Easter-birthday cake!!!

Today is Easter Sunday, and it is also my birthday. This happens once in a while, and my Easter-birthdays have been my some of my favorite ones.  I actually never really care much about Easter, unless it happens to fall on my birthday. Today was also Seraphine's first Easter, so that made it extra special.

For my birthday this year, I made a sugar free carob-banana oatmeal cake. The cake actually tasted great. I tried to make some sugar-free icing to go with it, but it came out really horrible.

Here's the recipe for the cake though:

2 ripe bananas
3 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 stick of butter
1 cup sweet whey powder
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup carob powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a bunt pan.

In a mixing bowl combine eggs, butter, bananas, whey powder, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat thoroughly for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. Fold in the dry ingredients, bake in a bunt for about 40 minutes.

Beautiful red cabbage

Yesterday I used half a red cabbage to make blue and purple dye for our Easter eggs. The other half of the cabbage became coleslaw. I used greek yogurt, mustard, and Italian dressing instead of mayonnaise. It sat overnight in the fridge and turned a beautiful magenta-purple color. So for today's oatmeal, I just made plain oatmeal and topped it with red cabbage coleslaw and a scoop of Greek yogurt. This was a colorful and flavorful dish to start my day.

I burned today's oatmeal.

Sorry world, I burned the oatmeal. I guess I got distracted, and forgot to turn the pan down to low after it started boiling.

I was going to use some homemade vegetable dye to color my oatmeal fun colors today, but since its ruined, I guess I'll just have to put up pictures of died eggs instead.

3/28/2013. Poached

Today I tried out poaching eggs in the same pot as the oatmeal, rather than poaching them separately. It worked, though the yolks were firmer than I liked. I basically waited till the oatmeal was almost done, then cracked two eggs right on top of the oatmeal, covered it and let them simmer for a couple minutes. Next time I will really watch the clock so my yolks stay runny.

Spring is in the air...

I opened up a bag of steel cut oatmeal today that was sitting in a forgotten corner of the pantry. I then noticed that the expiration date had passed. The oats were probably still fine, but I decided to search for an alternative use for them.

A few google searches later I learned that oat groats and steel cut oats are often used in bird seed mix. So I dumped the expired-but-probably-fine oatmeal into the bird feeder.

Within a few minutes of filling the feeder some sparrows and juncos arrived. I tried to get a picture of the birds eating the oats, but I don't have a zoom lens. Oh well.

Raisin and walnut baked oatmeal

I had some leftover cooked oatmeal from a couple days ago. I decided to mix it up with an egg, some whole wheat matzah meal, raisins, walnuts, and almond meal. Then baked it in ramekins at 350 for 45 minutes. The result is a rich and moist baked oatmeal with nice chewy bites of nuts and sweet raisins. Delicious.

Oat matzah-ish

As I discussed yesterday, oats are unlikely one of the five grains that can be chametz or be made into matzah. But for fun today I made some matzah-like oat crackers. It's a simple recipe, but you need to work quickly to get them cooked in under 18 minutes (like matzah).

1 cup steel cut oats, ground in a coffee grinder into flour.
1/4 cup water
1 pinch of kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 425. Place a pizza stone or cast iron pan in the oven to heat up.

Sprinkle some of the oat flour on the counter top. Mix the water a little at a time into the oat flour until its a thick doughy consistency. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick and cut into large squares. Prick all over with a fork. Place on the pan or stone to cook in the oven. Makes 2 or 3 large square matzos.

What to do with Seder leftovers...

We had our Passover Seder early this year so my siblings could come in from out of town for it. In the chaos of family visiting for the holiday, I completely forgot to write a blog post yesterday. So today I'm making up for it with two different oatmeal dishes, both involving leftovers from the seder meal.

I.

Haroset Oatmeal Pancakes (maybe Kosher for Passover?)

Blend some leftover haroset into your oatmeal pancake batter for hearty and flavorful pancakes.

Oatmeal may or may not be one of the grains considered chametz.  For a long time in Europe, Jews considered the five grains to be wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt, probably because these were the five most common grains in Europe. But oats do not rise when they are mixed with water due to their lack of gluten. Oats also are not commonly found in the Middle East, so they were not likely one of the original five grains listed as chametz (The Daily Def). In short, I have no idea whether this recipe is Kosher for passover or not:

Oatmeal Haroset Pancakes

1 cup leftover haroset
1 1/2 cup steel cut oats
2 cups water
1 tablespoon yogurt or 1 tsp lemon juice (use lemon juice for parve)
3/4 cup matzah meal
4 eggs
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

1. Soak the oats in the water with either lemon juice or yogurt in a warm place overnight.
2. In a blender combine the soaked oatmeal with all the other ingredients in a blender until smooth.
3. Grease a griddle with coconut oil. Cook pancakes at a medium heat until brown on both sides. Makes 16 6" pancakes. 

II.

Oatmeal with Leftover Brisket and Fried Eggs

Oatmeal with leftover beef brisket, fried eggs, and pikliz.

 This is just plain cooked steel cut oatmeal (soaked overnight). I threw on top a couple of eggs over easy and some leftover red wine- braised beef brisket. Topped the whole thing off with a little spicy pikliz. Yum.

"Sourdough" oatmeal

I let some of the oats from yesterday soak for a full 24 hours in the warm water/ yogurt mix. Today I cooked them up and to my delight the oatmeal tasted exactly like sourdough bread. I didn't want to over power the natural sour flavor so I just served this morning's oatmeal plain with milk. I'm now trying to wrap my palate around these lacto-fermented oats and what other flavors would go with them.

Soaked

I've been reading on several different websites that oats contain anti-nutrients. While oats are healthy whole grains high in soluble fiber, they also have a chemical called phytic acid in them that block your body from getting essential nutrients.

The good news is, that if you soak your oatmeal overnight in warm water with a little added yogurt, buttermilk, or lemon juice, some of these anti-nutrients are removed. I really don't understand the chemistry of this, but I've decided to soak my oats as much as possible from now on. Many of my baked-goods recipes already called for the oats to be soaked overnight in buttermilk or yogurt, simply because this softens the grains and cuts down on their cooking time. Steel cut oatmeal that has been soaked overnight will cook in less than half the time as dry oatmeal. This process is convenient as well as healthy. Win win.

More on phytic acid and oatmeal at these websites:
http://dishragdiaries.com/recipes/snacks-drinks/anti-nutrients-oats-delicious-recipes-exciting-news/
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/living-with-phytic-acid

Oatmeal soaked overnight in warm water with added yogurt to remove phytic acid.

Chocolate Raspberry Oatmeal

I was craving chocolate today, so I mixed a spoonful of cocoa and a spoonful of carob powder into my oatmeal as it was cooking. I then added dates for sweetness and a handful of frozen raspberries. Chocolate and raspberry is one of my favorite flavor combinations, and they work great in a hot bowl of steel cut oatmeal.

Heritage Oatmeal

Today's oatmeal is representative of my big mixed family. Steel cut Irish oatmeal, with smoked salmon cream cheese (Jewish), and topped off with spicy Haitian pikliz. Pikliz is cabbage, carrot, onion, and scotch bonnet peppers pickled in vinegar.

My dad's side of the family is Irish Catholic. My step mom and my little sister are Jewish, and my husband's family is Haitian. All in all we make a pretty tasty bowl of oatmeal.

Less is more

I found a recipe online for 4 ingredient banana oat bars, and I had to try it. Technically, it has 7 ingredients, but vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg were listed as optional.

You can find the recipe here: http://www.thekitchn.com/healthy-snack-recipe-5-ingredi-156571

I was pleasantly surprised at how well these came out. Without eggs or butter or flour I expected them to either fall apart, or else cement themselves to the pan and need to be pried out, but neither happened. They held together beautifully, and were nice and chewy but still a bit moist.

Irish Breakfast

In my searching for Irish oatmeal recipes, I came across white pudding. This is basically an oatmeal sausage. It is supposed to be cooked in sausage casings, but I didn't feel I had the patience to learn how to stuff sausage today. So I baked some instead, wrapped in tin foil. I then chilled it, sliced it and grilled it up with Irish bacon (rashers), eggs, toast, and served it with stewed tomatoes and Barry's tea.

The white pudding crumbled a bit, I'm sure the casings help to keep it together. All in all it was a delicious Irish meal. Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!

Green Oatmeal

Tomorrow, I plan to celebrate St. Patrick's day with some traditional Irish oatmeal. Today I thought I would start the celebration a bit early with the cheesy American way of celebrating -- by turning my oatmeal green. Because if its green, its Irish. That's why we dye our milk and our beer green on St. Patty's day.

Today I made a spinach oatmeal, seasoned with nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and topped off with a tab of butter. This was a tasty way to get my dark green leafy vegetables for the day.

St Brigid's Oatcakes

On February 1st I mentioned St. Brigid's oatcakes, and made an oatmeal bread inspired by this traditional Irish recipe. Molly was nice enough to email me her recipe, so I tried it out today. The only change I made was baking it in a cast iron skillet rather than a cookie sheet. This bread came out chewy and delicious.

St Brigid's Oatcakes

2 cups uncooked, old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
1-1/4-cups buttermilk
2-1/2-cups sifted bread flour
1-teaspoon baking soda
One-half teaspoon baking powder
1-teaspoon salt

Method:

A day ahead, combine the oats and buttermilk in a small bowl. Blend thoroughly, cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the oat mixture from the refrigerator.
Combine the bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Slowly add the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon 20 to 30 times, or until you have a smooth dough.
Grease a baking sheet with oil spray or butter. Turn the dough onto the baking sheet, and use your hands to form a round, cake-shaped loaf about 1-inch thick. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough into 4 quarters. Move the quarters apart slightly, but keep them in the original round shape.
Bake until the cakes are light golden brown and firm to the touch, 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool slightly on a rack, and serve with butter and jam or preserves or honey.
Makes 1 quartered loaf (4 farls), serving 4-8.

Good oat bread

Ok I didn't cook oatmeal today. I had leftover oats and cabbage from yesterday, but I put some hot sauce on them. The hot sauce makes it different, so I'm only sorta cheating on my plan to eat unique and original oatmeal every day.

Also, Mike picked up some really good oat bran bread. If you live around NY, I highly recommend Heidelberg's oat bran bread. It's chewy and delicious, and unlike all other commercial oat breads I've seen, it does not have any added sugar. Their whole wheat bread is also really good, and it also does not add sugar.

Savory Oatmeal with Roasted Cabbage

I talked to my friend Molly yesterday, to pick her brain about Irish oatmeal recipes. She's been living in Ireland for nearly 2 years now. She suggested cabbage with oatmeal, since cabbage is a very Irish food.

So, tonight's oatmeal was a savory steel cut oatmeal cooked with diced onion, grated carrot, garlic, olive oil, and sliced almonds, and simmered in a little white wine. I served up this oatmeal with some delicious roasted cabbage wedges and a little sharp cheddar.

Vegan Black Bean Chili

Once when I lived in Ithaca I had some vegan chili that used bulgar wheat instead of ground beef. Tonight I decided to try out steel cut oats in vegan chili. It was pretty darn tasty, and incredibly filling.

Here's the recipe:

1 onion, diced
1 pepper, diced
1 can low-sodium black beans
1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/4 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
1 T chili powder
2 T coconut oil

Sautéed the peppers, onions, oats, and chili powder in the coconut oil. Add the beans and water, then reduce heat to low and cover, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Makes about 3 servings.

Lunch

We had some leftover grilled chicken today, so I decided to cook up some savory oatmeal to go with a grilled chicken salad. I just added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a dash of nutmeg to my steel cut oatmeal, then topped it off with spring mix greens, grilled chicken, and balsamic vinaigrette. Quite a tasty lunch.

Irish Oatcakes

I'm going to try to fit in as many Irish recipes as I can this month. Today I attempted to make Irish oatcakes, with some success. I'm not really sure exactly what oatcakes are supposed to taste like, but mine came out crunchy, chewy, a bit dry, but with a buttery-salty satisfying flavor.

Here's the recipe I used:

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup boiling water
2 T butter
1/2 tsp salt

First I ground the oats in the food processor till they were a course meal. Then in a bowl I combined them with the salt and boiling water to form a thick sticky dough. I scooped up palm sized pieces of the dough and pressed them into 1/4" thick circles. Then cooked them in a buttered cast iron skillet. I finished them off in the oven at 300 for about 30 minutes. The result was somewhat like an oat cracker.

Garam Masala

I don't know if they eat oatmeal in India, but if they did I imagine it would taste like today's bowl of oatmeal. I spiced my morning oats with garam masala spices, and added coconut and dates. I cooked these all slowly for an hour, then topped it off with a bit of goat milk yogurt.

If you can't find premixed garam masala, here are the ingredients:

Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Cardamom
Cloves
Ginger
Black Pepper
White Pepper
Cayenne
Cumin

This is one of my favorite spice blends. It's just a really warm and rich flavor.

Oatmeal pancakes III

I woke up this glorious snowy morning, and just had to have some pancakes. I realize I've been on a pancakes kick lately. Today's pancakes are sweetened with some pear purée, which was intended for the baby but she didn't like it.
There are all kinds of fruit baby foods, which I am realizing have endless potential for baking.

This recipe is for a small batch of pancakes:

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup puréed pears
1 egg
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tablespoon water
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a blender, combine oats, yogurt, pears, egg, almond meal, and cinnamon. Blend until nearly smooth. Fold in the olive oil. Mix together the water and baking soda, then gently fold these in. Cook on a hot greased griddle. Makes 6 small pancakes.

Irish Soda Bread

You know it's March when the supermarkets start selling Irish soda bread. But why pay for dry crumbly white bread from the store? Soda bread is easy to make at home, and you can make it extra healthy with oatmeal!

Here's the recipe:

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
1 T caraway seeds

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the oats, yogurt, raisins, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, oatbran, and baking soda. Work the dry ingredients into the oatmeal-yogurt mix. Form into a round loaf. Sprinkle the top with caraway seeds. Bake on a greased pan for 45 minutes, or until golden brown and firm to the touch.

Chicken soup with oats

I found out today that steel cut oatmeal makes a great thickener in homemade soups. It seems to work better than barley or rice. I think this probably has to do with the soluble fiber in oats.

I made some simple chicken soup out of some chicken bones from a few nights ago. I didn't really measure anything son I'm not sure how to write up a recipe for this one. It was just homemade stock with celery, onions, carrots, some herbs and spices: garlic, black pepper, dill weed, thyme, a bay leaf. I brought everything to a boil and added about 1/2 cup of oats, then turned it down to a simmer, added some chopped up chicken meat, and let it stew for an hour. The result was a hearty thick chicken soup.

Oatmeal Pancakes II

I awoke this morning to the smell of buttery pancakes, lofting up from the kitchen. I guess my little sister had pancakes this morning before she went to school. I had some leftover oats in yogurt in the fridge, so I decided to make myself some oatmeal pancakes. This recipe is a bit different from the other one, I used yogurt instead of buttermilk, and oat bran instead of flour.

This is a recipe for a small batch for one person:

1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Mix together and leave in the fridge for a day or two.

1 egg
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Pinch of salt
Dash of cinnamon

Beat the egg and stir into the oat-yogurt mixture. Stir in the cream. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl, then fold into he batter. Cook on a hot buttered griddle. Makes 2 large pancakes.

I had mine with peanut butter and unsweetened carob chips. Yum.

Baked banana coconut

Some days I feel like I am running out of ideas for oatmeal. Then I have a day where I feel boundless creative energy, and I am sure I will be able to come up with hundreds of unique oatmeal recipes. That anything is possible. Today is one if those days, where ideas are just pouring out of my brain. I've been jotting down ideas for things like oatmeal-battered fried chicken, oatmeal soufflé, steel-cut oatmeal pudding (like rice pudding)...

Yesterday I mixed some oats up with yogurt and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This morning I decided to make a baked banana coconut oatmeal. This was amazingly satisfying. I definitely need to make more baked oatmeal dishes a in the future.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups plain yogurt

Mix these together the day before, leave in the fridge overnight.

1 banana (mushed)
1/2 cup shredded coconut, plus 2 tablespoons (for topping)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tablespoons water
- butter for greasing ramekins

Preheat oven to 350 and grease 4 small or 2 medium ramekins. In a large bowl, mix together oat-yogurt mix, banana, eggs, vanilla, spices, salt, and 1/2 cup coconut. In a small cup or bowl mix together baking soda and water. Fold the baking soda mixture into the batter, then pour into greased ramekins. Top with more shredded coconut. Bake small ramekins for about 35 minutes, and medium ramekins for 45 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges and firm to the touch.

Country Corner Cafe

We got brunch with my mom in Saratoga today. We went to Country Corner Cafe, which is amazing. They have delicious homemade food, and tons of healthy options. I was also pleased to see multiple oatmeal items on the menu. They had oatmeal pancakes, granola pancakes, plain oatmeal, and even fried oatmeal! I got the special: cherry almond fried oatmeal. It was amazing, dense and chewy and filling. They give you two squares of it, and I was full after the first one. I have got to try to replicate this at some point.

Buy local

Today I made a spiced oatmeal with almond meal, pure vanilla extract, and organic raisins. I topped it off with some local cream from Battenkill Valley Creamery. Their dairy products come in old fashioned glass bottles, that you can return at the store. I swear you can taste the difference; there's nothing quite like fresh local dairy that's never had to sit in a plastic container.

Yellow curry

Sera and I just got back to New York, and it looks like we need to grocery shopping. Despite the nearly empty fridge, I was able to pull together a yellow curry oatmeal for dinner tonight.

Here's the recipe:

1 small onion -- diced
1 carrot -- diced
1 cup water
1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1 T coconut oil
1 T dried shredded coconut
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 dash adobo
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash ginger
1 dash Italian seasoning

Combine spices and coconut oil in a sauce pan on medium heat. Add the veggies and oats. Heat while stirring constantly to prevent the oats from sticking to the pan. Add the cooking wine and stir. Finally stir in the water. Turn the flame to high, and bring to a boil. Then cover and reduce the heat to low for 30 minutes. Makes 2 servings.