Sweet Steel Cut Oats

Filed under , by Miranda on 6:33 PM

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Steel cut oats are whole oats that have been thinly sliced into pieces. They have a heartier texture than heated and flat pressed rolled oats. We love this for breakfast at our house.


1 c. steel cut oats
3 c. water
4 pitted dates, cut into small pieces
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. sea salt
1 T. butter

Place all ingredients in a pan and stir briefly; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
For an even quicker version, soak the oats in a bowl with water for 8-12 hours (overnight couldn't be simpler). In the morning, add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, stir constantly for 5 minutes until done.
Serve with your favorite toppings - these are endless but here's what we like:
*whole milk yogurt
*applesauce
*walnuts or pecans
*real maple syrup
* sliced apples, bananas or other fresh fruit
*frozen berries
*dollop of peanut butter and jelly

Marilyn's Best Pizza Dough

Filed under , by Miranda on 2:47 PM

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This is my favorite pizza dough. I found it in one of my best cookbooks Feeding the Whole Family. This is a healthy pizza crust but does not have a heavy wheat taste or feel. You can make stromboli or calzones with it too. It's our staple Friday Pizza Night dough.


Marilyn's Best Pizza Dough
2 t. yeast
2 c. lukewarm water
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t. sea salt
3 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 3/4 c unbleached white flour

To make the dough: combine yeast in lukewarm water in a large mixing bowl. Let rest for 10 minutes while yeast comes to life. Gently stir in olive oil. Mix salt and whole wheat pastry flour, and whisk in a little at a time. Beat for a minute or two until mixture is stretchy and elastic. Stir in unbleached flour to make a soft dough. Cover and let rise 1 to 2 hours.

To make the Pizza: deflate, divide, and shape dough into 5 or 6 balls. Each will make an 8 in pizza crust or a few large pizza's, calzones, etc. At this point the dough can be frozen for later use as well. Cover and let rest 15 minutes to relax dough.

Preheat oven to 500. Shape each ball into a flat round by using your fingertips to make little tapping indentions rather than pulling or stretching the dough. Place on a baking sheet liberally with cornmeal or rice flour. Top each pizza with favorite sauce and toppings. Place on lowest rack in your oven. An 8 inch pizza will cook in about 6 minutes.

*Our favorite pizza sauce to date is THIS ONE. *click*
Or use a pesto base (like my pesto recipe) instead of tomato sauce and make a white pizza using veggies and mozzarella - yum.

Jerri's Spinach Salad with Warm Poppyseed Dressing

Filed under , by Miranda on 11:48 AM

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So this is the second of my two favorite spinach salad's. I attribute this yummy salad to a good friend who is connected through my brother in law's family. Her name is Jerri-Ann. When Job was a baby (under a year) I would go hang out with her all the time. She had three little ones at the time and I loved just soaking up life with kids around. One night I ended up staying for dinner and out came this salad to the table...one bite and I was hooked.

Jerri's Spinach Salad with Warm Poppyseed Dressing

Dressing:
1 c. honey
1 1/4 t salt
1/2 c white vinegar
1 1/4 c oil
1 T onion (can be dried minced)
2 t poppyseed
Blend well in a blender and microwave for 30 seconds. Pour over salad while warm.
*This makes a LOT of dressing so if you don't want leftovers, half it...
Salad:
Torn baby spinach leaves
Cooked crumbled bacon
Quartered purple onion
3-4 hard cooked eggs
Diced, sauteed, salt and peppered chicken breast *optional - but great for a main dish salad*

Combine salad ingredients and pour dressing over salad before serving.

Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette & Glazed nuts

Filed under , by Miranda on 11:34 AM

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There's so many variations with Spinach salad but I have two favorites. This is the first, it's a classic salad that goes with anything. Topped with sweet glazed nuts, this is as good as a restaurant salad (probably better).


Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette & Sweet Glazed Nuts
Dressing:
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 t maple syrup
3/4 t Dijon mustard
1/4 t freshly ground pepper
3-4 T extra-virgin olive oil
Place all dressing ingredients except oil in a large salad bowl and stir to mix. Add oil a little at a time, whisking it into other ingredients so that us incorporates nicely.

Salad:
1 bunch spinach, washed well, dried, stems removed
1/3 c sweet glazed nuts
1/4 small red onion, sliced in this half or quarter moons

Sweet Glazed Nuts:
2 T plus 1/2 t extra-virgin olive oil
2 T maple syrup
1/4 t cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
tiny pinch of cayenne
2/3 c whole pecans or walnuts
Preheat oven to 300. Lightly coat a cake pan or 8x8 pan with 1/2 t of oil. Combine rest of ingredients in a bowl and add nuts, toss to coat. Spread in pan. Bake until nuts are golden and maple syrup bubbles. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

Wash spinach by placing leaves in a sink full of cold water. Drain and repeat. Spin or pat dry. Tear spinach into bite-size pieces. Place in a large salad bowl. Add glazed nuts and red onion to spinach. If you don't like the sharpness of red onion, soak slices in cold, salted water for 5 minutes before adding. Dress salad just before serving.


Brown Rice Casserole

Filed under , by Miranda on 4:37 AM

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This is so easy and is a great way to make a healthy side dish. We love brown rice.


Brown Rice Casserole
1 c uncooked brown rice
2 c water
1/2 t salt
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t black pepper
cheddar cheese
butter

Directions:

Boil rice, then simmer 20 minutes. Drain, put in greased casserole dish. Add some butter and the spices. Cover and bake at 350 about 15 minutes. Then stir, uncover, add more butter if needed, and add cheese. Bake uncovered about 5 more minutes.

Yeast Rolls

Filed under , by Miranda on 6:13 AM

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These are simple to make and taste wonderful. Yeasty and sweet. My next attempt with these is to make a sticky bun from them - let you know how that turns out. You can easily make these without a bread machine but you will have to let them rise once before making rolls and letting them rise again.


In a 2# bread machine:
2 cups lukewarm water
2 T. oil
dash of salt
6 cups flour *I have used a blend of white unbleached and spelt flour and they turned out great*
1 cup sugar
2 T. yeast

Use the dough setting. When dough has finished cycle (or it reaches the top of your machine), pinch of golf ball size balls and place in a greased 9X13 pan. I make 16 rolls (I think that's right). Slather them with melted butter. Cover w/ aluminum foil and place in a warm spot (or warm oven) for 20 min. so dough can rise. Now if you leave these for too long they can really get huge and can crowd eachother out so I would watch them.

Pull of the aluminum foil and turn oven to 350deg. Cook rolls for about 25 minutes. When they are done, slather once again with butter.

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