Baked Oatmeal

Baked Oatmeal -- from Smurfette

Ingredients

2.5 C Steel Cut Oats
3.25 C Milk
2 Eggs
1 T Vanilla
1/2 Brown Sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
.75 C Dates, raisons, chopped fruit or craisons (I love diced up pear in ours)
.5 C chopped or sliced nuts (Optional)

Instructions

combine ingredients and let sit for 15 min. Preheat oven to 350. Pour mixture into an 8" greased round cake pan or large rectangular baking/ pyrex pan. Bake for 45 min. Cut into wedges and serve warm with milk. Individual servings can be frozen and reheated later - they always defrost overnight in my fridge so if I want it in the morning I just pull it out the night before. Sometimes I add a bit more brown sugar when I heat it up but I like my oatmeal sweet

Homemade Yogurt

From A Year of CrockPotting

The Ingredients.

--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized is fine, but do NOT use ultra-pasteurized. (Debbie recommends starting with whole milk until you get the hang of yogurt-making)

--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)

--frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring

--thick bath towel

The Directions.

This takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home to monitor.

I used a 4 quart crockpot. This is so exciting. My fingers are shaking!

Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.

When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.

Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.


Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.

In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened---it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.

Blend in batches with your favorite fruit. I did mango, strawberry, and blueberry. When you blend in the fruit, bubbles will form and might bother you. They aren't a big deal, and will settle eventually.

Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.



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alternate (super easy recipe from BrahimBride)

• Boil the milk on the stove (don't let it boil over...you gotta watch it)
• Put milk in desired c ontainter..Mix in 1/2 cup of your starter yogurt
• Put container into oven that is NOT turned on.
• Put on oven light
• Leave until morning
• viola! easy indian style yogurt

yum!

Spiced Nuts

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 C unsalted mixed nuts (walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

~Mix spices and reserve.

~Heat nuts in a dry skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to toast - about 4 minutes.
~Add butter and cook, stirring until the nuts begin to darken - about 1 minute.
~Add the spices, sugar, 1 tablespoon of water, and salt and cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens and the nuts are glazed, about 5 minutes.
~Remove the nuts from the heat and transfer to a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, separating them with a fork.
~Let the nuts stand until cooled and the sugar has hardened - about 10 minutes.
~Store in an airtight container.

Recipe compliments of Alisha S.

Salted Nut-Roll Bars

Ingredients
~~Crust~~
1lb Nutter Butter Cookies
1 stick melted butter

~~Topping~~
2 cups butterscotch chips (or peanut butter chips)
2/3 cups light corn syrup
4 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups small marshmallows
2 cups dry roasted peanuts
2 cups Rice Krispies

Instructions
~Preheat oven to 350.
~Line a 13x9" baking pan with foil and coat well with nonstick spray.
~Pulverize cookies in a food processor until fine crumbs form (the kiddos love to help with this).
~Add melted butter; process until crumbs clump together.
~Press crumbs into prepared pan and bake 15 minutes or until golden.
~Melt butterscotch chips, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth, about five minutes.
~Spread 1/2 cup of the mixture over the crumb crust.
~Top with marshmallows and return bars to oven, baking until marshmallows puff (about two minutes). Do NOT overbake.
~Toss peanuts and cereal with remaining butterscotch mixture until well coated.
~Drop spoonfuls of topping over marshmallows and spread with an oiled spatula.
~Cool bars before cutting.

~~Yield: 24 bars~~