Wake and Bake: Baked Oatmeal

I live in an 1930s-ish apartment building.  The place is huge and rent is cheap, and the building is pretty poorly maintained.  I use space heaters and put plastic and blankets over the windows and it's still COLD in the morning.

Especially in the kitchen.  We leave those windows uncovered because that's where all the plants go in the winter.  So it's even colder in the kitchen.  I have actually avoided eating breakfast or making coffee on multiple occasions because it's just too cold in there.

We call our pantry "the walk-in" between October and March, if that helps.

This past November I went on a mission to find all kinds of tasty oven-cooked breakfasts that would give me an excuse to roll out of bed, turn on the oven, and defrost my kitchen.  The first thing I discovered - and the most common, to date - is baked oatmeal.

I LOVE baked oatmeal.  I can't believe that I lived for so many years without it.  This recipe is versatile and easy, very forgiving of substitutions, and I can make it when I am half asleep and it turns out tasty every time.

BEHOLD, ingredients:

Super Flexible Baked Oatmeal

This is for an 8x8 or 9x9 pan, feel free to double and stick it in a 9x13 - I often do.

1) Dry ingredients:

1.5 cups rolled oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

(salt and cinnamon are optional)

2) Wet ingredients:

At least two of these three:

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter or other fat

1/2 cup applesauce

I like to use all three, or egg and butter if I have no applesauce in the pantry.  You could probably make it with only applesauce (3/4 of a cup), but it would not be as tasty, and some fat is a good thing! If you omit or reduce fat considerably, you will need to grease the pan.

1/4 to 1/2 cup sweetener

(Depends on how sweet you want it to be.  Brown sugar, honey, maple syrup...whatever you have on hand is probably fine.  The 1/2 cup version tastes more like a cookie than a breakfast, but I think it pairs well with tangy yogurt.)

1/2 cup of liquid

I have used milk and apple juice, both worked great.  Non-milk milks (almond, soy, etc) would be fine.  Water might even be OK in a pinch.

1 tsp vanilla

(totally optional, don't fret if you're out)

3) Additions

1/4 - 1 cup of additions

Totally optional, whatever you have on hand.  I prefer walnuts and dried cranberries, but any dried fruit or nuts would be lovely.  If you use fresh fruit you may want to decrease your liquid slightly.

Steps:

I start by mixing dry ingredients:

Then mix in the wet ingredients, THEN my additions:

Then I put in my pan.  No need to grease unless you have decreased or omitted fat. 

It should be spreadable, but not liquidy.  Thicker than cake batter and thinner than cookie dough.  (Once I got it into the pan and it WOULD NOT spread because I had forgotten to add any liquid, at all.  The dangers of cooking before coffee...)  Anyway, you shouldn't have issues with the texture unless you've done A LOT of substituting.

Then bake for about 30 minutes.  When it's golden brown and just a bit crispy around the edges, it's good to go.

NOTE about serving:  If you insist on cutting it right away, it will crumble and be perfect served in a bowl with milk, or plain yogurt and a touch of honey.  If you let it cool all of the way, it will resemble actual bars and be good for portable snacking.  I love it when it's crumbly and warm paired with yogurt.  Perfect breakfast.

Total time: 45 minutes

Estimated cost: under $3 for my version, varies a lot based on the ingredients you use

Serves: 2-4 people for breakfast.  Maybe 6, if you serve with fruit and yogurt.  However, this does not mean you can make one pan for two people and have breakfast for two days.  It will magically disappear before that happens, trust me.

Tastiness factor: 5
Easiness factor: 5

Woe is Stock (notes on a failed experiment)

A good homemade stock is a hallmark of a resourceful, frugal, whole-foods kitchen operation.  It allows you to get full value out of your chickens, veggies, and other scraps as well as saving money on stock, broth, or bouillon you would have to purchase.  In addition, the ingredients lists on most of those products is less than ideal.

I endeavored, therefore, to make a lovely chicken stock.  I saved my scraps.

I've been keeping a bag in the freezer and stashing scraps - onion ends and peels*, celery leaves, carrot tops, apple cores, everything.

I put all of those goodies in my giant stockpot with bones from a baked chicken and some bay leaves.  All is well so far, right?

And I cooked it.

And cooked it.

And cooked it.

I cooked it for hours, and it had no flavor.  I cooked it for two days, and it had no flavor.

Then, finally, eventually, on about the third day, it had a flavor - the flavor of utter disgustingness.  The flavor of burnt something.  The flavor of "this is going in the trash."

The flavor of failure.

Total time: 3 days
Estimated cost: free - I just used scraps

Serves: no one with tastebuds

Tastiness factor: 0
Easiness factor: 5

*According to James Duke, most of the beneficial quercetin in the onion is in the peels.  He suggests cooking the peels with the onions and straining them out later.

budget no-boil lasagna (yes, it is possible)

Lasagna is a perfect food.

It is easy, even if time-consuming.  It's full of cheese and pasta and tomatoes and goodness.  The downside is that lasagna is expensive.

Putting together a pan of lasagna for less than 40 dollars is something I've never tried to do, before now.  This was my first attempt to make lasagna into something affordable.

I even stretched it a little to fill an 11 x 15 pan, but you could use the same recipe in a regular size, and just use fewer noodles.

Ingredients:

1 box lasagna noodles (not necessary to precook!)

1 large or 2 small onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 Tb Italian seasoning (which I didn't have, so I used basil, oregano, and thyme)
1 lb pork sausage  (or whatever kind of ground meat you prefer)

About 1 qt pasta sauce

10 oz box frozen spinach, thawed and strained to remove as much liquid as possible
2 eggs
15-oz container ricotta
4 oz parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne or a few splashes of hot sauce

12 oz mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 tsp oregano

Notes about these ingredients:  I used pork sausage because it was on sale.  I have found that almost anything (ground turkey, ground beef, ground chicken, most sausages) works for lasagna.  Alternately, omit the meat and add some more veggies to the sauce.

I have a freezer full of tomato sauce that I made cheaply with big cans of tomatoes.  This summer I plan to do some of my own canning, so I will have sauce on hand.  Being flexible with the type of meat you use and making your own sauce can drive the cost down quite a bit.

Steps:

1) Saute the sausage or other meat over medium/medium high heat with the Italian seasoning.  When the meat is no longer pink, drain out most of the grease and add the onion and the garlic and reduce heat a bit to avoid burning the garlic.  Saute until onion and garlic are soft.

2) Add the pasta sauce and simmer while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

3) Preheat the oven to 350.

4) Mix the ricotta, thawed and drained spinach, eggs, and half of the parmesan cheese.  Add salt, garlic powder, pepper, and cayenne.

5) Spread about 1 cup of the sauce mixture in the bottom of the pan, cover with one layer of (uncooked) noodles.  Add another cup of sauce mixture, half of the cheese mixture, and sprinkle one third of the mozzarella cheese.

6) Repeat the pasta, sauce, cheese mix and mozzarella steps.

7) Place the last layer of noodles and spread the remaining mozzarella and parmesan on top.  Sprinkle with oregano and cover with foil.

8)  Bake 45 minutes, then remove foil and bake for 15 minutes more.

Total time: 2 hours
Estimated cost: under $15

Serves: 6-10 (six very hungry people, with no sides)

Tastiness factor: 4.5
Easiness factor: 4

white chicken chili (and a lesson regarding the importance of checking one's spice rack)

 I've been talking about making white chili since last winter, but I finally decided to do it this week when I realized that it would fit nicely into my (currently rather restricted) budget.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

One pound great northern beans

Cooked chicken - I had about 3 cups

2 onions

3 cloves garlic

about 2 tbsp chicken soup base

4 oz can green chilies

about 1 tbsp dried oregano

about 2 tsp chili powder

A few notes about these ingredients:

Beans:  I almost always buy bulk organic beans from the natural foods store - this time was an exception, simply because I was on my third grocery store of the day and I just didn't want to make it four.  Bulk organic costs about the same as conventional in a package, so in any other situation I would get the bulk organic.

Chicken:  The cooked chicken was leftover from an whole chicken I baked a few days ago - it was all white meat, but I think either white or dark would work just fine.

Soup base:  I am well aware that soup base and bouillon are full of assorted strange ingredients.  I probably won't buy them again, but I will use what I have left in the pantry.  You could probably use stock to cook the whole recipe, as long as it wasn't too salty - that might prevent the beans from softening.

Chilies:  The can of green chilies is a nod to convenience and tradition.  If you prefer to use fresh peppers and avoid cans, I'd suggest one or two (depending on your desired spice level) Serrano peppers, either chopped up or left whole and removed at the end like a bay leaf.

Spices:  If you've ever made chili before in your life, you are probably aware of one glaring omission in this list - cumin.    I had every intention of using it until I realized I didn't have any.  =(   

Recipe:

Because I am horrible at doing prep-work in an appropriate time frame, I did a quick soak for the beans.  Cover with water, bring to a rapid boil, cover, remove from heat, and let sit for one hour.

Drain, rinse, and return the beans to the pot.  Cover with water again - 2-3 inches above the level of the beans, and cook until they are getting soft - almost edible texture.

While the beans were cooking, I chopped up the onion and garlic, and sauteed them in a bit of olive oil.  After about five minutes, I added the green chilies and the chicken, hoping to infuse a bit of flavor into the chicken, which was a little bland.  I cooked it all together over medium heat, stirring, for about five more minutes - the chicken was already cooked, so I didn't want to overdo it.

When the beans reached their almost-edible consistency, I added everything else into the pot - the chicken/chilies/onion/garlic mix, along with the chili powder, oregano, and soup base.  I don't reconstitute soup base when adding it to a recipe like this - there is plenty of liquid already, so I just add it into the pot.  

Once everything went into the pot, I cooked it for about another hour, and tasted to adjust the seasonings.  The absence of cumin was a serious liability - I ended up adding more chili powder and oregano, along with some garlic powder, white pepper and just a bit (about 1 tsp) of curry powder.

Next time I will add an extra can of chilies, or do the serrano peppers, but I like things a bit spicy.  I will also check to make sure I have cumin.

 I added a spoonful of lebni, which complimented the flavors quite well.  Sour cream or yogurt would also be just fine.

This chili turned out to be enjoyable, and even better as leftovers, but I will make some adjustments next time.

Total time (including the rapid soak of the beans): 3:15
Estimated cost: under $6

Serves: 4-6 adults as a one-dish meal

Tastiness factor: 3.5 - not bad, but needs some modifications
Easiness factor: 4 - not difficult, just time consuming

(almost) whole wheat bread

I love to bake bread, and have been baking bread at various sporadic points for more than ten years.  Sadly, I had never, until recently, gotten the inspiration to "invest" (yes, I know that's ludicrous) in multiple kinds of flour.  White flour is what I always have in my kitchen, it's what everyone always has, right?  If I were to open the door into the realm of multiple flours, well, then obviously all would be chaos, right?

Bring on the chaos.  The locally owned natural foods store a few blocks away stocks organic whole wheat flour in bulk, allowing me to purchase just enough for this recipe, and thereby circumvent my flour-commitment-phobia.

(As a side note, I really only eat whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and whole grain bread - when purchased somewhere else.  So why on earth am I still making white bread at home??)

I decided to try the "White (or Whole-wheat) Pan Bread" recipe from this book:

The whole wheat variation is not exactly whole wheat - it has 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 2/3 cups white flour, but that is a vast improvement on the standard all-white recipes I generally make.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cups white flour (not pictured)
1 tablespoon salt  (yes, that is a lot - you could easily reduce or omit)
1 oz yeast
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 1/4 cups water

Problem:  I never remember to soften butter.  Even if I did, it's winter, and my kitchen is about 5 degrees warmer than a refrigerator unless the oven is on.  So....

Yes, that is correct, I grated my butter, like cheese.  This speeds the softening process quite a bit, and also leaves you with an incredibly dirty cheese grater - BONUS.

All ingredients except the water get combined in the bowl (see, the butter looks like grated cheese, too!)  After those are thoroughly mixed, add the water until the dough begins to resemble a dough.

I had to add a little more water, and a little more flour, and so on - this almost always happens when I make bread.  But eventually, it sticks together, and is neither too sticky to knead or so dry that it falls apart:

After you knead (recipe says 5 minutes) throw it back in the same bowl and let it rise for an hour.

(NOTE:  This is one of the reasons I like this book.  Throw it back in the same bowl, it says.  Not, place delicately in a slightly warmed ceramic bowl coated with .45 tsp of olive oil, cover with slightly moistened organic linen dish towel, and let rise for 82 minutes in a 73 degree kitchen.)

Throw it back in the same bowl.  Let it sit for about an hour.  Then you get this:

Next, grease your pan!  Which I did!  I even have photographic evidence:

My bread still stuck!  So, I suggest this: grease your pan and then grease it some more.  Or maybe don't use glass, but that's what I have.

Then you shape your dough and stick it back in the pan.  I shaped mine into a half-assed oval and crammed it on in there, and it seemed to work OK:

Let rise for another hour.  Sometime within that hour, preheat your oven to 450.

Right before you stick it in the oven, sprinkle flour oven the top and make some slash marks:

Bake!  The recipe says 30-35 minutes.  I took mine out at 28 and it looked a little overdone.  My oven may be hot (I am a ridiculous amateur and I have no oven thermometer), but I would check around 25 minutes to be sure.

Remove from the pan (if you're like me, this may require helpers, hopping, banging, and cursing), and let cool on a wire rack:

And there you go!  (Almost) whole wheat bread!  Nice crust, a littly crumbly, next time I may cut down on the salt and add a littly honey, but other than that I found it to be quite good.

Total time (including "is it cool yet?  can I cut it yet?" time): 3:35
Estimated cost: under $2
Tastiness factor*: 4
Easiness factor**: 3 - not difficult as far as breads go, but getting bread dough to correct consistency can be challenging

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*The tastiness factor is a rated on a scale from 0-6, with each score translating to the following:

0:  I would not eat this even if I were starving. 
1:  I probably would not eat this, even if I were starving, but I might, I just wouldn't tell anyone.
2:  I would eat this if someone else made it, but I won't make again.
3:  Decidedly edible, but not exemplary.  Probably won't repeat unless it was very easy.
4:  Definitely tasty - will probably make again, maybe with some variations.
5:  Very tasty - will definitely make this again.
6:  Amazing.  Epic.  World-peace inducing.

**The easiness factor is rated on a scale of 0-6, with each each score translating to the following:

0:  Incredibly labor intensive.  Required tools/ingredients/mood stabilizers that are not easily available.
1:  Quite difficult, but possible.  Worth the effort if results are amazing and it's a special occasion.
2:  Rather difficult.  A project for a weekend.
3:  Average difficulty.  Many simple steps or at least one step that might be challenging.
4:  Rather easy.  No specialized tools or techniques.
5.  Quite easy.  Good candidate for a quick or last-minute dish.
6.  Incredibly easy.  Doesn't even count as cooking.