Oatmeal Banana Muffins

A friend was over for a visit yesterday and I thought a fresh batch of muffins would be a treat. This particular friend doesn't eat wheat so I adapted an old oatmeal muffin recipe to exclude it. Even though I've tagged this as gluten free, oats are not necessarily GF, so you'll have to do your own homework on that.

1 cup of quick-cooking oats

1 cup of boiling water

1 1/2 cups of oats, ground fine in blender

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 mashed banana

coconut oil or other shortening (1/2 cup or so)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 12 muffin cups.

Start by grinding the 1 1/2 cup portion of oats in the blender until fairly fine. I might have ended up with half of it being powder and half still in pieces.

Soak the 1 cup portion of oats and let stand for five minutes.

Combine all dry ingredients.

Mash banana and fill to 3/4 cup with melted coconut oil. Combine soaked oats and banana/oil mixture. Add the egg.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, adding water last. Stir until just mixed. Fill muffin pan.

Bake for at least 30 minutes. When I tested these muffins with a toothpick, it still looked a bit wet, but they tasted cooked through when we ate them warm and cold. 

Notes:
I made a second batch today, using old fashioned oats, applesauce, cinnamon, and no coconut oil. Nope! Note to self: stick with the recipe as written!

Tips for working with yeast dough

I've had many failures when it comes to baking yeast-based (and wheat flour) items! Over the years, here are some tips I've found to be helpful:

1) Ensure the yeast is fresh!
When you start a dough recipe, use warm water (not hot) and stir in yeast granules. Within a few minutes, they should become foamy. If they don't become foamy within about 10 minutes, toss it and buy fresh yeast before starting again.

2) Mix it, mix it real good.
I've been reading recently about how long a person should actually mix the dough. I used to mix until all of the ingredients were thoroughly combined, but I've been experimenting with mixing the dough for extended periods of time, like 10+ minutes. This is supposed to help with gluten development. If you're geeky like me, look into the "window pane" technique. The dough will be very smooth, will not be sticking to the sides of the bowl, but remains soft.

3) Warm is best!
Start with warm water and find a warm place for the dough to rise. My Kitchen Aid mixing bowl fits nicely into my microwave, so as I mix the dough, I heat up a mug of water to create steam inside the microwave. I put my mixing bowl, uncovered, into the nuker beside the steamy water, and set the timer for 45 minutes. At that point, I take the dough out, heat up the water again, and let the dough rise for another 15 minutes.

Also, when I make buns, I place oven-safe bowls full of steaming water in the bottom of the oven. This creates another warm, steamy area for the buns to rise for the second rising.

4) Give it time!
Don't rush! Take the time to let the yeast do its thing. Mix and knead thoroughly. Give it time to rise and if one hour isn't enough (assuming the yeast you used is fresh and active), give it another 30 minutes. Don't rush the second rise. Give the buns plenty of time to get fluffy. And take the buns out of the oven before preheating the oven!

Thai Curry Chicken

Updated December 16, 2019: This is no longer on Pinterest! I am very relieved to have made a copy! This is one of my most often used recipes.

A Pinterest keeper! This is a delicious meal with both chicken or shrimp. I'm posting it here with my own personal changes, originally found on the Susannah's Kitchen blog.

There are two ways to do this, one quick, one slow. The quick version includes either pre-cooked chicken or shrimp; the slow version includes cooking the meat.

2 Tbsp coconut oil

2 Tbsp red Thai curry paste
1/2 large yellow onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 x 13.5oz can coconut milk

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 cup fresh green beans or sliced carrots

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 small deli-roasted chicken, warmed, cut up

1/2 lime, freshly squeezed

Fresh Thai basil *

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the red Thai curry paste. Stir for a minute to release the curry's aromas, then add the garlic and onion. When they're translucent, add the coconut milk and brown sugar. Stir to combine.

Add the bell pepper and green beans or carrots. Cook vegetables on low until al dente, stirring occasionally. Add the warm roasted chicken or precooked shrimp and fresh lime juice right before serving. 

Garnish with basil and serve with Jasmine rice.

Serves 2-4.

Notes:

*Google tells me that if Thai basil isn't available, a small piece of star aniseed works. I like to combine the sauce ingredients and let it simmer with the aniseed in it to really blend the flavours.

Nutella Cookie Balls

I actually have Nutella in the house so I'm trying to find the "perfect" experimental recipe. I want to try a variation on the peanut butter cookie balls recipe we all love.

1 cup dry oatmeal

2/3 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup Nutella

1/2 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1 Tbsp chia seeds (optional)
2 Tbsp melted coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. (Mine were about 1" in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to one week.

Makes 20-25 pieces.

Notes:
I usually roll the peanut butter balls but these I had to kinda squeeze and press into shape. 

Cottage Cheese

I love making things from scratch. If I am already making the effort to make perogies, I may as well make the cottage cheese as well! My friend Annie Sawatzky taught me how to make it. (She really needs her own recipe blog! She is so talented!) This recipe couldn't be easier!

1- 4 liter jug 3.25%milk 
1 liter buttermilk

Heat on high until it starts to simmer and froth starts to form on top. Turn heat as low as it will go and stir for 20 minutes.

Make sure it doesn't cook; only heat until it separates.

Drain through a strainer lined with a clean kitchen towel or cheesecloth. Let drain for several minutes and squeeze out remaining liquid.

Notes:

I tried a different recipe yesterday that used skim milk plus 3/4 cup vinegar. It worked very well. I think I goofed though because it came out looking like melted cheese and formed a large ball. I ran it through the food processor until it was crumbly and tasted excellent in the perogies.

Black Bean Chocolate Cookies

With protein in mind, I found this cookie recipe on Pinterest. The original poster is ElizasEdibles.com but I've made several changes. Feel free to check out her recipe for comparison sake.

1 can of black beans

2 Tbsp milk

3 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil

3 Tbsp oats (next time try 1/2 cup!)

2 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix first three ingredients in food processor until smooth. Add remaining ingredients. Mix until combined.

Drop onto baking sheet by teaspoonful. 

Bake for 10 minutes (next time try baking a little longer). Made 2 dozen small cookies.

Notes:

More oats would hide the bean texture a bit more. The batter is very soft, so it would be very easy to add quite a bit more oats without getting too dry.

Ten minutes left me with not-quite-done cookies, but we'll see how they taste when they're completely cooled.

These cookies need to be stored in the fridge.

Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Hummus

After looking on Pinterest to find a hummus recipe, and finding the "roasted garlic" version was actually garlic powder, I had to make my own recipe. I adapted this recipe from classycooking.com.

1 large head of garlic, roasted

2 cloves of fresh garlic

1 x 15oz can of chickpeas

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 Tbsp tahini

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp oil