Brown Granola

I have fallen out of routine. I have eschewed grocery shopping. Failed at cooking. Haven't gotten out my bicycle in more than a year. The animals no longer get their teeth brushed. I have not stuck to my physical therapy exercises.

But it is now Child's Summer Vacation.

We will commit to rebuilding routine. I like one part of this year's routine. Little Miss has taken to sleeping in. She rolls out of bed at 8:15 or later, which for a child who used to be tap dancing at 6 a.m. is HUGE.

Tomorrow is dress rehearsal. Four plus hours of being backstage with the other little dancers, probably 4:30 pm to 8:30 ish as we give it a practice run before Saturday night's big performance.

Little Miss is sleeping (8 a.m.) and I am making granola. Granola is a staple in this house but I haven't been making it. Bad me! We base our granola on the recipe from the Deirdre Imus' Imus Ranch Cookbook.

Today the only dried fruit I have in the house is one handful of dried cherries. 1/4 cup. I meant to buy at least raisins at Target yesterday but forgot.

So I call this variation brown granola, because except for that tiny batch of cherries, everything in it is boring brown. 

Dry Ingredients

- 4 cups oats

- about 3 tablespoons cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

- about 1 tablespoon grated candied ginger 

- that measly 1/4 cup dried cherries

- about 1/3 cup raw almonds

- about 2/3 cup raw cashews

The WET ingredients

- about 1/4 cup local raw honey

- about 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses

- about 1/4 cup warm coconut oil

- about 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix wet and dry ingredients until oats are all evenly damp. Spread on cookie sheet and bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes, stirring and flipping after 15. You want to cook it until mostly dry. But not burned. Obviously.

Oats in a Jar

People have been placing food in mason jars and ball jars lately and I'm not referring to home canning.

Salad in a jar.
Oats in a jar.

I had to try oats in a jar.

My mix, for each jar:
- homemade raw mixed nut butter, about two tablespoons
- 1/2 cup oats
- 2/3 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/3 container Noosa yogurt in strawberry rhubarb
- handful of frozen mixed berries
- sliced banana

They say you refrigerate overnight and serve cold. Eileen Breslin had a similar concoction she called vegan breakfast pudding-- but she didn't put it in a jar.

Perfumed Pineapple Oat Crumble

This is a favorite from the French cookbook my friend Jessica brought me. The original attempt (with way too much butter after the conversion from metric and translation) is here:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/perfumed-pineapple-crumble-crumble.html?m=0

I did some alterations today, trying to make it heartier/healthier.

Ingredients:
- 2 small pineapples
- real vanilla
- brown sugar
- butter
- flour
- oats

Cut the pineapple and 'perfume' with about 2 teaspoons vanilla.

Grease dish with butter. I used my Le Creuset skillet today.

Sprinkle with brown sugar. The original suggests 3 tablespoons. I didn't measure.

Arrange pineapple in the bottom of the dish.

Make sandy crumbs with remaining ingredients. The recipe suggests 2 more teaspoons vanilla, 2 cups flour and 2 cups brown sugar. And butter -- at room temperature.

I tried:
- vanilla
- one cup unbleached flour
- one cup oats
- one cup brown sugar
- 1/2 stick butter

Cover pineapple with crumbs and bake for 45 minutes at 350.

Honey Oat and Rye Herb Bread

It's a bread day! I started a basic French bread starter and have decided on a honey oat and a herb rye loaf. I divided the starter in two for the first rise and prepped two batches of add-in flour, one that's unbleached white flour and oats, another that is stoneground rye and a touch of brown sugar. I'll add blackstrap molasses to that loaf during the first knead.

I never make a loaf the same way twice, rather always adding a lil of this or that. Like this day:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/great-day-for-bread.html

Today's loaves came out fantastic! I rolled them thin and long (very French). The white bread came out boring, really, but the spinach-herb-rye bread was super enjoyable.

I've been trying for two days to find the basic recipe so I can try and chronicle my deviations (as if I remember now) and finally here it is (with an adorable photo of my daughter in her seersucker train engineer/baker hat): http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-bread.html

So, facing a 90 degree day after a heat wave of 100 degree days, I got out my bread bowls. In the first very large bowl, I mixed:

• 4 cups unbleached white flour
• about 2.5 teaspoons fresh ground salt.

In a smaller bowl I put:

• 2 cups stoneground rye flour

and set beside it:

• blackstrap molasses
• about one cup fresh spinach
• 1 heaping tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon dill 
• 1/4 cup sorrel
• about 1 cup basil

In another smaller bowl, I mixed:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 cup whole oats

In the final large bowl, I mixed:

• 3 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey

From the flour/salt bowl, I added about 3 cups of the white flour to the liquid yeast mix. I worked it into a dough and let it sit until it tripled in size. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap. It's supposed to take three hours. Mine took about two.

This is what I'll refer to as my starter dough. After it rose, I took the dry ingredients from the rye bowl and poured them onto my lightly floured work surface. I added half the starter dough and mixed. I added the herbs and the molasses as I kneaded. Then I divided the kneaded lump into two pieces, oiled lightly and returned it to the rye flour bowl and another bowl. Covered with a towel to rise.

I repeated this with the rest of the starter and the white/oat flour. Knead. Divide. Oil. Cover. Leave to rise.

Let sit until doubled in size. About an hour.

Preheat oven to 450. Divide into loaves. Let rise 20 more minutes. Place a bowl of water in the oven. Bake baguettes for 15 minutes, remove bowl of water. Cook baguettes for ten minutes more, maybe less. *I often turn mine when I remove the water, helps the consistency of the crust.

Or I leave the water. Because it's hot and dangerous. Sometimes they cook quickly.

Daddy's Oatmeal

My husband made delectable oatmeal this morning. He used:

- old fashioned oats
- vanilla soy milk
- cinnamon
- brown sugar
- finely chopped dried pears
- golden raisins
- finely chopped banana

Vegan Blueberry Steusel Muffins

This is based on the recipe from the Betty Crocker 25th anniversary cookbook.

I love muffins. They freeze easily, transport easily and feed an empty belly in a hurry. I normally add nuts for protein but this time I didn't because of my broken teeth.

Heat oven to 400.

Make streusel topping.

Streusel topping:
- 1/4 cup flour (I used a hair more)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar (as if I measured)
- 2 tablespoons firm margarine
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used more)
Mix in bowl until crumbly. Now, I always overmix my crumbs and they get soft so then I mix in oats to fix the texture.

For the muffins:

- I cup 'milk' (I used plain soy today. I would also use vanilla soy or almond or rice)
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I didn't measure, and I always use real vanilla. You could also use lemon or almond extract to give the batter more flavor. Putting half lemon and half almond _if I remember correctly_ will replicate a coffee cake flavor)
- instead of 1 egg use 4 tablespoons applesauce. Normally I use natural, unsweetened. Those single serve packs = 1 egg (especially good if you bought a flavor for packed lunches and it was deemed gross) This time I used cinnamon.

Mix.

Dump in dry ingredients:
- 2 cups flour (normally I do half unbleached white and half whole wheat but I ran out of wheat)
- 1/3 cup sugar (I used 1/4)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir.

Fold in blueberries. I used 1.25 cups frozen, not even thawed.

Scoop into tins. Top with crumbs. Bake 20 minutes.

I made 16 small muffins and could have doubled the crumb recipe.

Crockpot oatmeal II

Today we started talking about oats and got hungry for crockpot oatmeal. Crockpot oatmeal can be a super hot breakfast, but it requires some forethought. And while you're supposed to cook on low overnight, it probably would only take a couple hours if you turned the heat up. The trick seems to be to make sure there's enough liquid to keep it from drying up since the oats absorb over time.

This can be a very hearty vegan breakfast if you use alternative milks and a margarine product for the butter. I'm trying mine tonight with almond milk for the first time. Silk's new vanilla almond milk is a favorite of my daughter.

Grease the crockpot.

Mix:
- one cup oats, rolled oats NOT instant ( I used one and a half)
- 2 cups milk ( I used about 1.5 cups vanilla almond milk, 3/4 cup soy milk and 1/4 cup whole cow's milk)
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 chopped apple (I used two)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup walnuts ( I used pecans)
My other add-ins:
- 1/4 cup chopped prunes
- 2 tablespoons vanilla white chocolate chips
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon 
- a few chopped dates

Improved pumpkin waffles

We made a variation of PPK's pumpkin waffles today. Mine today aren't vegan because I used 2 tablespoons vanilla yogurt instead of soy yogurt.

I also substituted 1 cup apple juice for one of the two cups of soy milk.

I also added 2 cups oats.

My little one is eating them as fast as they emerge from the waffle iron.

Yogurt and crumbs

Now, I realize there's a fine line between frugal and being over-the-top cheap, but when I make homemade baked goods I hate to waste.

I froze a good portion of the oatmeal bars, and I scraped all the crumbs out of the bottom of the pan. I sprinkled those on vanilla yogurt this morning for breakfast. We like stuff in our yogurt and this did not disappoint.

Oatmeal Bars??

Anyone who even casually follows this blog probably knows that I am on a quest to replicate something similar to Quaker Oatmeal Squares.

This recipe turned out delicious, but wasn't cakey enough to qualify:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/oatmeal-cookies.html

So today I doubled the batter ingredients and included the same dried ingredients. Optimistic, I put the batter in pyrex dishes and baked. One even has chocolate almond topping I found in the rear of the freezer today.

Cross your fingers. These took most of my morning...

Update: they worked! When I doubled the batter ingredients, I resisted using four sticks of butter, because a pound of butter is insane. I also used three eggs and some applesauce instead of four eggs, partially because it seemed healthier. The practical reason for the egg swap is that's what I had. I ended up freezer several batches of these for future breakfasts.

Oatmeal Cookies

The original recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (I only used 3/4 cup and I didn't pack, I added about 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses)
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup wheat with 3/4 cup white)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
• I added: 1 cup dried strawberries in bitesize pieces, 3/4 cup chopped dates and probably 3/4 cup raisins.
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats and nuts until just blended. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Cookies should be at least 2 inches apart.
3. Bake for about 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

The original web site:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Excellent-Oatmeal-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Oh! They turned out AWESOME. Now to make them bigger and with a tad more weight to serve as a breakfast bar.

Peaches and goodies

I wish I could eat as well as my daughter.

She's eating peaches (canned in pear juice), my homemade oatmeal/dried fruit/granola-y buttery desserty nonsense from Tuesday, and chocolate soy milk.

Fruit (and orange fruit at that!), carbs with some nutritional value, and protein and calcium in the milk...

I hate peaches, I rarely drink milk in any form... I just wish I could make myself mimic the eating habits I taught her.

New and improved oatmeal bars...

Hi, my name is Angel and I can't follow a recipe to save my life.

This is the original oatmeal bar post:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/09/oatmeal-bars.html

This is what I combined and pressed into an 11 x 7 pyrex dish:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
  
• 1/4 cup chopped dates
• a handful homemade granola (leftover)
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup dried strawberries, chopped
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

And then after I pressed it into the pan I trickled a stream of blackstrap molasses across the top.

Okay, so last time I thought I didn't use enough butter. So I stuck to the recipe in that regard this time and used all the butter. Now they turned out too buttery and still won't stick together, except for the corners that looked brown and overcooked. They stuck. Does that mean I have to leave it in the oven longer? Hmmm....

Now, they taste delicious but like butter candy or some sort of oatmeal fudge... Let me tell you, the strawberries are the best. Next time, I'm going to make oatmeal cookies loaded with extra oatmeal and lots of fruit. Because if I want them to stick together, let's use good old-fashioned flour and egg.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Today I'm making bread. I didn't intend to make bread, but it just kind of happened and I thought I'd experiment and make cinnamon raisin bread...

If you're looking for my previous entries on bread and different recipes, click on the label for bread at the bottom of the entry or follow this link:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/bread

Now, my initial flour mix:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

In separate bowl:

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon yeast

I mixed about 3 cups of the flour mix into the water bowl and made a dough. Then I added to the flour mixture bowl:

• 1 cup oats

Now, I placed the dough in the slightly warm oven to rise. It should be doubled and ready for step two in 2-3 hours.

Okay, a check at 10:30 reveals that the bread is ready for phase two.

I sprinkle half the oat/flour mix where I plan to knead the bread, then I add some white flour around the parameter and flour my hands. I knead the dough and add raisins, disappointed that I only have a 1/2 cup raisins in the house...

Now, leave it sit to double again. Should take an hour.

Banana Pancakes

I made a double batch of pancakes using Betty's Crocker's 25th anniversary cookbook.

The basic recipe for pancakes is this:
1 egg, beaten until fluffy
1 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar or brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
(combine ingredients and fry on griddle)

The Betty Crocker oat variant is this:
substitute 1/2 cup oats for 1/2 cup of the flour. Add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. (This actually makes the calorie content go down from 100 to 85 calories a pancake)

Now, they claim the yield is nine four-inch pancakes.

So, this is what I did:
Angel's banana-oat pancakes
2 eggs, beaten until fluffy
1 cup oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1.5 cups soymilk
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons canola oil
6 teaspoons baking powder (which isn't that 2 tablespoons?)
pinch idiozed sea salt
2 extra ripe small bananas mixed thoroughly into batter
1 banana, perfect eating condition, sliced to stir into batter

Leftovers get frozen for quick, yummy breakfasts later.

Lunch Thursday: Omelettes

Mixed Vegetable omelettes with vegetarian bacon and the end of the homemade oatmeal bars. This lunch had to stick to their ribs...

Oatmeal Bars

I'm not quite happy with the breakfast selections around here these days and we can always use something quick, easy and nutritious. I love those Quaker Oatmeal Bars (not the breakfast cookies, those don't have much in the way of nutritional content) and thought maybe I could make something similar at home.

I searched "oatmeal raisin breakfast bar" and found the following:

http://mummam.blogspot.com/2006/10/oatmeal-raisin-breakfast-bars.html

Oatmeal-raisin Breakfast Bars

Ever since I discovered this recipe in a Vegetarian cookbook (published by Barnes & Noble), I hav decided to replace my breakfast porridge with these nutritious and tasty bars and a glass of cold milk!

Makes: 14 bars
Preparation time: 30 minutes

1.5 Cups rolled oats
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried raisins
1/2 cup melted butter
oil for greasing

Preheat oven to 375F, grease a 11x7 inch tin.
Stir oats, sugar and raisins together in a bowl.

Add the melted butter and thoroughly stir.
Press the mixture into the pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden.
Remove from oven, cut into bars and cool in pan for 5 minutes.
Store in air-tight container for 15 days.

Now, this looks frightening similar to my tried-and-true granola recipe from The Imus Ranch cookbook. And of course, I can never stick to a recipe. So, I mixed up the following:

4.5 cups oats
1/3 cup sugar
2 + cups trail mix
some cashew crumbs from the bottom of the container
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter
1/8 cup honey
1/4 cup oil

Eliminate the butter and the honey and this recipe could easily become vegan...

Mine are cooling now... and I bet I end up with three or four bars and a big pile of granola...

I was right, and the reason my bars didn't maintain their shape is because I didn't use enough butter. You know, good old fashioned butter. And butter is what cools and hardens and makes them keep their shape.

Pumpkin Scones

To use up the pumpkin syrup from the crêpes the other day, I made pumpkin scones and used the syrup as icing. This was my first use of this recipe and it didn't include a size for how to scoop the dough onto the cookie sheet, as a consequence, my scone bottoms burned and my top didn't quite cook all the way through because I made them too big. I made them "scone size" forgetting they would rise in the oven.

The syrup did not exactly harden as much as I expected. I thought with the butter it would take on a more solid quality.

I got the recipe from
http://wholesomefeasts.blogspot.com/2008/05/pumpkin-raisin-scones.html

4 C flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
3/4 C butter, softened
2 1/4 C sugar, plus 4T for the topping
2 eggs, well beaten
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
2 C raisins
Heat the oven to 375 degree F. line 2 baking pans with Silpat liners. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, allspice, 1 tsp. of the cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside. In a mixer, cream the butter until it is fluffy and then add the sugar. Once the sugar is blended in , add the eggs and pumpkin. Now slowly mix in the dry ingredients. Stir in the raisins. With 2 spoons drop the mixture onto the two baking sheets. With the back of the spoon flatten the scones. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 3 tsp. of cinnamon and 4T of sugar and sprinkle on top of each. Be sure to leave at least 2" between each scone. Bake for 8-12 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes then remove to cooling racks. Makes 36.

I modified it in the following ways:
Instead of 2 cups raisins, I used 1.5 cups raisins and 3/4 cups oats. (I ran out of raisins.)
I didn't have enough butter so I used 1/2 cup butter and less than 1/4 cup canola oil.
I used parchment paper, but honestly I have no idea what Silpat liners are.
I reduced the sugar to 1 cup because 2+ seemed like a lot.
And for a topping I didn't mix sugar and cinnamon, I just used a sprinkle of dark brown sugar.

Granola and Swiss Trail Mix

I made a simplified version of the Rio Grande Granola from the Imus Ranch Cookbook. The Imus Ranch Cookbook is primarily vegan, except they do use eggs because they have their own chickens. My stepmother bought the cookbook a long time ago, because she likes Imus and the ranch provides kids with cancer a chance to see what they're capable of.

My previous batches of granola are listed under granola, if you need the original recipes.

I like making granola. It's yummy on yogurt and a great light snack. With the right ingredients, it has protein and carbs to keep you going. It takes about an hour start to finish and you can make enough for a month way cheaper than the bulk bins, boxed granola or processed granola bars. Though I do keep a box of Nature Valley Granola bars from the werehouse store as "help yourself" breakfasts when my daughter gets up early on weekends. Nature Valley is the only granola bar I've found that actually has some nutritional value and protein and decent carbohydrate levels.

Today I wanted to combine my homemade granola with some of the Swiss Trail Mix my mom gave me. She gave me three HUGE containers with raisins, peanuts, butterscotch chips, chocolate and dried pineapple. Nutritional content fairly negligable. And while it tastes great, it's mostly sweet.

So yesterday I mixed it with little graham crackers, cashews and yogurt covered raisins. Better, but still sweet.

Hence, the granola today. I took three cups of old-fashioned oats, 1/4 cup organic sugar, about 1.5 tablespoons cinnamon, 1.5 teaspoons oriental five spice, about 1/4 cup cashews, about 1/4 cup graham cracker pieces. Then I made the "sauce": about three tablespoons honey, 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup canola oil, whisked. I poured the sauce into the granola and spread it thin on a cooking sheet once well stirred.

Bake at 300 for 30 minutes, turning every ten minutes.

Then I put one third of it into a big bowl, added an equal amount of swiss mix, put the lid on the bowl and shook it. I did this in layers until the granola was gone. The butterscotch chips melted but got into all the oats and granola.

Mothers Day Oatmeal Cookies (Guest entry)

Uh-oh, the husband's in the kitchen again! In light of Mothers Day my daughter and I gave Angel the morning off. We decided to bake one of her favorites... oatmeal cookies. I had consulted Angel's ancient Betty Crocker cookbook and discovered that the recepie required shortning (which we didn't have) so I scouted around online until I found one that looked appealing and used butter instead of shortning.
http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/martha-stewart/10fecf06cd80f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD/jumbo-oatmeal-raisin-cookies

Yep, it came down to good ol' Martha!

Jumbo Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Ingredients;

1. 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
5. 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
6. 3/4 cup granulated sugar
7. 2 large eggs
8. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9. 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
10. 2 cups raisins
11. 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (I skipped this since we don't like it)
    

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture; beat just until combined. Add oats, raisins, and coconut; beat just until combined.
3. Drop level 1/4-cup measures of dough, 1 1/2 inches apart, onto baking sheets.
4. Bake until cookies have spread and are golden brown and soft to the touch, 18 to 20 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool 5 minutes on sheets; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. You can also freeze unbaked cookies and bake them later. Place unbaked cookies on baking sheet and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes. Transfer to resealable plastic bags (label and date); keep up to 6 months. Bake as many as you need (without thawing); place 1 1/2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

They're a tad on the HUGE side --some wouldn't even fit through the opening in our cookie jar-- but I believe that YUM is an apt description of the finished product!