Better Oatmeal

I have been slacking in the kitchen soooo bad!!! Thought I would give a few tips for adding some punches of flavor and texture to your morning oatmeal.

First off I love the large flake oatmeal not instant or minute. Why? Texture and health reasons. You can go for steel-cut oatmeal too but it takes sooooo long to cook and I am damn hungry 😉 The hardier the grain the healthier it is.  The more natural foods are, the longer it will take for your body to break it down; this is also known as low glycemic index foods. Great for diabetics!! The longer it takes to digest the longer we feel full and satisfied and won’t snack in-between meals. Also if our guts have to work so much to break down all this hardy goodness then our metabolism increases and burns more calories!! Yay! Ok I know boring science food nutrition garbage! Lets get on to the good stuff!!

Here I have 1 serving of milk I heated up with a bit of orange zest till it started to boil then plop in your serving of oatmeal and let it simmer till it is cooked.

Off heat I added a few drops of vanilla, few sprinkles of cinnamon and mixed that up.

Put that in a bowl, now comes the not so healthy part but hey you counteracted that with the whole grains right??? Drizzle a bit of maple syrup on it and because I am french a dollop of butter!! Ahhhhh.

Ok what am I missing?? Lets get a bit of crunch going on in this bowl…. slivered almond, pecan bits, walnuts or this:

Take a spoon and dig in!!

And I took some pics of some latte art me and my hubby enjoyed the day before 🙂

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• Servings: 6-8
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp of ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg
• 3 cups of old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup of raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

Cream together the butter and sugars till light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat till smooth. In another bowl combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar.

Stir in the oats and raisins just until combined. Drop by tablespoon unto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 min till golden brown.

Apple-Fig Cookie with Caramel Icing Drizzle

Apple Fig Cookies

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp of vanilla
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of cloves
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg (I used freshly grated nutmeg)
• 2 granny smith apples peeled and grated (should equal 1 cup -1 1/4 cups)
• 1 cup of finely chopped dried figs

Directions:

First off,  turn your oven on to 400 degrees F. Beat the butter, sugar, and egg until smooth. Add the vanilla and the grated apples till combined. Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, salt and spices) and add them to the wet ingredients. Lastly add your figs and stir just until the ingredients come together.   Over stirring will = tough cookies. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Cook for 10 min. Allow to cool to room temperature on a rack before adding the icing.

 

Caramel Icing

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 15min
• Difficulty: easy
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Caramel Icing:

• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tbsp of cream
• 1 cup of icing sugar

Directions:

In a small saucepan brown the butter until a medium golden color. Off heat add the vanilla and cream. Whisk in the icing sugar and stir till smooth. Drizzle over cooled apple cookies.

Rugelach Cookies

This recipe is an adaptation from the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe.  These are extremely delicious but also a lot of work to make.  I add lemon zest to the pastry dough and it is a delightful clean fresh taste that helps break up the sweetness! Cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts are also shining stars in this cookie.

Dough Ingredients:

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 2 sticks of butter(1/2 pound)
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• zest of one lemon
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour

Filling Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 3/4 cups of raisins
• 3/4 cups of walnuts(chopped medium)
• 1/2 jar of apricot preserves

Top off Ingredients:

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp of sugar combined with 1 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:

With a hand-held mixer or electric mixer with paddle attachment mix together the cream cheese, and butter till light. Add the sugar, vanilla and lemon zest and mix till fluffy.

Add your flour and mix only till combined. DO NOT over mix you will develop gluten in the flour and you will get a tough dough. Plop mixture on a floured surface and divide dough in 1/4’s.

You can see the flakes of lemon zest in the picture above…yum

Ok so as you see I store them in plastic wrap and pop them in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up.

In the mean time I mix all ingredients together for the filling minus the apricot preserves, I also get my cinnamon sugar ready for the topping of the cookie:

When you are ready to roll the dough out turn your oven on to 350 degrees. On a well floured surface you will spread the dough out as you would for a pie crust.

Next add the apricot preserves approx 2 heaping tbsp and spread over dough with pastry brush. Next sprinkle on your sugar, raisin, nut mixture in even layer. You will divide this circle in 12ths or 16ths depending how big you want your cookie to be.

 

Starting at the large end roll up your cookie and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.

 

Brush the tops of the cookies with your egg wash and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Place in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes till slightly golden.

Enjoy and have a great week 🙂

PS: I also think these cookies would be great with fig preserves or orange preserves instead of the apricots.

Rugelach Cookies

• Servings: 8
• Time: 2hrs
• Difficulty: medium
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Dough Ingredients:

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 2 sticks of butter(1/2 pound)
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• zest of one lemon
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour

Filling Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 3/4 cups of raisins
• 3/4 cups of walnuts(chopped medium)
• 1/2 jar of apricot preserves

Top off Ingredients:

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp of sugar combined with 1 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:

With a hand-held mixer or electric mixer with paddle attachment mix together the cream cheese, and butter till light. Add the sugar, vanilla and lemon zest and mix till fluffy.

Add your flour and mix only till combined. DO NOT over mix you will develop gluten in the flour and you will get a tough dough. Plop mixture on a floured surface and divide dough in 1/4’s.

I store them in plastic wrap and pop them in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up.

In the mean time I mix all ingredients together for the filling minus the apricot preserves, I also get my cinnamon sugar ready for the topping of the cookie.

When you are ready to roll the dough out turn your oven on to 350 degrees. On a well floured surface you will spread the dough out as you would for a pie crust.

Next add the apricot preserves approx 2 heaping tbsp and spread over dough with pastry brush. Next sprinkle on your sugar, raisin, nut mixture in even layer. You will divide this circle in 12ths or 16ths depending how big you want your cookie to be.

Starting at the large end roll up your cookie and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.

Brush the tops of the cookies with your egg wash and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Place in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes till slightly golden.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy 🙂

If Life gives you Rice make Rice Pudding

After I order Chinese food I always have a boat load of left over white rice.  My son Samuel loves rice pudding so the next day I always make him this creamy yummy treat!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of cooked white rice
• 4 cups of whole milk
• 1 cup of half and half
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 3 tbsp of butter

Directions:

In a saucepan on medium high heat combine your equal amounts of rice and milk and the sugar. Boil this till it thickens. This will take about 25-30 minutes.

The milk will get really frothy. Latte or Cappuccino anyone?

Now beat your eggs into your half and half and slowly temper the custard into your rice while stirring constantly. Why? Cause we don’t want chunks of scrambled eggs in our rice pudding 😉 Stir for two minutes and take your pudding off the heat.

Now we add the cinnamon, butter and vanilla. Stir to combine and enjoy!

 

Rice Pudding

• Servings: 6
• Time: 45 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 4 cups of cooked white rice
• 4 cups of whole milk
• 1 cup of half and half
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 3 tbsp of butter

Directions:

In a saucepan on medium high heat combine your equal amounts of rice and milk and the sugar. Boil this till it thickens. This will take about 25-30 minutes.

The milk will get really frothy.

Now beat your eggs into your half and half and slowly temper the custard into your rice while stirring constantly. Why? Cause we don’t want chunks of scrambled eggs in our rice pudding 😉 Stir for two minutes and take your pudding off the heat.

Now we add the cinnamon, butter and vanilla. Stir to combine and enjoy!