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This is an adaptation of a recipe my Dad has always made, which itself is an adaptation from Betty Crocker. It’s a very flexible recipe. If you hate raisins, substitute dried cherries or chopped dried apricots. Add chocolate chips if you like. Or coconut. Use your favourite blend of nuts and seeds. Increase or decrease the spices.

It’s a big recipe (double the original) but the cookies do freeze well. I think the vegan ones are a little crumblier than non-vegan so be careful when carrying/shipping them.

I cut the sugar quite a bit from the original already. You could probably cut slightly more depending on your sweet tooth. The raisins do add a lot of sweetness.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups coconut oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 T ground flaxseeds + 6 T water
1/2 cup water
2 t vanilla
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 t salt
1 T cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1 t nutmeg
1 t allspice
1 T dried ginger
2 cups raisins
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup wheat germ
6 cups rolled oats

Heat oven to 350F.

Mix flaxseeds and 6 T water in a small bowl; set aside 10 minutes.

Mix thoroughly coconut oil, sugars, 1/2 cup water and vanilla. Add flaxseed mixture when ready.

In separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients except rolled oats. Add to web mixture and mix thoroughly. Mix in oats. (It can be easier to add the oats in two or three parts – the last addition will be hardest to mix in.)

Using your hands, create packed cookie shapes (dropped spoonfuls might work instead, or might not hold together) and bake 12 to 15 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched with finger.

Or – add raw dough to banana soft serve for cookie dough ice cream. (I didn’t do this but should have.)

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It was a rainy, rainy morning here in Toronto, so of course my thoughts turned to oatmeal. I’d had success with pumpkin butter oatmeal recently so I figured, why not skip a step?

When I make oatmeal for a weekday breakfast I either make instant at work (Nature’s Path maple nut mixed with Ruth’s hemp and chia cereal) or I go all the way and make steel-cut oats at home and carry to work in a Thermos. Steel-cut take a good 20 minutes to cook but if you cook them while you’re getting ready for work, they’re actually more convenient because they cook so slowly. My recipe is a 1:4 ratio – boil 1 1/3 cups water with salt and stir in 1/3 cup steel-cut oats, then simmer until tender.

Once the oats were cooked, I stirred in some cooked butternut squash. (Cut in half, scoop out seeds, roast face down on a parchment-lined sheet at 375F until tender, then scrape out flesh.) If you puree the squash in a food processor it will be smoother, but I kind of like it lumpy. You could use canned as well here. I put in between 1/2 and 1 cup (wasn’t measuring):

And stirred it in. Add molasses and maple syrup:

And spices (here: cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger):

And hemp seeds:

Stir together well. Close-up:

Then, if you’re transporting the oatmeal, transfer into your Thermos. I like to pre-heat mine with some boiling water so it’s not cold from the cupboard.

Topped with a few pecans and ready to go!

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