More Chia Granola

I've made three batches of burned granola lately - I keep leaving it in the oven, and it's just not quite dark enough - not quite - and then BAM - burned.

So I switched to the crockpot.  Which meant when I burned it around the edges, I spooned that part out.  I've also added coconut, so here is a new recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups oats
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4-1/2 cup chia seeds
1 stick butter, melted
1/4-1/2 cup honey (or "a generous pour" as I measured)
1/8-1/4 cup corn syrup (or "a generous spurt" as I measured)

Procedure:
1. Combine oats, chia, butter, 1/4 cup coconut flakes, and honey and corn syrup in crockpot.
2. Cook on high for approimately 2 hours, leaving a wooden stick in the crock so that the crockpot vents.
3. Once done cooking, add remaining coconut flakes, stir, and put lid on.  Allow to cool completely.

The granola on it's own is pretty good, but this morning I added chopped dates which took me from pretty good to "best breakfast ever."

Silver Dollar Pancakes with greek yogurt

Greek yogurt has become my Frank's Red Hot - I put it on everything.  Or more accurately, in everything.  It's high in protein, holds up well, and comes in low fat or no fat varieties that cook just as well as full fat sour cream.  This morning I altered the Joy of Cooking Silver Dollar Pancakes recipe to use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  The results were really good, especially with mini chocolate chips in them.  (The pancakes are so small that full size chocolate chips would overwhelm them.)  

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt 

2 large eggs

1 cup greek yogurt (I only had 3/4 of a cup, so I used what I had and then added about 1/4 cup milk.)  

Procedure:

1. Preheat griddle to medium heat.  (We have a two-burner griddle I'm still trying to master.  Today I found that heating it on "5" for about 10 minutes as I got food ready created an even-er heating surface.)

2. Mix together dry ingredients.  Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Pour wet into dry, mix quickly.

3. Pour batter onto griddle to create small pancakes.  Mine are usually about 2 inches in diameter.  Add chocolate chips.  

4. Wait about 1 minute or so, and then check one of the cakes to see if it is ready to flip.  These do not act like normal pancakes and bubble, so you will have to do a little guesswork - so make sure the griddle is on low enough heat that the cakes don't burn.  

Banana Bread Muffins

We had a few overripe bananas lying around, so they went into banana bread.  I like to use this recipe from The Simple Dollar, but today we were out of butter, so I substituted 1/2 cup applesauce for the butter.  

Our loaf pan was currently in use, so I poured everything into muffin tins.  It made 12 very full muffin tins, and cooked for about 45 minutes.  

I put most of the muffins in ziploc bags in the freezer, so they can just be grabbed and microwaved, and we don't feel the need to eat them all this week before they go bad.  

Crockpot Oatmeal

Yesterday, at an open house, I was asked how Mr. Barefoot and I balanced our relationship our first year.  I didn't want to tell her the truth, that there was no balance.  That we only saw each other when we watched law and order during my study breaks and hit happy hour on Friday, after which I came home and studied more.  What did I say instead?  Something that was true, but more truthy, "we bought a crockpot, and that helped a lot."  It's true.  It did.  It was great to come home to a home cooked meal.  And I've never ceased to be amazed at the depth of what I can do with my little 1.5 $4 crockpot.  Like the soft, delicious oatmeal I'm currently eating. 
Ingredients (serves 2):

• 3/4 cup rolled oats (I used jumbo scottish rolled oats.  They are not Scottish Porridge Oats, which are the best kind.)
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• raisins to taste
• craisins to taste
• 1 banana, chopped up (next time I will use an apple)
• Salt, pinch.  Recipe probably called for a teaspoon, but I under-salt stuff. 

Procedure:

1. Put all ingredients in crockpot, stir.
2. Cook for 6 hours on low.  (This will probably mean using a timer.)
3. Serve topped with granola if you would like.

The raisins/craisins plump up and get really soft, and the fruit helps flavor the oats.  Oatmeal is a great winter food, because it's all warm. It's also a good diet food, because warm foods seem more filling, but as you can see, this oatmeal has no sugar in it (other than what is in the raisins and craisins).  (Facebook ads, you can suck your "wedding diet".)  Next up, I'm trying Gingersnap Oatmeal.  Then I might try to make a high-protein pre-long-run oatmeal for half marathon training (which starts next weekend when Boston gets back!!!!!) 

More Pumpkinspiration

I posted awhile ago about pumkin lasanga. A few weeks ago, Mr. Barefoot's friend came over and we attempted pumpkin lasagna. Verdict? It was pretty good. Definitely a B+ meal.
We used this recipe, and it was good. (Plus, no bake lasagna noodles may be the greatest invention ever.) It was a little mild for my taste, and I like my lasagna to have the ricotta and sauce mixed together. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but maybe something a little more like my sweet potato mac & cheese. Like I said yesterday, I currently have 3 pumpkins, plus another 2 cups of pumpkin puree in my freezer, so there's a lot of room for experiment. I want to try a pumpkin mac & cheese, and also these.
We also had a pumpkin soup at the wedding over the weekend, and that was amazing.

Breakfast is Delicious

This is actually a recipe from last week, and I'm sorry to be late with it - but it's so delicious you'll forgive me.
Last week, Moose and Squirrel (my future sister-in-law and her boyfriend) came to stay with us, and I decided to throw together a slow cooker breakfast casserole and some pancakes (I had leftover buttermilk from an ill-fated cake I tried to make. I'm not posting the recipe because it was not good.)

(Breakfast casserole - I recommend putting everything in the crockpot and actually mixing it together.)

The breakfast casserole was a poor man's version of this - I only had a half a thing of hash browns, and I only used 6 or 7 eggs. And I had to use bacon, because, um, I don't know how to cook sausage. It always goes poorly. So I don't. Bacon? I can cook. I ate around the bacon in this one, and didn't have a lot anyway. Because I was focusing on the deliciousness that is the AB Pancake.
If you don't own "I'm Just Here For More food"...you might want to, but only if you have enough time to cook. I've tried making some of the stuff in it, and I'm sorry, but some of AB's recipes are just. too. complicated. This one was pretty simple. The only thing it asked of me that I couldn't give it was a food processor for sifting. I sift with a strainer, which works okay. The key to great pancakes, apparently, lies in not overstirring, and in letting the batter rest.
So here is the pancake recipe. (Make ahead version here. Which I'm sorry, will save you about 5 seconds. But if you really need that time, go for it.)
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 tblsp sugar

2 L. eggs
2 cups buttermilk
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled.

Procedure:
1.) Sift dry goods together.
2.) Mix wet goods together in a separate bowl.
3.) Pour wet goods into dry goods. Mix gently. You should not make more than 5 circles around the bowl. I think AB actually wants you to stick to 3. Batter will be lumpy. Do not break up the lumps! Do make sure you have scraped all the flour off the bottom and there are no massive clumps of flour.
4.) Set the batter aside to rest for 5 minutes. This is key. I know you are hungry, but wait.
5.) Heat a frying pan to medium-low, or an electric griddle to 350.
6.) Ladle pancakes into griddle and cook until bubbles have formed. Pay attention: Some of you may be inclined to flip your pancakes when they start to bubble - but you want to wait until they look like this.

See how the edges are cooked and the batter is looking like it set? You should be cooking your pancakes for about 3 minutes on one side, so adjust the heat lower and just be patient!

I think this was the best batch of pancakes I've ever made. I'm going to try it again soon with my usual buttermilk substitute of milk + vinegar.

Low carb french toast

Cinnamon scrambled eggs!
This morning I wanted something sweet, but not to make a mess (we're having people over for dinner). I made cinnamon scrambled eggs - basically french toast mix, but without bread, which cuts the calories signifigantly, and makes them super easy to make.
I'm not even going to bother with the usual recipe format, they were so easy.
Take two eggs, whisk in two tablespoons of sugar, a dash of cinnamon, and some milk (maybe a tablespoon or two, it should look creamy.) Scramble!

Enjoy!

Other Waffles

Imagine my surprise to realize I'd already posted the same waffle recipe! Sorry guys!
Here instead is the recipe for silver dollar pancakes, which I haven't made in awhile but are also delicious.
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 8 oz sour cream

Equipment

• 2 bowls
• griddle
• turner

Procedure

• Mix dry ingredients.
  
• Mix wet ingredients.
• Mix together.
• Cook. If you don't know how to cook pancakes, you should find a cooking for beginners blog.
  

Joy of Cooking Waffles

If you're a longtime subscriber, you know I love the Joy of Cooking. If you don't own it, trot over to Amazon right now and buy it.
Here is a recipe for simple, delicious waffles. I like to halve it, because its just two of us, but you might need to make all six.
Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 to 1 cup butter, melted (I use oil instead, for the sake of unsaturatated fats)
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Equipment

• 2 mixing bowls
• whisk
• waffle iron

Procedure

1. Mix all dry ingredients.
2. Mix all wet ingredients.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
4. Cook on waffle iron.
   

Yum!

Honey Bran Waffles

This is a great healthy waffle recipe from The Joy of Cooking - which I still maintain that everybody needs to own. I usually half this for two people.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coarse wheat bran or miller's bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Equipment:
Waffle iron
Mixing bowl
Spoon

Procedure:

1. Combine dry ingredients.
   
2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
   
3. Combine. Pour into waffle iron.
   

Waffles!

I've talked before about how everyone should own the Joy of Cooking, and one of the many reasons is because when you wake up in the morning and realize that you're out of pancake mix and you have no internet, you can turn to the pancakes and waffles section and find many many great recipes for waffles, from scratch. This is their classic one, and I've halved it to make the perfect amount of waffles for two people - one and a half each.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2. 1/4 plus 1/8 cups white flour
   
3. 1/2 tbsp baking powder
   
4. 1/2 tbsp sugar
5. 1/2 tsp salt
6. 1 egg
7. 1 egg white
8. 1/4 cup oil
9. 3/4 cups milk

Equipment:

1. 2 mixing bowls - one small, one large
2. 1 waffle iron
3. 1 spatula

Procedure:

1. Plug in waffle iron to heat it up.
   
2. Mix all dry ingredients in the large bowl.
3. Mix wet ingredients together in the small bowl and pour into the large bowl.
   
4. Mix all ingredients until combined.
   
5. Pour 1/3 of batter into waffle iron. Allow to cook for ~5 minutes.
   
6. Eat. Enjoy.