Steel-Cut Oats with Apples & Raisins

First off, if the word "raisins" is scaring you away from this post, don't let it, they are optional! 

A few months ago I posted another oatmeal recipe.  Both the recipe I'm sharing with you today and that one are from Annie's Eats food blog. I have never been a huge oatmeal lover but have been determined to find some ways that I do like it because it's a healthy and filling way to start the day! Steel-cut oats are by far the healthiest form of oat since they include the whole oat grain. Steel-cut oats are just oat berries cut in about half. Because steel-cut oats are so hearty, they cook just a little longer than your average oatmeal (about 20 minutes). But the results are worth every extra minute. If you truly find yourself not having enough time to make them, then you could have this for a quick dinner with an omelet and yogurt.  You won't be sorry you made this oatmeal no matter what time of day you make it!

What I love about this particular recipe is, well, a few things: 1) the hearty-ness of the oats, 2) the fact it's cooked with milk and water, it makes it more creamy, 3) the crisp touch of apple, and 4) the sweet touch of the raisins and maple syrup. I used to gag over oatmeal that was soggy and saturated in brown sugar and milk to make it a little more bearable to eat. But this oatmeal is not soggy at all which is one thing I have always hated about oatmeal (the other recipe I mentioned above is another non-soggy, yummy-in-your-tummy oatmeal too). And I felt no need to add any milk to my bowl of oatmeal, but it surely wouldn't hurt it if you'd like to!

Enjoy a filling breakfast and a happy morning! 
 

Steel-Cut Oats with Apples and Raisins
Printable Version
Ingredients:
3 cups water
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup steel-cut oats
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon (I like Saigon cinnamon for it’s extra strong flavor)
1 apple, peeled, cored and grated
⅓ cup raisins (optional, but recommended if you like them)
¼ cup maple syrup

Directions:
Combine water and milk in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a 10-12 inch skillet over medium heat.  Add the oats and toast, stirring occasionally, until golden -- about 2 minutes (you can skip this step but still add the butter to the milk mixture if you are in a hurry).

Stir the toasted (or un-toasted) oats into the simmering liquid.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer until the mixture is very thick, about 20 minutes.  Stir in the salt, cinnamon, apple, raisins and maple syrup.  Continue to simmer for just a minute or two more stirring occasionally, until all of the liquid has been absorbed and the oatmeal is creamy.

Serve with milk on top or just how it is. It’s great either way!

Yield: 3-5 servings

Recipe Source: Annie's Eats, via America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook

Classic Glazed Doughnuts {Crispy & Creamy}

 

Can I just say "WOAH!"? Homemade doughnuts are.to.die.for.  Seriously! Until this weekend we've never attempted to make traditional fried doughnuts! We'd tried baked doughnuts and were thoroughly disappointed with the results of that recipe. And then my husband and I decided that  if we were going to be eating doughnuts we weren't really going for a health factor, since doughnuts aren't listed on the list of top 10 superfoods or anything.  So why waste calories on baked doughnuts when you can have melt in your mouth, creamy, and crispy doughnuts for just as much effort?  I don't see any reason to!  

I found this recipe via pinterest. The picture linked me to allrecipes.com where I saw this recipe had 4.5 stars (out of 5) and had 790 reviews. I read some reviews and decided if 790 people gave this that high of a rating then I really had nothing to loose!  We had wanted to invite some friends over for doughnuts but we afraid they wouldn't turn out good enough to serve to guests. We were ever so wrong to be afraid! They turned out perfect! So we took them to some friends and family and then my husband took the rest to work to share with his buddies.  

The dough is similar to bread dough in that it's yeast based and you knead it by hand or with a mixer and it rises a few times.  The difference is that it has more sugar, eggs, milk,  and butter mixed into the dough. After you prepare the dough (I have very specific instructions below how to do everything in this recipe) you let it rise, then you roll the dough out and cut with cookie cutters, a doughnut cutter, or into bars or squares with a pizza cutter. They rise one more time, and then are fried in hot oil.  Then glazed and devoured!  It's a little time consuming. But the results are worth it! 

Making homemade doughnuts will be a yearly summer and/or fall tradition at our house.  We kind of hate the smell of frying in the house so we did it outside on our camp-stove in the dutch oven (see my notes below for more on that)! I deem these doughnuts Krispy Kreme quality! Maybe even better than Krispy Kreme because they are homemade, and that makes everything better, right?

Now what are you waiting for? Go make some doughnuts!  

Classic Glazed Doughnuts {Crispy & Creamy}

Printable Version

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons instant yeast

¼ cup warm water

1 ½ cups lukewarm milk

½ cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

⅓ cup butter

5-6 cups all-purpose flour

1 quart vegetable oil for frying

Glaze:

⅓ cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons hot water (or as needed)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together the yeast (unless you are using dry active yeast, then proof yeast in the warm water and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes or until foamy), water, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for a few minutes with stand mixer on low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon if you don’t have a mixer. Mix until smooth. Beat in remaining flour ½ cup at a time, until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl (you don't have to stick to the 5-6 cups, I judge the dough by the way it cleans the sides of the bowl, once it does that you know you have enough flour). Knead for about 5 minutes on high speed, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it and an indentation remains.

2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter, cookie cutter, or simply into squares or rectangles with a pizza cutter. Let doughnuts sit on the floured surface to rise again until double (30-40 minutes). Cover loosely with a clean towel.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.

4. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F. Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula or metal tongs (don’t squish them with the tongs). Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface (they may not sink, and that’s okay - yeast produces lots of air and makes them rise to the top). Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack. Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess. Keep a cookie sheet or tray under racks for easier clean up.

Notes:

-You can make the doughnuts first and let them cool and dip them into the warm glaze too. Depends on if you want a fresh, hot doughnut. 

-Also I didn’t have a candy thermometer. My meat thermometer only goes to 300 degrees and I didn’t want to ruin it by dipping it into hot oil. So what we did was cook these outside on our gas camp stove (I hate the smell of fried oils in my house) in our Dutch oven. We heated the oil on medium and it was too hot, I tested it by throwing a small blob of dough in and it turned dark brown fast. I ripped it open and the middle of the doughnut was still doughy but the outside was really too brown.  So we added more oil and turned the heat off for a while, since oil takes a long time to cool off. After I added almost twice the oil it was the right temperature, as it cooled we turned the gas stove back on to low and that was perfect. It takes about 20-30 seconds per side to cook the doughnut through and still be golden brown on the outside.

Recipe Source: lightly adapted from Allrecipes found via Pinterest.

Stuffed Zuchinni Boats

 Another summer favorite around here is Stuffed Zucchini Boats!  Listen up you Gluten-Free eaters, this one can be for you too!  

Have you found yourself with a plethora of zucchini this summer?  If you don't have a garden maybe you are getting some from your friend. Or maybe you simply buy them at the gardener's market or grocery store. Zucchini is a summer favorite at our house, and I'm always on the hunt for new ways to serve it.  

We usually use zucchini in my recipe for zucchini saute or zucchini brownies, or zucchini bread, or zucchini patties. But now we have yet another tried-and-true way to serve this.  I might post another recipe for zucchini boats too, because we like them a few different ways. 

This recipe called for ground turkey, which I really liked.  I loved the herb combination of basil and rosemary and the wonderful flavor of fresh Parmesan cheese!  


Stuffed Zucchini Boats
Printable Version
Ingredients:
1 zucchini, about a foot long (or you can use 2 about half that size
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
½ cup onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons chicken broth
2-3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (or 1 heaping teaspoon dried basil)
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary (or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary)
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Directions:
Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides, leaving an outer shell about ¼-inch thick.  Reserve about half of the insides and set aside.

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until tender and fragrant, about 3-5 minutes.  Add the reserved zucchini insides to the skillet and sauté another 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Crumble in the ground turkey and cook until thoroughly cooked, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the cooked onion and zucchini insides mixture.  Add the chicken broth  to the pan along with the tomatoes, basil and rosemary.  Cook for 1 more minute.  Drain off any excess fat and water (from cooking), remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Once the turkey mixture has cooled a bit, mix in the Parmesan cheese, egg, salt and pepper.  Fill the zucchini shells with the mixture.  Fill a 9x13 baking dish with about  ¼-inch of water.  Place the filled zucchini shells in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown.  Remove the zucchini from the pan and serve immediately.

*If you have extra mixture that won’t fit in your shells, either use more zucchini or grease a small custard dish and bake it along with the zucchini boats.

Recipe Source: adapted from Annie's Eats.

Jicama Orange Salsa

 Let's not even talk about the fact that I haven't blogged in almost 2 months. I know, I know, it's shameful. But we have been soaking up the summer. We surely have been enjoying some new and delicious recipes this summer, but I must be stuffing my face too much to even take time to write about them. Consider me back, I have countless pictures of lots of recipes I want to share with you and preserve for myself!  

I subscribe to emails from one of my friends recipe blogs, and this recipe for Jicama Orange Salsa showed up in my inbox one afternoon, and I decided I had to make it asap. I got all the ingredients that next day and made it. Usually when I see a recipe I want to make, I pin it, or bookmark it and think I'll try that one day. But this one sounded so good, I seriously was about running to the grocery store.  I was glad I did too! We gobbled the first batch up quickly and made more just 2 days later!  

Served with tortilla chips the fresh crunch of the jicama and the juiciness of the oranges is what had me hooked. The other flavors of cilantro, tomatillos (they look like green tomatoes, and are very mild in flavor), jalapeno, and onion blend together in a unbelievable harmony! Even my husband who isn't a fan of many non-traditional salsas (especially sweet ones) was loving this one! I seeded the jalapeno so there really wasn't any heat, if you want some heat feel free to leave some seeds in!

Enjoy another fresh taste of summer! 

 

Jicama Orange Salsa
Printable Version
Ingredients:
2 medium oranges, peeled and chopped into small bits
1 cup jicama, chopped
½ cup tomatillo, chopped
½ cup red onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons jalapenos, finely chopped

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and chill for a few hours. Serve with tortilla chips as a side.

Other serving ideas: Have grilled chicken with the salsa  served on top of steamed rice.

Recipe Source: Candi's Recipe Collection