh black pepper for spice.  Sesame oil might be nice, along with a rice vinegar or mustard for bite/acidity. 

Mayo-Free: Chipotle-Ranch Bacon Slaw

Ranch slaw

Husband Jeff doesn't like mayonnaise, so I bookmarked this slaw recipe with the hope that he would try a version of coleslaw.

Sorry there's not a better picture, we ate it pretty quickly!

Inspiration

Kraft Ranch-Style Coleslaw with Bacon

I had leftover green onions and chipotle sauce from making crab cakes, so I figured this would be a good way to use up the last little bits. 

Ingredients

• 1 bag coleslaw mix
• leftover bit of chipotle sauce from crab cakes
• light ranch dressing
• 4 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
• sliced green onions

Directions

Mix all the ingredients together. I didn't measure the dressing since I was adding the rest of the chipotle sauce, so add as much as you need to make it moist.

Verdict

Sonny D wouldn't try it but Husband Jeff and I almost ate the whole batch at dinner!  Husband Jeff kept exclaiming how much he liked it, and I told him it's pretty similar to a good regular coleslaw.  Who knows, maybe he'll actually try regular coleslaw some day. I loved the addition of the smoky chipotle sauce, so it wasn't just one-dimensional ranch dressing flavor. I would definitely make this again a summer party or potluck, either with or without the chipotle addition, I think it would be really popular.  Plus it's something you could throw together at the last minute. 

Citrus Twist: Orange Marmalade Oatmeal

At one of our favorite local diner spots I grabbed a container of orange marmalade with the intention of adding it to a bowl of oatmeal. I really like orange marmalade but I'm afraid to buy a jar of it because then I'll be tempted to eat a lot of toast with marmalade.  Toast is already tempting enough (crispy, buttery deliciousness!).

The base for my breakfast was one of the multi-servings I made from a big batch of oatmeal, so I'm skipping that part of the recipe here and concentrating on the flavors. 

Ingredients

• bowl of oatmeal (mine is 1/4 cup oats)
• mini-container of orange marmalade
• 1 T flax seed meal
• heavy dash of cinnamon
• 1T non-dairy creamer
• 2T almond milk

Directions

In the morning I heated up my bowl of oatmeal in the microwave for 1 minute.  I added the marmalade to the bowl and stirred, and heated it for another minute.  Then I added cinnamon, and a tablespoon of flax seed meal and stirred it all around.  Added the non-dairy creamer and almond milk to slosh around on top.

Verdict

This was nice, but it was really light on marmalade flavor.  I could tell there was a hint of orange, but it needed more oomph to really make it a part of the dish.  Next time I would want to use two of those little containers... or maybe I could actually buy a jar of marmalade if I decide I want to make this a regular breakfast item.  This has inspired me to attempt to incorporate some clementines or oranges into my breakfast by using my rasp to get some of the zest and peel it and put the sections in as well. 

Baked Crab Cakes at Home

I like crab cakes but they can be expensive at a fancy restaurant.  And they're usually only an appetizer, and let's face it, usually you don't need an appetizer, especially since at a lot of places your meal starts with a basket of bread on the table, chips & salsa, a cup of soup, or salad.

So making crab cakes at home seemed like a good idea.  I've been wanting them for a while but they were always bumped out of the meal plan for one reason or another.  These finally rose to the top when some of the ingredients had to be used up before they went bad.  

Inspiration

LaaLoosh Baked Crab Cakes

I didn't realize until I was starting to make them that I only had half the amount of crab I needed. Oh.  I had already added the green onion and crab to the bowl, so I couldn't take it back out.  So I ended up using  twice as much green onion, which didn't bug me at all since I like onion.

I also didn't have any fresh bell pepper or a jar of roasted bell pepper, so I skipped that.  And I substituted lemon for the lime juice since I had half of one left over from a previous meal.  I also added a little chopped frozen spinach to add a little extra nutrients and color.

Main Ingredients

Make this gluten-free by using a gluten-free breadcrumbs or flax seed meal.

Ingredients

Crab Cakes

• 8 oz crab meat, drained (I used 2 cans)
• 4 scallions, diced
• small handful frozen chopped spinach
• 1/3 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp dried cilantro
• 1 egg
• 1 T plain Greek yogurt
• salt & pepper 
• 2 T lemon juice

Chipotle Sauce

• 1-2 T plain Greek yogurt
• 2T light mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp Chipotle pepper seasoning
• garlic powder
• 2 T lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Crab cake mixture

Directions

Crab Cakes

Mix up the crab cake ingredients.  Mine was a little wet since it was canned crab, I should have probably drained it a little more.  You're supposed to let the mixture rest for an hour, but I prepped this at lunch, so it waited a few additional hours.  I don't know if that had any affect on the mixture, it seemed no worse for the wear.

Shaped crab cake patties.

Sauce

I mixed all the ingredients up in the individual-sized Greek yogurt container since there was only a little bit of yogurt left.  I made this at lunch as well, so it had plenty of time to hydrate and really mix together. 

At Cooking Time

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  I lined my cookie sheet with foil and then sprayed the foil to ensure there was no sticking. 

I wanted to ensure the patties were the same size, so I used two dollops of my medium-sized cookie scoop to make a single cake.  They were smaller than the recipe indicated, I should have gotten only 8 cakes for my half batch, but I had more like 11 or 12.

Even though my crab cakes were smaller, I baked them for the same amount of time indicated in the original recipe (12 minutes per side) since I figured my cakes were a little wetter and could use the extra time to dry out.  They didn't stick to the foil and they flipped fine.  They were slightly delicate, but none of mine fell apart.

After the first 12 minutes in the oven.  Lightly brown.

Verdict

They weren't like a posh restaurant's crab cakes, but at least I knew that they were mainly crab and not filler. Plus I made the whole recipe for less than what a restaurant would charge for only a couple crab cakes.

I liked my version of crab cakes and so did everybody else in the family.  Husband Jeff seemed to be not eating them, but when I asked, he said he really liked them but was holding back in case Sonny D wanted more.  Which was a good thing, since Sonny D ate at least four of them.  There were only 2 cakes left at the end of the meal. 

The chipotle sauce I made was spicy, I really liked the smoky chipotle flavor.  Sonny D wouldn't even try it, but the crab cakes really didn't need it since they were tasty. 

Since they were so popular, I will definitely make them again.  I would like to find a better source of crab though, the canned stuff was only ok and it was only medium-quality crab.  I guess I would try frozen crab, if that's an option.  I've never really looked for crab to know what's out there.  And it would be nice to have at least the jarred roasted red peppers, that flavor would definitely be a nice addition, but even my more plain version was tasty. 

Menu Plan: Week of March 25

• Monday - need a quick dinner because I signed up for a class at 6 p.m., so I think I'll pull out the frozen sausage, onions & peppers pasta entree from Aldi, plus the leftover cheesy cauliflower and roasted zucchini from Sunday night's dinner
• Tuesday - pizza frittata and salads.  Husband Jeff loves pizza, so I thought this might be a fun way to get his weekly "quota". 
• Wednesday - roasted veggie bowls with hummus and quinoa.  Yep, I'm thoroughly addicted to the roasted veggie bowls with hummus.
• Thursday - breakfast from the freezer - we've got pancakes and french toast begging to be eaten.
• Friday - 16-bean & ham soup
• Saturday - family is in town, so probably something over at my in-laws' house.
• Sunday - we're going to a family Easter lunch, so we probably won't need much for dinner, probably a can of soup

Fun Night Out At Fired Up Pottery

My new orange bowl for oatmeal

This is only slightly food-related, but I wanted to share because it was fun and there was food involved.

I went to a Moms' Night Out event at Fired Up Pottery, a paint-it-yourself pottery place in Madison, WI. 
 
They have a monthly special night called Wine, Dine, and Dazzle, which involves paying $5 to have a light dinner and snacks in addition to the price of the item you paint.  The food wasn't fancy, cold sandwiches and such, but the choices were really well thought out.  They had a separate table of items that were gluten-free, vegetarian things like chips and hummus, and even several of the items were low-calorie like angel food cake.  It's definitely a full meal of options, you wouldn't go away hungry, no matter what your food preferences or needs are.  Oh, and they encourage you come with your friends and bring your own wine. You can also skip the food, which means they don't charge you the $5 fee, and then you only need to pay for the item you paint.

I chose a bowl for my breakfast oatmeal, I painted it orange to celebrate my blog since it's colors are orange as well.  I was a little uncertain about my painting/crafting skills, so my bowl was only solid orange, with a surprise blue bottom decorated with my initials, the word "oats", and a heart. 

In addition to painting pottery, they've got glass firing, classes for pottery making, and individual sessions to use the pottery wheel.

Verdict

I love my new bowl, it turned out exactly like I wanted.

It was a fun night hanging out with our group of ladies, chatting about our kids, and having a little bit to drink.  We had Korean rice wine, which is really different.  I skipped the food since I had a full dinner ahead of time, but next time I would consider eating there.  My next project at a place like this would be to make a 'you're special' plate to use on birthdays, anniversaries, and other notable days. 

It's definitely the sort of thing you would want to do with a group of your friends, there were several other groups there with us. 

I can't wait until my son is a little older, it would be fun to take him there and have him decorate something to use later. 

Another Bowl of Oatmeal: Sweet Potato & Cranberry

Even though most days I eat the same sorts of oatmeal over and over, sometimes I like to switch it up with new flavors. 

Inspiration

The Oatmeal Artist Sweet Potato and Cranberry Oatmeal

The base for my breakfast was one of the multi-servings I made from a big batch of oatmeal, so I'm skipping that part of the recipe here and concentrating on the flavors. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 sweet potato
• handful dried cranberries
• bowl of oatmeal (mine is 1/4 cup oats)
• 1 T flax seed meal
• heavy dash of cinnamon
• 1T non-dairy creamer
• 2T almond milk

I cooked the sweet potato in the microwave the night before to shorten the prep time in the morning.  It ended up a little too dried out because I cooked it too long.  Maybe I should have followed some instructions, but I though I knew what I was doing.  :)  So instead of winging it, follow these microwaved sweet potato instructions, 4-5 minutes total (not per side!). 

In the morning I heated up my bowl of oatmeal in the microwave for 1 minute. While that cooked, I smashed half of the cooked sweet potato with a fork. I added it to the bowl and stirred, and heated it for another minute.  Then I added a handful of dried cranberries, cinnamon, and a tablespoon of flax seed meal and stirred it all around.  Added the non-dairy creamer and almond milk to slosh around on top.

Verdict

The sweet potato was really nice, not a strong flavor, but it added a little something extra.  I loved how it made the texture creamier.  The cranberries were nice too, little bits of bright sweetness.   I would certainly make this again... and in fact will use the other half of the sweet potato to make another bowl.  Lately I've really been fond of sweet potatoes, so this is yet another dish to add to my repertoire.

Spin on Tortillas: French Toast Wraps

I've had this idea bookmarked for a while, using tortillas to make french toast, but I had to find the right time to make it.  It would take too long on a weekday morning, so I experimented on a Sunday when we had nothing else going on.  Plus I had to ensure we had something for a good filling.

Inspiration

Prevention RD Fruit-Filled French Toast Wraps


I switched up the filling from fruit, yogurt, and granola to peanut butter yogurt with banana.

I don't like mushy French bread, which is what happens a lot of the time if you use regular loaf bread rather than a heartier, dried out bread.  Since this is a thick tortilla, I figured it can't get too mushy.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1/3 milk
• 1/2 tap vanilla
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• 3 whole-wheat tortillas
• 5 pieces bread

• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2T PB2 (powdered peanut butter
• 1 banana

Instructions

I mixed up the eggs, milk,vanilla, and cinnamon with the whisk attachment of my immersion blender.  Sometimes I feel like there are too many identifiable egg bits when I make French toast, so I wanted to make sure it was a more homogenous mixture this time. 

I poured the egg mixture into a shallow bowl (I call them pasta bowls) but found that it wasn't wide enough to really soak the entire tortilla at once.  I'm not sure what would really work better, I guess a giant platter with nicely sloped sides? 

I cooked the tortillas on my electric skillet at 275 degrees.

While those cooked, I mixed together the filling of powdered peanut butter and yogurt.  

They cooked quickly since tortillas are thinner than regular bread and they didn't soak up much of the egg mixture.  Flipped them over to brown the other side after maybe 1-2 minutes.

Put the cooked tortilla on a plate, slather on some pb-yogurt mixture and add some slices of banana.  Roll it up and add syrup.

Repeat all the steps with tortillas and bread.

Verdict

I didn't give this to Sonny D since he would have had a hard time eating it, but I did make him a regular slice of French toast and topped it with the yogurt mixture and banana slices.  He didn't eat much, but he did have a lot of yogurt that morning.

Husband Jeff and I liked it though.  This was so neat, I'm glad I tried it out.  It's like a cheater version of a crepe, and so much easier. 

Next time I'm definitely going to use a large platter for the egg mixture so the tortillas can really soak since they're not going to get mushy like regular sliced bread.  I didn't really care for the yogurt filling, but Greek yogurt is really tangy.  I used plain yogurt, it might have helped if I used a flavored yogurt, like vanilla.  A spoonful of honey might have enhanced it as well.  The banana was pretty good though.

Another easy variation would be vanilla yogurt with strawberries.  That might be better with some sort of whipped cream topping rather than pancake syrup. 

I wouldn't mind a filling of applesauce and diced apples.  I would probably go with regular pancake syrup for topping. 

Chicken Parmesan Soup

Chicken Parmesan Soup

My tastes are definitely changing.  Normally I feel like chicken and tomato doesn't really go together, like if you had chicken on pizza.  It's just not something I would choose to eat, but recently I tried this recipe at a Pampered Chef party and thought it was really good.  That day I made note that I thought it needed another can of diced tomatoes and some sliced zucchini to add some extra veggies plus just to have more stuff in the soup.

I think I've fully switched from previously liking only chicken breasts for recipes to now preferring boneless, skinless chicken thighs more.  They have more calories, but they're richer tasting.  

I also prefer petite diced tomatoes for recipes, the regular dice seems too big (doesn't really qualify as 'diced').

Inspiration

Pampered Chef Chicken Parmesan Soup

Some ingredients (not all of them,
and the tomato sauce doesn't even go in it!)

Hopefully this recipe turns out delicious, because I injured myself slicing the zucchini on my mandoline.  I bled for this dish! 

Ingredients

• 2 14oz cans petite diced tomatoes
• 1 lb package boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 cups chicken stock (frozen leftovers)
• 12 oz marinara (frozen leftover from Mediterranean Tuna Pasta) 
• 1 zucchini, thinly sliced on a mandoline, then cut into smaller bite-sized pieces
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced (from a jar)
• croutons for topping (we have a bag of croutons already open, otherwise I would have made my own using the Pampered Chef Garlic & Herb Rub as it describes in the recipe.  Plus it seems cool to make croutons in the microwave.)
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)
• shredded mozzarella for topping (optional)

Directions

I threw everything but the cheese and croutons together in my medium-size slow cooker in the morning before work.  When I got home, it smelled delicious.  I decided it didn't need mozzarella on top, but I did pull out the hunk of Parmesan and the bag of croutons.

Verdict

Husband Jeff liked it and Sonny D ate most of a bowl (he was mainly aiming for the chicken since he loves meat but I tricked him with a couple spoonfuls of only tomato and zucchini). 

I'm glad i tried this dish, I really liked it a lot.  It's a simple recipe that uses mainly pantry staple ingredients and it's healthy.   I feel most dishes could use more veggies and this is another one, maybe some wilted spinach.  And there was a lot of chicken and not much soupy-liquid, so a can of tomato sauce would be nice.  Also, some pasta would be a welcome addition for even more things going on.  I personally would add sliced mushrooms too, but that might be taking it too far from the chicken Parmesan concept and into a generic tomato-chicken soup. But even with those suggested changes, I think it's good as written and would definitely make it again.

Quick Summery Side: Mexican Slaw

I love cabbage in pretty much any form - slaw, cooked, fermented into sauerkraut or kimchi, etc.  Sometimes I'll buy a bag of coleslaw mix without any plans for what to do with it, and then I wing it on a recipe.

This time my bag of coleslaw mix was hanging out in the fridge without getting used and I needed to figure out what to do with it before it sat too long and started going bad.  This recipe for Mexican slaw appealed to me for a couple reasons -- it was mainly ingredients I had, plus it was different.  Over the summer I made a Korean slaw that was good, but I wanted something that was a little different.

Inspiration

Eating Well Mexican Coleslaw

I read the reviews and found that people were saying it was pretty generic, not really Mexican, so I kept that in mind.  I skipped the carrots since my coleslaw blend had them already, and I didn't have fresh cilantro so I substituted dried.  And to make it more Mexican-inspired, I used lime and lemon juice instead of vinegar.  And neutral canola oil rather than olive oil.  And added some seasoning to punch it up a bit. 

Ingredients

• 16 oz bag of coleslaw blend (7.5 cups)
• 1 T dried cilantro
• 3 T lime juice (didn't even know I had this in the fridge!)
• 1 T lemon juice (ran out of lime juice)
• 2 T canola oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tap cumin
• 2-4 heavy shakes Mrs. Dash fiesta lime seasoning

Directions

Put the shredded coleslaw in a bowl.  Mix dressing in small container. Let rest for a few minutes to hydrate the dry ingredients and then taste it. Add any extra seasoning that you feel is necessary. Pour half of the dressing over the slaw and stir it up really well.  Add in the rest of the dressing and stir again. 

Verdict

This ended up being really tart, but habit forming.  It wasn't so sour to make you pucker, but it certainly made you sit up and notice.  It went well with our smoked turkey sausages as a summery meal, I could almost pretend we weren't sitting inside in March while it snowed outside... yet again.  Husband Jeff and I went back for additional servings, declaring how it was "so tart, but so good".    Slaw like this doesn't really last long since it starts to get kinda wilted, but I will definitely eat more for lunch this week.

Question

Do you eat leftovers?  Some people don't and I find that weird.  If it was really good the first time, don't you want more?  I love leftovers for that very reason, more delicious food!  Plus I hate wasting food.

Meal Plan: Week of March 18

Monday - Husband Jeff and I are going out for our anniversary at Osteria Papavero.  We've been there before and tried the Pappardelle al Cinghiale (pasta with wild boar) and it's delicious.  That's what I've got my eye on again. 

Tuesday - I'm going out for all-you-can-eat sushi at Restaurant Muramoto for a Moms' Night Out event, Husband Jeff and Sonny D are on their own.  Maybe they'll make the tomato-basil Hamburger Helper I've had planned for a few weeks but never gotten around to making. 

Wednesday - roasted veggies with roasted eggplant hummus and crab cakes.
My veggies this time are a Mediterranean blend (zucchini, green beans, yellow carrots, red peppers), a California blend (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), peppers & onions stir fry, and crinkle-cut carrots.  I roasted them up again on Sunday afternoon. I spritzed the pan of veggies with canola oil spray, tossed in a a sprinkle of salt, and an herb blend.  I don't know if it was because it was all frozen veggies rather than some fresh or if it was too much in the roasting pan, but it took a lot longer to get a good roast.  It was over an hour this time rather than the 45 minutes it's been for the last few batches.

Thursday - corned beef brisket in the slow cooker, a frozen package of cheesy broccoli, and some sort of coleslaw (yep, we're a few days behind, but I had other stuff planned for St. Patrick's Day.) 

Friday - Asian pulled chicken sliders made in the slower cooker, some sort of bagged veggie from the freezer, maybe edamame (green soybeans).  We'll probably have brown rice or quinoa too.

Saturday - I'm going out for a girls' night out with Natalie and some friends, Husband Jeff is having the rest of Natalie's family over for a kid playdate and they're having pizza.

Sunday - I'm making dinner for our friends Dustin & Jessica.  We'll have bisteca alla pizziola (pizza-style steak) in the pressure cooker, cauliflower cheese sticks, and not sure what else.  They're bringing salad supplies.  They are/were following a low-carb diet to get in swimsuit-shape for a cruise in early march, which makes it a little more challenging to figure out a side dish.  I try to serve less carbs for our meals, but completely carb-less is difficult.  They've also given up desserts/sweets for Lent, so there's no need to plan a dessert. 

Question For You

Did you eat anything Irish for St. Patrick's Day?  We did not, we had french toast for breakfast, leftover Indian food for lunch, and chicken noodle soup for dinner.  But Sonny D and I wore green -- he had a Green Bay Packers shirt on and I had green pants on.  I should have planned it better and at least had steel-cut oats for breakfast.  We also skipped the St. Patrick's Day parade because it was quite cold out. 

Broiled Avocado With Cheese

cheesy broiled avocado

I love avocados.  For my morning snack I eat 1/4 of an avocado smashed on a brown rice cake with a sprinkle of salt.  Every time I go to the grocery store, avocados are always on the list. I'm a happy camper in winter when avocados really come into their season and they're nice and cheap. 

I totally made a cheater version of this recipe since I did a lot of omitting or substituting of ingredients.  I figured it was close enough to get the concept. 

Inspiration

Eating Well Chipotle-Cheddar Broiled Avocado

I skipped the chipotle since I was considering using my one remaining frozen chipotle in adobo for another recipe.  

Ingredients

• half an avocado
• sprinkle of lemon juice
• shredded mozzarella (I was too lazy to go to the basement to get cheddar)
• salt

 

 Directions

Cut and pit the avocado.  Sprinkle with lemon juice and add shredded mozzarella.  I put mine in my toaster oven on the 'broil' setting, I think I broiled it for 5-7 minutes to get the light brownness you see in the picture.  I think the toaster oven doesn't get as hot as the oven broiler, plus I might have had the rack further away so it took a little longer.

Verdict

With this I realized I've never had anything other than cold avocado. When it's warmed up, the avocado seems even more creamy and rich.  It was difficult to eat the avocado because the cheese was more solid and the avocado was really soft.  Husband Jeff had a taste and said it seemed really 'green'.  But Sonny D and I ate the rest and enjoyed it. 

I would definitely make this as a side again.   I think it would might make a good bruschetta topping, but you would have to eat it quickly before it cooled.

Big Batch of Oatmeal in the Microwave

Big casserole dish and big container of oats.

I love oatmeal and related porridges, they're my all-time favorite breakfast.  Even in the summer, I want a big, hot bowl of oatmeal to start my day. I've eaten oatmeal for breakfast for years now.   I even take my oatmeal with me when I stay in a hotel -- heating them up in the room microwave or using the coffee pot to make an "instant" breakfast porridge.  The only time I don't eat oatmeal for breakfast is if we're going out to a restaurant to eat.

I used to start each morning's individual bowl of oatmeal the night before, but now with a toddler in the house, I don't have time to do that anymore.  Now I make a big batch of oatmeal and divide it up into containers to eat for several days.  It still takes a bit of time in the morning to heat it up a portion, decide what I want to add for flavor/texture/protein/etc., mix that up, and pour on a milk "float" (non-dairy creamer and almond milk), but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Measuring out the oats.

In my photos you'll see my biggest Corelle casserole dish and a large Tupperware cereal saver container, this is what I pull out to make my big batch of oats.  When the oats container gets down to 1/4 left, I get nervous and buy another huge bag from the bulk bin section at my grocery store. I prefer old-fashioned rolled oats from the bulk bin rather than the brand-name canister with the old guy in a hat. The bulk bin oats seem to be "more whole", while the ones in the ones from the canister seem broken up and cause my oatmeal to be more gloppy.  

Here's my process to make five servings at once.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of rolled oats (not instant)
• 3.5 cups of water

I don't know if 2 cups of oats sounds like a large amount to you, but that's 2/5 of a cup of oatmeal, which turns out to be quite a lot after all the water is absorbed. 

Oats + Water

 Steps

1. Put the oats and water into a large casserole dish, stir.  
2. Microwave for 2 minutes.  Stir.  
3. Microwave for 2 more minutes.  Feel free to stir it, but at this point, leave it in the microwave overnight. 
   
   Yes, I know it could possibly get gross letting cooked food sit overnight like that, but I've never had a problem.  Plus I've heard that soaking grains like this makes them easier for you to digest, so I continue to do it.  And it allows the oats soak up so much more water than if you made the oats five minutes ago, so it's more filling.   
4. In the morning, the oats will have soaked up all the water and be less soupy.
5. Divide up the oats into five containers.  This is the point when I keep one bowl out, heat it up for two minutes, and have it for breakfast that morning. 

   

   Oats + heat (soupy)

I've also made variations on oatmeal/porridge by using some combo of oats plus

• quinoa
• millet
• wheat berries
• steel-cut oats 
• bulgur wheat
• hulled barley
• rye flakes 
• Bob's Red Mill 5-Grain cereal (whole wheat, rye, oats, flax seed, barley, and triticale)
• Red River cereal (wheat, rye, flax)

It really depends on what I feel like having and what I've got in the house.

Add-ins

I typically decide at the last-minute what I want to add to my oatmeal.  It depends on what we've got in the house, the flavor I'm looking for, how much protein I need (more if I'm off to bootcamp exercise class on Saturdays), etc.  Some typical things I add are

• flax seed meal (protein)
• hemp seeds (protein)
• oat bran (fiber + thickener)
• wheat bran (fiber + thickener)
• wheat germ (healthy stuff)
• chia seeds (adds fiber and moisture)
• cinnamon (flavor + supposedly helps control blood sugar levels)
• cocoa powder (makes chocolate oatmeal!)
• Grape-nuts cereal (crunchy texture)
• chopped almonds (protein + texture)
• fresh, freeze-dried, and dried fruit (flavor)
• packets of oatmeal (Kashi Go Lean instant hot cereal, Trader Joe's maple & brown sugar oatmeal. RIP Quaker cranberry-almond.)
• baby food pouches (son didn't like them)

• 

  Oats + time (left to sit overnight, thick!)

  applesauce

Here are some flavors/variations from the many bowls of oatmeal I've made in the past few years.

• cinnamon
• almond (using coffee flavoring syrup)
• carrot cake oatmeal (shredded carrots and cinnamon)
• spicy Mexican chocolate oatmeal
• chocolate
• peanut butter
• chocolate-peanut butter
• apple-cinnamon
• cinnamon-raisin
• pear
• dried plums (prune)
• banana
• peach-almond
• dried cranberry
• fresh cranberries
• dried cherry
• pineapple
• chopped almonds-brown sugar 

Question

When was the last time you ate oatmeal?  Do you share my love of oatmeal?

Interesting Experiment: Quinoa Cookies

Lately I've been on the lookout for snacks for Sonny D that have a lot of protein because his daycare provides an afternoon snack that is all simple carbohydrates like pretzels and crackers, which isn't balanced.  To keep feeling full, you need some protein as well. No wonder kids come home tired and hungry, all the simple carbs in their snacks turn into sugars and they burn them off immediately. We need more time before dinner is ready at night, so we send along a protein-filled snack to go along with the daycare snack. 

I had been looking at recipes for peanut butter granola bars and it seemed a lot were coming up on the blogs I read in Google Reader, but then I remembered quinoa.  Quinoa is full of protein!  So I tracked down a recipe I had bookmarked for quinoa cookies. 

Cooked quinoa

Inspiration

366 Days of Pinterest Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

This recipe took me two days to make, the first day I made quinoa in the rice cooker but I had a cold and didn't feel like pulling the rest of the ingredients together, so I stopped there. I had intended to flavor the quinoa in some way, like adding cinnamon to the water, but I ended up forgetting, so it was just plain quinoa.
 
The second day I mixed up the dough and gave it my own personal touch by adding cinnamon and vanilla.  I also skipped the chocolate chips and instead added 2 eggs to hold the dough together.

Additional ingredients

Ingredients

Makes 54 cookies

• 2 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup dry)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla 
• 2 eggs 

For a chocolate version, you can do two things:

1. Add 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder. 
2. Remove the 2 eggs and add 1/2 cup chocolate chips, but in that case you need to melt the chocolate so it helps hold the dough together.  

raw cookie dough, waiting to bake

The original recipe listed 1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut, but I've found that I don't like it in cookies much.  It would also be nice to replace it with 1/2 cup of additional ingredients for other flavor variations.  Dried fruit would be good, maybe cranberries or something.  If you added some chopped nuts or seeds, you could make it into a trail mix cookie.

Directions

Mixing up dough

Make the quinoa in the same manner that you make rice, it's 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water.  It's best if you can infuse the quinoa with some flavor at this point, so pick something that will go with your other flavors. 

Once the quinoa is done, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put the quinoa into a large bowl and mix in all of the rest of the ingredients.  Scoop them into balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Since they won't spread, feel free to put the dough bits close to each other.  I flattened the tops of the cookies to make them less like a half-circle. 

Rack of cookies cooling

Bake for 20 minutes.

Verdict

These aren't the best, but that's completely my fault.  I didn't measure the honey carefully (well, didn't measure it at all, just spooned some in), so they're not really as sweet as I would prefer.  Next time I would taste the dough before I add the raw egg to ensure it was to my liking.  And I would definitely flavor the quinoa when I cook it to add some depth, maybe cinnamon or vanilla/almond extract. But aside from that, there's something that I love about them, so I continue to eat them.

The cookies are a little bit chewy, but still soft.  They're similar to the bananakies (banana oat cookies) I made recently.   For the ingredients I used, they're only about 35 calories per cookie, which is quite low.  Makes me feel better when I eat them three at a time. *grin*

The peanut butter flavor isn't very pronounced, it's only a hint at peanut butter. If I'm making these mainly for myself, I think in the future I would skip the peanut butter and come up with another flavor combo like apple-cinnamon, using applesauce instead of peanut butter.

Question

Have you tried quinoa before? Typically it's served as grain, like as substitute for rice or couscous.   It's not actually a grain, each little granule is actually a seed from a plant related to the tumbleweed.  Since it's a seed, that's why it's a source of protein. I've served it as a side dish, in little "meatball" style appetizers, and I love it in roasted veggie bowls.  This was my first experiment using it for dessert.  

My Daily Smoothie

Each morning I try to take the time to make a "smoothie" using Amazing Grass powder.   I say "smoothie" but I usually think of smoothies as containing yogurt, which I don't like.  Mine are non-dairy since I'm not fond of cow milk. 

The base for all of my smoothies is 8 ounces almond milk and a scoop of Amazing Grass original powder.  Amazing Grass is a green, superfood powder of wheatgrass, alfalfa, spinach, fiber, probiotics, etc. and produce like carrots, beets, acai, raspberry, etc.

Flavors combos I've tried and liked

• peach almond - frozen peach slices with almond extract and cinnamon
• chocolate malt - cocoa powder and chocolate malt powder
• banana-coffee - 1/2 frozen banana with instant decaf coffee crystals
• tropical - orange juice frozen into ice cubes and frozen crushed pineapple
• orange - just orange juice cubes
• choco-peanut butter banana - PB2 (powdered peanut butter) in the peanut butter-chocolate flavor with frozen 1/2 banana
• choco-banana - cocoa powder and frozen banana
• chocolate-covered cherry - cocoa powder and frozen cherries 
• chocolate-covered strawberry - cocoa powder and frozen strawberries
• pear - pear, almond extract, cinnamon
• peanut butter banana - PB2 (powdered peanut butter) and banana 
• ginger-peach - peach, ground ginger, crystallized ginger
• ginger-pear - pear, almond extract, ground ginger

Failures

There have only been a few of flavors I haven't liked.

• Frozen crushed pineapple with almond milk. I think the pineapple wasn't a strong enough flavor to cover the grassy-green flavor of the Amazing Grass.
• Another is cocoa powder and peaches.  I might have used too much cocoa powder since it was a little bitter, and the peaches are so mild that they don't add much flavor.
• chia seeds, ginger powder, crystallized ginger.  The ginger was tart, but not really flavorful otherwise. 

Verdict 

This is a total win since most mornings my smoothie keeps me full until my morning snack, and probably would keep me going until lunch, but I have a morning snack anyway since it's so delicious.  My standard snack for a while has been a brown-rice cake with smashed avocado on top with a sprinkle of salt.  

Question

Do you have a favorite flavor combo to recommend for my morning smoothie? 

BBQ Vegetarian "Meatloaf"

This is a weird concept, a vegetarian meatloaf.  Mine wasn't actually vegetarian because I used chicken stock since that's what I had on hand, but you could easily use a vegetable stock instead.

I had no idea what I was getting into since it was a complete experiment.

Inspiration

Daily Garnish Cranberry Orange Lentil Quinoa Loaf (for the quinoa-lentil mixture)
and Healthful Pursuit Gluten-free + Vegan Lentil “Meat” Loaf (for the rest of the concept)

I combined the two recipes to come up with my version.  I wasn't excited about the fruit in the first recipe, that's why I followed the second recipe for the remaining concept. 

Ingredients

makes 1 9x5 loaf

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1/2 cup dry quinoa
• 4 cups liquid (I made chicken stock using instant paste)
• seasonings

• handful of mushrooms, minced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced (from a jar!)
• 1/4 onion, minced
• handful of carrot, minced
• couple handfuls of spinach, cut finely
• 1 tsp tamari/soy sauce
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 c flax seed meal
• 2 eggs
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 c BBQ sauce, plus more for topping

Quinoa & Lentils Directions

I cooked the quinoa and lentils on the stove during my lunch hour.  I've cooked quinoa in the rice cooker, but I didn't know if the lentils would cook up correctly in there, so I figured the stovetop method would probably work best.  On a whim I added some dried bell peppers, a shake of curry powder, dried lemon peel, and celery seed to flavor the quinoa and lentils.   

Rest of the Loaf Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For all the veggies, I pulled out my full-size food processor and whizzed each one up separately until they were minced.  Then I sauteed them in a little olive oil over medium heat to soften them. 

Put the cooked veggies and everything else in a big bowl and mix it all together with your hands.  Put it into a greased loaf pan and pat it down firmly.  Top with some additional BBQ sauce. Bake for 55 minutes. 

Verdict

Everybody liked this.  Husband Jeff was surprised he liked it so much.  Sonny D ate pretty much a full piece for dinner.  Of course it helps when you use delicious BBQ sauce.  I used Smoky Jon's, a super-local brand (comes from about a mile away from our house).

Husband Jeff and Sonny D don't care for mushrooms, but they are a source of umami (savoriness) so I figured they would give a meat-like quality to the dish.  That's the same reason I included soy sauce.  Nobody complained about the mushrooms, so I will continue to add them when they seem necessary. 

Before I added the eggs I tried the mixture and it was delicious.  I really liked the flavor so I was excited for the actual meal.  I was also excited because this meal was full of protein and veggies. 

I baked it for the indicated time, but it still didn't seem like enough to really dry it out to be solid.  The mixture was still pretty wet when I pulled it out of the oven.  Next time I would bake it in a wider dish and maybe cook it a bit longer so it can really firm up.

The leftovers were definitely more firm, I was able to actually slice it.  And it reheated fine in the microwave. 

Question For You

What is your current favorite ingredient to cook with?  I know I've talked about it before, but right now I love frozen pepper stir fry, which is only peppers and onions.  It's so nice to have it on hand since it's the basis for many recipes.  Plus it's in my freezer, so it's not going to go bad like the onion I found in my hanging produce rack recently. 

Three-Meat Stromboli and Sesame Green Beans

Ingredients set 1

Three-Meat Stromboli

This is a classic recipe in our house, Husband Jeff and I have been feasting on this for a few years now.   I love finding coupons for Rhodes frozen bread dough since I know this is one thing I'm definitely going to make with it.   It's kind of like pizza, but without red sauce at all.  Not really like a classic pizza, so maybe more like a filled loaf of bread?

Inspiration

All Recipes Three-Meat Stromboli

Ingredients set 2, that's defrosted
bread dough in the back

I make only a quarter of the original recipe, so I use a single loaf of frozen bread dough.  I add whatever meats and veggies we've got, there's usually a package of turkey pepperoni in the freezer.    I particularly like this recipe because I can put what I prefer on my half, which is usually less meat and cheese, more veggies like sauteed spinach and mushrooms.

Making It Happen

Spray your largest cookie sheet or baking pan with cooking spray.

Roll out the bread dough to a large rectangle.  I forgot how I've done it in the past and put mine on my huge cutting board, which moved all around the countertop as I attempted to roll it out.  Next time I'll put it directly on the countertop and roll it there.  Since it moved around and I got frustrated by it, I don't think I rolled it as large as I have before. 

Then start putting your ingredients on the center of the rectangle.  Based on previous experience, I warmed up my meats and blotted them so they weren't so wet because the inside has had too much moisture and leaks in the oven while baking.

This version is ham, roast beef, pepperoni, artichoke hearts, and mozzarella.

When you've got everything on, pull one side to go over the ingredients.  Grab the other side and pull it to cover the other edge so all the ingredients are on the inside and there are no openings.  You might need to stretch to cover some bits and pinch the dough to seal it.

Typically I like to add spicy muffaletta but this time I forgot.  I thought I might be able to undo it and add it, but the dough was already sealed and I would have ended up ripping it apart, so I went on without it.

Lay it on the cookie sheet and toss it in the oven.  It bakes up pretty quickly in about 25 minutes.  I let it rest for 5 minutes so it's not boiling hot when we slice into it. 

Verdict

Delicious as always.  Husband Jeff loves every variation of this I've ever made.  I love it too, but I know it's not exactly low-calorie, so I make sure to serve it with a veggie or two so I get enough food without eating a ton of stromboli.

Sonny D enjoyed it, he had at least a slice and a half.  It's a little difficult for a toddler to eat since it can easily fall apart, but he was able to shove it in.

Sesame Green Beans

This is another classic recipe for us, I've been making it for years.  

Inspiration

All Recipes Sesame Green Beans


I skip the chicken stock and use water instead.  I also add a dash of soy sauce.  Sometimes I add cayenne, but this time I skipped that since it's easy to make it almost too spicy. 

Verdict

Excellent as always.  Husband Jeff and I ate a lot, Sonny D wouldn't try them.  I even made them not spicy this time in hopes that he would try them, but he's on an anti-veggie kick right now.