muesli & slow cooker oatmeal

I've been making my own breakfast cereals lately.   I like store bought kinds, but they tend to be filled with sugar and cheap ingredients.  Muesli is great because it's a cold cereal that you can eat with milk as you would with any store bought kind, and it's easy and inexpensive to make at home.  I made mine in a 1/2 gallon mason jar that I rolled around on the carpet to mix. 





Muesli:
3 C oats
2 C whole grain or corn flakes
1 C raisins
1 C slivered almonds or nuts
1/4 C sesame seeds
1 t cinnamon
dried fruit (I dehydrated apples and berries this summer.)
other possible additions- barley flakes or any flaked grain, cardamom, cacao nibs, powdered ginger, pumpkin seeds

This is great with homemade almond milk.








You can cook steel cut oats in a Crockpot! I like them a lot, but the make a mess when they boil over on the stove top.  With the slow cooker you turn it on before you go to bed and in the morning you have breakfast waiting for you.  They don't boil over either.

Oatmeal:
1 C steel cut oats
4 C water
cook on low for 8 hours

flavorings: raisins, cinnamon, brown sugar
I also like to add strained almond pulp from making almond milk.  (I freeze it to be used later.)

If you live in Portland Bob's Red Mill Store is a great resource.  I bought whole oat groats (the entire grain, not cut into pieces or rolled) there which were great in the slow cooker. 

pick your own berrries on Sauvie Island

My boyfriend and I picked berries this weekend at Kruger's Farm on Sauvie island.  They have the best strawberries I've ever eaten (the small "Hood" variety).  We got 7 lbs of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries for $13.   Pick-your-own fruit is awesome because it's inexpensive, and you can get enough to make a batch of preserves or freeze some so you can eat them all year long.  A dehydrator is a nice thing to have too.  You can add dried berries to trail mixes or granola.  

During the hot months I trade out my usual oatmeal for cold cereal.  I made granola from this recipe on the Kitchen Sink Recipes blog that was fantastic with yogurt and fresh berries.  It's funny how granola is marketed as a health food, but you realize when you make it yourself how much sugar and oil it has.  I guess it depends on recipe.  Regardless, I'm totally sold on the idea of making my own breakfast cereals.  They're really cost effective to make and have so much more nutritional value than their store-bought counterparts.  I want to make muesli next time.  This recipe on the Etsy blog looks great. 

almond milk & mung bean sprouts

More cool and easy things to do in mason jars:

I use a 1/2 Gallon mason jar for almond milk.  Soak 1C of raw, unsalted, whole almonds overnight in a 1/4 gal water and in the morning pour it all in the blender and blend on high for 5-10 minutes.  Line a colander with cheesecloth, put it in a large bowl, and pour out the contents of the blender.  Wait for the liquid to drain out and squeeze any remaining milk out of the cheesecloth.  The strained almonds bits are great in oatmeal.  Pour it back into the mason jar and fill the rest of the way with water.  I usually add some sugar or honey.  Will keep refrigerated for a week.

You can find mung bean sprouts in the bulk section of natural food stores.  These are great raw on salads and sandwiches and in stir fry.  Add beans to the mason jar and fill water 1/2" from the top of the beans.  Let sit at room temp for several days covered and change the water 2 or 3 times a day.  Refrigerate when the root tails are 1/4" long.





refrigerator pickles & wilty greens

I've been making refrigerator pickles.  It's super easy.  For this jar I sliced 4 or 5 pickling cucumbers thin with my salad shooter along with some red onions (which later turned everything pink) and then added some red chili flakes and garlic.  I put a tablespoon or two of pickling salt in the mason jar and added all the chopped vegetables.  I poured in white vinegar till it covered everything, screwed on this lid, put in the frig, and in four days they were good to eat. 

I do this sometimes when I'm out of frig space.

Trim 1/2" off the stems and put in water like you would with flowers. Wilty greens will perk up in water.

date walnut snack bars

these always go fast ...

I started making these delicious energy bars a year ago.  They are way tastier and cheaper than any of the store bought kinds.  All you need is a food processor with a sharp blade, 1 C dates, 1 C walnuts, 1 t vanilla extract, 1 or 2 t cinnamon.  Put in processor and blend till nut particles are fairly small.  Remove mix from food processor and on a flat, clean surface press into a circle about 1- 1.5" thick.  Cut into wedges, and store in an airtight container.  I have not found it necessary to refrigerate these.  Great camping  food! 

Walnuts are the easiest to make these with because they're softer.  I used almonds in the ones above and the nuts are a bit chunkier than usual.  Almonds are harder nuts and they require a very sharp blade to process well.  I have also used cashews, pumpkin seeds, chocolate, and cardamom which are tasty additions as well.

molcajete

This is a molcajete, the traditional mortar and pestle tool of Mexico and Central America.  They've also been found at archaeological sites in the Southwest.  These have been used since ancient times for making salsa and grinding spices.  It is made of hard, porous volcanic rock.  My boyfriend's mom gave this to me.  It belonged to her grandmother and is around 100 years old.  If taken care of they can last for many generations and improve with age.  I love possessions like this.  The molcajete gives a texture to salsas that is far superior to the blender and also makes a beautiful bowl for presentation.  I only recently tried grinding spices in it.   (I didn't for a long time because I was afraid the flavor would linger.  It didn't though.)  Toasted cumin seeds for chili or cardamom pods for chai tea grind up easily and quickly from the rough surface (much faster than the common ceramic mortar and pestles.)  Grinding food between two stones is also just really fun- though I'm sure my boyfriend's great gradmother would have been grateful for the blender.

cardmom pods for chai tea grind up easily

orca beans from cherry sprout market

I bought these beans from Cherry Sprout on Albina.  They're so pretty I had to share a picture.  These even keep thier spots after being cooked.

stock from vegetable trimmings

I first read about this idea in the The Locavore's Handbook.  Instead of going into the compost pile, you can save your vegetable trimmings in a bag in the freezer.  When you fill it, simmer the contents on the stove for a half hour.  You then have stock for soups or risotto.  Its a great way to utilize all of those small center pieces or garlic (no peeling needed), celery greens, or parmesean rinds.

Here is a great article about this on the Portland Farmer's Market blog.