Apples & cinnamon oatmeal gets a grown up makeover

April 17, 2014

Grown up apples-n-cinnamon oatmeal

I’m sure you all remember the little Quaker oatmeal packets we’d have for breakfast back in the day (or, maybe you still stock your pantry with these guys). Undoubtedly you’d be somewhere, and instead of just having a box of your favorite flavor, they’d have the dreaded flavor variety box. And you were left hoping your favorite flavor was there. Or at least, there would be a flavor you could at least stomach. My favorite flavor was Apples & Cinnamon, and everything else was just a huge disappointment or downright inedible. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had Apples & Cinnamon oatmeal, but a couple of weeks ago I happened to have a plethora of apples and decided that was exactly what I was going to make.

I call this version grown up, because not only does it have huge chunks of apples and nuts in it, but I came up with this recipe while my husband and I were doing an elimination diet. That seems like something only a crazy grown up would do (more…)

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Payasam Oatmeal

June 10, 2013

Payasam Oatmeal

For years I was more than a bit persnickety about my oatmeal. Cooked with water, flavored with a pat of butter and a large spoonful of brown sugar, I was a happy camper. If I really wanted to get fancy, I might have the Quaker Oats Apple Cinnamon insta-packet. This may have been born out of the fact that at the time I wasn’t a big fan of dried fruit, having lost my taste for raisins. Or it may have been that my idea of flavored oatmeal was the aforementioned insta-packets. Either way, when I first heard of people cooking their oatmeal with milk, I thought that odd and unnecessary. However, as I started to discover my breakfast needed a protein component with the carbs if I wanted to stay full for more than 30 minutes, I decided to start playing with my ingredients. Thus, payasam oatmeal was born!

Payasam is a traditional Indian dessert that just happens to be one of my favorites. Payasam is the South Indian name, so you may have heard of it as kheer, its North Indian name. It’s a rather simple dessert of rice boiled with milk, jaggery (a type of sugar), ghee, golden raisins, almonds, and a dash of cardamom. (more…)

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A meal to recreate: Moroccan breakfast

February 12, 2013

Fruit Salad

One of the best things about my Morocco trip was the breakfast my husband and I enjoyed every morning. Of course, it was the posh riad breakfast, and probably not indicative of the everyday person’s breakfast in Morocco, but it was lovely. Breakfast started most mornings with a fruit salad and yogurt, with coffee and hot milk also brought along in separate carafes and a glass of fresh squeeze orange juice. The sugar cubes were shaped like bees and hearts, which spoke to my whimsical side. The fruit salad is something I will have to try recreating. It consisted of strawberries, apples, and bananas, which were all covered in sweet, sweet Moroccan orange juice. When we get back to the States I definitely plan on starting my own batch of yogurt culture again as well, because the homemade yogurt is so much more mild than what can be found at the store (yes, even better than my beloved Fage). (more…)

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Biscotti

September 15, 2011

Biscotti

Earlier this week, I told you about one of my old favorites I made over the weekend, the amaretti. The other yummy cookie I made to go with our coffee for the week was a biscotti. Biscotti is one of my favorite morning coffee accompaniments, but I usually buy it at the store. I’ve seen it made on cooking shows, and after reading through my cookbooks, I found a rather simple recipe for an almond biscotti. (more…)

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Amaretti for breakfast

September 13, 2011

Cappuccino with Amaretti and Biscotti

This weekend I decided to take the time to create plenty of homemade goodies to enjoy during the work week. One of the things my husband has been wanting since getting the espresso maker is “tiny cookies” to go with his morning cappuccino. So this weekend I decided to make one old favorite and something new as well.

The old favorite is an amaretti cookie. I discovered these in the A16 cookbook. It’s one of the desserts that looked fairly simple, so I tried it, and while my first batch had issues, I finally figured out the trick to getting the perfect amaretti cookies every time (so the recipe below is updated accordingly). (more…)

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