GRAIN-ola Bars

I've made these bars twice now and continue to add and adapt the ingrediens to what I currently have on hand. Don't sweat it if your out  don't have sesame seeds, swap 'em out for almonds or dried buckwheat instead.  These bars can be prepped and in the oven in under 20 minutes.  I like to cut, wrap, and freeze them so I can eat or pack the bars as needed.

Many of you have enjoyed the funny comments that my husband, Ben, makes about me trying to continuously feed him grains.  I'm happy to report that this recipe is "Ben Approved".  I slipped a wrapped one in his coat pocket the other morning and at 9:35AM, I recieved a text from him stating the following, "Just ate the granola bar, yum, yum!".  My response, "I knew you secretly loved sesame, buckwheat, wheat germ, almonds, and sunflower seeds."  :)

GRAIN-OLA Bars
Adapted from: Bird Seed Energy Bars by Amy E.

Ingredients

• 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed - I used about 3/4 cup and did not pack down the sugar. 
• 1 cup wheat germ
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup honey - I used 1/4 cup of honey and filled the rest of the measuring cup with applesauce
• 1 cup canola oil - (Still adjusting this - I used a combo of oils (coconut, olive oil, and vegetable oil - I still feel this is a bit much)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup flax seeds (I used a 1/2 cupped of leftover cooked quiona)
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (I used 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup of dried buckwheat)
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• I added 2 handfuls of slivered almonds           

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x14 inch ovenproof baking dish.
2. Mix the rolled oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, and flour together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, honey, canola oil, vanilla, and salt until evenly blended., and stir into the oat mixture. Stir in the flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and chocolate chips. Use your hands to mix the ingredients, and press the mixture into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven until the edges are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool completely in the baking dish before cutting into 2 inch bars.               

Enjoy!  -amy w.

Grain-ola

Thank you Diana.....creator of this granola recipe, grower of green kale, and rockin' mountain biker.   She emailed me this granola recipe several WEEKS ago and I finally had a chance to make it, why did it take me so long?  Diana made this recipe up based on various store bought brands. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Grainy Granola

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats (uncooked)

1 cup cooked quinoa

1 cup buckwheat (uncooked)

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup sliced almonds (or nuts of your choice)

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 to 1 cup sweetner to taste. (Try maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, agave, etc. and try combos of 2 or more. I like ~3/4 cup total. It depends on how sweet you want your granola!)

1-2 tablespoon coconut oil (I use 3 tbsp because it's really good for you!! you can also use olive oil, sunflower oil, or another healthy oil)

1-3 teaspoon cinnamon (depends how much you like it)

1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.5 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and mix. In small saucepan over medium heat, combine the wet ingredients and bring to a boil, mixing well.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well with a large spoon to coat.
• Spread mixture onto large baking sheet(s) lined with wax paper. Bake at 350 for ~20-25 minutes or until desired "toastiness". Take out and allow to cool completely.
• Mix in raisins or any other dried fruit that you like. Store in airtight container.

Feel free to modify with other ingredients/flavors. I LOVE a giant bowl of granola with a few scoops of yogurt and milk in the morning. I have some pomegranate seeds that I froze in the fall. I like to take them out for a few min then mix in the bowl right before eating. Yummy!!!    -amy w.

Buckwheat Meets Tilapia Tacos

I think Lorna and our followers are going to fire us! Maybe we'll post once a week or maybe we'll skip a few weeks, you just never know!  If only we weren't soooo tempted with the outdoors, traveling, and summer fun. I guess until we go on Oprah and become famous, we have some time to slack!

This past week, Ben's dad was in town.  Before he arrived, Ben told me that I should cook "normal" food.  Within the first hour of his arrival, Sid asked me if I was going to try "one of those" recipes on him this week and post.  This is when I give Ben my evil I told you so eyes!  Thank goodness for bags of random grains in my fridge. I'm tyring to become a master at whipping up recipes and spiking them with grains!


Tilapia Mango Buckwheat Tacos
2-3 tilapia fillets
1 mango
6-8 corn tortilla shells
1 can of black beans
lettuce
tomato
avacodo
shredded cheese
lemon and lime juice
sour cream

Guacamole - My rule, no guacamole recipe should be the same.  Tonights creation was simple, mashed avacodo, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, a handful of chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, and several squirts of lime juice. 

Tilapia - Season tilapia.  I make and store an all purpose seasoning in bulk thanks to Vicki's great find.  Cut small slices of mango and spread over fish.  Top with fresh lemon juice.  Bake fish.

Bean Spread - 1 can of black beans pureed in the "Magic Bullet" with cumin, a handful of chopped tomatoes, and a spoonful of sour cream.

Buckwheat - Ohh yes I did cook buckwheat in my pressure cooker and stuff it in the tacos! One of my favorite pages in Lorna's WHOLE book is page 112 consisting of a whole grains timing chart.  I will admit that I was pretty stumped when I turned to the page and buckwheat was not on the timing chart.  I examined the grain and decided it needed to cook for 20 minutes.  YIKES.....apparently Lorna was NOT being forgetful, buckwheat is not supposed to be pressure cooked due to it being such a quick cooking grain. 

Corn Tortillas - Fry tortillas shells on both sides in shallow hot oil.  Pat off any extra oil with a paper towel.

Taco Assembly - Smear the entire torilla shell with the bean spread, add the fish and cut mangos.  Sprinkle buckwheat, cheese, tomato and lettuce over fish.  Add a dollop of guacamole.  Enjoy!  amy w.

Oh dear...I'm behind!

Do you ever have those moments where you suddenly realize you completely forgot a part of your life for a period of time? Like missed a credit card bill for 2 months straight, haven't checked an email account in weeks or (like me!) forgot you were writing a blog with a partner?! Haha... well, I do those sorts of things. For as organized and habitual I attempt to be, I have these memory lapses in my life. So, here I am weeks since my last post and no grain practice to share!

Over the last few weeks I have finished my summer quarter of school, begun a workout routine (with the help of my great roommate and workout motivator Brittany!) and planned several trips that will begin this coming Sunday morning precisely at 7 am.  I leave for Farm School (yes Farm School!) for 7 days in Eastern Washington, followed by a reunion with my Sisters and Mom and some solo camping sprinkled in between.  Then I'm home for a few days and off for my first big European adventure in the wonderful country of SPAIN!!  I'm going on a guided culinary tour of the Castile-Leon region, northwest of Madrid for 8 days.  Yes you should be jealous because it is going to be amazing!

What I haven't done much of is grain cookery, well...creatively anyway. This morning I had cooked roasted buckwheat with two eggs on top...notthing too exciting, but definitely inspired by Lorna's buckwheat hash recipe which I absolutely love. I've made it a couple times since that first recipe test back in January.  I've also had a few servings of plain old quinoa, going back to the basics!  I'll be back in a couple weeks and promise to make something new from our book and share my new domestic skills knowledge. Until then, I'm sure Amy has more great Utah foodie stories to share...and maybe even another cat picture or two  :)
Cheers and happy Summer! -Vicki

Any-Grain and Honeyed Squash Casserole w/ Hazelnuts, Pg. 207

I usually don't get much of arm workout in the kitchen.  After grating 7 cups of butternut squash my bicept was feeling tired.

Squash Mix - butternut squash + honey + rosemary + dried currants + Marsala + salt + pepper

Topping - cooked grains (wheat berries) + honey + salt + butter + hazelnuts

Next time, I would consider cubing the squash rather than grating it.  I would cut back on the amount of rosemary.  This dish was rockin' a bit too much for my liking.  The casserole could be extremely interchangeble come Farmer's Market season.  Sweet potatoes, zuchinni, and egg plant would make excellent subsitutions.

Husband Rating: 2/5 Grains.  Not a huge squash fan!  - amy

Vicki's Version-With Buckwheat Grain Topping.
The combination of rosemary and butternut squash are delicious!  I was skeptical before making this dish, having most of my squash experience either roasted with butter and brown sugar or in pureed soup, I thought the suggested herbs would ruin the sweet flavor for me.  Completely the opposite happened.  This is one of those dishes that reminds me why I really need to start an herb garden, even if I only grow Rosemary.  I grows exceptionally well in Seattle's climate. There is nothing that compares to the fresh herb taste in a dish like this, so I guess Amy & I disagree a bit on that note :)  I didn't measure any of the ingredients, so I may have been a little light on the rosemary and heavy on the honey, but either way the combination with a little sherry vinegar is so sweet and savory.

I definitely missed the grated part when I prepped my squash earlier in the week.  I automatically cubed the squash without giving it a 2nd thought, assuming that's what the recipe called for, but when I opened up the recipe today (which I've previously read it at least 3 times!) I finally noticed the "grated" part. I thought for sure I had screwed up and this wouldn't turn out.  I added a little water, covered the baking dish well and cooked about 35 minutes total and it was perfect.  I used buckwheat for the topping along with the hazelnuts. I also added about a tablespoon of Onion Powder to the squash, which seemed to have added more depth of flavor so it wasn't all rosemary you tasted.  I will definitely be making this again, and perhaps even for school this week as a vegetarian dish.
Totally agree with Amy's additional veg options as well...I think this is more of a concept to have learned that I will be applying in more ways.
-Vicki

Buckwheat Hash with Bacon & Eggs - (pg 254)

"It's no Oreo cookie" were the first words out of my husband's mouth after his first bite.  Ben proceeded to tell me that this dish had all of his favorite things in it minus the buckwheat.  He thought that adding some paprika or chili flavor would midigate the fact that the grain had no flavor.   Yes, I have one of the best food critics and husband a gal could ask for!  Husband Rating: 2/5 grains.

Would I make this recipe again?  Yes. I ended up buying chopped buckwheat instead of whole so I'll take the blame for not following instructions.  I recommend using whole buckwheat like Sass states.  Next time, I would cook the buckwheat and potatoes seperate.  Due to adding boiling water to the grains and potatoes at the same time, I believe that this caused the dish to lack flavor.  Going foward, I would cook the diced potatoes with the onion and add paprika, basil, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper to give them a nice flavorful coating.  Then, I would mix in the buckwheat. 

On Sunday morning, I fried up the rest of the bacon and ground the remaining buckwheat in my wheat grinder.  I made delicious pancackes using my favorite recipe found on allrecipes.com.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fluffy-Pancakes-2/Detail.aspx -amy

1/23/10

This evening I made the buckwheat hash for dinner and I really, really liked it! I will agree with Amy & Ben, it is in need of more flavor which I would probably achieve by sautéing the potatoes and crisping them up before stirring it into the cooked buckwheat in the end (Karen’s input J).  Lorna’s recipe has you simmer the potatoes and buckwheat together, which means you’ll only use one pan, but doesn’t help flavor either of the ingredients very well.  I added some paprika (thanks for the suggestion Amy!) to the grains and potatoes before the water, but still wasn’t enough to flavor it very well.

This upcoming week in school I have to showcase my amazing breakfast cooking skills…and by amazing I mean I hope I at least pass this portion!  I have a lot to do still to perfect my egg skills.  This recipe looked like a perfect opportunity to practice poaching eggs, which I’ve never done before.  I’m surprised she didn’t suggest that as an option, because it was so good! The poached egg, when broken over top added so much flavor and texture to the hash, it was awesome!  And, who doesn’t like eggs topped with bacon?!  I’ve cooked buckwheat many times, and this recipe far surpasses any of my plain old cooked in salted water and mixed with peas for hot cereal ideas.

Oh and one more thing, Lorna suggested to keep your buckwheat from falling apart, mix it with fat of some kind (butter, egg or bacon grease) before cooking it to help keep it from becoming mushy in the dish.  In this case, the buckwheat is added after you cook the onion in 1 Tbsp of bacon fat which worked perfectly! It stayed together so well.  Thanks for that tip J   Amy, I took a picture of the “raw” buckwheat so you’d see what it should look like when you pick it up from the store!  -Vicki