Overnight Carrot Cake Oatmeal (take 2)

I found this recipe for oatmeal buried amongst my university archives. Now that I have a whole kitchen at my disposal--instead of an anemic, airplane version of a kitchen--new foodie recipes to come soon. 

Guess what?

 I got coconut "extract" and dried tropical fruit!

That means Carrot Cake Oatmeal, Take Two, my dears.  The kind of oatmeal worthy of taking on bona fide desserty carrot cake.  The kind of carrot cake my father would turn down all varieties of chocolate,  spice cake and mocha desserts for.  Well, maybe not.  But, at least this version of carrot cake will power champions through morning classes and coursework.  It is just sweet enough to pass off as dessert and loaded with enough spice and nutrition to boost you out of a morning stupor.  Read on my fellow oatmeal connoisseurs. Read on.

Ingredients:
-2 medium carrots
-1/3 c. rolled oats
-1 tsp cinnamon (or less, if you are less cinnamon fiendish)
-1/4 tsp ginger
-1/4 tsp clove
-1 tsp coconut extract/ flavor
-1/4 tsp vanilla extract 
-1/3 c. water  + 1/3 c. water
-1/3 c. non-dairy milch
-2-4 tbsp shredded coconut
-dried tropical fruit (I used papaya, but pineapple, lychees, kiwi, melon or even dried ginger would work well)
- 1-2 tbsp vegan white chocolate chips (if you can find them!)
-sweetener to taste


Directions:
Pulverize the two carrots by whichever means you prefer (food processor, blender, grating etc).  It should look a bit like this:

Mix oats, carrot bits, extracts, spices, 1/3 cup water and1/3 cup non-dairy milch together in a microwave safe bowl with enough room for the mixture to double in size during the cooking process.  As stated in previous oatmeal recipes, I am guilty of over stuffing my oatmeal bowls and then bowling the contents all over my microwave.  A not fun, but yummy clean-up.  

Microwave the whole mixture on HIGH for about 3 minutes.  For my microwave, this is the perfect length of time to not boil over the mixture and cook the oats to the right consistency for the next step.  Start out microwaving your oats for 2 minutes and then microwave the mixture in 30 second intervals until the oatmeal is, frankly, the overall consistency of snot.  If it can hold a spoon up in a hurricane, you're golden.

Mix the oatmeal to help release some of the steam and then allow the mixture to sit for about 2-5 minutes. Add the remaining 1/3 cup of water and then rather vigorously stir to fully incorporate the water. Mix in the shredded coconut and tropical dried fruit.  Stick the whole concoction in the fridge to settle up overnight. 


In the morning, the oatmeal will have absorbed the remaining liquid. Stir in about 1-2 tbsp of water or non-dairy milch to the oatmeal to add a bit more moisture back to the porridge.  Reheat until desired eating temperature.  Some like it cold, others like it hot.  Stir in the white chocolate chips and sweeten to desired taste.

Now, enjoy your dessert for breakfast (and feel smug about it too).


Cheers, kaite k ;]

Overnight Zucchini Bread Oatmeal

Sometimes I go to the grocery store, have a slap-happy hay-day in the produce department, trudge back to my dorm and whilst unloading my haul wonder, why the frex did I buy that?  At the time, standing in front of said produce item in the grocery, I probably had some brilliant recipe inspiration.  But between the produce department, the bulk section, the refrigerated tofu section, check out, swinging by the barista to pick up a cup of coffee and marching through the snow the bus stop, that inspiration floated off into the snow flurries of Missoula. Enter snow flurries:

(second picture taken by Michael Gallacher, published in the Missoulian) 

On my recent expedition to the grocery store I came back with a zucchini. Yes, a zucchini. In February.  In the middle of a snow flurry in February in Montana.  Someone, please tell me what grand foodie inspiration struck me when I saw a freaking zucchini.  I also so happen to have some dried strawberries in my mini pantry arsenal. 

 Since strawberries are oh-so-middle-of-winter fare like zucchinis, I decided to put the two together in celebration of out of season foods.  And how do I plan to put them together?  If you have already read the title of this post (or just read this blog frequently), oatmeal is the natural medium to use up unsuspecting zucchinis and winter strawberries.  

People, I am making Zucchini Bread Oatmeal. 

Ingredients:

-1 medium-large zucchini

-1/3 c. rolled oats

-1 tsp cinnamon 

-1/4 tsp ginger

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

-1/2 tsp maple flavor (or just sub with vanilla)

-1/3 c. water  + 1/3 c. water

-1/3 c. non-dairy milch

-6-7 dried strawberries (or any other dried fruit)

- 1 tbsp vegan dark chocolate chunks, I used Enjoylife

-sweetener to taste

Directions:

Pulverize the zucchini into a mush by whichever means you prefer (food processor, blender, grating etc).  It should look a bit like caterpillar green apple sauce.

Mix oats, zucchini sauce, extracts, spices, 1/3 cup water and 1/3 cup non-dairy milch together in a microwave safe bowl with enough room for the mixture to double in size during the cooking process.  I myself am guilty of over stuffing my oatmeal bowls and then bowling the contents all over my microwave.  Over stuff and make a green explosion at your own peril. 

Microwave the whole mixture on HIGH for about 3 minutes.  For my microwave, this is the perfect length of time to not boil over the mixture and cook the oats to the right consistency for the next step.  Start out microwaving your oats for 2 minutes and then microwave the mixture in 30 second intervals until the oatmeal is, frankly, the overall consistency of snot.  If it can hold a spoon up in a hurricane, you're golden.

Mix the oatmeal to help release some of the steam and then allow the mixture to sit for about 2-5 minutes. Add the remaining 1/3 cup of water and then rather vigorously stir to fully incorporate the water. Plop in the dried strawberries or other dried fruit.  Stick the whole concoction in the fridge to settle up overnight. 


In the morning, the oatmeal will have absorbed the remaining liquid. Stir in about 1-2 tbsp of water or non-dairy milch to the oatmeal to add a bit more moisture back to the porridge.  Reheat until desired eating temperature.  Some may like it cold (pudding-like), others may like it hot (fresh from the oven).  Stir in the dark chocolate chips and sweeten to desired taste.

When life gives you zucchinis and snow flurries, make zucchini bread oatmeal.


Cheers, kaite ;]

Apple Crisp Oatmeal

Mmmmmm. Apple crisp.  There's something particularly comforting about a bowl of spiced apple goop topped off with biscuit-cookie-like crumble.  Especially when you wake up to snow at 6.45am and need be across campus in 50minutes for a Chem lab. Brrrrrrrr

The fact that there is a bowl of apple crisp waiting in my fridge to re-heat is plenty of motivation to clamber out of bed to power-up for a hike across campus and a morning of determining decay rates.

 To make the "crumble" topping I used graham crackers.  (Graham crackers--more specifically their flavor--have always remained a mystery to me.  How exactly does one describe it without using the word "graham"?  The closes approximations I can come to are: "biscuit-like" and "brown sugar with butter").  I found this breakfast an ideal way to use up those awkward graham crackers crumbs at the bottom of the wax paper liner.

Biscoff--or "Cookie Butter"--is another key ingredient in this recipe (although, you can substitute with nut-butter or earth balance and the oatmeal still tastes scrumptious!  I find almond butter makes the best alternative).  Biscoff adds that authentic brown-sugar-buttery crust flavor to the oatmeal.  It takes wholesome porridge to granola-cookie-ness.  You can purchase Biscoff in jars or mini-1-tablespoon-packets at foreign foods stores and online.  My parents purchased these packets at Sidecar for Pigs (a vegan supply store) in Seattle.

Ingredients:

1 medium/large apple (I used a Jonagold)

1/3 c. rolled oats

1 tsp vanilla butter nut flavor

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp clove

1/3 c. water + 1/3 c. water

1/3 c. non-dairymilch

1/2 to 1 tbsp Biscoff or nut-butter

1 tbsp vegan white chocolate chips (if you can find them! nuts, raisins or dark chocolate are tasty alternatives I have used before)

1 vegan graham cracker sheet, crumbled

(optional), sweetener to taste

Directions:

Pulverize half of the apple by whichever means you prefer (food processor, blender, grating etc).  It should look a bit like apple meal or chunky apple sauce.

Mix oats, apple bits, vanilla, spices, 1/3 cup water and non-dairy milch together in a microwave safe bowl with enough room for the mixture to double in size during the cooking process.  As stated before, I am guilty of over stuffing my oatmeal bowls and then bowling the contents all over my microwave.  A not fun, but yummy clean-up.

Microwave the whole mixture on HIGH for about 3 minutes.  For my microwave, this is the perfect length of time to not boil over the mixture and cook the oats to the right consistency for the next step.  Start out microwaving your oats for 2 minutes and then microwave the mixture in 30 second intervals until the oatmeal is, frankly, the overall consistency of snot.  If it can hold a spoon up in a hurricane, you're golden.

Mix the oatmeal to help release some of the steam and then stir in the Biscoff or nutbutter.  Allow the mixture to sit for about 2-5 minutes. 

Meanwhile, chop up the other half of the apple into moderate sized chunks.

Add the remaining 1/3 cup of water and then rather vigorously to fully incorporate the water. Mix in the apple chunks.  Stick the whole concoction in the fridge to settle up overnight.

In the morning, the oatmeal will have absorbed the remaining liquid and will look a bit like this *insert Psycho theme here *:

Add about 1-2tbsp of water or non-dairy milch to the oatmeal to add a bit more moisture back to the porridge.  Micowave on HIGH for about 2 minutes.  Stir in the white chocolate chips, crumble the graham cracker on top and sweeten (if needed--I find the Jonagold apple made this oatmeal sweet enough).

Dig in my fellow oatmeal fiends.

...then mourn its loss.

Cheers, kaite ;]

Overnight Carrot Cake Oatmeal (take 1)

As aforementioned in my previous post, I have gone a little nutty for flavored extracts.  One of the many ways I liberally incorporate the extracts is in my morning oatmeal.  A teaspoon of "vanilla butter nut" or "maple" flavor can seriously jazz up some rolled oats in a way cinnamon or chopped herbs or apple chunks can't quite obtain.

While back in Seattle over my winter holiday, I got into making rather extravagant porridge for breakfast.  I would shred sweet potato into oats for sweet-potato-casserole oatmeal.  I mixed chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers for smores oatmeal.  Apple-pie oatmeal.  Blueberry pancake oatmeal. Nut-butter and raspberry preserves oatmeal.  Banana-split oatmeal. Carrot cake oatmeal. 

Upon coming back to Missoula, my usual breakfast felt a little deprived of overloaded glamour.  Don't get me wrong.  A few days this past week all I wanted was an overflowing bowl of plain oats topped off with cinnamon, soy milch and a handful of pumpkin seeds. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, as soon as those extracts arrived, carrot cake sounded plenty more appealing for breakfast.  

Here is my most recent version of carrot cake oatmeal, doctored to be cooked in the microwave limitations of a dormitory.  In order to get the flavors to really blend and intensify, I like to let my oatmeal sit overnight in the fridge and then blast the mixture in the microwave the next morning for a minute to re-heat. This settling and re-heating process also adds a bit of volume to the oats, which gives the porridge a more cake-batter texture. (On a side note, this particular flavor of "carrot-cake" is sans coconut or pineapple.  I am not an avid coconut fan and have many personal issues with pineapple as a food item. Thus, those two usual carrot-cake suspects have been relegated to future recipe versions.)

Ingredients:

1/3 c. thick rolled oats*

2 medium carrots

1-2 tbsp powdered soy milch (or replace half of the water with soy milch) 

1 tsp cinnamon, heaping

1/2 tsp ginger

1 tsp flavor of choice

2/3 c. water + 1/3 c. water

chocolate chunks + other goodies (ideally dairy-free WHITE chocolate chips to make this cream-cheeze frosting-ish;  however, I only have Theo's hot cocoa bits here in Missoula. Other appropriately tasty add-ins could be shredded coconut, raisins, vegan cream cheeze, walnuts etc.)

*This recipe can easily be made g-free by substituting the oats with gluten free oats or hot-rice cereal

Directions:

Pulverize the two carrots by any means available to you: blender, food processor, cheeze grater ... by all means use your teeth if desperation calls for it.  I used my mini food processor to grind the carrots until they looked somethin' like this:

Combine the carrot bits, oatmeal, soymilch, spices, extract and 2/3 cup of water in a bowl with enough room for the mixture to double in size during the cooking process.  (I am guilty of over stuffing my oatmeal bowls and then  bowling the contents all over my microwave. Ewwww.  Even if the mess smells absolutely divine).

Microwave the whole mixture on HIGH for about 2 1/2 minutes.  For my microwave, this is the perfect length of time to not boil over the mixture and cook the oats to the right consistency for the next step.  Start out microwaving your oats for 2 minutes and then microwave the mixture in 30 second intervals until the oatmeal looks like this:

Frankly, the oatmeal should now be the overall consistency of snot.  Mix the oatmeal to help release some of the steam and then allow the mixture to sit for about 2-5 minutes.  Add the remaining 1/3 cup of water and then stir rather vigorously to fully incorporate the water. Stick the whole concoction in the fridge to settle up overnight.

In the morning, the oatmeal will have absorbed the remaining liquid.  (I usually have to add a about 1-2 tbsp more of water or non-dairy-milch).  Microwave on HIGH for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. Dump in a healthy few spoonfuls of add-ins, stir about to incorporate.  Please note! This is not a very "sweet" oatmeal.  If you want your carrot-cake-oatmeal to taste more like actual cake batter, make sure to add in about a tbsp of maple syrup or brown sugar to give it an extra sweet-boost.

Otherwise, dig in.  Guess what I ate for breakfast today? 

Cheers, kaite ;]

Wickedly Perfect Poridge

As my Halloween treat to you, I present "wickedly perfect porridge" doctored up 2 ways: 

 1) The healthy stick-to-your-ribs version, and

 2) The healthy for your emotions version.

After all, we need a little bit of both in life.

Version 1 reminds me of Frankenstein.  I used black rice instead of oatmeal, which makes the porridge more spooky and devilishly high in antioxidants. Right after you cook the rice it appears vibrant purple and cools down to a deep purpley-black.  This purple pigment is called anthorcyanin--which is a protein similar to melanin in human skin.  In a sense, black fruits/veggies/grains just have a serious tan.  Anthorcyanin may not cure cancer, but this porridge might help with your sugar hang-over from Halloween festivities :)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup dry black rice, cooked

1 tsp dark miso, diluted into 2 tbsp water

3 dried plums, chopped

1 green scallion, chopped

2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

1 tbsp green pumpkin seeds

1-2 tbsp dark chocolate bits (I used Theo Dark Sipping Chocolate)

Directions:

Place the first 3 ingredients into the crock-pot; stir well to incorporate.  Turn crock-pot on HIGH and allow the porridge to sit for about 15-20 minutes.  The rice will absorb the extra moisture from the miso as it warms up.  After rice is thoroughly heated though, add the last 4 ingredients to the rice mixture.  Transfer to a porridge bowl and dig into a Frankenstein breakfast.

Version 2 is the ultimate "smores-gasbord."   Marshmallows may have no nutritional value, buts that is perfectly okay here.  Graham cracker oatmeal, chocolate, and fluffy marshmallow all piled together make the ultimate breakfast 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of rolled or steal-cut oatmeal, uncooked

1 HUGE homemade marshmallow, cut into chunks (or about 5-6 Dandies)

1 tsp barley malt syrup (or honey)

1-2 tbsp dark chocolate bits (I used Theo Dark Sipping Chocolate)

Directions:

Cook your oatmeal in whichever way works best for you.  I made mine fresh out of the crock-pot, but if you are a microwave person or have the luxury of a stove top, be my guest. Once oatmeal is cooked,  gently stir in the last three ingredients.  It's ready to devour.

I made a slight variation of this porridge a few nights ago where I substituted the malt syrup with raspberry jam. Equally as yummy.

I hope everyone has a happy Halloween and still does't think they are too old to go trick-or-treating.  Yesterday I went "trick-or-eating" with a group of students from the university.  Instead of collecting candy, we knocked on doors in our consumes and asked for non-perishable food items to donate to the Missoula Food Bank.  It was a rather fun way to get our trick-or-treating fix and help a good cause.

What's everyone going to dress-up as for Halloween?  I am Linus from the Peanuts.  The blue blankie and "WELCOME GREAT PUMPKIN" sign are great excuse to bow out the festivities early.  Linus has exams to study for... and needs to go welcome the Great Pumpkin upon its arrival.  

Cheers, kaite ;]

Dorm Room Porridge (Crockpot style)

NOTE: I HAVE A SMALL ADDENDUM AT THE END ON HOW TO COOK OATMEAL IN 2-3hrs INSTEAD OF OVERNIGHT AS SPECIFIED IN THE ORIGINAL RECIPE.

I am obessed with oatmeal.  Oatmeal cookies.  Oatmeal bars. Oatmeal scones.  Scottish oat bread. Oatbran muffins.  Quick-oats. Rolled-oats. Etc. etc.  But the original, and my all-time favorite, is slow-cooked steal oats. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  The only problem with living in a dorm room is a) The cafeteria doesn’t serve steal-cut. Just the mushy instant Quanker kind. Yuck. b) I lack a pressure cooker and c) No access to a stove.  Microwave cooking steal cut oats results in a giant, explosive glooey mess. Attempt at your own peril mis amigas.

Soooooo, for all you oatmeal fiends out there—who can’t get your fix from the insta kind—I have “formulated” a delectable porridge via the crockpot.  I love the recipe even more because it requires almost no work as all the cooking happens overnight and you wake up to piping hot b-fast. NOTE:  you will need a small bowl that fits inside your crockpot in order to “double boil” the porridge.

Ingredients:

¼ tsp oil; such as coconut, sesame or canola

¼ cup steal cut oats

¾ cup to 1 cup water

2 tsp seasoning; such as maple syrup, brown sugar, miso, mirin, tamari… go crazy! (I used 1tsp tamari and 1tsp brown sugar)

toppings;

such as dried fruit, seeds, nuts, chocolate chunks, apples chunks, berries, spices, jams, nut butters, granola, trail mix…

(I used: 3 diced prunes, 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds + ½ tsp cinnamon)

Directions:

Oil the inside of a little bowl with the ¼ tsp oil.  If touching the oil freaks you out, and I know there are a few of you out there, rub the oil around with a rolled up paper towel to evenly distribute.  This will prevent the oats from sticking to the bowl and turning your morning breakfast into a mining mission.

 Mix the oats, water and seasonings together inside the oiled, little bowl.  Fill the crockpot with about 1 inch of water and place the little bowl inside the crockpot.  The water level inside the crockpot should be about level with water inside the little bowl.

Cover the crockpot and set to low heat.  Allow the crockpot to do its magic for about 6-7hrs.  Uncover, stir about the oats to break up the slight “crust” formed on the surface of the oatmeal.  Dump in the toppings, mush about, and enjoy your porridge.  It’s the breakfast of champion students.


Addendum: If you would prefer to make your oatmeal ahead of time in larger batches, place crock-pot on HIGH instead of LOW.  The oatmeal (or rice) will cook in about 2-3 hrs depending on the quantity.  I usually make a double batch with 1/4 cup rice, 1/4 cup steal cut oats and 1 cup of water.  This mixture takes about 3 hrs on HIGH.

Cheers, kaite ;]