Chili with not corn bread

Ok I don't usually post recipes, mainly because I don't usually measure things while cooking. Today however I made a wicked awesome oat bread, and actually used measuring cups.

I highly recommend this recipe with a bowl of your favorite chili:

1 ripe banana, mashed
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon bourbon

Preheat oven to 350. Place butter in a baking dish, and put in the oven to melt. In a large bowl combine egg, banana, bourbon, vanilla, milk, and yogurt.
Mix dry ingredients, then fold into wet ingredients. Scoop the batter into the hot butter dish. Bake for 20 minutes, or until done.

This came out really delicious, and blended perfectly with my Brother's 3 meat chili.

Tragic pudding- from 1/28/2013

Last night Josh through some left overs together into a beautiful pudding, which undoubtedly would have tasted amazing. Unfortunately as he was taking it out of the oven, he burned himself and dropped it. Half of it ended up spilled across the bottom of the oven.

I had a little of what survived, and it was interesting. I definitely want to explore baked oatmeal more.

Simplicity

Appreciating life's simple pleasures. Steel cut oatmeal, black mission figs, and butter. My sister suggested I have a day with just plain oatmeal with raisins, but unfortunately we're out of raisins. So I chopped up figs instead.

Enjoying this wet foggy day in New England with a warm bowl of hearty oatmeal. The good life.

Lentils

So we've been on a sweet potato kick lately, but damn they're good. Tonight I made plain oat groats for dinner, and served them with stewed lentils and sweet potatoes cooked in chicken broth with onion, garlic, cumin, rosemary, and thyme. A good stick-to-your-ribs dinner for a cold winter day.

If I did this meal again, I would probably add some sort of green. Swiss chard or spinach would have tasted great with the earthy lentils.

Breakfast of champions...

By brother is such a good cook. I want him to be my personal chef full time. Today he cooked up an amazing brunch: fried eggs, sweet potato hash, and steel-cut oatmeal topped with toasted pecans.

I added a bit of sweet potatoes and cheddar cheese to the oatmeal. Very yummy.

I apologize, I haven't been calculating the nutrition facts for these dishes lately. It is easier to do when I cook them. Regardless, this meal was definitely full of protein, vitamin A, and soluble fiber.

Ginger beer oatmeal bread

First off, my apologies, I forgot to hit "publish" yesterday, so today will have two posts.

Josh has a ginger beer brewing, and he poured off the lees a few days ago, then fed them flour to make a ginger bread starter. So today I made an oatmeal ginger bread. I'm eating it now warm with butter. Today is my "cheat" day on my slow-carb diet, so I added a bit of sugar to this bread. Bread and sugar have been off limits for over a week now. This warm and spicy bread definitely hits the spot.

Live free or die...

Today we stopped by Keene New Hampshire, and visited BrewTopia, a beer emporium and home brewing supply store. My brother bought a kit to make a home brew IPA.

While I was there, I noticed a large bin of oats. I never realized oats could be used in beer brewing.

So if I drank alcohol, today's oatmeal would be an oatmeal stout, which Brewtopia had several of in stock. Since I'm a tea-totaler, I will have a couple weird-but-awesome oatmeal coconut carob cookies, which my brother concocted last night.

Dinner Oats

Tonight my brother cooked up some amazing oat groats with red beans, Caribbean chicken, and plantains. This dinner was a fabulous way to get my daily serving of oats.

Oat groats are the whole oat before its cut or rolled. They cook up and taste basically like brown rice.

Much thanks to my brother, sister-in-law, and niece for putting up with me in this crazy project. Dinner was great tonight, Josh!

Mmm.... Pie?

Apple and cinnamon oatmeal topped with cream cheese and chopped pecans. Yum. Just delicious. I didn't add any sugar to mine, but I didn't miss it. Admittedly, this would be phenomenal with a bit of brown sugar, and apparently, both apples and cinnamon can help to regulate blood sugar levels. So perhaps a little bit of sugar wouldn't be so bad even for those counting carbs.

My daughter and I are visiting my brother and his family in Vermont, so we've taken the blog on the road. These folks had old fashioned rolled oats in the pantry, which interestingly have a different ratio of oats to water than steel cut oats. So I had to add some more oats half way through cooking so it wouldn't be too watery.

Today's oatmeal was only 300 calories, with 5 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein.

Huevos.

I guess I've been craving Mexican food lately. Today's oatmeal: steel cut oats cooked in chicken broth topped with poached eggs, salsa, cheese, hot sauce, and a dollop of sour cream. I really wish I had an avocado to throw in too.

This meal was absolutely delicious. I feel full and fully satisfied. Today's oatmeal came in at 460 calories, with 4 grams of fiber and an amazing 30 grams of protein.

Mole?

Well I have mixed feelings about today's oatmeal: chicken with mole sauce on a bed of spiced steel cut oatmeal, topped with shredded coconut.

This could have been a great dish, but the oats were under-seasoned. I also mixed a little coco powder into the oatmeal, which made it the same color as the mole sauce, so the whole plate was the same brown color.

If I attempt this in the future, I will cook the oats in chicken broth, with a little bit of diced carrot for color. Live and learn.

Banananas

Today I feel like a more traditional, sweet oatmeal. However I am trying to avoid refined sugar and starch. My solution: Add a banana! Bananas are packed with nutrition, and with natural sugars.

So today I mashed up half a banana and mixed it in with a serving of hot steel-cut oatmeal. Then I topped the whole thing off with more banana slices, chopped walnuts, whole milk, and a dash of nutmeg. This satisfying brunch was 400 calories, with a whopping 8 grams of fiber, and 10 grams of protein. What a great way to start my day.

Give us this day our daily oatmeal...

In the past, I've been really bad about keeping blogs going. This time will be different. This time I will be blogging about something I care deeply about: oatmeal.

I am not a dietician, or a nutritionist. I am a new mom, and I'm trying to lose that extra pregnancy weight. Based on my rudimentary research into diet and nutrition, I have come to the conclusion that oats are awesome, and should be a daily staple in my diet.

Often times oatmeal gets loaded up with sugar, which is quite bad for you. But oats can be delicious savory or sweet. Which brings me to today's oatmeal:


That's steel-cut oatmeal topped with baby spinach, red peppers, sardines, a poached egg, greek yogurt, and hot sauce. The flavors all blended together beautifully, though next time I might try smoked kippers instead of sardines. This bowl full of amazing food was 447 calories and packed 7 grams of fiber and 39 grams of protein.