Sunflower Oatmeal Bread.

Well, I didn't time this recipe very well. It's still in progress, so I'll update the post with pictures and timing as I can. If you have a bread machine, you'll have an easy time with this recipe, as it's designed for it! If you don't have one, like me, it will take a bit more time to make, but you'll not be disappointed with the result! I've chosen to have a double rise time, but it's not really necessary. You can skip the first and head right to the second if you are pressed for time.

Sunflower Oatmeal Bread, (not sure of publication, recipe originally from Elvera Dallman of Franklin, Neb.)

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 T water (70° to 80°F)
1/4 cup honey
2 T butter, softened
1 1/2 t. Salt
1/2 cup quick cooking oats (if you have old-fashioned oatmeal, simply chop it up a bit)
3 cups bread flour
2 T nonfat dry milk powder
2 1/4 t active dry yeast
1/2 c sunflower kernels, toasted

Bread machine directions:
In bread machine pan, place all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color and loaf size if available. Bake according to bread machine directions (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed.)
Yield: 1 loaf, about 1 1/2 lbs.

Hand knead directions:
Combine flour, oats, dry milk, salt, sunflower kernels, and yeast. Slowly blend in butter and honey. Once combined, gradually add water. Knead until dough is smooth and not sticky, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add a bit of extra flour or water, as needed. Bread should feel almost velvetty when well kneaded. Let rise till double (about 1 hour, I think...mine's in this process now). Of you want, you can skip this first rise time and head right to the second. Place the bread dough in a greased loaf pan and let rise (again) till double. When you can lightly touch the top and it springs back, it's risen enough. Bake in a 350° oven till done for 20-25 minutes. (I hate that kind of instruction, I'll let you know how long mine takes. The bread should sound hollow when you knock on the crust, and the crust should be golden brown.) Enjoy!

Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes.

I love old recipes. There's something charming about preparing a meal that someone prepared 70+ years before. This recipe is from my 30's cookbook, and it's a HUGE recipe for whole wheat pancakes. I've portioned it out for a small, medium, and large batch for your ease.

Sam's Whole Wheat Pancakes or Waffles (Yes, apparently this can make waffles too!)

Ingredients:

small batch:

blueberries, other berries, chocolate chips, bananas, or whatever you like in your pancakes

1 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

scant 2 2/3 T. dry milk

1 egg, separated

1 T. oil

1 c. water

medium batch (made 15 4-5in. pancakes):

blueberries, other berries, chocolate chips, bananas, or whatever you like in your pancakes

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. salt

2 t. baking powder

5 1/3 T. dry milk

2 eggs, separated

2 T. oil

2 c. water

Original recipe, LARGE batch:

blueberries, other berries, chocolate chips, bananas, or whatever you like in your pancakes

3 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/2 t. salt

3 t. baking powder

1/2 c. dry milk

3 eggs, separated

3 T. oil

3 C. water

Directions:

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and dry milk together in a medium (or large, depending on recipe size) bowl and set aside.

Separate eggs. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Beat egg yolks lightly and add to flour mixture. Add oil and water to flour mixture, and stir well. Fold in egg whites gently.

Bake on 'greased griddle'. (Make them as you would any other pancakes.) Drop on any blueberries or chocolate chips (etc.) that you'd like immediately after pouring into your pan. Cook till golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately.

Blueberry Muffins.

I loved this recipe because it was easy to throw together, and I was able to do a workout while it baked, so I felt extra productive! I didn't have skim milk, and so used 1%, but otherwise, the recipe is as is.  These are the first blueberry muffins I've ever made from scratch, and I'll definitely make them again.  They were gone by the next day.

Blueberry Muffins (from BH&G Family Favorites Made Lighter)

Ingredients:

Nonstick spray coating

1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/3 c. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/8 t. salt

1 slightly beaten egg white

3/4 c. skim milk

3 T. cooking oil

1 t. finely shredded orange peel

1 T. orange juice

3/4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen)

1 to 2 t. sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. Spray twelve 2 1/2 in. muffin cups with nonstick coating, set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, 1/3 c. sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center.

In another mixing bowl, stir together the egg white, milk, cooking oil, orange peel, and orange juice.  Add all at once to the flour mixture.  Stir just till mixture is moistened but still slightly lumpy.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle lightly with the additional sugar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or till tops are golden.  Remove muffins from pans.  Serve warm.  (Makes 12 servings)

Baked French Toast

While I am editing the backlog of oatmeal photos, I thought I would leave you this lovely recipe for baked french toast. My cousins, Tony and Alex, (great guys who will forever be kids in my book, even though Tony is 16 and Alex is 12(I think)) gave me this recipe for my wedding shower.  I should explain.

My mom was wonderful enough to petition all the people we know, (and some we don't), for recipes to give me for my wedding in a recipe box, to get me started cooking for two. Tony and Alex submitted this recipe for that.

Anyway...I hadn't tried it yet because it's a huge recipe for two people. For some reason, it never occured to me to halve the recipe, but I tried that this week, and it worked wonderfully. We had it for dinner, but it could be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch....you get the idea.

Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

6 T. butter

1/2 c. maple syrup

1/4 c. brown sugar

8 slices bread (or texas toast)

7 eggs

4 T. milk

1/2 t. vanilla

fresh fruit (optional)

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar, and syrup in a 9x13" pan.  Set in a 375° oven to melt.  Add one layer of bread, pushing bread together tightly.  Beat eggs, milk and vanilla, pour over bread.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375° (or until bread is firm).  Remove toast onto plate by flipping over so glazed side is up.

Serve with fresh fruit.

Above the full recipe is listed. From the pictures above you can see I halved this and used an 8x8 pan, and it worked fine, though I did have to really wedge the bread in.  I used 4 eggs, and frozen fruit, thawed, but otherwise, the recipe halved 'as is'.

Note: Torn up bread works wonderfully for this recipe, and fits better in the pan. Just be sure that it is in single layer, as anything piled atop will be dry.

Yogurt Cream & Berries, Cuban Coffee Chili, Steak Soup and Pumpernickel Bread.

So, this week Hubby and I have made many wonderful things...and I've been putting off posting about them.  For no good reason really, except that I had other things come up to keep my attention.   In any case, I'm back now, with yummy food to share.

First, we have Yogurt Cream and Berries. We had it both with blueberries and strawberries, myself finding strawberries to be infinitely the better choice.  It's meant for breakfast, but we had it for dessert after dinner as well.

Next, there is Cuban-Coffee Chili.  This is one is a specialty of Hubby's and mine.  We love taking it to church chili cook-offs.  People are wary because of the name, and because it has raisins in it, but believe me, you have to make it, the smell of it alone, will make you salivate.  

ingredients:

1 1/2 lb lean ground beef

2 med onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

2 t chili powder

1 t ground cumin

1/2 t nutmeg

1/4 t fresh ground black pepper

1/4 t ground allspice

1 t salt

1/4 t fresh chopped thyme leaves

1 T dark molasses

14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes

1/3 cup raisins

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

5 cups hot cooked rice

1 t capers

2 T chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives

9 oz can (2 cans) diced green chiles

2 cups strong coffee

Directions:

1. Brown the meat and vegetables: In a large Dutch oven, brown the beef over medium-high heat -- about 3 minutes. Remove contents from the Dutch oven and set aside. Reduce heat to medium low. Add onions and saute until translucent -- about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute.

2. Make the chili: Replace meat and add bay leaves, chili powder, cumin, nutmeg, pepper, allspice, salt, thyme, capers, olives, chiles, coffee, molasses, and tomatoes. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.

3. Finish the chili: Add raisins and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Garnish with almonds. Serve hot over cooked rice.

The day after, we made Steak Soup for lunch.  Much better than I thought it would be, considering that I'm not a fan of minute steak. We'll definitely make it again. (Sorry, neglected to take pictures for this one.) Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 4-oz. beef cubed steaks (also called minute steaks)

1/4 t. garlic salt

1/8 t. pepper

1 T. cooking oil

1 med. onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

4 cups water

1 10 oz. package frozen mixed vegetables

1 T. instant beef bouillon granules

1 T. Worcestershire sauce (We left this out, Hubby is allergic)

1 t. dried basil, crushed

1 7 1/2 oz. can tomatoes, cut up

1/2 c. cold water

1/3 c. all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Sprinkle meat with garlic salt and pepper.  In a large saucepan, cook meat in hot oil over medium-high heat ablut 3 minutes or until brown, turning once.  Remove meat from saucepan, reserving drippings in pan.  Cut meat into cubes, set aside.

2. In the same saucepan, cook onion and celery in the reserved drippings over medium heat until tender.  Stir in meat cubes, the 4 cups water, the vegetables, bouillon, Worcestershire sauce, and basil.

3. Bring to boiling, reduce heat.  Cover and simmer about 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.  Stir in undrained tomatoes.

4. In a screw-top jar shake together the 1/2 cup water and flour; stir into meat mixture.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir for 1 minute more.  Makes 5 servings. 

Tonight we made homemade pizza for dinner.  We'll post a step-by-step of this another time...it's a staple in this house, so it'll be around again soon, don't worry.  (Sorry, no picture...we were too hungry to stop and photograph.) 

Finally, I'm currently making Pumpernickel Bread. The end result of the loaves is actually croutons.  We recently tried Ruby Tuesday's croutons, and I'm now trying to simulate them.  If you have the opportunity, check out their salad bar...it's probably one of the best salad bars I've been to! Delicious!!!

Also, Hubby is wonderful.  He made me oatmeal for breakfast one morning, after a particularly difficult and sleepless night with our son.  It had apples chopped up and cooked in it, with pumpkin spice and nutmeg and cinnamon.  Yum!