Oats | Eat Your Heart Out

Maple Granola with Pomegranate and Honeyed Greek Yogurt

January 9, 2013 by Stephie 12 Comments

This is the time of year when I start to feel a little sorry for myself whenever I walk through the produce section at the grocery store.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy citrus and apples as much as anyone else, but I always still miss the beautiful fruits of summer.

But the one piece of winter produce that I just can’t get enough of? Pomegranates. They’re just so beautiful, bright and fun.

So when my friends over at Chobani sent me a case of their 2% and 0% plain Greek yogurt, I knew I wanted to use it with some of those beautiful pomegranates I’ve been obsessing over.

Tangy, honeyed Greek yogurt. Sweet and crunch maple granola. Bright, tart pomegranate. That’s a breakfast that will make you feel good without feeling like you’ve over-indulged.

Ps – Did you know that there’s a super-simple trick for seeding pomegranates without making an enormous mess? Quarter the pomegranate. Fill a bowl with cold water. Then seed the pomegranate quarters under the water. The seeds will fall to the bottom while the pith floats to the top. So easy!

Granola adapted from White Jacket Required.

Maple Granola with Pomegranate and Honeyed Greek Yogurt

Yield: About 6 cups of granola

Ingredients

For the granola:

1 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2½ cups rolled oats
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup ground flax seed
½ cup slivered almonds
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Sprinkle of sea salt

For the rest:

1 6-ounce container plain Greek yogurt (low or non-fat)
2 tablespoons honey
Seeds of 1 large pomegranate

Instructions

Make the granola:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine the maple syrup and coconut oil. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the rest of the granola ingredients. Drizzle with the hot syrup mixture and stir well to coat.
Spread granola on the prepared baking sheet and bake, stirring every 5-7 minutes, until the granola is golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Assemble:

Combine the Greek yogurt with 1-2 tablespoons of honey, or to taste. Top with some of the granola and the pomegranate seeds.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Snacks Tagged With: Almonds, Breakfast, Gluten-free, granola, Greek yogurt, Healthy, Oats, Pecans, Snacks, Vegetarian

Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers

September 24, 2012 by Stephie 7 Comments

Umm…is it Friday yet?

No? Well, shoot.

I have to make a confession to you: Lately, my weekday meals have been a little on the sad side.

Now, weekends are a different story. Weekends have become my time to work on recipes for the blog, which means that I eat pretty well on Saturday and Sunday.

But during the week? Not so much.

I think a lot of it has to do with my new job. Don’t get me wrong – I love this job more than I even thought possible. But I have been working my @$$ off, and with a variety of other things happening in the evenings, I’m exhausted by the time I get home. I’m lucky to bother doing anything aside from collasping in bed, much less making a balanced meal for just myself.

So I’ve been trying to come up with things that I can make over the weekends and then either freeze for later or eat throughout the week. Chicken and noodles were an option recently. And last week I decided to give these Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers a try.

This recipe makes 8 decent-sized burgers, which means that there is enough to eat and put into the freezer for later meals. Just cook ‘em, let ‘em cool, and wrap ‘em up. Then just let ‘em thaw before reheating in a skillet. Easy. And quick…just what I’m looking for these days!

And hey…remember that taco seasoning from last week?

Yep, that’s totally going in these bad boys.

Adapted from Edible Perspective

Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers

Yield: 8 burgers

Ingredients

1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cups cubed sweet potatoes (skin on), cooked
½ cup fresh or frozen corn
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 4-ounce can green chilis
½ cup cooked quinoa
6 tablespoons rolled oats
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
½ teaspoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon taco seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mash half of the black beans completely. Add in the remainder of the beans, lightly mashing just to combined (less than half of the beans should be left whole).
In a large bowl, mash the cooked sweet potato until each piece is mashed, but the mixture is not creamy.
In a food processor, pulse the rolled oats several times until the oats are mostly ground – you are looking for some of the mixture to be a flour consistency, while the rest is small pieces of oats.
Add the onion, green chilis, corn, black beans, quinoa, flaxseed, ground oats, salt, taco seasoning and olive oil to the sweet potatoes, mixing until just combined. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and/or taco seasoning as needed.
Using a ½-cup measuring cup, portion the mixture into 8 balls. Flatten the balls into ½-inch thick patties, placing them on the prepared sheet pan.
Bake for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes.
Serve warm with your favorite fixings!

Notes

To refrigerate or freeze burgers: Place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Store burgers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days; alternatively, wrap individual burgers first in plastic wrap, then in foil, and place in a zip-top bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, allow frozen burgers to thaw completely. Head in a lightly greased pan over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes per side, or until heated through.

Filed Under: Main dish, Sandwiches Tagged With: Allergy friendly, beans, Gluten-free, Healthy, Main dish, Oats, Quinoa, Sandwich, sweet potatoes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Peach Crisp Baked Oatmeal: Guest Post on The Realistic Nutritionist

August 28, 2012 by Stephie 3 Comments

Happy Tuesday, guys!

I hope everyone is having a great start to your week. I have a real treat for you this morning: today I am guest posting for Claire over at The Realistic Nutritionist with this awesome Peach Crisp Baked Oatmeal.

You read that right. Peach crisp. And baked oatmeal. Together at last.

But that’s all I’m going to say about it for now! Hustle on over to Claire’s blog to get the full scoop and check out her awesome site!

Filed Under: Breakfast Tagged With: Breakfast, Fruit, Guest post, Healthy, Oats, Summer

Kathleen’s Banana Oatmeal Muffins

June 13, 2012 by Stephie 5 Comments

Ok, ok, I know banana muffins aren’t a very summery thing to be posting right now. They’re one of those things that you generally think about making in the fall after the farmer’s markets close down, or early in the spring before the strawberries make their first appearance.

But the other day I was really, really craving banana muffins. And guess what? I had 3 bananas hanging out in my freezer, which was the exact amount I needed to make my friend Kathleen’s favorite banana bread recipe.

Guys, these muffins came out of the oven and, before I knew what was happening, I had ~~eaten~~ inhaled three. It was at that moment that I realized I absolutely must pack up the rest to take to work, or else we would have a banana muffin binge situation on our hands. Not pretty.

These are seriously some of the the best banana muffins I have ever eaten. They are incredibly soft and (please don’t hate me) moist, and the combination of whole wheat flour and oatmeal makes them so nutty and perfect…these muffins are what I imagine would happen if an oatmeal cookie and a loaf of banana bread fell in love and made a baby.

Was that too weird? Sorry.

Furthermore, Banana-hating Boyfriend willingly ate more than one of these muffins. BAM.

A quick note about amounts here: I ended up making this into muffins instead of loaves, mostly because I knew I would never stop eating a loaf of bread but I might stand a chance at leaving muffins alone. At any rate, after nearly over-filling my muffin tin, I had more batter than I needed to make 12 standard-size muffins, so I ended up putting the rest in a little 4×4-inch casserole dish and cutting it into little bars. (Ps, you know what would be bonkers out-of-control amazing? Baking up the whole recipe in a cake or sheet pan and topping it off with some cream cheese frosting…just ponder on that for a while.) I’m guessing that you could get about 18 standard-size muffins if you don’t overfill your tins. If you would rather go the loaf route, I would opt for two 8×4-inch loaf pans, but, again, I haven’t done this myself yet, so if someone gives it a whirl, let me know how it goes.

Thanks for the recipe, Kathleen! It is definitely going to become one of my new regular recipes. =)

Kathleen’s Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Yield: Approximately 18 standard-size muffins, or two 8×4-inch loaves

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed
3 tablespoons buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
Optional (but strongly encouraged) add-ins: ½ cup each of raisins, roughly chopped pecans, chocolate chips or any combination of the above (I used raisins and pecans)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour loaf pans or muffin tins, or use muffin liners; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugar. Add in buttermilk, eggs, and baking soda, whisking until light yellow and thoroughly combined. Follow by whisking in the mashed bananas. Stir in flour and oatmeal until just combined and fold in any add-ins.
Pour batter into prepared baking vessel and bake for 1 hour for a loaf, or 25-30 minutes for muffins. Bread/muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool slightly before removing muffins from tin; allow a loaf to cool completely before removing from the pan (unless you want a big ol’ mess on your hands…).

Filed Under: Breads Tagged With: Baked goods, Bananas, Bread, Breakfast, Muffins, Oats, Whole wheat

Iced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

March 12, 2012 by Stephie 8 Comments

If you’re meeting someone upon whom you wish to make a good impression – like, say, your boyfriend’s parents – here are some things that you should probably do:

Shower. Comb your hair. Brush your teeth. Ya know, the basics. (I hope you’re doing these things every day anyway, but just in case…)

Put on a nice, clean outfit. Try to find one that doesn’t have too much cat hair on it. Perhaps just a moderate amount.

Brush up on your manners. Practice your “pleases”, “thank yous” and “can I help you with anythings”. Make sure they know your momma raised you right!

And it probably doesn’t hurt to take a batch of cookies with you.

Iced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Cookie recipe from Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients

For the cookies:

½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup oats (either quick-cooking or old fashioned)
½ cup raisins
½ cup sour cream

For the Cinnamon Vanilla Glaze

1¼ cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

Make the cookies:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.
With an electric mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy; add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and oats in a large bowl.
Add dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream to the butter and sugar mixture. Then, fold in the raisins.
Drop mixture by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Make the glaze:

Whisk together all ingredients until combined. Add more milk or more powdered sugar as needed to reach desired consistency. (I like to go all Jackson Pollock on mine, but you could make a thicker glaze for a more spreadable icing if desired.)

Notes

Even though I followed Jenna’s recipe exactly, my cookies spread much (much!) more than hers did, making for a lacier and darker cookie, which I actually ended up liking a lot. This may have been due to the fact that my butter was completely room temperature instead of just softened; either way, the spices here make this a great recipe, and I added a cinnamon glaze that really took them that extra step towards awesome.

Filed Under: Cookies Tagged With: Baked goods, Cookies, Dessert, Oats