I try to cook breakfast at least once during the week. We are a family that really enjoys all those boxes of cold cereal, but even on sale they are not particularly economical, healthy or environmentally friendly with all that packaging and shipping (though the bags are great for rolling out pastry or covering that rising dough). Because I don't feel like getting up before Tom to make pancakes or waffles, I turn to oatmeal. I love the old fashioned stuff, and my sister-in-law Betsy says it doesn't take that, but I made it the "regular" was the other day, and it felt like it took FOREVER. That's when I realized I should to share this "recipe," technique really. You do all the measuring night before, and it couldn't be simpler. Turn it on rather low (we do 3 on our stove that goes to 10) before hopping in the shower, and it's ready once you're out. Make sure to check out your coop or bulk food store for oats. We pay $.95-1.25/lb for organic. Quaker and even the generic brand are usually a lot more in the supermarket.
On to the recipe.

Read more | bridgit | Share

I joined a bread baking group and we're baking thorough Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. As a group, we're starting with the Master Recipe, which I followed to a T. Really. I actually followed the recipe verbatum. It made a great loaf of bread, and lovely pizza, but after all the excess of the Holidays, my gluttonus self needed MORE. We rolled out the remaining dough (1 to 1 1/2 pounds or so) on a silpat and sprinkled it liberally with dried cherries, chopped walnuts (1/2 cup of each perhaps) and a few mini chocolate chips (<1/4 cup), then patted those down. We rolled up the dough and goodies, pinched the seam, cut it in half (it was long) and place both the loaves seam side down on a cookie sheet with another silpat. After some debate, we covered the loaves with a greased cereal bag and let it rise in our cool kitchen overnight.

When the first kid woke me up in the morning, I ran out to the kitchen, turned the oven to 375, popped in the bread, turned on the timer for 40 min (an educated guess as to how long it would take for the oven to warm and then bake the bread), and, after picking up the other little one, ran back to bed. 40 min later when the timer went off, I sent Tom to check the bread. It was perfect, so he pulled it out to cool. Finally our little ones demanded that we all rise and consume the bread, so we quickly fried up some eggs, pulled out the cream cheese and sliced up a loaf. It was GLORIOUS. Really, if you are a person who goes in for things like chocolate-cherry-walnut bread, this is for YOU! And the bread dough could not be any easier. If you're too nervous to work with yeast, this is a fantastic place to start. My generous husband decided we should give the second loaf to his brother whom we rarely see but happened to be in town... I'm still a little bitter about that. But as the saying goes: bake and release!

bridgit | Share