Whole Foods Apple Berry Baked Oatmeal

I have been baking a lot lately. I'm not quite sure why.  For sure, I love fresh-baked goodness for breakfast, and it's nice to control your ingredients.  For example: my bread machine (Panasonic) has a sunflower cracked wheat bread recipe.  The recipe calls for 100% whole wheat flour, but I've always subbed about half bread flour, figuring that I wouldn't like the taste/consistency of the 100% whole wheat.  That has always been my experience.  But recently, we were out of bread flour, so I made it as intended, and it was DELICIOUS!  Score!

In any event, since I have energy to bake now, I've been trying lots of new things. One of my friends posted a link to this recipe on her facebook page, and I thought it sounded yummy enough to try.  And it was!  It's great warm with some Greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Here's to hoping my energy level stays for the rest of the pregnancy.  I'm hoping to have enough energy to fill my freezer with meals before I go out on mat leave.  First I have to get rid of this cold.

Oatmeal

This week I made Kath's Banana Whipped Oats. My toppings: chocolate almond butter (from the farmer's market) and some shredded coconut. YUMMY!!

1/3 c. oats: 0.08
1/3 c. water: 0
1/3 c. soy milk: 0.26
1/2 banana: 0.10
1 T. almond butter: 0.67 (yeah, this is the pricey addition)
2 T. coconut flakes: 0.06

Total: $1.17

Beans and Rice and Overnight Oats

These things have been saving my LIFE this week, a week as a single parent. I'm beat. I'm also very very tired of beans and rice. I have to say, the advantage and disadvantage food-wise of the spouse being gone is that he eats half our food. So it lasts longer - yay! and boo!

He comes home tomorrow. And we're ordering pizza.

World's Cheapest Breakfast

Yep, oatmeal. Okay, maybe not the world's cheapest. But, pretty cheap and pretty good.

Today, we were out of homemade bread. That's okay. Because I have oats. I haven't eaten much oats over the summer. A few mornings of oatmeal, some granola. Today, there was a nice big ripe banana on my counter, and Kath's Banana Whipped Oats were talking to me.

Kath's Banana Whipped Oats (serves 2.5)
2/3 c. old fashioned rolled oats: 0.10 (0.79/lb!)
1/3 c. dry milk powder: 0.17
1 1/3 c. water
1 Tbsp 9-grain cereal: 0.04
1 banana sliced very thinly and chopped: 0.19
pinch salt
1/4 tsp vanilla: 0.02

and for my topping (boys don't like it): 1 tsp sunflower seed butter: 0.03

Total: $0.55 for 3 servings!

Mix water and dry milk powder. Put milk, oats, banana, salt, and cereal in a pot. Cook, stirring constantly, until desired doneness (5-9 mins). I like the cereal in there because it adds some chewy parts. When done, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Note that there is no sugar in this recipe. With a nice ripe banana, it's not needed.

Now, truly, this isn't going to "stick" with my husband all the way until lunch. So his serving of about 3/4 cup or $0.21 would need supplementation. Nuts if I could get him to add them (I don't think he likes them). An egg. More fruit. I could make it more filling by increasing the total amount of oats to 1 cup (and increase liquid to 2 cups), and that would only increase the total to $0.71 (basically, increase everything except the banana and the sunbutter).

Other things on the menu this week: I tried my hand at Zucchini fritters from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I don't think I squeezed out enough water, but they were good! We also made breakfast burritos for dinner. Work was really crazy this week (I worked very late and hubby cooked twice) because my equipment has been broken for two months and we finally got field service in to work on it. After all that, I figured out the problem. Talk about STRESS.

Today is the big local quilt show (which I did not have time to enter...boo!) It's today and tomorrow, but I am going today. After I go for a walk and take my son for a flu shot. Tomorrow is the Carp Tri, and I am going down and taking pics and cheering on my friends and partying after.

Granola Bars

You must make these. The mixing took 10 mins. The cutting after the freezing took 5 mins. Apparently, the author updated the recipe to add coconut oil, which helps them hold together better (they are a bit crumbly). But delicious!!

The recipe comes from Averi, and can be found here (you'll have to scroll down). This is the version without the coconut oil. See her many variations...

Energy bars/granola bars
1.5 cups oats: 0.37
1/2 cup chocolate chips: 0.40
1/2 cup peanut butter: 0.50
1 banana, mashed: 0.19
1 tsp vanilla: 0.25
1/4 cup raisins: 0.25
1/4 cup dried cranberries: 0.30
2 Tbsp sunflower seeds: 0.10
2 Tbsp flax seeds: 0.10
2 Tbsp chia seeds: 0.35
1/4 cup maple syrup: 1.00
1/2 cup grated coconut: 0.25

Total: $4.06 for 15 small bars, or about $0.28 each. If you make them more "bar" sized, they are still only $0.34 each (if you make 12).

Mix all ingredients well. Press into a plastic-wrap lined pan and freeze. Cut into bars and wrap in plastic. Mine were crumbly, so I ended up with 14 - #15 I ate (the crumbs).

Lazy Girl's Oatmeal or Granola ... aka... Muesli

I've been thinking a lot about muesli lately. I don't know why. Maybe because I read about French breakfasts. Or I was thinking about Simple Food for the Good Life. Or maybe one of the blogs I followed mentioned it. But I've been thinking.

Earlier this week, I was tired of my morning bread, and thought about oatmeal. Kath got me interested in oatmeal again. I used to eat the instant stuff...when you have a job and a baby...it's easy. Then I switched to steel cut, which tastes MUCH better. But it takes forever to cook. It reheats well, but I didn't find the magic combination. Then Kath introduced me to banana whipped oats...

So I decided to try some tropical oatmeal. I'd been meaning to make granola, but the weekend was filled with painting. Besides, granola you have to bake for about an hour. I had some canned pineapple, some coconut. But I was lazy. Even though it only takes about 5 mins to cook. And I thought...hmm...muesli.

So, I took about 1/3 cup of plain lowfat yogurt. I topped it with 1/4 cup of dry old-fashioned oats. Yep, dry. No cooking. Added some diced pineapple, chopped cashews (macadamias would have been better...cashews are cheaper and in my pantry), and toasted coconut (okay, I wasn't THAT lazy).

This was really really good. Having it again tomorrow.

Tropical Muesli
1/3 cup yogurt: 0.26
1/4 cup oats: 0.06
1/4 cup diced pineapple (canned): 0.10
4-5 chopped cashews: 0.15
2 Tbsp toasted coconut: 0.06

Total: $0.63 for one serving

Oatmeal

So, I like oatmeal. We buy the instant packs as "emergency" breakfasts. They are kinda gluey and have way too much sugar, but they do the job. I prefer steel cut oats...nutty and chewy. They take a long time to cook, so I cook a bunch. But it takes me 5 days to eat them all...I get kinda tired of them.

Recently I discovered a new blog: http://www.katheats.com/

It's awesome, and exactly my kind of eating. She really eats a lot of oatmeal. She has a tribute to oatmeal.

http://www.katheats.com/kaths-tribute-to-oatmeal/

We ran out of bread yesterday for breakfast. I am running low on steel-cut oats, but got a huge box of regular (not quick cooking) oats awhile back. So I decided to look at Kath's site and find some oatmeal to try.

I did the whipped banana oats with a little less liquid. I added in about a tbsp of 9 grain cereal, and topped with a bit of almond butter.

The first bite was...chewy. But they grew on me VERY quickly. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them, and with no sugar either! I ended up losing 1/3 of the bowl to my child. This new way of making oats (and choosing different toppings) will be very fun, I am thinking. And I may never have to buy steel cut oats again.

Whipped Banana Oats:
1/3 c. old fashioned oats: 0.05 (I think I got a really good deal at the store with a coupon)
1/2 banana: 0.10
1 tsp almond butter: 0.05
1/4 tsp vanilla: 0.04
pinch salt
1/3 c. water
1/4 c. milk: 0.03
Total: $0.27 for one serving.