Slow Cooked Breakfast Cereal

When I was chatting with my friend the other day, she told me that she likes to make oatmeal in her crock pot overnight using steel cut oats. It sounded wonderful, so I thought I would give it a try. It's super easy and the best thing about it is that breakfast is ready when you wake up in the morning. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! And thanks to Kristin for sharing :)

Start out by finding a big enough bowl to fit in your crock pot. Put in 1 C of cereal. I used some 12-grain cereal this time, but steel cut oats are next on my list to try. Add 4 C water and a dash of salt and stir it lightly. Fill the crock pot with water up to the line of the water that is in the bowl. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours.

 When you get up in the morning, stir the cereal and it will look like this. So easy! This batch was enough for 2 medium sized bowls for hubby and I and 3 smaller bowls for the kids. If you have a larger family, just use the crock pot itself so you can add more. I liked this because of the easy clean-up ;)

 We try all kinds of things in our cereal. This goodness is ground flax, raw honey, raisins, and cinnamon.

Apple Cinnamon Buckwheat & Cornmeal Pancakes

The other morning before I took Dorothy to school, I was in the mood for some nice, hearty pancakes. I couldn't decide whether to make them with buckwheat flour or cornmeal, so I decided to try both, and I was really pleased with how they turned out. They were moist, fluffy, and delicious! I topped mine with natural almond butter, but they would also be wonderful with maple syrup, honey, or molasses. For a lighter topping, try yogurt or applesauce.


Apple Cinnamon Buckwheat & Cornmeal Pancakes
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 C buckwheat flour
1/2 C cornmeal
2 Tbsp agave nectar, honey, or raw sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1/4 C dried apples, diced
1/2 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 C buttermilk
3 tbsp oil

Stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk together until moistened. Pour by 1/4 to 1/3 C onto hot oiled griddle. Cook until bubbles form and begin to pop (under side should be golden brown), then flip and cook until other side is golden brown. 

Serve hot with your favorite topping.

A Salad for your Sweet Tooth

Photo Credit

I remember the first time I tasted a strawberry spinach salad. I thought I had died and gone to salad heaven. Well, at Gleaner's tonight, I happened to pick up some block romano cheese, strawberries, and spinach. I always have a mason jar of slivered almonds on hand, since I buy them in the bulk section at Winco. I decided to make my own dressing from what I had on hand, too. Here's what I came up with. Enjoy!




Superb Strawberry Spinach Salad
4 C. fresh spinach, washed
1 C. sliced strawberries
1/4 C. slivered almonds
2 Tbsp. grated romano cheese

dressing:
3-4 oz. each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. cooking sherry or sweet wine
1/8-1/4 C. strawberry preserves (I used strawberry peach jam that I made last summer)

Shake dressing. Pour desired amount over salad and toss until coated. Put the leftover dressing in the fridge, since you know you'll want to make it again :).

Pears, Anyone??

A couple of weeks ago, we got down to business and processed our numerous pears that came off the tree in our wonderful new back yard. Have I said how much I love our home? The yard has been a work in progress.

It went from this:

To this:

I've been cutting up the wood the previous owners left in piles around the yard, as well as moving wood to the shed. Phew!

There was quite a bit of salvageable wood as well, which we used to build the chicken coop (pictures of that process will be coming tomorrow). I've even still got a pile of wood we can use for future projects.

I even stained/painted the deck last week to get it ready for the winter rains:

But, about those pears....

My hubby and mom even got in on the fun of this all-day project for part of it. I peeled, cored, and sliced pears for hours.

 Packed them into sterilized quart jars with hot apple juice that I prepared on the stove.

 

And processed them in the water-bath canner for 25 minutes.

 The result? 13 lovely quarts of pears!

I didn't quite get all the pears canned in one day, so I decided to take my friend Meg's suggestion and dehydrated some. But these aren't just sliced and dried. They are dredged through red-hots. At Meg's instruction, I melted a package of the cinnamon candy on the stove with some water, stirring to keep it from burning.

Once it was a nice syrup, I stirred a few pears at a time into the syrup:

 Then placed them in the dehydrator, where they still are (and smelling quite tasty, I might add):

 I think they'll take about 24 hours, but I just might have sneaked one off the bottom rack this morning and it tasted wonderful already. What a treat! Thanks, Meg!

My Recent Endeavors!

I'm really enjoying our new little home. Here are just a few of the things I've been busy with lately. Canning has been big on my to-do list. I've made a few jars of pickles and plenty of jam, including strawberry, strawberry-peach, and strawberry-rhubarb. I even tried my hand at some plum jam from all the plums off our tree and I must say that it turned out quite tasty! I also made a large jar of cranberry sauce for the holidays, and oh, did the house smell heavenly after that one. In addition to canning, I've processed and frozen several batches of zucchini and rhubarb for breads and pies this winter. Tomorrow I'll be peeling, slicing, and canning the numerous bags of pears that came off our tree. Whee!!

As for the rest of the garden, our cool summer hasn't been the best for production (of course, neither was transplanting). I've gotten a grand total of 4 pumpkins, a handful of cucumbers, and a few tomatoes. There should be a good 8 or so small cantaloupe to harvest here in a bit. But when we moved, I had to leave behind my snap peas, pole beans, corn, and two gigantic tomato plants. I am sure that whoever rented that house is loving them. As for my green peppers and jalapenos? I got two small ones from each plant. Ah, well, there is always next year. Oh, and see that shed back there behind the garden? I've been moving wood from the fence to that shed. I've still got a bit to do, but I'd guess that we have almost enough wood to last us through the season. That should really help us cut down on heating costs... and cooking costs, since I can throw pots of soup/stew on the top of the stove as well.

I've been loving our outdoor clothes-drying rack. But, given our apparent lack of summer and early arrival of fall, I decided to string up some lines in the basement. Here's hoping that they'll dry quickly enough when the weather is cool and damp.

My next project? Building a chicken coop with all the scraps of lumber that were strewn all over the yard. That's right, we'll be getting chickens. Not only will we not have to run to the store for eggs, but we'll save on waste since chickens love table scraps.

Hmmmm, and should we add a puppy to the mix? I don't know, but one of my longest and dearest friends just announced that her dog had 8 puppies. It's tempting....

Mmmmmmmango Salsa

(Photo Credit)
Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I love me some salsa. In fact, when I was extremely morning sick with all of my pregnancies, one of the only things that made my stomach feel somewhat normal was a big ol' plate of tortilla chips with melted cheddar and some nice, fresh salsa. Well, since I had gone to Costco and bought a box of 9 large mangoes (for about 75 cents each), I thought it might be time to make some salsa! I snooped around for recipes and didn't find one that really struck me. So I kind of picked things that I liked about various recipes and did my own thing. I like doing that. My friend Jessi calls this "Amelia Bedelia-ing". Remember Amelia Bedelia?

Anyway, as I was saying, I made some salsa. I went out to my garden and picked some parsley, some green onions, and a purple torpedo onion. I also had an avocado and some tomatoes from Gleaner's, as well as some lime juice in the fridge. I jazzed it up with some salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper from the spice cabinet and... ta-da! Mango salsa was born. Following this recipe should give you a nice, big bowl to share with those you love. Or, you can put it in the fridge and hide it all for yourself. Your call. Either way, it's a winner.

Mmmmmmmango Salsa
2 large tomatoes, diced
2 large mangoes, peeled and diced
1 small onion, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 bunch green onions, sliced (What? Not diced?)
1 handful fresh parsley or cilantro, finely chopped
1-2 Tbsp. lime juice
salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste

Throw it all in the bowl, stir it up, and eat it. And yes, I do tend to make things that I can just dump together and stir, don't you?

Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal

My girls and I love to eat oatmeal in the mornings, and we love to try lots of different flavors in it. One of our go-to additions is peanut butter, but this week we went for something fruity. This is a great use for the quick oats and somewhat soft strawberries that we pick up from Gleaner's. It's creamy and tasty, with much more flavor and much less sugar than instant strawberry flavored oatmeal packets.

Want to make some? It's really quick and simple :)

Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal
1 1/2 C. quick oats
1 1/2 C. milk
1 1/2 C. water
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. butter
1-2 C. chopped strawberries
dash of salt

Throw all the ingredients in a pot over med-high, stirring frequently until creamy and bubbly. You can add any sort of fruit, such as peaches, blueberries, raspberries, etc. Apples or raisins are great with some cinnamon and vanilla, although the apples may need to be sauteed in a little butter first to soften them up. That's it! Amazing oatmeal on a budget. My kids always ask for more, even my picky little 2-year old.

Oh, and I just had to tell you about the amazing deal I got on Spray n' Wash last week. I stopped by Safeway for some drain cleaner and saw that Spray n' Wash was buy 1, get 1 free. In addition to the sale, each bottle had an attached manufacturer's coupon for 50 cents off. I got all these for $1 each, which is great since we get a lot of stains on our clothes with 3 small kiddos in the house.

A Must Try Cake Recipe

(photo credit)
I was in the market for a good chocolate cake recipe a couple of weeks ago. I looked around online and found this one and it was really good. I've made a few changes to it, but it's still great. One of the changes I made was switching the icing from vanilla to peanut butter. It's amazing. I've made this twice now, and both times the consensus was the same... you can't eat just one! Everyone went back for a second slice.

Best Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe
1 C unbleached flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 C raw sugar
3/4 C cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk (or 1 Tbsp lemon juice w/ 1 C milk. Let sit for 10 min)
1 C coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 C hot brewed coffee

Preheat oven to 300*. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 baking dish. Stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake for 1 hour, or until knife comes out clean. Allow to cool.

While it's cooling, you can work on the icing.

Peanut Butter Icing
2 1/4-2 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/4 lb stick of butter, softened
1/4 C creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp milk

Cream together all ingredients except sugar. Add powdered sugar a bit at a time on high speed. I used about 2 1/3 C to get to spreading consistency. Spread on cooled cake.

Homemade Butter

I've always wanted to make butter myself, but never really tried. Well, a friend posted her butter-making adventures on Facebook, so I thought I would finally give it a try. It's actually really easy, and it turned out nice and creamy, too :).

Start with some heavy cream. Organic is nice, but a bit too rich for our frugal blood. I'll be checking into the price of Costco's organic cream really soon.

Put it in your stand mixer (you can add a bit of salt if you like salted butter), then turn that puppy on and just let it mix... and mix... and mix. Let it go until the buttermilk separates out and starts sloshing around in the bowl. Squeeze the remaining liquid out of the butter and place it in the desired container.

You'll have some nice buttermilk left over for pancakes or biscuits, which you can spread your creamy butter on when they're nice and hot.

Here are the final products of my butter-making adventure. I'm quite pleased, and definitely plan on making more! Thanks, Sarah :).

Project Overload!

The past few days have been ultra-busy with all sorts of projects and outings.

Thursday we headed out for a play-date with a good friend. And Charlotte drew on the table with a sharpie... what an artist!


Friday we went to OMSI (our local science museum) with my dad. We had a picnic on the grass and then the girls enjoyed playing in the children's area. They have a big sand box with lots of toys, a woodland animal dress-up area with logs, trees, tunnels, and costumes, a wooden block play area, buckets with pulleys that are filled with beanbags... and more. They had a blast.

Saturday we did some work around the house, some grocery shopping, and in the evening we fired up our new charcoal grill and made burgers for ourselves, my parents, and David's brother.

Sunday we had church, then Dorothy went to a Mary Kay party and then to Home Depot to scope out some wood for our planter boxes. We had a nice mommy-daughter date :).

Yesterday I made some cookies and took them over to my friend who is about to have a baby. We've been friends for as long as I can remember, and she'll be my first client as a Doula-in-training! My doula bag is all packed and ready to go.

We also made some puppets yesterday morning! Are you ever frustrated with all the kids' stuffed animals and how much space they take up? Well, simply cut a hole in the behind of the animal and pull out the stuffing (the kids LOVE helping with that part).

The animal will look rather flat...

But it will be perfect for little imaginations and some really fun puppet shows. We made about 8 puppets yesterday and the kids were thrilled.

When we got home yesterday, David ran over to Home Depot to get our raised garden bed supplies. We're in a rental, so we didn't drop the money for the cedar, which would have been about 3 times the cost. We just got some untreated 2 x 8's cut up... enough to make 6 beds that are about 3 ft. by 5 ft. Along with the screws, it was maybe $60 tops, which I think is pretty good for 6 large beds! We put them together last night after the kids were asleep. Today I'll be digging out the area where they'll be resting as well as transplanting most of the veggies that are currently in pots. I'll get pics as soon as it's all set up! We're also going to be planting pumpkin, corn, strawberries, basil, and mint in addition to what we've got already.

As for this morning, I'm working on cleaning the house and getting our roast in the crockpot for tonight.

If I'm lucky, I'll sneak in a 5-minute shower. Happy Tuesday!

First Harvest of 2011

Yesterday afternoon was bright and sunny, so I decided to check on my garden and work on some things. I transplanted my tomatoes and pepper plants, as well as planting some carrots and cucumbers in pots. The gardening is going well so far for my first time.

I was also able to harvest my first bunch of spinach!

Which we used in our green smoothies (to go with our buttermilk whole wheat pancakes-yeah, we like breakfast for dinner).

Busy Day in the Kitchen!

(Photo Credit)
I went grocery shopping the other day, mostly for cleaning supplies, canned goods, and meat. I got 5 lbs of ground beef and a large pack of chicken thighs. Yesterday I simmered the chicken and made some broth for the freezer. Today I de-boned and shredded the chicken, separating it into meal-sized portions. At the same time I did that, I was browning the ground beef on the stove. I put most of it in the fridge to cool off for packaging later, but I reserved the fat and about 1/2 lb of browned beef to make some hamburger gravy. We'll put that over our mashed potatoes for dinner. We're having some tasty green smoothies on the side. I picked up 3 decent papayas at Gleaner's last week, which I peeled, chopped, and froze overnight on a cookie sheet. This afternoon, I filled a quart sized freezer bag with the fruit for smoothies.

So, what's going in our smoothies tonight?
2 lg handfuls fresh spinach
2 C. milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp honey
1 med banana
2 C. frozen fruit, such as papaya, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, etc.
Echinacea/goldenseal tincture
Vitamin D drops

Yummy!

Something About Breakfast

For me, there's just something about a nice breakfast. It's comforting and puts me in a good frame of mind for the day. The girls love breakfast foods, too, and there's nothing better than breakfast for dinner.

Friday morning we had waffles with oranges.

Saturday we went all out and had a ham, spinach, egg, cheese, and tomato scramble with mashed potato pancakes.

After our wonderful breakfast, I went to worship practice at church and then headed out with a friend to get manicures and pedicures at a local beauty school. They're much more affordable that way and I was pleased with the results. My nails have held up quite well, even after working in the garden yesterday afternoon (I'll be posting more about my efforts later this week).

It was really nice having a quiet break after a long week with my crazy, energetic kiddos.

My movie star...

my dancer...

and my solo artist!

The Recipe Post

Rather than writing a post today, I will be compiling links to all of my posted recipes into one post for easy access. I will be editing and adding each new recipe along the way from now on. So, if there was a recipe that you wanted to try, it will be much easier to find. Happy cooking :)

Sweet Corn Salsa

Black Bean Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

Holy Guacamole

Spanish Rice

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Chicken and Cabbage Soup

Chewy Brownies

Crock Pot Chili

Granola

Fried Plantains

Becci's Kickin' Chicken Soup

Crock Pot Chili

I always love using the crock pot and having dinner ready when David comes home with relatively little effort. Since I was still feeling a bit under the weather yesterday morning, I set up the crock pot and put in a batch of chili. It simmered all day, and we came home to a comforting smell in our home. We served it with grated cheese and some warm cheddar jalepeno focaccia bread.
Here is what I put in the pot:

 Crock Pot Chili
1 1/2 lbs dried red beans, sorted and rinsed
29 oz. can of tomato sauce
15 oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2-1 lb ground beef, browned
1 c. frozen corn
1 lg onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Chili powder, crushed red pepper, cumin, and salt to taste
Enough water to fill the rest of the pot & allow the beans to expand
(I normally add a chopped green pepper, too, but we didn't have one)

I stirred all the ingredients together and set the pot to the 8 hr. setting. I took the lid off once to stir it later in the cooking time, but that's it. So quick and easy, and really yummy!
This post has been linked to The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Big huggies and a brownie recipe!

"Huggies, Mommy," said Dorothy and Charlotte with outstretched arms.

My sweet, cuddly girls settling down before bed. As much as they fight, they certainly love each other very much.

"Wait, Mommy, Teddy wants to be in the picture, too!"

Of course, brother William can't be left out, either. Dorothy covered his exersaucer with blankets and exclaimed, "It's so nice and warm for him. He likes it, cuz that's what babies want!"

As for the promised brownie recipe, I found this one at Food.com. I altered it a bit to suit my taste, and it is my new favorite. Here's how I make them:

Chewy Brownies
12 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
4 Tbsp vegetable oil (you could also use coconut oil or shortening)
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar (I use 1/2 white and 1/2 raw in mine)
1/2 tsp salt
4 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour (I use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat)
1/2-3/4 cup chocolate chips

1 In a saucepan over low heat, stir and melt the unsweetened cocoa powder, vegetable oil, and butter. Let cool.
2 In a mixing bowl, beat the 4 eggs until light and frothy, add the salt and sugar; beat well.
3 Fold the melted chocolate and butter into the egg mixture. Stir in the vanilla.
4 Add the flour and chocolate chips.
5 Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350° in a greased 9x13 inch pan (my pan is smaller, maybe 8 x 12 or so. A smaller pan makes for thicker, chewier brownies).
6 When cool, you may frost with chocolate frosting (I like cream cheese frosting-or just skip the frosting and eat them warm and gooey with a glass of milk. Perfection!).

Enjoy!!