Refrigerator Oatmeal

Guys, this stuff has changed my life!

I had never heard of refrigerator oatmeal until last week, but now I make it almost every day. 

The premise is really simple: add some oats and dairy to a jar, add some flavours, shake and put in the fridge overnight.  While you sleep, the oats suck up some of the moisture and flavour, and leave you with a hearty breakfast that is low in calories and fat, but high in protein.  It keeps me full until lunch, and doesn't require me to get up any earlier (which really is the best kind of breakfast for me).

 

I'm going to share my favorite recipe so far: Banana Chocolate with protein powder.  The protein powder here really gives this some substance, and because it sits overnight, you don't get that chalky taste.

The basic recipe is like this:

1/3 cup rolled oats (not quick oats or instant oats)
1/3 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk


To make this extra awesome, add:
1/2 banana, sliced
1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
1/2 tsp cocoa powder


Optional:
1 tsp hemp hearts

or

1 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes

or

1 tbsp blanched, slivered almonds


Put it all in a jar and shake it!  Tomorrow, you will have a filling breakfast with no effort. 

Other flavours that I've toyed with:

I substituted cherry-flavoured greek yogurt and added a couple spoonfuls of frozen blueberries instead of bananas.

I added blueberries and a spoonful of peach butter (no cocoa or protein powder)

I added frozen strawberries, unsweetened coconut, and a few drops of vanilla extract.

Invent your own!

Portable, Good-For-You Porridge

I am NOT a morning person.  Nuh-uh. My goal in life is to wake up as late as possible and still get to work on time.  So it follows that breakfast is not high on my list of weekday morning priorities.  Sometimes toast, most often nothing at all.  I usually just take a lot of snacks to work, and work through them as the day progresses. But once in a while I remember that I can bring a decent breakfast to work with minimal preparation. Instant oatmeal is an option, but I find most of the brands to be sickeningly sweet. So here is a version of instant oatmeal that you can make yourself - you could even prep several of these on the weekend and leave them in your cupboard to grab on the go.

You'll need a small jar with a lid (a 250 mL canning jar works great), some rolled oats, and whatever dry toppings you like on your oatmeal.

Fill half the jar with the oats, and sprinkle on spices of your choice (I add cinnamon and ginger and sometimes cardamom). Then add your toppings (dried fruit, nuts, flax seeds, coconut, whatever). Now close the jar.

When you get to work, dump the whole thing in a bowl, and measure out about 3/4 jar of water and add it to the bowl.  Microwave for 3 minutes on high.  If you like, you could bring an individual sized yogurt or cut up fresh fruit for the top. Voila!  Instant breakfast with minimal sugar or preservatives!  WIN.

Ginger and Spice Pancakes

Please tell me that you don't use store mix for pancakes...  Pancakes were a Sunday staple in my house growing up, and we always used this recipe from the Five Roses (1960's version) Cookbook.  While they were my favorite breakfast at home, I could never get used to store mix or restaurant pancakes.  They just tasted fake or something.

Pancakes from scratch really doesn't take much more time than pancakes from a mix.  Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Mix the two together.  How hard was that?

1 1/3 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinammon
1/8 tsp allspice
1 1/4 c. milk
1 egg
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a whisk.

Measure out milk in a 2 c. or larger measuring cup. Add the egg, oil and vanilla and whisk until mixed together (I keep it all in the measuring cup to reduce the number of bowls I get dirty).

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until just mixed (lumpy is ok).

Use a ladle or large spoon to drop by spoonfuls onto a hot griddle. I set the griddle at 320 F, but if you use a frying pan, set it over medium to medium high heat. When the edges start to lose that "wet" look, you can flip them.

Serve with maple syrup and butter. yum.


You can also mix this recipe up a bit: take out the spice and add 1 c mashed bananas for delicious banana pancakes.  Or add 1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries for blueberry pancakes.  Or add 1 tbsp cocoa and 1/2 c. chocolate chips to the dry ingredients for chocolate chip pancakes.

And have a wonderful Sunday!

Quinoa!

Today's post is about my new favorite food - quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah"). Quinoa is a pseudograin - that is, it's not a grass seed like true grains. It's a boonies-friendly food because it stores easily (dry, airtight container), super healthy (see below), and extremely versatile.

When I first started seeing recipes for quinoa, I thought that there was no way that my local grocery store would have something that exotic - I'd probably need a specialty food store to find it.  Then, lo and behold, on a shelf above the rice there it was in a little green box.  There are three types of quinoa in my grocery store (Safeway): regular, red and black.  While quinoa in general tends to be expensive than rice, the red and black varieties are more so.  I've also noticed that my local bulk grain supplier sells it by the pound ($6.15/lb, but I have an old price list), so I might try ordering from her in the future.

Like I mentioned before, quinoa is as easy to cook as rice and is just as (if not more) versatile. It's also very healthy - high in protein, iron, calcium and phosphorus as well as some important amino acids. It's definitely better for you that white rice, and (in my opinion) tastier.

You can find a million and one recipes for quinoa on the web, but let me share a couple of my favorites:

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa

This first recipe comes from Gourmet magazine through Epicurious.com I've made it for a bunch of potluck lunches, and for a side dish at home and it's always a big hit.  I've edited the recipe only slightly - instead of cooking the quinoa to their directions (which seems a bit fussy), I just cook it according to the instructions on the box.

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons grated lime zest
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 (14- to 15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Rinse quinoa in cold water to remove bitter saponin coating. Cook quinoa according to package directions and allow to cool.

 

Whisk together the first five ingredients in a small bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Add to quinoa and toss until absorbed.  Mix in remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.

Breakfast Quinoa

I started looking up recipes for breakfast quinoa a few months ago when I had some plain, leftover quinoa in the fridge. It turns out, there are about a million different ways to make it. While you can make breakfast quinoa without milk (see this recipe), I prefer a creamy breakfast porridge. There are a couple of ways I've done this: 

 

First, you can cook the quinoa in milk instead of water.  I find that this takes quite a bit of time and careful observation (case in point - I burnt it just the other day), but the taste is creamier.  I add about 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp of ground cardamom to 1/2 c. (dry) quinoa. You can add whatever spices you like.

 

 

Second (especially for leftovers), you can warm up 1 cup of leftover quinoa in a pot with a few tablespoons of milk or cream.  It will get mostly absorbed by the quinoa and make a decent breakfast cereal.  Add same spices as above.

Once you have nice warm, spicy quinoa, you can go to town with additions.  Lately, I've been favoring a tablespoon of chopped nuts, some shredded coconut, and half a sliced banana.  Top with some plain yogurt... yum!  Or you could add flax seeds, dried cranberries and apricots, and a bit of maple syrup? How about a few chocolate chips and some chopped orange slices?  The possibilities are endless!

I've been musing over the possibilities of savory breakfast quinoa too - how about sauteeing some leftover quinoa with chopped onions and mushrooms, and adding some oregano, thyme and black pepper? Place a poached egg on top for a breakfast of champions!  

Dang, now I'm getting hungry...  Hope you love experimenting with quinoa!