Pea-n-Feta Cheese Puff

When trying a new recipe, you know you've hit the jackpot when the picky eater reaches for seconds and the husband asks if the next batch is going into the oven soon..  This does not happen too often chez moi... but sometimes it does.. and when it does.. I do my happy dance... then reach out for the laptop to share the excitement with you.

Coconut and Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I have had a serious crush on this oatmeal cookie recipe since last summer...

The original recipe is Dorie's (but of course) and for the past one year I have been relentlessly playing around with her list of ingredients only to treat my family into awesome wholemeal cookies each time.  

Wholegrain Caramelized-Banana Bread

Banana bread is probably one those things which everyone bakes all the time. Each one following a time-tested recipe of her own which yields a lovely loaf every time. My favorite recipe is an adaption of Tarla Dalal's Banana Pecan Walnut Muffin Cake, an eggless whole wheat banana muffin recipe with layers of flavors added by the addition of nuts and raisins. Adding cocoa powder and chocolate chips to the basic batter always takes the bread up a notch so I unfailingly do it every time.

Breakfast Strawberry Cobbler

Over the Father's day weekend we had gone strawberry picking with my uncle and aunt. I had been planning to go berry picking for a long time and we really went  overboard with the whole picking thing-y. Plucking fruits from the plants can be so additive. You see fresh succulent berries and think... "just one more" and by the time you are done, you have a overflowing basket of juicy red berries and somewhat reddish finger-tips. It is all so exciting that you find it difficult to stop even when you know you should and if a toddler accompanies then every pick becomes even more fun....

Plantain Oatmeal Bread with Walnuts & Strawberry Jam

The other day I spotted plantain at the local grocery store. Excited at the prospect of making some plantain chips I picked up a packet and the following day tried baking chips. Oh God ! that was such a mistake ! With my first batch coming out of the oven I realized that things weren't going so well so readjusting the oven temperatures i put in the next batch. only to realize minutes later that  certain savories are best enjoyed when dipped in copious amounts of sin.  else you end up chewing leathery chips rather than crunching them. so i left the rest of the plantains just like that planning to come back to them in a few days. and when days rolled to weeks the plantains became too ripe for chips and had to be used up in other recipes.  and since it was my bread-baking day i decided to use one of them in place of banana in Banana Oatmeal Bread while i saved the other for a recipe i had bookmarked. 

Last Saturday, following the recipe from Beth Hensperger's Cookbook The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, I had made the Banana Oatmeal Bread with Macadamia Nuts(Pg 444).  We really enjoyed that bread. so I naturally turned to that recipe for the Plantain Bread. I made a few minor changes here and there keeping the basic recipe intact. however I would like to mention here that when baking the bread with plantain it is fine if one uses less yeast because this loaf swelled up a lot more in comparison to the banana bread and therefore that noticeable dip that you can see in the picture below.  This is a sweet loaf and its slices are best enjoyed when microwaved for 20 seconds and served with butter or jam. We tried it in cheese sandwich too, but that didn't work so well. so essentially this is a breakfast bread.. 

and since we were at the breakfast table i thought i'll share my jam recipe as well. Its a strawberry jam that i made last week using Ina Garten's recipe as a guideline.. I used jaggery instead of sugar and a hint of salt . and that kind of signatured a Grandma's Home-made  label on the Jam :) 

 i now the recipes....

Oven dried oats vs Cheerios..

a while a back I had written a pretty lengthy post on how the chemical properties of oats makes it difficult to completely substitute all-purpose-flour with oat flour in most recipes. there i had also mentioned how soaking oats overnight and oven drying them before grinding helps increase the mineral absorption power of the oats. GNOWFGLINS is where i picked up all this information. and though that information was full-proof it wasn't for grabs for a busy mom... so i had been looking for alternatives. and last week the idea of ground Cheerios popped up...

for experiment sake i used it to bake a batch of chocochip cookies and it really worked.  so if you are also looking for an alternative to all that hard work... ground cheerios might be the solution. perhaps most of you knew it already... but thought i'll post it.. in case you have overlooked that cereal box lazing on your kitchen countertop.

Sending the image "CHEERIOS"  to Black and White Wednesday #79, a photography event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of  Cindystar and hosted this week by Shruthi of Food and Clicks.

Love my Oatcakes Green and fruity sometimes..

Sometime back I had pinned two recipes from Confessions of an Overworked Mom which i thought would complement each other well for a weekend breakfast. Irish Oatcakes and Strawberry butter. but as i was measuring out the oats for the oatcakes i decided to add in some more flavors to it. so in went some thawed fenugreek leaves and some crushed garlic. sure enough the end result wasn't very Irish but they were so perfect for a light Saturday brunch of fenugreek oatcakes  and yogurt..

in case you are interested, this is how i made these fenugreek oatcakes.....

ingredients

¾ cup oatmeal (not instant)
¼ cup whole wheat flour 

½ cup frozen fenugreek leaves, thawed

1 tablespoon oil
2-3 tablespoons of warm water
¾ tsp salt

what i did

• i mixed all the ingredients together and kneaded them till they formed a dough soft enough to work with.
• once the dough was formed, i wrapped it in a cotton cloth and kept it aside to rest for 10-15 minutes.
• after that i rolled the dough out on a floured cutting board about ¼ inch thick and cut out triangle shaped pieces of the oatcake.
• i then cooked these triangles on the griddle pan until both sides became golden brown. then served them with a light spread of butter on one side.

next i wanted to bake my oatcakes instead of cooking them on the griddle pan. and that led me to this recipe of Nutty oatcakes. here again i thought it would be nice to add in some grated fruits in the dough. so in went some grated apples. the result was nice. but unlike the oatcakes cooked on griddle, the baked ones had the texture of crackers. they tasted good. and i quite enjoyed them with the peach butter that i had made to go with it. however Mr MN did not like it much. said it was ok and did not go for a second one. and for baby MN these were far too hard. so will i can these again. mostly likely i will .... when i am in the mood for a quick cracker with my afternoon tea...

Recipe for Apple and Walnut Oatcakes

½ cup whole wheat flour

⅓ cup coarsely ground walnuts
½ cup grated apple
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon oil
¼ teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons of warm water

what i did

i preheated the oven to 350 degrees F, kept a dry baking sheet ready, then sifted the flour, baking powder and salt together and kept it aside. then i repeated the first three steps of the fenugreek oatcake recipe and finally put the cut out triangles in the prepared baking sheet and baked them for 15-18 minutes.

while the oatcakes were baking i busied myself into making the peach butter. for this i almost followed the recipe of the Apricot Cashew Butter, except that i substituted the apricots with peaches, cashews with almonds and added a bit of butter and orange zest for smell and flavor. so my end result wasn't vegan. but it did taste good.

Peach Almond Butter
ingredients
2 fresh peaches, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup water
½ cup raisins
½ cup almond, ground (i ground them in my coffee grinder)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
pinch of orange zest

what i did

i simmered the diced peaches, along with the sugar in 1/2 cup of the water till almost all the water evaporated. while the peaches were cooking, i covered the raisins in warm water and left them to become plump, about 10-15 minutes. once that was done, i put all the ingredients along with the cooked peaches and plumped raisins into the blender and pureed it till it it attained a smooth butter like consistency. and once the oatcakes were baked and cooled i dipped them in this butter and enjoyed it with my tea.

Tuesday Frugal Tip @ Learning the Frugal Life

The Bulletin Board @ Mrs Happy Homemaker, Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks

Recipe Sharing Monday @ Jam Hands, Mealtime Monday @ Couponing & Cooking 

Mop it up Monday @ I should be Mopping the Floor
Meatless Monday: Meatless Monday @Veggie Mama's ,  Meatless Monday My Sweet and Savory

Tuesday Food:  Hearth & Soul Blog Hop @ Premeditated Leftovers
Tempt my Tummy @Blessed with GraceTotally , Tasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays @ SS& GS, Share it Link Party @ Winthrop Chronicles
Wednesday Food:  What's Cooking Wednesday @ Confessions of Overworked Mom
Wholesome Foods Wednesday @ This Chick Can Cook,  Fresh Foods Wednesdays @ Gastronomical Sovereignty
Show and Share @ Semi Homemade Mom,  Seasonal Celebration @ Natural Mother's Network

Jamaican Banana Fritters...

Jamaican Banana Fritters. filled with the goodness of oats and banana, these fritters make the perfect breakfast bites. for the recipe hop over to Sumee's Culinary Bites and delight your family with milk and fritters at breakfast today...

Sending the photograph to Black and White Wednesday, a photography event started by 

Susan of  The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar and 

hosted this week by Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu.