Tag Archive for: breakfast

How to Make Soaked Steel Cut Oats

, ,
Embracing Motherhood How to Make Soaked Steel Cut Oats2024

If you’re looking for a breakfast alternative to commercially processed cereal, steel cut oats are a great alternative! I buy organic steel cut oats in bulk from Country Life Natural Foods, and with 7 g of protein and 10% of our daily recommend iron per serving, they are a healthy and economical breakfast choice that the whole family enjoys. When you top them with butter, you’re getting plenty of healthy fats. They do have a considerable amount of phytic acid that prevents us from absorbing necessary minerals, so that’s why I recommend soaking them first.

Ingredients

  • 2 c. Organic Steel Cut Oats (I buy mine here, but you can get a smaller amount here.)
  • 2 T. Apple Cider Vinegar (I buy mine here, but you can get some here too.)
  • Filtered Water
  • 4 Quart Pot
  • Butter
  • Real Salt (I buy mine here, but you can get some here too.)

Directions

  1. Place the steel cut oats in a pot and cover with about twice as much water.
  2. Add the apple cider vinegar.

    soaking oats

    Adding Apple Cider Vinegar

  3. Let sit overnight or for 8 hours minimum. The ideal would be to soak for a complete 24 hours to get rid of all of the phytic acid, but anything is better than nothing.
  4. Bring to a slow boil stirring often.
  5. Once it boils, turn off the burner off, cover with a lid, and let it sit until all of the water is absorbed (about 20 minutes).
  6. *If it’s really hard to stir, add more water. If it’s still really soupy, turn the burner on low and leave the lid off, and cook until more of the water evaporates/is absorbed.
  7. Serve with butter and salt. Sometimes we like to add brown sugar and milk for a sweet treat.
Steel Cut Oats with Butter and Salt

Steel Cut Oats with Butter and Salt

/by

How to Make Healthy Granola Cereal

, ,
How to Make Healthy Granola Cereal and Why Commercially Processed Cereal is So Bad

This homemade cereal, using organic rolled oats, is a great alternative to commercially processed cereal. (Check out my other blog here about why commercially processed cereals are so bad.) Not only that, but this was ridiculously easy to make and an instant success in this household! My daughter Ruby LOVES this cereal and begs me to make it when we run out. My son, who can be a picky eater (and by “picky” I mean he’ll only eat like six things: chicken, salmon, bacon, pecans, apples, and my homemade fries) has recently had a really sore throat and it’s been a battle to get him to eat anything. Well, after making this cereal, he reluctantly tried one bite, and then devoured the entire bowl! I will be making this recipe quite often I imagine! Oh yeah, I’m on my second bowl right now.

Ingredients

  • 3 c. Organic Rolled Oats (Get some here.)
  • ½ c. Butter (1 stick)
  • ½ c. Brown Sugar or Maple Syrup (You can use either one or a combination of both. I personally think the brown sugar tastes better, but the maple syrup is healthier. Grade B maple syrup is full of antioxidants and naturally occurring minerals like thiamine, calcium, and zinc. Get some here.)
  • 1 T. Vanilla Extract
  • 1 T. Cinnamon
  • ½ t. Real Salt (Get some here.)
  • *Optional: Raisins, Almonds, Pecans, Cranberries, Craisins, or anything else “granola-y” that you think would taste good

Directions

  1. Preheat the over to 400ºF.
  2. Heat up the butter on the stove (or if you’re in a pinch, just microwave it).
  3. Add the maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt and stir.

    Heat until just bubbling.

    Melted Butter, Maple Syrup, Vanilla, and Cinnamon

  4. Spread out the oats in a glass baking pan. (Sometimes, I just add my dry ingredients to the oats and mix them with my fingers.)

    Organic Rolled Oats in a Glass Baking Pan

    Organic Rolled Oats in a Glass Baking Pan

  5. Pour the butter mixture on top of the oats, and gently mix together until all of the oats are coated.
  6. If you want to, you can add some raisins, cranberries, craisins, or any nuts at this point.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes. (Try to stir the oats up about halfway through if you can remember.)
  8. Let it cool.

    Baked Oats Cooling

    Baked Oats Cooling

  9. Put into a bowl and pour milk over it, just like you would any other cereal. Or you can mix with some plain or vanilla yogurt for a really yummy treat!

*Note: Since this cereal is so good, I tried making a double recipe, but it just turned out awful. The oats were too chewy instead of nice and crispy even though I stirred it a bunch of times. I even tried using 4 cups of oats, but it just didn’t turn out as good as the 3 cups. So don’t mess around with this recipe!

*If you’re really digging these rolled oats, you should also check out my yummy recipe for Healthy Oatmeal Cookies.

/by

How to Make the World’s Best Yogurt and Buttermilk Pancakes

,

I stumbled across the recipe for these yogurt and buttermilk pancakes this morning purely by accident when I ran out of my intended ingredients, and the results have absolutely blown me away. These are the best pancakes I have ever made. Period. It isn’t even dinnertime yet and the entire batch has been devoured by everyone in the family. Now, let me share the brilliant story of their creation.

It all started when I woke up this fine Saturday morning with my precious little five month old who decided that 5:30 a.m. would be a fine time to start the day. While everyone else slept in and Julian played happily in his bouncy seat, I decided that I would waft the house with the delicious aroma of a pancake breakfast and fresh coffee.

After I had added two cups of flour to my bowl, hoping to next add the milk and my cup of sourdough starter for my Sort of Sourdough Pancakes, I realized that we were out of milk. “Rats!” I thought, as I slowly remembered that I knew that we were out of milk since it was milk day and we had plans to visit the farm and get our weekly eight gallons of fresh raw milk when everyone woke up. Come on brain!

As I scanned the fridge, I found one cup of buttermilk left over from making my Ranch Dressing. “Hmmmm, buttermilk pancakes sound good,” I thought. But after adding the one cup of buttermilk to my flour, I realized it wasn’t near enough liquid. So I scanned the fridge again and noticed some plain organic yogurt sitting way in the back. “I sure hope this isn’t rotten,” I thought, not remembering the last time I had even touched the stuff. “Phew!” it passed the smell test, and into the mixture it went!

Next, I had hoped to add 3 or 4 eggs to at least make some super protein pancakes that Scott and I could force down, but we only had one egg. So after adding it to the mixture, I only half-heartedly mixed in the rest of the ingredients (vanilla, cinnamon, aluminum free baking powder, and salt). I had pretty much accepted the fact that this recipe was a bust, and I was ready to toss the whole thing out. But after mixing everything together, I realized that, hey, it wasn’t half bad. “Maybe there’s hope!” I exclaimed to Julian who just looked at me with a big goofy grin.

So I heated up the skillet with some coconut oil and decided to give these my best shot. I spent the next hour cooking one pancake after another (they took a reeeeeeeeeeally long time to cook thanks to the yogurt) until I had one big stack of pancakes. I usually take pictures of just about everything I cook since I like to blog about my recipes, but I didn’t even think it was worth it to snap one single photo.

After all of my pancakes were complete, I finally decided to try one. I was prepared for the worst as I hesitantly lifted up one corner of a still warm pancake and took a little nibble. It was…good. I mean, wow, like, really good, and it didn’t even have any butter or syrup on it yet! So I smothered one with butter, cut it up into bite sized pieces (cuz that’s what you do when you’re a mom, even if there aren’t any kids around), and drizzled some fresh maple syrup on top. Then I poured a big glass of milk, and sat down to one of the best pancakes I have ever had in my life.

The texture was just so amazing. It was chewy and moist, and full of so much wonderful flavor. The way that the buttermilk and yogurt complemented each other, and how the vanilla and cinnamon accented this taste explosion was simply exquisite. When my husband and children finally awoke, they were all treated to the most amazing breakfast ever. Everyone devoured these pancakes for breakfast, and then we ate them again for lunch! I am happy (and sad) to say that they are now all gone!

We only go shopping every other week nowadays to help with our time and budget, so we’ll have to wait awhile to stock up on buttermilk and organic plain yogurt again, but you can bet your buttons that this will be a recipe I will make time and time again. Now, without further adieu, here’s the recipe.

Yogurt and Buttermilk Pancake

Yogurt and Buttermilk Pancake

Ingredients

  • 1 c. Buttermilk
  • 1 ½ – 2 c. Plain Yogurt
  • 2 c. Flour
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 T. Cinnamon
  • 1 T. Vanilla Extract
  • ½ t. Real Salt
  • 1 t. Aluminum Free Baking Powder

Directions

  1. Preheat your cast iron skillet at heat level of 3 (if that’s how you’re cooking) and plop in a huge dollop of coconut oil.
  2. Mix together the flour, buttermilk, and yogurt. The mixture shouldn’t be too thick, but it shouldn’t be runny either.
  3. Crack the egg and mix it in.
  4. Then add the cinnamon, vanilla, salt, and baking powder, and gently mix everything together.
  5. Turn the heat up to a 4, and pour in a ladle’s worth of batter.
  6. Cover and cook for about 10-12 minutes.
  7. Check to see when not just the edges, but the entire pancake starts to look a darker shade of brown and you can see little bubbles popping up before flipping.
  8. Cover and cook for another minute or two. If you don’t cook these pancakes long enough, they will feel gooey in the middle. As they cool, they will firm up a bit.
  9. This recipe should make about 6 medium sized pancakes.
  10. Top with tons of butter, drizzle on some fresh maple syrup, and sit down at a real table with a big glass of milk to enjoy the best pancake you’ve ever had.
  11. You’re welcome.
ruby_eating_yogurt_and_buttermilk_pancakes

Yogurt and Buttermilk Pancake Lunch

/by

Sort of Sourdough Pancakes

, ,

Typically, when you make things with sourdough, you need to prepare them well in advance, but what if you wake up one Sunday morning and you’re just craving pancakes? This is a good recipe to make some quick pancakes that are “sort of sourdough”. (If you’re looking for more of a real deal sourdough waffle/pancake recipe, check this recipe out, and if you just want some whole wheat pancakes, go here.) My kids always love this pancake recipe, and we sometimes even eat them for dinner!

Read my article about phytic acid if you want to learn why eating sourdough is so important!

Ingredients

  • 1 c. Sourdough Starter
  • 2. c. Milk (Raw is best.)
  • 2 c. Flour (I get my wheat berries here, but you can find some similar here too. I use this grinder. You could also just buy some organic sprouted grain flour here.)
  • 3 Eggs (Preferably pastured)
  • 6 T. (¾ stick) Melted Butter (You can add room temperature butter and it should mix alright though.)
  • 2 T. Cinnamon (Buy some here.)
  • 2 T. Vanilla Extract (This vanilla would be best, but on our budget, I buy this.)
  • ½ t. Real Salt (I buy my Real Salt in bulk here, you can buy a shaker here, or a refill pouch here.)
  • 1 t. Baking Soda (or Aluminum Free Baking Powder)
  • 2 T. Coconut Oil (This coconut oil would be best, but on our budget, I buy this.)

Directions

  1. Mix the sourdough starter and milk. Try to let it sit out for as long as you can. If you let it sit out for 8 hours, all of the phytic acid will be broken down, but if you can at least let it sit out for half an hour to an hour it will be better than nothing. (*Eating sourdough is an acquired taste. It might be a good idea to slowly get your family used to the sour taste of these pancakes by letting the batter sit out for increasing amounts of time.)
  2. Preheat your cast iron skillet (make sure it’s cured properly) by setting it to a 2 or 3 for about five minutes.
  3. Add a dollop of coconut oil to your cast iron skillet (or whatever cooking pan you choose).
  4. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs.
  5. Add the cinnamon, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. Stir well.
  6. Add the flour and mix together. Add about a ½ c. to a cup more flour if you like poofier pancakes. This mixture is pretty thin, but it makes some deliciously thin pancakes that we all love. (*I find that my kids really like it when I cook pancakes one way for awhile, that I mix it up and make it a little different. So I’ll go from thick to thin and less sour to more sour quite often.)

    sourdough pancake batter mixed up and ready to serve with a ladle

    Sort of Sourdough Batter

  7. Turn the heat dial to 4 and pour a ladle’s worth of batter into the skillet. (The oil should be bubbling around the pancake.)

    sort of sourdough batter just starting to cook on a cast iron skillet

    Sort of Sourdough Batter Starting to Cook

  8. Cover and let cook for about 2-4 minutes.  (By the time I get a few pancakes in, the heat is sometimes too high and needs to be turned down temporarily. You’ll know if the heat is too high if you get hit with splattering coconut oil!)
  9. When the edges are slightly browned and the top is bubbly, you’ll know it’s time to flip.  (Stand back as you do this so you don’t get hit with splattering coconut oil.)

    Sort of sourdough pancake with brown edges and bubbling on top ready to flip

    Sort of Sourdough Pancake Ready to Flip

  10. Cover and cook for about 1 minute on the other side.

    sort of sourdough pancake cooking in a cast iron skillet

    Sort of Sourdough Pancake Almost Done Cooking

  11. Cook the rest of pancakes and add more coconut oil as needed. When you rock the pan back and forth, there should be enough oil to generously coat the bottom. This batter should make about 5-6 pancakes.
  12. Serve with butter and maple syrup. (I like to smear the butter all over the top, then cut it up, and finally add a very modest amount of syrup.)
    sourdough pancake fully cooked with a dollop of butter on the top

    Sort of Sourdough Pancake

    cut up sourdough pancake with butter and syrup ready to eat on a plate

    Sort of Sourdough Pancake Cut Up and Ready to Eat

/by

How to Make the Perfect Fried Egg

, ,
fried eggs cooked in a cast iron skillet

There are so many different types of egg dishes to consider making, but my each of my four kids have gone through a phase when one of their favorite foods was a perfectly cooked fried egg. Just like all of my other egg recipes, this one is simple and easy to follow, and will soon become a family favorite in your home too.

Ingredients

  • 3-4 Eggs (Preferably Pastured)
  • 1 T. Coconut Oil