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.

Sunday Morning Pancakes

Delicious oat/whole-grain pancakes on a Sunday morning, how perfect!  I even busted out the whip cream and asked Ben to run downstairs and pick a few fresh strawberries.  Yup, I sure do have illegally planted strawberries in front of my assigned parking space.  Everytime I see the maintenance people pulling weeds, I run outside to make sure they don't pull them out.  Last time they were here, Ben said they were picking and eating my strawberries while weeding! 

As you may know, Vicki and I are cooking through the book, Whole Grains Every Day Every Way by Lorna Sass.  She actually found out we created this website and emailed us about a year ago.  Lorna gave us permission to post three of her original recipes.  Since her pancakes turned out AMAZING, I decided this is a must post for everyone to try.  Vicki and I have been very pleased with her book and hope that you enjoy this recipe.

Stop yourself from purchasing Bisquick or Aunt Jemima instant "just add water mix".  You should already have the ingredients listed below in your pantry.  Lorna suggests you make a large batch and store.  This is exactly what I did.

Dry Mix

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

3 1/4 cups whole - wheat pastry flour (100% ground wheat worked just fine)

1/4 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

Place oats in a spice grinder, processor, or Magic Bullet and process to the consistency of flour. Mix all dry ingedients together.  Place 1 1/3 cups of the mix into each of the 4 Ziplock bags.  Refrigerate or freeze for up to 3 months.

Whole Grain Pancakes

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cup of well-shaken buttermilk, plus more if needed. 

(If you do not have buttermilk use regular milk and add 1 tsp of vinegar)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 packet (1 1/3 cups) Whole-Grain Pancake Mix (see recipe above)

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Blend in the buttermilk, butter, and vanilla.  Add the pancake mix, and stir just until the mixture forms a lumpy batter.  Avoid overmixing.  Heat griddle over medium heat and coat lightly with oil. Make pancakes!!!!  - 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.

Breakfast "On the Go"

I'm up everyday at 5:40 and out the door by 6:40.  By the time I pack my lunch, grab yoga clothes, and make a fruit protien shake for mid-morning, I'm left searching for what I can eat in under 5 minutes.

The past two weeks have been a breeze.  Lorna's 5-minute steel-cut oats with gingered fruit compote on page 247 was exactly what I needed.  In her introduction to the recipe, she explained how everything could be prepared in advance.  On Sunday night, I brought 4 cups of water and a dash of salt to a boil.  I stirred in the cup of steel cut oats and cinammon.  After everything was combined, I placed the lid back on and turned off the heat.  The pan was left out on the stove overnight and I woke up the next morning to breakfast for the entire week.  It took me 10 minutes from start to finish by the time I heated the oats back up, stirred in milk and divided everything into small containers.  I can't wait to add fresh peaches and cherries from the Farmer's Market!

Inspired by the 5 minute prep time, I took steel cut oats to the next level and found an oatmeal/fruit bar recipe (pictured above).  Once again I prepared everything on Sunday night, cut and wrapped the bars so I was ready for the week. I even had extra to freeze. This recipe can be found on one of my favorite blog sites, Nourished Kitchen.  Enjoy!  -amy w.   

Oat & Turkey Soup with Tex-Mex Flavors, pg. 126/ Split Pea Soup

Soup season is in full force.  I can't think of a better way to enjoy my Sunday evening after skiing than kicking up my feet while watching Netflicks with a big bowl of soup on my lap.  I usually only cook slow cooker soups.  Recipes that I can toss together all at once and come back several hours later to a soup that is ready to eat.  I'm not one to stir a big pot over the stove continuing to add ingredients.  Lorna's soup was not made in the slow cooker, but rather one I could toss together fairly fast and then freeze extra for an upcoming Sunday.

I started this soup in a large pot and cooked the onion and celery.  I then added the cans of diced tomatoes with green chiles along with several seasonings including cinammon. Once I could smell the spices, I poured the water in the pot along with the 3 chicken thighs.  The turkey simmered, and the oats cooked.  As usual, I never follow the full directions so I added several items in my fridge.  For this soup, I added leftover kamut, butternut squash, fresh cilantro and parsley.  The Tex-Mex flavors came together nicelly and I will for sure be making this in the future. 

While skiing last weekend, my friend Jackie had the pefect idea, soup bowls in the "brown bag" lunch area.  Enjoy.    
Split Pea Soup w/Couscous
Modified from Fix-It and Forget-It
1 lb. pkg. split peas
6 slices of thick ham
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
4 potatoes, diced
1 qt. water
1 qt. chicken broth
Seasoning (pepper, bay leaf, allspice, sugar)
1 cup couscous, cooked (add to soup before serving)

Directions: Wash and sort split peas, removing any stones.  Combine all ingredients except cooked couscous in the slow cooker.  Cover in slow cooker. Cook on low 8-10 hours.  Add couscous to soup before serving.   -amy   

The Whipple in Me

I feel like everyone should visit the Whipple household (Ben's Mom's house).  It's like stepping into Willy Wonka's house.  Three kinds of Kool Aid in the fridge, two flavors of ice cream, and candy dishes around the house filled with chocolate.  I can't control myself in this type of enviroment.  You think with a name like "Grain Girls", I could help myself.

The holiday is just around the corner and I have to make sure Ben and I don't resort back to old habits.  One of my resolutions is to "healthify" old recipes.  My husband has come a long way and everyone knows this hasn't been an easy task! He's eating kamut, spinach salad, and homemade soy/yogurt ice cream. I feed him so many different types of squash that he's now a fan.  Last time I checked, he could name 9 grains!  Impressive. 

Today, I felt it necessary to post one of my not so heathy recipes, however it still contains grains. Lorna would never approve this recipe but as I stated in the above paragraph, my plan is to revamp it in 2011.  When I make this recipe, I can't believe I add a full stick of butter and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Who puts this in a recipe?  GUILTY...right here! Apparenlty, I still have a little Whipple in me!    

Fudgy Bars - Modified from Meals for Month, by Linda Larsen
2 cups chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups oats
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350.  In a microwavable bowl, combine chocolate, 3 tablespoons butter, and sweetened condensed milk.  Heat for 2-3 minutes until melted.

2. In a bowl combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.  Pour melted butter over and mix until crumbs form.  Stir in walnuts. Press 1/2 of the crumb mixture in a 13"x9" pan.  Pour chocolate mixture over crust.  Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over chocolate.

3. Bake at 350 for 25-25 minutes.  Let cool, cut bars, and enjoy!  I like to individually wrap and freeze.

Stay tuned  for the 2012 fudgy bar healthy remix recipe.  -amy w.

Don't Forget to Toast Your Oats - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Pg. 282

Show of hands to those who toast their oats when making oatmeal cookies?  I had to reread the recipe to make sure I was following directions.  Surely it read, " Spread oats out and bake at 400 on the bottom rack for 3 minutes, stir, and continue baking until lightly toasted, 1 to 2 minutes."  You know what to do the next time you make oatmeal cookies! 

Why I LOVE Oatmeal Cookies
1. Spelt flour + oats = TWO grains in one recipe
2. Ben likes anything with the word cookie in it
3. Yellow raisins count as a serving of fruit
4. Toasting your oats brings out the oat-i-ness

A must read for the month of November!

"Will Write for Food is for food lovers who want to express themselves, guiding them from their earliest creative impulses to successful article writing, restaurant reviewing, and cookbook writing. Dianne Jacob—journalist and food-writing instructor and coach—offers interviews with award-winning writers such as Jeffrey Steingarten, Calvin Trillin, Molly O'Neill, and Deborah Madison, plus well-known book and magazine editors and literary agents, give readers the tools to get started and the confidence to follow through." -www.goodreads.com 

Raspberry (Peach) Jam Cookies, pg. 284

I won't even try to beat Amy's thumbprint cookies with Homemade Jam!!...they look amazing!  It is ironic that we both picked this recipe in the same week without even knowing it. Great minds think alike ;)

Raspberry Jam was my flavor of choice for me...I have a hard time straying from suggestion?!  The ingredients as a whole are very nutritious, they're like the ultimate fiber cookie.  The kids I cook for thought they were just OK, so perhaps they're not for everyone. But, Britt, an "official tester" gave them a delicious and ate 2 or 3...that's a win for me :) 

Now, I just spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to upload more than 1 picture and how to keep the photo and next paragraph from running into one another and I can't do it.  Help?! So here the cookies are in raw form. Cookie Parade!

-Vicki ;)

My husband asked for seconds!  Yup, and the cookie didn't contain chocolate.  Lorna made these soft cookies using raspberry jam. I decided to switch the flavor and use my homemade peach preserves that I canned with the hybiscus peaches a few weeks ago.  Click on the highlighted link to view the recipe that I used: Recipe for Peach Preserves

This cookie tasted like I was eating a soft graham cracker with jam spread on top.  The dry ingredients were very unique; rolled oats + walnuts + cinnamon food processed with whole-wheat flour.   The dry ingredients combined with honey to sweeten gives this recipe a 5 grain rating!
Get excited, Vicki just got back from Spain!  I can't wait for her to post a blog or two about her travels.  -amy w.

Kale Tales Continued........

"Kale smoothies everyday, kale salad with beets, carrots, avocado, kale currie, kale sauteed with garlic and olive oil, kale in place of spinach in any recipe that has spinach. I tried kale blended with apple juice and that didn't work well, it was really chunky and kind of gross. I think that's it!!"  That's it...haha. My friend Diana has soooo much kale growing in her backyard it's unreal.  She just told me that the "curly leaf" kale is now ready to be harvested.   

When I saw this recipe, I called her immediately to order a fresh bag :)  Farro soup with kale and cannelli beans starts with mirepoix which is comprised of 25% carrots, 25% celery, and 50% onions all roughly chopped.  I learned the exact name of this mixture while reading "Notes on Cooking A Short Guide to an Essential Craft", by Lauren Costello and Russell Reich. 

I made several additions and substitutions to this recipe since I'm pretty bad at following directions.  Instead of farro, I used oat groats.  After the mirepoix softened and the garlic was mixed in, water was added to create the broth.  I mixed in chicken bouillon to flavor the water.  I did not have time to soak the canelli beans overnight so instead I purchased a can of white northern beans.  I added a diced sweet potato for fun which gave the broth a really sweet flavor.  I then followed the rest of the recipe straight from the book adding the can of diced tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, kale, fresh basil and parsley from my garden.

Ben and I really liked the soup!  Diana and Chris though it was delicious stating it was filling with the grains and similar to an Italian minestrone.  Diana said they would have put 20X more kale in the recipe. I was nervous about overdoing it with a vegetable Ben had never heard of.  A repeat recipe for sure!    - amy w.

Recipe Gone Grains - Tortilla-Crusted Goat Cheese-and-Asparagus Quiche

Ohh yes I did take a Rachael Ray recipe and add grains! Go ahead and give it a try.

Four 7-inch whole wheat tortillas
10 asparagus stalks, trimmed and cut into 1-inch prieces
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
Salt and pepper
4oz. log of goat cheese
3 eggs + ***fresh basil
1/2 cup plain yogurt, Greek-style
*** 1 cup of cooked oat groats

Preheat oven to 375.  In a greased pie pan, overlap the tortillas to make a crust, place on a rimmed baking sheet. 

Steam aspargus for 2-3 minutes.  In a skillet, add the olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper and cook until mushrooms are golden, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the asparagus; season with salt and pepper. 

Spread evenly in the tortilla crust and add the cooked grains, then crumble the cheese on top. 

Whisk together the eggs, yogurt, basil, and season with salt and pepper; pour into the tortilla crust.  Bake on the baking sheet until just set in the center and lightly golden, about 30 minutes.  Let rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Fruit-and-Nut Oatmeal Bars, pg. 281

I can be shopping at REI and suddenly NEED a $2 Larabar.   The chewy fruit where sweet meets tart......luv it!  I made a batch last night and now have 15 Lara-like-bars to satisfy my cravings in the days to come. 

This recipe uses honey and orange juice concentrate instead of sugar.  The rest of the recipe consists of rolled oats + apricots + cranberries + raisins + almonds + sunflower + flax seeds.    Tami, a friend at work liked the texture, sweetness of the fruit and crunchiness of the nuts.  She stated, "I think this was pretty good. I am not sure I could eat a lot of it, but I think this is a great morning treat, bet it would be great with yogurt! I give this 3 grains up!"

My husband gaining the nickname "Mr. Ben" decided he liked the bars rating them a 3.2/5 grains.   He described the taste as "eating a handful of trail mix with raisins and grains instead of nuts." (I guess he could not taste the toasted almonds).

I must say part of the fun with this blog comes from Ben stating every night he would like to eat "normal" food.  I then present the dish with my recipe book opened and a pencil in hand.  Before he's done chewing his first bite, I've usually asked him "Soooo, what do you think?" at least 3 times. Usually by mid meal, his comments and remarks become so funny that we can't stop laughing.  If you've met the Whipple's, Captain Crunch is considered a grain, Kool-Aid is 100% juice, and M&M's are a vegetable. 

I feel like I need to apologize to Lorna.  I think that's why Vicki won't let me write the author and tell her about our blog.  Vicki, we could be the next Julie & Julia!!!      - amy