homemade oat berry yogurt ~

I found a new recipe at Scandifoodie ~ I LOVE IT!!

It took a few days to put together; but sooooooo worth the wait.  What is it?  Yogurt made from oatmeal.  Yes, oatmeal.  Who'd a thought that??  Well... apparently in Finland it's a common practice and now in my household it's going to be too.  

Basically, what you do is take rolled oats, the originally recipe at Scandifoodie used rolled oats and groats; but I just did it with the rolled oats and it turned out great.

Put them in a glass bowl ~ cover with water and let it soak.  After 8 hours ... I let mine sit overnight ... you give them a swirl in the blender to make a nice smooth consistency.

Put it back into the glass bowl and cover.

As it sits, it begins to ferment.  Like a starter.

Here's my slurry of oats on Day 2 :

Day 4 ...  look at the beautiful bubble action going on.  Fermentation is taking place ~ and a bit of a sour taste has taken on to the slurry. 

I spooned out 2 soup ladles full into my blender.  Added a few frozen blueberries, a spoonful of sugar substitute and a very small splash of vanilla flavoring.

Swirl away ... and wahlah!!!  

Fresh ~ homemade  ~ non-dairy ~ healthy ~ 

Oat Berry Yogurt

I can't wait to try this with other fruits.  Yum.

I was really amazed at the texture of this.  I have to admit ~ I was a bit hesitant, thinking that it may be mealy from the oatmeal; but was pleasantly surprised by the texture.  It's just like the yogurt you buy in the store ... only better tasting!

I may never buy the stuff at the store again. Thanks Scandifoodie! She has the recipe on her website with more detail to measurements than I put on here. 

I also can't wait to try this same starter in some muffins or bread.  I'll update when I do.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

war of the muffin ~

That's right ... it's escalated to a war! A war between me and my muffin top ~ which has now escalated to what I classify as a belly flop.  How did that happen!!!!

I have always been the chunky monkey of the family ~ and I'm not too proud bearing that title.  I have been on so many different diets through out my lifetime.  Sometimes I'd lose a few pounds only to put back on. The few I'd lose, and then a few extras, would sneak back on me each time I TRIED to diet.  Frustration ... frustration... frustration! 

I have QUIT the dieting.  Now I am concentrating on just eating healthier.  hmmmph....  The word diet is getting kicked to the curb.

My biggest pitfall ... carbs.  I do (or should I say did) love my whites.  White flour, white rice, white sugar, noodles, potatoes ... oh ... that beautiful little potato.  It wasn't the potato that was killing me .... yes ... killing me ... I have all the health issues that go along with all those high carbs in my diet ... it also included all those carb laden gravies and sauces that I would top it all off with.

BUT THE BIGGEST problem in my house has been that dreaded white flour!!  It has to go!!

Lord help me on my quest.

  Now... I'm doing okay with that BUT I love to bake and cutting out white flour isn't all that easy to do.  I've been trying to switch over to using all whole unprocessed flours; but if you're a cook ... you know ... the texture and taste changes dramatically without white flour.

So began my muffin war!

I have been on a muffin kick ... trying to find a "good tasting, low fat, low cal, low carb, low sugar, low everything" muffin that actually taste good ... isn't dried out and flavorless ... or taste like cardboard (which whole wheat taste like to me)... and the kicker ... I can eat it without feeling quilty.  Now is that too much to ask for in a whole wheat muffin?  I think not.

Here's what I came up with this morning ~ I'm calling them:

Mel's Morning Glory Muffins

 

I began with taking 2 whole carrots, raw - with the peeling on,  1 apple, with the peelings on and cored ~ tossing those into the food processor and giving it a whirl ~ to grate the carrots and apple.  They ( whoever they are) claim that you should eat those peelings ... they're full of the vitamins and nutrients.

I transferred that to a mixing bowl and added:

2 large Eggs

1/4 cup Canola Oil

1/4 cup low-fat Milk

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 tsp. Orange Extract

Mix that altogether ... then add the following dry ingredients:

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/3 cup  Sugar Substitute

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground Ginger

1/2 tsp. Salt

I also added about 1/2 cup of toasted sunflower kernels ... or you could add walnuts or coconut or raisins, flaxseed ... today it just happened to be the sunflowers for me:)

Filled up the paper lined cupcake pan ...

 it made 12 

and baked in a preheated 375 degree oven 

for 25 minutes

Pat on back ... they actually tasted pretty darn good. I think that vanilla and the orange extract were the magic ingredients.

They didn't taste "cardboardy" and the texture wasn't too bad either.  Next time though ... I'm thinking maybe just a bit more canola oil ... increasing it to 1/3 cup vs. 1/4

All in all ... I think this ones a keeper.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

still hung up on the weather ~

What a difference a week makes!  Today we are in the 60's ~ but still have a lot of snow that needs to melt  off from the last storm.

There was a patch of ice on the driveway that I almost lost my car to the snowbank on.  

It started fishtailing around when I was coming up it.

Sam wasn't so fortunate. 

Into the snowbank he slides ... 

and has to have good ol' Dad come hook up the chain and pull him out. lol

Yes ... it's finally beginning to warm up in my neck of the woods ... I think our spring is finally on it's way.

Inside the house ... it's looking like springtime ... my amaryllis bulb has put forth a couple blooms.

and a second plant is getting ready to burst open too ...

I do love the winter months ... and the snow; but I'm ready for spring :) ... and to get back out into the yard work and gardens.  Although ... realistically it's still a ways off for us northerners.  We won't be planting the garden until the end of May... first few weeks into June.  It takes that long for the frost to get out of the ground and for the soil to warm enough for seed germination.

So... in the mean time I patiently wait ... and will probably get a heads up on the inside of the house, spring cleaning ... because once it's nice enough to be outside ... that's where I'll be!!  You won't find me cleaning closets and cupboards and shampooing rugs when Mother Nature calls me to the outdoors.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel