Apple Cinnamon Hot Oatmeal

Have I mentioned I love oatmeal.  Yeah I thought so.  I am working to change my eating habits in a sustainable way.  I believe when it comes to food we have 2 needs, the need for nutrition and the need to gain pleasure from the food we eat.  Many will argue that the pleasure is not important, but the fact is if we are not satisfied with the food we are eating we will eat food we should not.  Diets do not work, if they did the diet industry would not have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to convince us that their diet is different.  If a diet worked those of us that need to lose weight would flock to it.  The results would speak for themselves.  Diet foods??  Sorry, again those are produced for the most part produced by companies playing on our need to lose weight, filled with a lot of processed food that just gives us false hope.  

I did a blog on oatmeal showing why it is a good answer to food confusion.  Getting back to the food that we are meant to eat in as natural a form as possible will show us results.  Making sure this food needs not only our nutritional needs but our need for flavor will give us a complete, sustainable food lifestyle that no diet or processed diet food ever can.

Here is one of many oatmeals that I enjoy in the morning.  Yes it is a carbohydrate, yes I put sugar in it and yes I use whole milk.  None of this is bad in proper proportion.  Carbohydrates are the fuel we need to give us energy, morning is the time for this, I would not recommend this meal for a bed time snack.  Having a good breakfast kickstarts our metabolism and the oatmeal provides a nice slow burn that will carry us to lunch.  Oatmeal is a blank canvas, play with it, add flavours you like and enjoy.  This recipe makes about 3 servings for me.

Ingredients:

1 cup apple cider

1 cup water

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1.5 tsp vanilia

1/3 cut chopped pecans

1/4 cup dried currents

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp maple sugar

2 cups oatmeal

1 apple diced.

To start the oatmeal make a flavorful broth with all of the items but the oatmeal and diced apples. Heat it until is start to steam and then add in the oatmeal.  Bring to a boil and stir until it reaches the consistency that you want.  This is a matter of choice but it takes about 5 minutes to get to where I want it to be. 

Add in the diced apples and serve.  I like to add a little milk or yogurt to mine.  This breakfast gets me through my morning.  I hope you enjoy.

Thanks to my local suppliers:

Oats :                     Speerville Mills

Milk :                      Fox Hill Cheese House

Apples:                 Noggins Corner Farm Market

Maple Sugar:       Coulis Divin

Cinnamon:           JamesLea Bio foods International

Oatmeal Muffins with Drunken Apple Chips

When visiting the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market I was looking through the product at Noggins Corner and was shown their new dried apple and pear chips.  We were discussing the uses for them and I decided that they had to be put into a muffin.  So into the kitchen I went to try to produce a creative tasty muffin using the dried apples and I am thrilled with the results.

I love cooking with high quality dried fruit.  I am not talking about the rubber textured chemical laden crap that is out there posing as heath food (beat down coming on foodthug.com), I mean fruit dried without chemicals and at the lowest temperatures possible.  In all fairness I have to mention that Superstore has a great selection of dried fruit in their organic section and though it can be pricey it is worth the money.  I have my problems with Superstore but their organic section is worth a long look.  Using dried fruit can help you get your daily dose of fruit while still maintaining a high level of nutrition and is a much better choice than fruit juice for those of us battling weight.

Proper dried fruit has all the flavor and most of the nutrition of the fresh item but can be fortified with more flavor but rehydrating it in flavored liquid.  This make is an amazing taste treat.  For this recipe I have rehydrated dried apples with a combination of calvados (apple brandy) and apple cider along with half a stick of cinnamon.  This really kicks up the flavor of the dried apples.

I added this to a basic oatmeal muffin base that uses yogurt to reduce the amount of oil required added in a little more calvados and kicked up the level of cinnamon.  I am very pleased with the results and hope you will be as well.

Ingredients

1 bag of Noggins dried apples (about 1/4 cup)

1/3 cup

1/3 cup apple cider

1/2 a cinnamon stick

Dry Muffing Ingredients:

1 cup of oatmeal

2 Cups Whole White Flour (Speerville Mills)

(If you cant get a whole white flour use 1.5 cups unbleached white and 1/2 whole wheat)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Wet Muffin Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp Calvados

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

2 tsp vanilla 

To prepare the dried apple:

Place the apples, cinnamon stick, cider and calvados into a small pot and warm on low heat.  If you have a warming element place it on there and allow to sit until the liquid is absorbed.  This can be done ahead of time and then stored in a covered container until needed.  Be sure to remove the cinnamon stick when this step is done.

To prepare the muffins:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Place the oatmeal in a large bowl.  Sift in flour, baking soda and baking powder (this help aerate the flower and prevents lumps of baking soda or baking powder which can ruin a muffin experience.)  Stir these together well to combine flavors. 

Note: You will want to mix your dry ingredients well to distribute the spices.  Once we add the wet ingredients will will only mix to combine.  Stirring flour in liquid builds gluten which is great for bread but makes tough chewy muffins.

Place the wet ingredients into a bowl and whisk together until well combined and frothy.   

Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir until combined.  Make sure you get right down to the bottom of the bowl.  The batter will be lumpy don’t over stir or you will end up with bouncy muffins and we are not cooking for McDonalds ;).  Fold in the prepared apples and then spoon into a oiled muffin tin.  This will make a dozen regular muffins.

Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.  The muffins should be golden and a tooth pick inserted in the middle should come out clean.  

Thanks to My Local Suppliers:

Dried Apples : Noggins Corner Farm Market

Apple Cider: Suprima Farms

Eggs: Elmridge Farm

Cinnamon: JamesLea - Bio foods International

Oatmeal / Flour: Speerville Mills

Yogurt:                       Fox Hill Cheese House

Oatmeal - A Simple Answer to Food Confusion

Our desire to be healthier, happier and have a healthy body are constantly exploited by marketers in their effort to push products.  Our memories of home cooked food is triggered while we are told we neither have the time or skill to recreate this food ourselves.  Kraft Homestyle is pimping low quality factory food and trying to convince us that it is the great home cooked meal we long for.  McCains runs commercials trying to convince us that pealing a potato is well beyond our skill level so we have to buy there frozen processed microwavable ‘product’.  Superstore produces an expensive commercial to push their blue menu bagels.  This is one of the worst bagels I have ever tasted and is not health food.  It contains corn sweeteners that are horrible for us, and a chemical soup including , monoglycerides, calcium propionate, diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides, sorbic acid, ascorbic acid, L-Cysteine hydrochloride, amylase.  Good thing their caring ‘President’ is selective in his choices for our table.  

There are 2 reasons that companies have to spend millions of dollars on commercials that not only insult our intelligence but underestimate our skill and under mine our confidence in the kitchen. 

• Their products are for the most part crap.  They use over processed poor quality ingredients which do not meet our nutritional needs.

• If we take the time to think about it we will realize we are more than capable of meeting both our taste and nutritional needs without them.

All of this is just too much so I am launching www.foodthug.com.  I want this blog to stay positive and focus on good food and good food providers so I have created another site for my alter ego to blog on.  More on the above there.

Now for one simple answer to all of this kitchen confusion: Oatmeal !!!!

The simple, humble oat provides us with many of the health and taste benefits we desire. Studies have indicated that oats have properties that:

• lower cholesterol helping to prevent heart disease
• contain fiber that will slow the digestive process helping us lose weight
• control blood glucose levels helping prevent type 2 diabetes
• contains vitamins, minerals & antioxidants all of which are keys to good health

Oatmeal is also inexpensive, easy to use and it tastes great.  Who doesn't like a nice oatmeal cookie, granola is great and oats can be used in waffles, pancakes, muffins and yes even making hot cereal.  I have hyperlinked the oatmeal recipes I already have up and I will for sure blog more.

Simple foods can be amazing, and are easy to use.  One of the things marketers are taught is to create a need then fill it.  They have made food (which has been around for ever) seem complex and beyond our grasp.  We are smarter than that!

We need to take our health and happiness into our own hands.  We all have the basic skills we need to make great food, don’t let marketers rob you of great food adventures. 

Pictured here :

Oatmeal : Speerville Mills - An Atlantic Canadian Company producing amazing milled grain products.

Simply Delicious Homemade Granola

I am developing a serious case of oatmeal dependency.  I have started increasing the amount of oatmeal in my diet and have discovered that on days I eat oatmeal I have more energy and don’t feel the desire for those mid day nibbles that can be so detrimental.  

Granola is a simple and easy way to get my oatmeal fix.  I make granola about once a week now and it is a household staple.  It is easy to make, and you can play with the mix of spices to create a product that meets your personal needs.  I have designed a simple base for my granola that includes oats, nuts, maple sugar & syrup, and spices that I enjoy.  I do not add dried fruit to the granola I make it I add it when I make my bowl so I can have a variety of flavors through the week.

Ingredients 

2 pounds large rolled oats

2 cup fine chopped walnuts

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup slivered almonds

1.5 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg 

2 tsp maple sugar

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees

Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper or if at all possible silicon mats (they are a beautiful kitchen tool).  I prefer the heavy cookie sheets that you can get at Costco.

In a large bowl add  the rolled oats, walnuts, sunflower seeds and almonds in a large bowl and toss with your hands to combine.  Sprinkle in the spices, salt and maple sugar and again toss well with your hands.  In a small bowl combine the maple syrup and canola oil and whisk then add half to the dry ingredients, mix well with your hand.  Then add the rest and mix again.  Be sure to get down to the bottom and toss the spices in.  Rub together with your hands and make sure the oats get coated with flavor.  Yes you will get your hands dirty but we all love that when we were kids right! :)

Spread the mixture evenly over your cookie sheets and place in the oven.  After 10 minutes take them out of the oven stir making sure you move the granola on the edges to the middle, this is what will burn or overcook.  Rotate the pans top to bottom and put back in the oven for 10 minutes more.  Again remove from the oven and stir.  It is done when lightly golden.  If it needs more time do it 5 minutes at a time as when the moisture level goes down it cooks a lot faster.  Keep an eye on it at the end.  It should not take longer than 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely then store in a large zip top bag.

You can serve with milk, yogurt, different fresh and dried fruits, it is a great base to an amazing breakfast.

Thanks to my local suppliers:

Oats :                                  Speerville Mills 

Organic Maple Sugar:     Coulis Divin         

Maple Syrup:                    Acadian Maple Products

Fair Trade Cinnamon and Ginger from:     

JamesLea - Bio foods International

Also Pictured in this recipe:

Dried Cranberries: Terra Beata Cranberry Farm

Dried Blueberries:  Noggins Corner Farm Market
Vanilla Yogurt:        Fox Hill Cheese House

Fruit of the above purchases from Noggins Corner Farm Market at the Halifax Seaport Farm Market

Oatmeal Cookies with Drunken Dried Fruit

Who want to make cookies this weekend!!!  I have heard people say they don’t like a lot of things, but cookies are not one of them.  We can all think back to the smell of homemade cookies fresh out of the oven.  The taste of a warm cookie with a tall glass of cold milk, and of course sneaking cookies from the freezer for a midnight snack. (Ok maybe that was just me -- blush) 

One of my favorite cookies is an oatmeal cookie with raisins or assorted dried fruits.  It just so happens that oatmeal is incredibly good for you.  I am not promoting this as a health cookie, you wont see me on an infomercial promoting this a a cookie that will cure your every ailment.  However increasing your intake of oatmeal does help reduce weight, lower cholesterol and reduce blood pressure.  Oatmeal also is loaded with fiber which makes you feel full so you will eat less.  So if you can replace a factory food cookie with something that contains oatmeal then you have done a good thing.

This cookie is also very flavorful.  I think that we can eat our way to better health and weight (in my case a major concern) by eating better food.  However for me this only works if it tastes good.  Here is a cookie that I have come up with that is a good choice for a sweet snack.  

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter (organic and local is best) - At room temperature

3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar

2 Eggs (beaten)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 Tbsp Honey

1 1/2 cups Whole White Flour (if you cant get this go half & half white and whole wheat)

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 tablespoon Cinnamon

1 teaspoon of Ground Ginger

1/2 teaspoon of Ground Cloves

2 Cups of Rolled Oats

1/3 cup dark raisins

1/3 cup golden raisins

1/3 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup dark rum or orange juice

Directions

This recipe takes a little bit of wait time at the beginning.  Take your butter out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature.  Put the dried fruit in a small pot and cover with dark rum or orange juice.  Put over very low heat, the warmer element of your stove if you have one is ideal.  Allow the dried fruit to sit until the butter is soft.  

Preheat your oven to 375

When the butter is softened, place it along with the brown sugar in the bowl of a Kitchen Aid Mixer with the whisk attachment (or a large metal bowl and use a hand mixer).  I don't shill for Kitchen Aid by the way but their mixer is one of my favorite kitchen helpers and I use it extensively.  Beat the sugar into the butter until it is smooth.  It is important not to use melted butter the sugar grains when beat in with the butter form little pockets of air which will make the cookies lighter in texture.  

Next add in the eggs, honey and vanilla.  Stir until smooth.  In another bowl combine the  flour, baking soda and spices.  Change the mixing attachment on your mixer to the paddle.  Mix these well then sift into your wet ingredients adding about a third at a time stirring each time to incorporate.  Don’t skip the sifting step.  It will ensure the flavors are well mixed and will weed out any lumps of baking soda which can be a very unpleasant bite.

Drain the fruit in a strainer and then add the fruit and oatmeal to the mixer and stir until incorporated.  

Now for cookie sheets I highly recommend a nice heavy cookie sheet with a silicon mat to help stop sticking.  These produce nice evenly browned cookies that do not stick and make cleanup a non issue.  To scoop out the cookies I recommend getting a disher.  It is like a small ice cream scoop, you can get them in various sizes and they will make a nice uniform cookie.

Scoop the cookies out onto your cookies sheet in about tablespoon full sizes.  I like to press them down a bit to make a cookie about half an inch thick.  Bake in the 375 oven for twelve to fifteen minutes.  Check the first batch often, you want a nice golden brown, they will still be soft.  Remove from the cookie sheet on to a wire rack.  This recipe will make about 2 dozen cookies.

Play around with the recipe, try different dried fruits (though I recommend soaking them to add additional flavor and to stop them from turning into little bullets).  Also you may want to add more spices or maybe play with adding a little nutmeg.  Taste and try, that is the secret to good home cooking.

Thanks again to my local suppliers:

Oatmeal and Whole White Flour - Speerville Mills

Eggs - Active Life Farms

Honey: Cosman and Whidden Honey Ltd

Oatmeal Corn Waffles

I really enjoy waffles.  All those little pockets to hold syrup and butter, or a nice fruit sauce.  They are a real treat on a weekend morning, and the left overs can be popped in the toaster for a nice treat in a week day morning.  I know there are waffle like substances available from your local factory food outlet, but we deserve better.

I will be releasing a number of waffle recipes on the blog, including a traditional wheat flour waffle, a herb and parmesan cheese waffle which is an amazing base for poached eggs and smoked salmon and a chocolate desert waffle which would be amazing topped with Fox Hill Cheese Coconut Gelato.

But for today I am going to give you my favorite hearty waffle recipe.  This recipe is a cross between a waffle and a bowl of flavorful oatmeal.  It is crispy on the outside and soft and a little creamy on the inside.  A couple of these waffles will give you the energy you need to start the day.

Ingredients: 

7 Cups of Rolled Oats

1.5 Cups of Corn Meal

8 Cups of Hot Water

1 Cup of Apple Cider

1/4 Cup of Canola Oil

3 Tbsp of Honey or (Brown Sugar to make it Vegan)

2 Tbsp of Vanilla Extract

1.5 Tbsp Cinnamon

2 Tsp Sea Salt

1/2 Cup Currents

1 Apple Cored and Diced

In a large mixing bowl combine the first 9 ingredients (not the apples or currents) and stir to combine.  Allow this to sit for about 20 minutes to allow the grains to hydrate and absorb the flavors.  

While waiting heat up a waffle iron if it is variable heat it to medium heat.

Using an immersion blender blend up the batter a little bit, it is ok to have flakes of oats left but the batter should be mostly smooth.  Then stir in the currents and diced apples.  You can blend this in small batches in a blender but really get an immersion blender because it is so much cleaner. (Well for me anyway :))

When the iron is heated, spray with no stick spray and cover the bottom plate with batter.  This is not leavened so it will not rise much so don't worry about filling it up.  It wont expand and overflow.  These waffles take a while to finish cooking as they contain a lot of moisture, cook them until they are crisp on the outside and the steam is no longer pouring out of the waffle iron.  It takes 5 to 8 min a waffle.  They should be golden brown in color.  Serve right away, if you are going to freeze the left overs allow them to cool on a cooling rack and then freeze.  They reheat beautifully in a toaster.

These are very flavorful and very good for you.  They are low in fat and oats are one of the best grains you can eat.  For my vegetarian and vegan friends they can be made with no animal products.  Having said that these waffles do not sacrifice any flavor in order to be healthy.  Give them a try.

Thanks to my Local Suppliers:

Oats: Speerville Mills

Honey: Cosman and Whidden Honey Ltd

Apple Cider: Pasture Hill Farm

Apples: Noggins Corner Farm

Also Pictured:

Berkshire Bacon: Active Life Farms

Fresh Mint: Riverview Herbs

As always thanks to the Halifax Seaport Farm Market for giving me a place to connect with my suppliers.