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 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.