Ode to Oatmeal...

Soooo since the blustery weather has FINALLY arrived in Jersey (coincidentally...coinciding with Scott telling me he has to work outside every day until Christmas...opppss..sorry Scott!J), I thought today would be a PERFECT day to talk about one of my favorite cold morning breakfasts:  OATMEAL!

OK, OK..I pretty much eat oats for breakfast all year long, but it is just WAY more "soul satisfying" on those brisks mornings of winter.  And since I have 'a little extra time on my hands' at the moment, I giddily realized it was the perfect time for the return of STEEL CUT OATS!!

Steel Cut oats need a little more 'love' as they take about 25 minutes to make.  But they are the LEAST processed of all of the oats and therefore, the most nutritious.  You can easily whip up a big batch over the weekend and reheat it for a quick and SUPER FILLING breakfast for the weekdays.  So here are two recipes I made this week...one is quick and one is a bit of a leisurely weekend treat...

Sooooooooo in my attempts to 'celebrate the season,' I had gotten my brain wrapped around wanting a Christmas flavored oatmeal.  And while eggnog has NOT entered my house yet during our 'grocery store ban' (although it is a-comin VERY SOON!J), I had to go with the SECOND best Christmas flavor option: GINGERBREAD! 

I had made my oats (which you can make slow steel cut, your standard quick 3 minute oats OR ye ole 'make at your desk' oats) and added in alllll of the gingerbread flavors once it was cooked...a 1/4 teaspoon each of:

• Molasses
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Cloves
• Nutmeg
• All Spice
• & 1 teaspoon of brown sugar and vanilla extract

I added a little milk to the top and delved in.  It was sooooooooooooo warm, spicy & FESTIVE.  So good in fact, that I actually made it for breakfast again this morningJ hehehehehhee...me thinks this will be a staple ALL SEASON LONGJ

My now-decorated Gingerbread/Kitchen tree approves... 

So when I made my batch of Steel Cut Oats on Tuesday morning, I had made enough to save a second serving for the next morning...

And this time, turned those oats into: OATMEAL PUDDING!!!!!! 

I had been wondering how to turn my oats into a 'rice pudding hybrid' and a quick internet search led me to Katie's recipe and a now new favorite of mine!

Into a pot went:

• 1 serving already cooked oats (1/4 cup of oats cooked in 1 cup of water)
• 1 cup of milk
• Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• handful of craisins (or raisins)

Bring the milk to a boil, add the rest of the ingredients & let cook until thickened, about 15 minutes.  I was soooo excited when the oats ACTUALLY smelled like rice pudding and I was MORE than happy with the creamy & dreamy texture and great chew from the craisins....so good!

Not to mention...it never ceases to amaze me how adding extra liquid and cooking oats longer REALLLLLY bumps up the volume!  Picture 1 is my 1/4 of cooked oats, and picture 2 is that same cup cooked the extra 15 minutes in the cup of milk.  Big difference, no??? 

(ps-And using Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk REALLY brings the calorie count down low!  That's 110 calories a cup from 1% milk vs. a mere 40 from the almond milk!)

And there's one other ingredient I add to ALL of my oatmeal (and smoothie!) recipes and it's the Chia Seed...

Chia seeds have become my EXTRA best friend lately, because while salmon is not exactly appealing at the moment, I am still able to get ALL of the Omega 3's I need from 1 scoop of these seeds.  I try to fit them into my diet at least once a day.  Like I said, they are great in oats, smoothies & next I'm going to try to remember to stir them in yogurt or toss them in a salad dressing.  You can read about all of the great benefits here...

...but what I'm here to tell you is the MOST important part:  You can not taste them AT ALL!J  And in combo with the oats, they make a SUPER FILLING breakfast that 'lasts' for HOURS.  Not too shabby, right??   

OK, OK...enough Chia love and back to something else:  CHRISTMAS LOVE!!!!!!!! 

We finished decorating our tree the other night and I had to laugh about a 'decorating trend' I've noticed.  So the tress of my childhood used to be DOMINATED by all of the Hallmark Barbie & Madame Alexander series ornaments, but now the 'places of honor' on the tree (aka-the front!) are now reserved for not only our 'event ornaments'... 

...and the ones we've picked up 'along the way'... 

But also very much by my SUPER OLD SCHOOL ORNAMENTS!!!!! 

These guys are older than me and, while they used to be banished to the back of the tree in lieu of dear old Barbie,  are now front row & center for all to bask in their 'old school Christmas glorty' J 

They even just SMELLLLLLL like "Old Christmas"....can't buy that in Hallmark, let me tell ya!J 

 OK, OK...so I think that's enough oatmeal, chia, tree talk outta me for one day!  Hope you guys have a great ThursdayJ

Cornbread Stuffing: Deconstructed...

So after yesterday's successful attempt to 'cook from the cabinet,' my brain started to wander on what other things I could whip up from our refrigerator stranglers.  While yesterdays meal was based on our abundance of pork & polenta...my thoughts immediately turned to "WHAT THE HECK could I make with our abundance of CELERY & APPLES"...

(ohhh...I DID lie a bit.  Scott HAD stopped at the grocery store last week to pick up a bag of apples since he & I try to eat one once a day.  I'm sure you can forgive me for our 'keep the doctor away' habit..hahahhahhaaJ)

Sooooo anyways....since I had originally bought the celery for some sort of 'Thanksgiving stuffing dish that never was to be', my brain got stuck on stuffing.  And I thought with a little something here and a little something there, I could somehow turn STUFFING into a MAIN DISH (a carb lovers DREAM, right??)....

The result:  "Deconstructed" Cornbread Stuffing!

OK, OK...so let me explain!  First up, into a pan I added:

• 3 diced celery stalks
• 1 diced onion
• 1 diced apple

Preheat your pan with a little olive oil and chop & drop all of the ingredients as you go along...

Next into the pan went an ingredient I found in the DEPTHS of my freezer that I knew would work PERFECT:  2 Apple Chicken sausage links!

I added the diced sausage to the middle well and let them pick up a little color for a few minutes (they were already fully cooked)

Then I added a little of the quintessential 'stuffing seasonings':  Sage, Thyme, salt & pepper...

...and a little chicken broth to completely soften the ingredients & to make everything just a LITTTTTLE SAUCYJ

Meanwhile, we got to the actual 'bread' part of the stuffing.  My solution for making this a Main Dish???

CORNBREAD PANCAKES!

I took my corn bread mix (this Marie Callender one is awesome because it contains NO hydrogenated oils!) and mixed it with enough water & eggbeaters to form a pancake batter.  I also tossed in a little sea salt & diced scallions to make em extra savory...

OK, OK...I lied:  Scott, being the pancake master of the house, whipped up the batter & got busy flippin the cakesJ  He takes his job of making the Perfect Pancakes quite seriously...J

Meanwhile, I let all of the celery/apple/onion/sausage mixture all cook together & gather tons of color and flavor...

...before topping the pancakes with the mixture and WALLLAH....

"Main Dish Stuffing!"J

It was funny cause I was ONLY dreading biting down on crispy celery and apples along with the pancakes, but thanks to letting them simmer in the chicken broth, all of the topping had 'broken down' to perfect savory perfection on top of the fluffy pancakes.  And the sausage was a definite MUST!  It just made the dishJ

A pretty fun dinner, I must sayJ

And I have to share one more thing!  So I decided to indulge in a slice of leftover Chocolate Babka for dessert last night and was DELIGHTED to find out that there was an actual part of the bread THAT HAD NICE & NEAT SWIRLS!!!

Hahhahahahaha...I at least got the 'ends' of the bread looking SOMEWHAT like it was suppose toJ hahahahahhaaha...

So that about wraps up my post for the day on yet ANOTHER dreary day in Jersey...yesssh!  I hear that cold weather is on the way and even a little SNOOOWWWW might be in the forecast!  I'll have not one, but TWO good COLD DAY breakfast recipes to share with you tomorrow...hopefully just in time to usher in the frostyyyy airrr...J 

Happy Mid-Week everyone!

Dinner from the pantry...

So I'm not sure that it's ever happened in the history of Scott & I living together these last 5 years...but the time has finally come:  I do not think I've stepped foot in a grocery story in over 2 weeks. 

HUH???  How does this happen?  I'm usually there at LEAST once a week with little stops at Trader Joe's here and there.  But nope...I've been NADA since the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  And aside from a few meals out here and there, we really have been cooking A LOT.  Goes to show what a well stocked pantry & freezer can produce!

So I tell you all of this because I spent most of Monday having not a CLUE of what we were going to have for dinner...yet, I somehow managed to pull off a pretty awesome one just by using random ingredients I had lying around the kitchen...

First I remembered that I had some leftover fresh thyme that I had wanted to use up...along with the ALWAYS useful crushed garlic... 

If you have just these two things...miracles can occurJ

(ps-using fresh thyme, or most fresh herbs, are so easy.  You just run your fingers down the 'branches' to strip off the herbs.  It takes seconds.  And don't worry if you get a rouge 'twig' here or there, once you dice it up, you'll never notice it)

So like chicken, one thing our freezer has an abundance of is pork chops since they also haven't been OVERLY appealing these last few months (although, don't go looking for any ground turkey or meat...we are CLEAR OUT AT ALL TIMES!J)  So since it was what I had on hand, I coated up one side of the trimmed pork chops with the crushed garlic... 

...and coated the other side with the fresh thyme and let them pan seer until they were cooked through. 

After the pork was cooked, I set it off to the side and to the same pan I added a diced onion and some MORE of my prepared and frozen leeks... 

These baggies of leeks have become invaluable!  I had gotten 3 leek stalks for about $1.50 and I've already stretched them into 2 meals...and still have a baggie & a half left in the freezer.  A good 'save' if I do say so myselfJ

Anyways, I let the onion & leeks cook up and soften, while the 'water' from the frozen leeks had just enough moisture to deglaze my pan and have the onions pick up all of the colors...(add a little water or chicken broth if things are getting 'too hot'J) 

Next up, Scott made 'quick pulled pork' and added it back to the onions & leeks to combine... 

And aside from pork & chicken...what else was our house ABUNDANT in?????  Polenta!  I know, I know...strange, right?  But polenta is one of those things that I feel instantly happy about when we have it, so I guess that means the baby likes it and I had STOCKED UP at some point or anotherJ hahahahaha.... 

Not to mention, it's one of the easiest things to whip up.  I brought 3 cups of liquid to a boil (I happened to use 1 1/2 cups milk & 1 1/2 cups chicken broth this time...but use whatever you have).  Once the liquid boils, you whisk in one cup of polenta and stir until it 'masses.'  

Be sure to turn your stove onto loowwwwwww as this stuff turns to spurting molten lava QUICKLY!!!  After you whisk it for about 3 minutes, it's READY!

Add to the pot whatever you have to flavor it up....this time I happened to use the last of the thyme, a little salt, leftover gouda cheese & about 1/2 cup of grated cheese... 

Stir and wallah...how easy is that dinner?? 

To our plates we just added a layer of the cheesy polenta... 

...and then topped it with the pulled pork, onions & leeks!  So simple!  I started dinner at 5:30 and our plates hit the table at 6:01J 

And soooooooooo delicious!  The creamy, cheesy polenta made a great base for the herby pork & onions.  SUCH a good dinner for one that was 'pulled out of the closest'J

I actually have at least one more 'from the pantry' dinner planned for tonight.  A little spin on an old favorite.  We'll see how THIS one goesJ

Hope you guys have a great day...although that might be tough in Jersey, as it's rainy AND HOT!!!  Ughhhhhh...not a fan, especially in December. 

Off to go dream of snowflakes & gingerbreadJ