Chocolate Kissed Grain-ola

Food Storage has worked its way into my heart. It must be a parasite, boring itself into a place where it knows I will never be rid of it. Oh, well. If it is here to stay, we might as well enjoy it. Granola is a great way to use some of the food stored under the stairs.

This recipe originally came without the cocoa, vanilla, or Raspberry enlightenment. Both versions are good. It is especially good with Mom's homemade yogurt in a parfait. This granola is low in sugar and oil, and it is just as tasty as other recipes. Next time I will try it with the rolled 6-grain rolled oatmeal that Mary gave me when I helped her organize her storage room, and you could easily triple the cocoa powder without it being too overwhelming.

Homemade yogurt and blueberries make a great pairing to soften up the granola.

Grain-ola

4 C old fashioned oats

3/4 C salted sunflower seeds

1 C walnuts or macadamia nuts, halves or in quarters

1 1/2 C unsweetened coconut

1 1/2 C dried fruit, chopped (mixed berries, ginger, tropical fruit, etc.)

zest of 2 oranges

3/4 C honey

1/4 C oil

1 t vanilla

1 t cocoa (optional)

1 t Raspberry Enlightenment from Penzeys (optional)

leftover cereal (Rice Crispies, Wheaties, Bran Flakes, etc.)

Measure the oil and honey into a microwave safe dish and heat 30-60 seconds until it is warm and runny. Add the vanilla, cocoa, orange zest, and Raspberry Enlightenment to the honey and oil. This ensures it is evenly mixed throughout the batch of granola.

In a large bowl, mix the granola, nuts, and coconut. Stir in the honey mixture to evenly coat. Put onto 2 rimmed baking dishes and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Add the dried fruit and let everything cool on the sheet. Mix in any extra cereal if desired and store in an air tight container.

Stacks and Stacks of High Protein Pancakes

Isn't it strange that the most widely accepted breakfast foods are terrible ways to start the day? Like donuts. Nobody would ever think of skipping dinner and eating just dessert. If they weren't so dang tasty they wouldn't fool any of us into thinking they could be called breakfast.

I ran across this recipe several weeks ago and finally tried it this weekend. It looked so interesting to me. Sometimes people talk about wonderful light, fluffy pancakes, and I never understood where they were coming from. I like dense, thin pancakes, and these are just the ticket.

They are satisfying and, as a bonus, Kevin doesn't like them, so I get to eat them all. Are you wondering how I can eat 4 eggs at one sitting? Let's never mention it again.

High Protein Pancakes

1/4 C whole wheat flour

1/4 C cottage cheese

4 eggs

1/2 C milk or yogurt

Blend everything with a hand blender until it is smooth. Cook like pancakes on a hot griddle. They will be very thin.

Breakfast Casserole / Burritoes

You know how I said that for everything I bought, I was going to get rid of something else? Well......that is easier to say than to do. For months I have been looking for a cheap heart shaped ramekin, and I finally found some in Marshalls. Two red ones jumped into my grabby little hands, and then Kevin said I should get the pink ones to have a full set. (They only had 2 of each color left.)

Therefore, we have found room for 4 more things. Being Valentine's Day, I just had to find some things to make in these cute heart dishes.

Amanda makes a hick-hiney breakfast casserole, so it seemed like the perfect yummy breakfast. It was supposed to be justified by my spinning/yoga class this morning, but the class was full when I arrived 10 minutes early. It was only half over by the time I finished my solo workout, and I was tired enough. Who needs an incredibly sexy 50 year old woman teaching me how to work out? Seriously, I am the youngest in the classes I have taken, and by far the most out of shape. These people are incredible!

Start out with cooked hash browns and crumbled bacon.


These hash browns might look like french fries to you. Because they are. That's what we had in the freezer. Once they are cut into serving sized portions, nobody can tell the difference.


Then sprinkle some bacon on top of the fries. Oh, mercy.... What a sight for sore eyes. Since everything so far is cooked, I had to grab handful and chow down.

Then the green peppers get added to the top. Every time I see green peppers I think about Evonne. She told me a story about going on a trip with a friend, and she ate something with green peppers right before the long car ride. She had these horrendous burps, and even though she directed them towards the window, her friend kept commenting on how bad they smelled. So much for a romantic Valentine's meal....

Then add the eggs and cheese. We put it in the fridge overnight and the cheese dried out a bit. Next time I will put the cheese on it right before baking. Amanda's recipe calls for cream of mushroom soup, and I replaced that with a little bit of water. Leave a little bit of room at the top for the eggs to puff up.

When it comes out of the oven and has cooled, cut the pan into burrito sized rectangles and freeze individually. When you are ready to eat a burrito, microwave one rectangle and then put it on a tortilla with some salsa. Don't let anyone watch you eat this; it makes them jealous, especially when they learn that they can't go buy it.

Breakfast Casserole

12 eggs

1 lb bacon, crumbled

1 can cream of mushroom soup (or 1/2 C water)

1 can mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped (or a small handful of dried onions)

1 green pepper, chopped

1 bag hash browns, cooked

2 C grated cheese.

Cook the potatoes and bacon, and crumble the bacon. Put the potatoes in the bottom of a greased pan with the bacon sprinkled on top. Sprinkle with the chopped green peppers. Mix the eggs, onions, and soup or water together and pour over the green peppers. Sprinkle on the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Granola

I'm starting to accumulate quite a collection of various nuts and dried fruits that never get eaten. This weekend my goal is to get rid of as much of it as possible, and hopefully some of the oats that didn't fit into our last 5 gallon bucket will also get used.

Mom used to make granola when I was growing up. She was really good at getting big clumps to stick together. Mine seems to abhor group interaction; that is how I know it came from me. I have used the same recipe as her, but every oat of mine is a hermit, doing its best to not cling to any other oat or nut in the bunch. Oh, well. Maybe she will come and make a bunch of it for me. This isn't her recipe, it is one that I came across online.

For the fruit I used dates and cherries. Chop them up a bit before adding them to the granola. I know what you are thinking: "I don't want any dates." Relax, this isn't the kind of date that will get you served with divorce papers. It is sweet and surprisingly good. Todd eats them at work regularly, and I finally asked to taste one and was shocked when it tasted good. Plus, they are usually coated with sugar, which makes them extra yummy.


The sheet of granola is done when it is golden brown. As the granola cooked it smelled so good that our naughty little dog kept creeping into the kitchen, trying to find a morsel that fell onto the floor. He literally follows me around; it didn't take him long to figure out that I am a messy girl who likes to eat.

The smell is a combination of coconut, cinnamon, and nuts toasting. Heavenly. Seriously, if heaven is half as good as this granola I am going to wish I had changed my rascally ways.

Granola
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut
6 tablespoons flax seeds, sesame seeds, or a combination on both
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup toasted mixed nuts, chopped (I used hazelnuts but almonds would be better)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon maple syrup - or more honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups mixed dried fruit (I used dates and cherries)

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients except the dried fruit. Mix the salt, cinnamon, oil, honey, syrup, and vanilla in a small bowl. Stir the honey mixture into the oat mixture and stir well to incorporate.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. If some of the granola get a little burned, gently spoon the burned pieces into the trash before stirring the whole sheet together. Let it cool completely, then mix it with an equal amount of bran flakes [or other flaked cereal], the dried fruit, and anything else that suits your fancy.

Kamikaze Pancakes

Early in our relationship, Kevin introduced me to The Egg and I, a restaurant in Uptown. I opened the menu and fell madly in love and may never recover. There in black and white were the words I had always fantasized about reading: "Kamikaze Pancakes." They are made with buckwheat flour and bananas, blueberries, and walnuts are baked in. Then they are topped with more bananas, blueberries, and walnuts.

One pancake is the size of the plate and leaves you stuffed. Never being much for moderation, I always get two. Come on now - we only go there once or twice a year, and all things should be taken in moderation, including moderation itself.

Since we sometimes need a kamikaze fix in between visits, I modified an oatmeal pancake recipe to include buckwheat. If you use the 1/4 C spoon to make them they will fit nicely in the toaster the next day.

If you don't have any buckwheat or buckwheat flour, go ahead and use rolled oats instead. If you are missing some fruit or nuts just leave it out or substitute a different kind.

Kevin likes to say, "You eat one," while holding a single finger in the air to illustrate just how dense these are. If you like light fluffy pancakes, don't bother making these. They are hearty and filling. (But really I eat more than one at a time. More like 2 on the first serving, 2 for the second serving, and several bites into the second serving I realize that I might explode if I take one more bite.)

Yum. I can hardly wait to dig in.

Is there even a pancake underneath all this topping?

Kamikaze Pancakes

1/2 C whole wheat (or soft wheat) flour
1/2 C rolled oats
1/2 C buckwheat flour (or more rolled oats)
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 T sugar
1/3 C powdered milk
2 eggs
1 C water
2 T oil
1 mashed banana
1/2 C washed blueberries
1/8 C chopped walnuts


Mix all the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients and beat it a bit with a fork, then mix in the mashed banana. Make a well with the dry ingredients, pour the wet into it and mix until just moistened. Gently fold in the blueberries and walnuts and bake on a hot griddle. Top with more blueberries, banana slices, and walnuts, and also your favorite pancake toppings, such as applesauce or maple syrup.

Bi-Polar Pancakes

These pancakes are sometimes called German Pancakes, and sometimes called Pop-Up Pancakes. They do go up when they are in the oven, but as soon as they come out they go down. WAY down. You could say they get as flat as a pancake. Maybe they need some medication so their mood can be more stable.

I liked them in a muffin pan and in oven safe cups. Just remind me next time that even though the cups have a handle, it isn't the proper place to grab if it just came out of the oven....

Here they are, ready to go into the oven.

And here they are right after they came out. I had to open the oven door and snap the picture because they fell so fast that I would miss it if I took the time to take the pan out of the oven first. They have already gone down quite a bit.

Bi Polar Pancakes

1 cup milk
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
6 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
dash salt

Blend everything with a stick blender and pour into cups, muffin tins, or a 9 X 13 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.