Brown Sugar Oatmeal with Berries

It's getting cooler here in the morning. One of my favourite things to do on a Sunday morning is snuggle up with my dog, a hot coffee and a warm breakfast and watch Sunday Morning on CBS. I usually make pancakes, but sometimes I'm looking for something easier so last week I pulled out a bag of Quaker oatmeal and I might not turn back. 

I pretty much followed the recipe until the end when I opted to make it a little more decadent by adding cream and sugar -- balanced out with some blueberries of course. 

Ingredients (makes 2 servings)

• 1/2 cup Quick oatmeal (3-5 minutes to cook)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1/4 cup blueberries

Directions

• Bring water to a boil and add oatmeal cooking for 3-5 minutes (or, as per the bag's directions)
• Remove from heat and add brown sugar and cream. Stir in
• Add blueberries and mix in, letting warm up slightly
• Serve in bowls and sprinkle lightly with more brown sugar and a few more blueberries

Rhubarb Crunch

Rhubarb used to grow in my aunt's backyard. She used to make the most delicious rhubarb pies, so now that rhubarb is in season (starting late April to early May in Canada), I thought I would make it as a dessert for a visit from my aunt and grandma.

This turned out pretty well, but the recipe below is with my recommended changes. It's a light dessert and the sweetness of the sugar (lots of sugar), is balanced well with the tartness or the rhubarb.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Sugar sauce:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions


Chop rhubarb and set aside

Mix together flour, oats, cinnamon, brown sugar and melted butter.

Press half into a buttered baking dish -- about 8.5 x 11"

Make the sugar sauce. Mix together the sugar, corn starch and cold water in a pan, stirring  until bubbly, clear and getting slightly thick -- do not let it get too thick. Whisk in the vanilla.

Pour on top of the rhubarb and coat. Pour the rhubarb into the baking dish overtop of the crumb crust.

Top with remaining crumb mixture.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes until topping is brown and edges are bubbling slightly.

(a very happy customer!)

Download a printable version of Rhubarb Crunch

Recipe adapted from The Farm Chicks

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are simple, easy cookies that taste a little bit like Christmas with cinnamon and nutmeg. I whipped these up in no time on Friday night, a perfect, after dinner snack. Not only were they delcious right out of the oven, they actually tasted better the next day as all the flavours had really come together. Now all I need is a glass of egg nog!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups chocolate chips (note that this is more than 1 bag)
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats

Directions

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In another bowl, beat butter until soft and creamy. Beat in brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time and add vanilla.

Reduce speed and stir in flour mixture in three stages. Mix in chocolate chips and oatmeal.

Drop tablespoons of dough onto a greased baking sheet.

Bake in oven preheated to 350 degrees, for 10-12 minutes until golden and slightly firm to the touch.

Let cool to a wire rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Download a printable recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe from The Mixer Bible

Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

This recipe looked right up my alley: you can't go wrong with peanut butter and oatmeal and I was right!

These cookies were pretty simple but look impressive so you could easily make them for a party. If you were doing that though, you'd probably want to make them smaller because it is a lot of cookie and cream -- but that's not always a bad thing.

Printer-friendly version of recipe

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 cup quick oatmeal
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• scant 1/4 cup butter (really, more like 1/8)
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 4-5 tbsp heavy cream

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and mix to combine.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the butter, peanut butter and both sugars until smooth.

Add the egg and vanilla.

Slowly add in the dry ingredients (not the oatmeal yet) and mix until combined.

Fold in the oatmeal.

Next, roll into small balls and place on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Leave space between each ball so they can spread out. Mine were about the size of timbits, but I found them a bit large for the sandwich cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and let cool on wire rack.

While they're in the oven, you can make the filling. In a mixing bowl, blend the peanut butter, butter and icing sugar. Slowly add the heavy cream one tablespoon at a time. You want the consistency to be like icing, so not too thick and not too runny.

Spoon the icing into a piping bag or even a ziploc bag. (in the ziploc, cut off a small tip in the corner). On half of the cookies, pipe the icing on.

Place another cookie on top and press down so the icing oozes out to the sides. 

Grab a glass of milk and enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats

Granola Bars

T and I eat a lot of granola bars. Every day for work, we take salads for lunch so granola bars are the only carb we eat during the day. I decided a few weeks ago to try and make these tasty treats myself and found a pretty basic recipe on my favourite site -- http://www.allrecipes.com/. I've made these a few times now and they always turn out great, and the best part is that you can totally customize them.

The base is:

• 3 cups instant rolled oats
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tbsp butter melted

After that, you can add just about anything. This week, I added:

• 1 cup mixed nuts (I pounded these a little to break them up)
• 1/2 cup craisins
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (mmm!)

Then bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes. I've also learned it's much easier to cut when they're warm. Then I wrap them individually in wax paper and voila, a perfect and healthy snack for work!