Happy Earth Day.

Yet another snack cake: Leftover Oatmeal Applesauce Cake

Okay, here’s another one–first it was the pancakes, tonight it was a new snack cake.  Also moist, also delicious, amazing.

Check this one out:

Leftover Oatmeal Applesauce (or pumpkin or banana) Cake

In a bowl, mix:

• 1 cup cooked oatmeal (regular or steel cut)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup applesauce or other pureed fruit (I wonder if yogurt would work here?)
• 3 tsp neutral oil or melted butter
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar (depending on sweetness of your fruit; go 1/2 cup for pumpkin, less for banana, and with applesauce it depends how sweet yours is!)

Add:

• 1 cup white or whole wheat flour (or a combination)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-2 tsp cinnamon (or other spice mix–pumpkin or apple pie spices in general would be good)
• up to 2/3 cup added raisins or other dried fruits, nuts, or even chocolate chips if you’re feeling decadent

Bake at 350 degrees in greased 9×9 baking dish for about 40 minutes.

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Again, very easy, very moist and yummy, and mostly good calories especially if you cut way back on the sugar.

This makes me wonder if one could use frozen or fresh fruit in this recipe, or if it would be too moist…I may have to give it a shot. I’ll report back if I do, of course.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Pancakes (using leftover oatmeal)

Last year I discovered the secret to making overnight steel cut oatmeal in my crockpot. The only issue was that, once made, there were always more leftovers than I could deal with. (That’s the catch with crockpot cooking–you have to have the pot more than half full, so unless you have a little crockpot, you’re out of luck on that.) I love the stuff–but at a certain point you’re just like “Please make it go away!”

Still, if you’re going to go through the hassle and time to make steel cut oatmeal, might as well just do it, and make a lot, and use the leftovers well.

Of course, depending on how many people in your family eat oatmeal, and how much they eat, you may not have that problem at all.

But anyway–this morning for breakfast I made Oatmeal Banana Pancakes out of leftover cooked steel cut oatmeal (though I’m sure ordinary rolled oats oatmeal would work just fine) and a couple of too-ripe bananas. This is one seriously healthful recipe–full of really good stuff, almost completely absent of any calories not worth their weight. And it’s delicious.

(This recipe is cobbled together from a whole mess of other recipes; I honestly have no idea whom to even credit or link to here.)

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Oatmeal Banana Pancakes (made with leftover oatmeal)

In a bowl mix:

• 1 cup cooked oatmeal (steel cut or rolled, whatever. The icky instant stuff would probably work too, but…why?)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 or so cups milk, plus extra at the end as needed for consistency. (can omit the yogurt and instead do 2 cups milk.)
• 3 tbs melted butter or neutral oil (could honestly be omitted, but then they stick to the pan and don’t taste as good.)
• 2-4 tbs honey, to taste (optional–if you live with people who will use lots of maple syrup anyway, just skip it.)
• 1-2 cut up overripe bananas or a chopped and grated apple or both or neither or some other fruit.

Add (you’re supposed to mix all this in a separate bowl and then add it, but I honestly never do):

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour, or some combination of white and whole wheat or honestly whatever you have
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• If you want to be evil, toss in 1/4 cup chocolate chunks and forget what I said about how this recipe is almost devoid of empty calories.

Cook as you would any pancakes. Eat.

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Verdict: Seriously good. Superior. My kids raved more than they do about the basic almost-all-white flour ones I used to make all the time.  They are moister than the traditional pancakes, but just as fluffy; I have a feeling they will become the master pancake recipe from here on out even if I have to cook some oatmeal expressly for this purpose. Really really good.

Variation: there’s no reason you couldn’t make some delicious flavored kind of oatmeal in your crockpot and make that into these pancakes just as easily. For example, the Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal I love to make in the crockpot overnight would be delicious in these pancakes. (Or you could just substitute some pureed pumpkin for some of the milk in the above recipe, I’m sure. Or applesauce. Or whatever).

So…Bon appetit!

An interesting variation on baked oatmeal…

I’ve been a fan of baked oatmeal, the perfect portable snacky breakfast,  for a while, but this is a twist on it I’d never have thought of:

Strawberry Pineapple Baked Oatmeal

I honestly probably wouldn’t try it exactly as-is–I’m not huge on pineapple, and it’s not something I keep around as a kitchen staple or anything.  But the very idea that I could mix frozen-fresh fruits into something like this is really intriguing.

This, I’m afraid, is one of those posts where I don’t actually do anything even remotely original; it’s a place-marker so I don’t lose track of this recipe. I know we can use Pinterest for that now, but still, this is interesting enough that I want to keep it on a front burner…

Newest entry in the Prius field

I have had Prius envy for years.

Not that I don’t love my 10 year old, 115k-miles Subaru; I totally do. But with gas topping $4.50/gallon here in the Chicago area, it’s hard to accept that I’m spending literally twice the money on gas that I would be spending if I were driving something that got 40+mpg…

And now there’s a “family” Prius: the Prius C. I have a friend who says she wants to drive something with more “style,” but I think it’s cute. (And she drives something that’s basically a Camry, so I don’t see why that is more stylin’ than the Prius…I don’t get it. But I love her anyway. )

I’m intrigued…anyone seen or test driven one of these?

Toyota Prius C Features

Toyota Prius C and the Game of Life

Nut Butter Bark…easy and yummy!

Coconut oil seems to be the new “go to” substance in the World of Green…I’m only just discovering it myself, but it’s good stuff.

Today I tried this recipe for Almond Butter Bark--easy and delicious, and kind of a no-brainer. I used sunflower butter instead of almond because it’s what I have, but otherwise I pretty much followed the recipe…seriously, seriously good. And easy. And high in protein and the good fat (saturated or not) that is coconut oil…

Give it a try! Yummy stuff…

Trying other milks

Despite the dairy industry’s efforts to dissuade us, lately I’m finding myself intrigued by some of the alternate white-ish milk-like beverages on the market in such plenitude right about now.

I’ve tried soy milk and honestly it doesn’t do anything for me. I love coconut, so coconut milk is just awesomeness in my book.  Problem is, it’s pretty high cal and high fat–good fat, coconut oil is great stuff, especially in its natural form, but I’m still about mumblemurph lbs overweight and don’t need to make things any worse in that regard. Almond milk, though–it’s fairly low in calories and it tastes pretty yummy…

So then I see these recipes for making your own of some of these various milks particularly the two I actually like..now this is right up my alley.

So…any of you guys tried any of these? Making your own? Is it worth it? Does it save any money? Does the end result taste better? I’m curious…

Working in the Garden

You may remember how last year we did this big re-landscape in our yard…and how last fall I planted a bunch of bulbs around the property as well, and am trying to do some edible landscaping here and there?

I know I should be just trying to keep things going well in the garden I have, but I can’t help thinking of new projects. Like this “spiral herb garden” made out of bricks, stones, straw, and a little compost-y soil. What a gorgous idea! What do you think; should I make my husband bring home a bunch of bricks so we can try this?

Mondays at the Booth: Baked any Bread Lately?

Hi! Over at The Green Phone Booth today I have up a post about easy bread baking for those intimidated by yeast or who think it is this horrible time consuming thing…Come give it a shot!

Baking Bread, Sandwiches, and Hot Cross Buns

Best facial mask EVER–made out of stuff in my fridge and pantry

This will not be the first time I have sung the praises of Crunchy Betty’s Mocha Frappucino Face Mask. Probably won’t be the last either.

Ohhh, ladies (gents too, you’d probably like it just as much and it doesn’t smell too girly!), you gotta try this. I don’t remember about this one often enough, and I should, because it’s amazing.

Click on over to Betty for the actual recipe, but seriously, it’s this not-terribly-measuring-necessary concoction of honey, unsweetened cocoa powder, plain yogurt, and the coffee grounds with which you just made your morning coffee.  Smear it on your face, scare the hell out of your spouse and/or kids, let it dry, and rinse it off gently in the shower.

This is incredible. I used to spend gobs of money on the latest schmantzy clay mask, and it never quite seemed to do what it was supposed to. This mixture does what the expensive cosmetic masks are supposed to, and it costs pennies.  My pores are all small and closed, my skin is smooth, my puffiness is all gone…

You. Must. Try. This.

(And by the way…when I don’t have time for the whole let-a-mask-dry thing, I will sometimes mix up a facial cleanser out of the basic same ingredients, sometimes leaving out the cocoa–just coffee grounds, yogurt, and honey–still really good, but the full mask thing is ten times better than anything else.)

Happy facials!