3 Ways to Fall in Love with Your Oatmeal Again

I have often told A that I can tell the changing of the seasons not by looking out the window, but by looking at my bowl of oatmeal. 

I am a die-hard oatmeal fan and I love to use it as a blank canvas and top it with whatever's in season: sunny peaches and pecans in summer, crisp pears and honey in fall, pomegranate and maple syrup in winter and tender strawberries in spring. But even I get sick of oatmeal, especially as the long, interminable winter sets in. Here are some fresh combinations to keep your oatmeal exciting during the long months ahead - minimal chopping needed.

Wholesome Banana Pecan Chocolate Bites

A few weeks ago, I tweeted out a call for a healthy cookie recipe. I wanted to give delicious thank-yous to some of the amazing people I've been connecting with recently, and I thought, what better way than healthy, home-baked goodness?  I didn’t have high hopes, though – as I’ve said, my adventures in healthy baked goods often fall flat (literally – leaden cakes, sodden squares and muffins that could be used as hockey pucks.) Cookies, I thought, were a good way to dip my toe into the healthy baked good pool (imagine? A pool of fresh, warm baked goods…mmm…wait, where was I? oh yes) – after all, they need no leavening, so the absence of white flour and butter is less conspicuous.

But first and foremost, this cookie had to be good. I am a cookie maven. (I should have a t-shirt emblazoned with that.) I absolutely adore a chewy, crumbly, not too sweet chocolate chip cookie. Or an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Or a peanut butter cookie…

See my experiments in healthy cookies and the recipe after the jump...

Rosemary Marmalade Chicken

I am always hesitant to make chicken recipes because although that's what the majority of the population eats most weeknights, I find it incredibly bland and boring. I am too lazy and last-minute to ever marinate the chicken, and whatever sauces or rubs I brush on top of it never seem to penetrate into the meat, leaving it tasting bland and rubbery. Usually A. will chew on it thoughtfully, while Baby M, ever the diplomat, will spit it out onto his high chair tray.

But when I saw this recipe, I knew my chicken luck was about to change. Marmalade + balsamic vinegar + Dijon mustard? Sounds like a unique, flavourful combination. And in terms of flavour, it's a triple threat - brushed on, then basted, then reduced to a sauce. With high hopes, I decided to give it a try.

Let me just say, people, that it didn't disappoint. the chicken was tender and juicy and flavourful. The sauce was thick and tangy and added flavour to the the quick grains I boiled up alongside the chicken. The onions, which I normally hate, were crunchy and savoury-sweet, filling out the sauce nicely. Overall, it's a great, easy entertaining recipe that is unique enough to stand out from the usual chicken fare. Even the diplomat didn't spit it out.

Slightly adapted from the amazing Lucy Waverman's recipe in Food & Drink

Rosemary Marmalade Chicken 

Serves 4

1/2 cup 3-Fruit or Seville Orange Marmalade
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
3 tbsp vegetable oil
4 bone-in, skinless chicken breasts
Salt & pepper
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups thinly sliced onions
1 cup chicken stock

1 Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

2 Combine marmalade, balsamic vinegar, mustard and rosemary. Divide in half. Whisk 1 tbsp (15 mL) of oil, reserving remainder, into half of mixture. Brush marmalade mixture with oil on to the chicken breasts. Season breasts with salt and pepper.

3 Heat remaining 2 tbsp (25 mL) oil and butter in a large ovenproof skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions to pan and sauté, stirring for 1 minute or until just beginning to soften. Add stock and remaining marmalade-mustard mixture. Bring to boil. Place chicken breasts skin-side up over onions.

4 Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes or until juices run clear, basting chicken with sauce occasionally.

5 Remove breasts and bring sauce to boil. Boil until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Return chicken to reheat and serve with sauce.

Note: I kept Lucy Waverman's recipe pretty much as-is because it was so delicious. The only change I made was to double the amount of sauce because I really enjoy my sauce. If it's too much for you, though, you can always store or freeze the rest to use on grains, fish, or as a bang-up sandwich spread (imagine it with chicken salad!)

Creamy Barley with Tomatoes and Greens

It takes a lot for a recipe to make it into my regular repertoire. As the years go by, it seems that there are more and more hurdles a dish has to jump over before I’ll make it on a consistent basis.

In grad school, my criteria were delicious, quick and easy (though during exam time,  ‘not moldy yet’ would suffice.)  As I grew up, started experimenting and became more health conscious, ‘healthy’ and ‘versatile’ crept up the list. When I got married and had to actually cook on a regular basis, ‘ingredients that are already in the pantry’  and ‘freezes well’ became big ones. And now, with the birth of little M., I’ve added ‘baby food friendly’ to the list. Now, not many recipes make it through all these hoops, so when one does, it deserves a special hurrah.

That’s why I’m calling this barley pilaf the Weeknight Superhero.

I know it seems pretty humble. After all, barley isn’t the sexiest grain out there, and spinach and canned tomatoes don’t hold a candle to slow roasted tomatoes or beet walnut pesto. But trust me on this one. It’s not the individual ingredients but the melding of all those flavours together that make it noteworthy.  Of course, the addition of some flavour kickers like parmesan, garlic and sauteed onions help kick it up a notch too. It’s the perfect weeknight dish - warm, creamy, comforting and healthy to boot.

But the real beauty of this barley pilaf is just how flexible it is - it’s the ultimate kitchen sink recipe. You can throw in almost anything and it will still taste delicious. Have some corn on the cob left over from the summer bumper crop? Saute it in some olive oil throw it in with the spinach. Are the mushrooms in the back of the fridge starting to look suspicious? Add them in at the beginning,  with the onion and garlic. Too many leeks on hand?  Use one instead of the onion. I’ve also sauteed some diced peppers or some zucchini and added in with the spinach. If you wanted some protein, you could fill it out with some shredded rotisserie chicken at the end. It really is the Miss Congeniality of dinner recipes.

And if that weren’t enough, it freezes well, too. Just cool, scoop single servings into freezer bags, push the air out, and lay flat in the freezer. It’s great to take as a hot lunch or an instant dinner for one.

And finally - it’s perfect for little ones. Baby M loves this now that he can chew the barley, but you could also puree it down for younger babies. There’s nothing this Superhero can’t do.

Creamy Barley with Tomatoes and Greens

Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, finely chopped
salt and black pepper
2 cups pearl barley
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 cup good-tasting chicken stock
1 bag baby spinach (I have substituted frozen spinach in a pinch but I find it a bit stringy)
2 ounces Brie (rind removed), cut into small pieces
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, and garlic and cook, stirring frequently so it doesn’t burn, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes.

1. Add the barley, tomatoes, stock, and 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

1. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the barley is tender, around 30 minutes. Add a little water if it starts looking dry.

1. Add the baby spinach leaves, Brie, and ¼ cup of the Parmesan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is tender, 3 to 4 minutes.

1. Divide among bowls and sprinkle with the remaining ¼ cup of Parmesan.

Serves 4.

Creamy Amaranth Porridge

Amaranth porridge with figs and walnuts

I’m of the opinion that if you live in Canada, you have two choices. You can bitch and moan about how hot it is in summer, or you can bitch and moan about how cold it is in winter (I guess a third choice would be not to bitch and moan about the weather at all, but frankly, that’s just un-Canadian.)
 
I am of the bitch-and-moan-during-winter persuasion. Even though I’ve lived here my whole life, the first day of winter never fails to shock me like a cold shower. I emerge from my car, tugging my woefully flimsy cardigan around me, trying in vain to keep the wind from whipping my hair, and I think, ‘Here we go again.’

But summer? Summer, I love. I love lazy, languid strolls past shops with open doors. I love sitting on the steps watching the ants go about their busy work. I love hurriedly licking popsicles while they drip purple pools on the sidewalk.

But this year, even I’m starting to get tired. Tired of the way my car feels like the inside of a barbecue if I’m parked for even ten minutes. Tired of sun always blazing down on my neck, even if it’s only 10 am. Tired of sticky skin and puffy hair and stretched-out jersey dresses.

So today, I’m going to wake up early, when it’s still nice and cool out. And I’m going to pretend that it’s a perfect crisp fall day. I’m going to make myself a bowl of warming, stick-to-your-ribs amaranth porridge and a cup of steaming chocolate tea. And for a few minutes, I will try to forget that there’s a heat alert and a smog alert and that it will be 33 degrees outside in a few short hours. I will just take a bite of that creamy, warming porridge topped with figs and dream of days to come.

Creamy Amaranth Porridge

Adapted from Julie Daniluk's Meals That Heal Inflammation (a great, information packed book, by the way)

Serves 2

⅔ cup amaranth
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
Fruit and nuts for topping
Maple syrup or honey

Directions:

1. Pour amaranth into a saucepan that has a thick bottom (to prevent burning.) Turn heat to medium and toast amaranth, stirring frequently, until the grains become a golden brown colour and they give off a nutty, roasted scent.

2. Take off heat and add water, milk and cinnamon. Return to heat.

3. Once the mixture is heated through, turn to low heat and cover. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes or so to make sure the amaranth doesn’t stick to the pot. The amaranth is ready once all the liquid has been absorbed.

4. Pour into bowls, drizzle with maple syrup and top with fruit and nuts (I used figs and walnuts to complement the earthy taste of the amaranth. Blueberries, peaches, apples and pears work well too.)

Note: As I mentioned in my previous post, amaranth makes great leftovers. Just store remainder in an airtight container and warm it up in the microwave the next day along with a little milk.

Supermarket Snack Hacks: Yogurt, The Final Frontier

Yesterday's leftovers reincarnated for dinner tonight: quinoa in a parmesan-pea yogurt sauce, topped with roast chicken, tomatoes and grilled asparagus.

So, you've read the other entries in this series, and now you’re buying plain yogurt from the grocery store and jazzing it up with cinnamon, cocoa powder and coffee, right? Of course you are. But, you ask, what about savoury options, Ms. Hedonist? Can I extend my Yogurt Repertoire even further?

Well, ask and ye shall receive. Here is the last in my Supermarket Snack Hack series on yogurt: The Final (Savoury) Frontier.

Yogurt + Guacamole
I love, love, LOVE guacamole. I wish that restaurants served guacamole with a side order of nachos instead of the other way around. It’s pale green deliciousness, people. But did you know that, according to the Hass avocado site, one serving is one-fifth of an avocado? That’s right. Apparently, you should invite four of your friends over, huddle around that avocado, and slowly savour it together.

Well, I have a better solution. I like to add some plain yogurt to my guacamole to make it go a bit further and to up the protein factor. That way, I get my avocado fix without inhaling enough of the stuff to feed ten people. Another one of my favourite tricks is to add yogurt to guac, thin it out with a little water, and use it as a sauce for quinoa, brown rice, soba noodles - whatever. It amps up the flavour and creaminess of a dish, making it totally indulgent tasting. Really, you can add a little pimped-out yogurt to any grain and make a delicious sauce (see my dinner, above.)

Yogurt + Onion Dip
This is A’s favourite savoury snack. Instead of buying refrigerated dip, he just adds onion dip powder to plain yogurt and voila! A low fat dip for veggies (or to counteract those potato chips.)

Yogurt + Tuna
Sometimes I’ll replace the mayo in tuna salad with plain yogurt. The tartness of the yogurt is refreshing and lends itself well to a number of unique mix-ins: try tuna and yogurt with apple, cumin powder or garam masala and a few squirts of lemon juice. Perfect in a pita as a weekday lunch.

Yogurt as a Sandwich Spread
Building on the tuna idea, yogurt can make a great sandwich spread. One of my favourite ways to spice it up is to add in some cumin, coriander and garam masala, and then spread it in a whole wheat wrap along with some tandoori chicken, lettuce and tamarind chutney. Or add some lemon juice and garlic and make your own tzatziki sauce - it will take that dry grilled chicken sandwich up a few notches. You could add anything, really - fresh shredded ginger and powdered cumin, pesto and sundried tomatoes, or mango chutney and chile powder. It's a perfect carrier for all sorts of flavours.

Over to you - how else do you use your yogurt?

Slow Roasted Tomato Basil Spaghetti

I’ve always wanted to be in an infomercial. In fact, I’ve always wanted to host an infomercial. I’d like to be one of those women with the mousy hair and button down shirts that follows the ‘chef’ around as he whips up creations with his latest gadget, exclaiming, ‘Oooh! My kids would go crazy for those peanut butter flapjacks!’ or, ‘This is the BEST ham-and- mushroom-soup casserole I have EVER tasted!’ I’d even settle for being one of the members of the audience that enthusiastically nods on cue or murmurs to my neighbour in commiseration about how hard it is to get the omelet out of the pan.

The energy level of the infomercial has always amazed me. How can they possibly muster that level of fake excitement over a sandwich maker or a food dehydrator? Have they ever walked outside? Seen a thunderstorm? Had a baby? There are plenty of things in life that require that level of excitement, but a panini press isn’t one of them.

The one kitchen tool that I would happily get that enthusiastic about, though, is the oven. ‘Well, yes,’ you say, ‘I’m sure people were excited about it…200 years ago.’ But see, my love affair with the oven is fairly recent. Up until a few years ago, I cooked everything on the stove. For some reason, the oven intimidated me – I liked things I could stir and watch constantly, like a curry or a soup or a scrambled egg.

Then I discovered roasting and my whole life changed. This is the part of the infomercial where I would get up from the audience, grab the mic and say, “Hi, I’m Maureen, a dental hygienist from Ohio, and I’ve got to say, Ron, your invention of the oven has changed my life! Just a half hour in the oven, and my vegetables are bursting with flavour! My fruits are caramelized and golden! Now my husband loves my cooking!”

And it’s true. It all began by throwing some sad-looking February tomatoes in the oven. I wasn’t expecting much, but I didn’t have anything else in the pantry, so what the hell, right? Chop up some tomatoes, a squirt of olive oil, a pool of balsamic, some salt and pepper. Whatever.

Oh, my.

I can confidently say that those were the best tomatoes I have ever had. Meltingly spicy and sweet at the same time, velvety smooth and swimming in their own sauce. All I had to do was ladle them over pasta and sprinkle some basil and some goat cheese on top. They formed a lovely rose sauce with the cheese, and with a glass of Pinot, they were the perfect escape from a February day. Oven, you have won me over.

Now I make that recipe a few times a month, winter or summer. It is the easiest recipe I have, but somehow it always ends up elegant and absolutely bursting with flavour. This will become your go-to recipe for the summer, or your money back (shipping and handling not included.)

Slow Roasted Tomato Basil Spaghetti

Adapted from this recipe.

Note: This recipe is endlessly forgiving. Throw in cumin powder instead of the coriander powder, swap in coriander leaves for the basil; it will still taste delicious.

Ingredients

• 12 oz (340 g) spaghetti
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil, approx
• 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 4 -5 medium tomatoes (still on the vine), cut into 1” chunks (I cut them in half, and then each half into quarters) (about 1 lb/500 g)
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 tsp dried coriander powder (I like mine more heavily spiced)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large pinch hot pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In 13- x 9-inch metal cake pan or roasting pan, toss together tomatoes, garlic, oil, vinegar, coriander powder, salt and hot pepper flakes. Roast in oven until tomatoes have collapsed and have released their juice, about 30 – 40 minutes. Make sure to take them out every 10 minutes or so and give them a good stir so the juices don’t burn.

When tomatoes are almost done, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but firm, 8 to 10 minutes.

Drain spaghetti. Add the tomatoes to the pot and mix it up. Plate and sprinkle generously with goat cheese and basil.

Serves 4 (though A. and I usually seem to gobble it up greedily in one sitting.)

  

Notes on changes/substitutions:

• If you don’t have a cake pan or a roasting pan, you can use a rimmed cookie sheet – just make sure you stir the tomatoes around frequently as the sauce will burn more easily in a shallow pan.
• The longer you roast the tomatoes at a lower heat, the more luscious they will become. If I have nothing to do on lazy Sunday, I will set the oven at 200 and let it go for four hours. The tomatoes transform into syrupy caramelized manna and the house will smell like a Tuscan restaurant. Sometimes I even preheat the oven to 350, turn it off and leave the tomatoes inside as I run errands – that way I can come home to the perfect dinner.
• If your baby, like mine, loves flavour, give these tomatoes a whirl in the blender and they make the perfect baby food (just leave out the red pepper flakes.)

Supermarket Snack Hacks – Plain Yogurt

Fresh cherries in coffee-chocolate flavoured yogurt. See? I told you yogurt wasn't boring.

As I promised in this post, I am back with a list of ideas on how to add some snazz to your plain yogurt.  Since most flavoured yogurts include sugar and fillers, a much better option is to buy plain yogurt that you doctor up yourself. It may may seem as dull as mud, but the trick is to think of it as a blank canvas. Because of its creamy texture and mild flavour, plain yogurt is the ultimate versatile ingredient. With a few easy switch-ups, there are a ton of possibilities! I’ll present a few of my favourites in the coming days – hopefully some of them will be new to you. I'll start with some sweet options:

Yogurt + baby food

Say what?!? You heard me, baby food. If you want your fruit-on-the-bottom fix, this is the way to do it. Baby fruit purees are essentially the same as the fruit in the fruit-flavoured yogurt but without all the pseudo-sugars and yucky additives. Keep some in the fridge and you can mix it in with your yogurt in a snap. As with many flavoured products, stick to the basic flavours - the more exotic ones (pomegranate, mango, lychee) are usually mostly apple or banana anyway. 

Yogurt + fruit puree

If the thought of taking baby food to the office is mortifying, try fruit purees, which are usually beside the puddings in the supermarket. The ones with no sugar added are a perfect complement to yogurt.

Yogurt + jam
Another great mix-in is plain old fruit jam, which is basically the fruit on the bottom without the additives. Deee-licious, people. Just watch how much of that jam you spoon in as it is very high in sugar (a teaspoon is usually enough.) Also, choose a jam that lists fruit first in the list of ingredients (you'd be surprised how many have more sugar than fruit!)

Yogurt + frozen fruit
My favourite way to jazz up plain yogurt for work is to pop in some frozen fruit before I leave in the morning. By the time I am ready for my snack, the fruit has thawed, leaving all the delicious juices to meld with the yogurt and make it really tasty. You can do this the night before and keep the yogurt in the fridge for a really flavourful snack, or even do 5 of them assembly-line style on Sunday night for the week ahead - it takes 5 minutes, tops. I always buy the pre-chopped frozen fruit to make things as simple as possible, and if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll top with nuts, honey, vanilla...whatever I have handy. Instant parfait. 

Yogurt + coffee (+ chocolate...)
There's lots of different options if you are among the fruit-averse. Pour some of your morning coffee into your yogurt, or mix some instant coffee with water and a touch of sugar and add it in. If you're feeling adventurous, add some cocoa powder or even some dark chocolate chips - it's a creamy, indulgent snack with zero guilt.

Yogurt + chai spices
I love me a cup of Indian tea, and I like to add chai spices to everything. Add some cinnamon, a touch of nutmeg (not too much - it's strong!),  some ground cardamom, and some honey to your yogurt for a refreshing summer take on chai.

Yogurt + mango
When I was pregnant, I was craving mango lassis (Indian milkshakes) almost every five minutes - I'm surprised Baby M. wasn't born yellow. I still make them every once in a while - they are refreshing, icy and absolutely delicious. Just whiz some yogourt, honey, ice, mango, milk and a pinch of salt in the blender. If you are using canned mango, skip the honey as it often has added sugar. 

Now, tell me that each of these options doesn't sound infinitely better than your plain old strawberry fruit-on-the-bottom! And the best part is, you can come up with millions more creative ideas that are just as delicious. What are your favourites?

Rotini with Beet Walnut Pesto

Friends, I had high hopes this week. In my continuing quest to keep the baby, but lose the weight, I committed to find that perfect healthy baked good. I went to great lengths. Squares, bars, muffins. Whole wheat flour, spelt flour, rice flour. Chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds.

I am sorry to report that my experiments in baking have gone awry. I am saddened, but not altogether surprised, to admit that no amount of chocolate or peanut butter can hide the presence of chickpeas in a muffin. In fact, the originally delicious peanut butter chocolate muffin ends up tasting like it has been dipped in hummus. Not good.

Fortunately for us all, I have a great recipe to fall back on – one that does not involve chickpeas in any form. It does involve beets. But they are not hidden in a brownie, or whipped into a ganache. They are loud and proud and in your face. And they are delicious.

I was late to the beet love-in. Sure, I read all those locavores and hippies waxing on about heirloom varieties and lush beet greens, but I just didn’t buy it. Beets looked like bloody pulp, and from what I heard, they tasted like soil. I might as well just dig into the chickpea muffin.

But then I got beets in my CSA box a couple of summers ago, and decided to try the roasted beet and goat cheese salads everyone was raving about. Whoo boy. I got on that beet bandwagon real quick.


So when I saw this recipe, I couldn’t resist. Doesn’t it look fancy and dramatic? Something you could serve at a dinner party and say, off-handedly, ‘Oh, this old thing? I picked up the recipe from Chef So-and-So in New York,’ and people would believe you. But the truth is, it’s dead easy. AND you can double batch it and freeze it in single portions in the freezer. AND you can even take some out a few steps early and serve it to baby. (Baby M likes it - but be forewarned - beets are best served to baby when both of you are covered in those toxic materials suits. And maybe put some plastic on the floor. And the walls.)

Adapted from this recipe.

Rotini With Beet Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:
1 pound red beets with greens, scrubbed
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
Bulb of garlic
Red-pepper flakes
12 ounces whole wheat rotini
1/2 cup goat cheese (you can substitute low-fat ricotta if you are counting calories, but the goat cheese does give it an extra edge that I think completes the dish)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Drizzle beets with oil and season with salt. Wrap tightly in foil.
2. Cut top off garlic and brush with olive oil. Wrap tightly in foil. Trim greens off of beets and set aside. Put both the beets and garlic in the oven and roast until tender, 1 hour. Peel and chop beets once cool.
3. Pulse beets, walnuts in food processor or blender until smooth. Squeeze in half the bulb of roasted garlic and season with salt and red-pepper flakes. Blend until mixed.
4. Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup water, and return to pot.
5. While pasta is cooking, saute beet greens in one tablespoon olive oil and two cloves of the roasted garlic. Season to taste.
6. Toss with beet mixture, adding pasta water until creamy. Serve with goat cheese, sauteed beet greens, and red-pepper flakes.

Serves 4


Notes:
If serving to baby, take out beet puree before adding in walnuts and red pepper flakes.
You will be left with a little extra roasted garlic. Toss it in soup, or spread it on toast the next day. It’s delicious!