Showing posts with label oatmeal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oatmeal. Show all posts

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Grrrrilled Pizza Party!

Sitting by the fire...
For my birthday, I wanted to indulge. And not in alcohol, but in pizza and cake (cake post coming soon)! I actually indulged in fresh caught Alaska Salmon as well. It didn't sit all that well with me. :(

I know pizza is a huge part of the runners food group, but I just don't eat it anymore! I'm possibly wheat intolerant. Which is sad. I'm still testing it out. All I know is I can actually breathe through my nose when I don't eat it. To be on the safe side, for my pizza, I used an oat crust.

If you've never grilled pizza before, it is very easy, quick and you get that oven fired crunch. It's also a great party idea. Small party idea. Last night we had a couple people over and it was top your own crust. Monday we had a large potluck, and it was bring a dish etc. Anymore than 4-5 people and the grill will either not be big enough, and/or you won't all eat together.

I kind of threw these crusts together, but I was very happy with how they turned out.
Speedy Pizza Crust
2 1/4 tsp Yeast
1 1/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/4 C Spelt Flour/Brown Rice Flour Mix (any lighter flour will work)
1 C Warm water
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 tsp Honey
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbs mixed herbs (I did oregano, basil and garlic powder)

In a bowl, mix yeast and honey with wrist temp warm water. Stir until dissolved. Let sit for a few minutes.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt.

Make a well in the middle, pour in yeast mixture, oil and water. Stir until loose ball forms. Knead until elastic. Leave in oiled bowl for however long you want. I was busy with other fixin's so it sat for about 30 minutes and doubled in that time! However, you can use this immediately, it does not have to rise.

Once risen, you can divide this into at least 2 very large crusts, I divided into 5 nice thin crusts- the size of my pizza stone. Roll out on floured surface. The smaller they are, the easier they handle on the grill.

Roll out thin, but not too thin... like 1/4-1/2 inch. Lay on a plate, dust with cornmeal/ground flaxseed. Layer with another crust. Repeat.

On the grill:
On preheated/low heat grill, carefully place one crust over low flame. watch closely.. about 3-5 minutes, turn. Cook this side only until done.. not too brown. Remember that once the toppings are on, the crust will cook even more. You do want it done at this point though.

Take crusts off grill. Top with your favorite veggies. Place crusts back on grill. Close the lid. And check every few minutes. The veggies will still be a little on the fresh side, which I personally love. If you have cheese, it will definitely melt quickly. We use the top rack of the grill to keep the crusts from over cooking before the toppings are done. If your grill only has one rack, just watch closely, or pre-cook your veggies a tad.

Voila! Pizza on the grill!

I made the above recipe for my company and hubs. For myself, (trying to avoid wheat/most flours) I made a pizza crust out of oats. I tried sneaking oat flour into all of my little sisters pizza crusts/pancakes/cookies. And until she caught me blending oats, it worked! haha!

Oat Pizza Crust
2 C Oat Flour (can be easily made in food processor/blender)
2 1/4 tsp Yeast (can be made without)
1 C Warm Water
1 tsp Honey
1 Tbs Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbs Rosemary, crushed in your hand

In one bowl, dissolve yeast, honey and water.  Let sit a few minutes.

In another stir together flour, rosemary, and salt.

Make a well in the flour bowl, pour in yeast mixture, water and oil. Stir well. The mixture will be really wet. I made the mistake of chit chatting with a girl friend as I made this up and I though.. oh my.. not enough flour.. so I made/added more (which you can tell in the photos-I didn't grind completely). What I wasn't thinking about was that the oats would absorb the water and become a manageable dough.. so what I ended up with was a drier, more crumbly dough that I had planned for, but they taste was still amazing!! The amounts above are correct (or at least close).

Once the oats absorb the water (about 10 minutes), form into a ball, and make as many crust as you can get for the size you want (this makes a good bit of dough, at least 2 medium large crusts-I made 6 small ones).

Layer on a plate being sure to sprinkle cornmeal/ground flax in between each crust to keep from sticking. If your dough is sticky, add more oats. You don't want to put sticky dough on the grill!

I loaded mine with cilantro pesto, zucchini, olives and garlic. I wasn't able to get a photo of mine, but snapped some pics of the leftovers.

Follow the grilling instructions above! Enjoy!

We were lucky enough to have fresh canned basic tomato sauce (like paste.. but not so thick) but you can use a can of tomato paste/sauce from the store.. or cook down a bunch of tomatoes (seeded and drained) from your garden, then pureed.

Basic Pizza Sauce
1 C Tomato Sauce (if using paste-add water until sauce consistency)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs mixed herbs (basil, oregno, thyme, tarragon, and garlic powder are classic)
1/2 tsp honey or other sweetener

We added 1 Tbs of nutritional yeast to ours. You can experiment with other add ins such as fruit jam, hot sauce, or molasses/mustard/spices for a BBQ sauce.

Mix well, let sit for a little while to soften the dried herbs if possible. Not necessary though. THis recipe works well for marinara as well, with a few minor adjustments (add chopped garlic, 1 tsp of olive oil, up the sweetener/salt).

Super easy and a great alternative to fresh basil pesto. Cilantro can be easier to find and less expensive.

Cilantro Pesto 
1 bunch fresh Cilantro
2-5 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Tbs ground Almonds
1 tsp Salt
1-2 Tbs Parmesean (optional)

So it basically follows basil pesto (which is basil, olive oil, parmesan, pine nuts, salt and pepper). But, you don't always have pine nuts or basil on hand. I made mine without cheese, and it was awesome! Salt is more to taste, start with less, especially if you add Parm.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Gluten Free Quinoa Cowgirls

Giddy Up CowGirl!
So.. I called these cowgirls, because I love the name, I love Rosetta's (Asheville, NC) vegan cowgirl cookies and, even though they aren't really cowgirl cookies, there are so many ingredients, if I listed it out the title would be way too long!
 There are a couple reasons I'm really excited about these:
1) They are gluten free (a blog reader requested a GF recipe)
2) They are high in protein
3) I just ate 5 (had to test each batch!)
4) And I finally made it work!

I've made a couple gluten free recipes and I have to say, it takes practice for sure (especially if you don't want them saturated with butter or eggs). There is still debate about whether or not oats are GF and many American processed brand are said to be contaminated... Bobs Red Mill uses the ELISA system to test. I do not have Celiac's. I have discovered that I am a bit wheat/starch sensitive. At least my bowels are.. so I've been breaking away from those foods more and more. I don't have an issue with sprouted grains (including wheat) though. hhmmmm "Food" for thought :)

Now, I made a few cookies at time, altering the batch and baking time a bit just to see... explain later.

Onto the recipe:
Dry:
1/2 cup Toasted Quinoa Flour* (see below)
1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour (I ran out of Quinoa/garbanzo)
1 cup Oats (I ground this up to medium coarse/medium fine in blender)
1 Tsp arrowroot (may not need-but I did it)
1 Tbs Flax seed (ground-ish)
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg
 1/8 Tsp Cloves
Liquid:
2 Tbs Coconut oil (tried to avoid this, didn't work)
1/4 cup Apple Pulp (or sauce)
2 Tbs (or more as needed) Apple Juice
1/4 (or more as needed) Soy milk or Almond Milk
1 Tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbs (or more) Maple Syrup (Optional-taste it-may want more-mine are barely sweet but I only added more juice)
Add Ins:
1/4 cup (or more) dried cranberries
5-6 Dried Apricots (soaked then squeezed of water- chopped)

Ok, I know it looks complicated and I was just adding more of this and that as I needed it..but somewhere along these lines and you will have yourself a delicious healthy cookie!

First, soak those apricots. Second, add the vinegar (or lemon/lime juice) to the milk-let curdle).

*Toasting the Quinoa: Quinoa actually contains a toxic substance (saponin) which I learned about while making sprouted Quinoa 'salads.' It is said that most of this is removed in processing.. but since I make my own quinoa flour..

To be on the safe side:  I wash my quinoa.. spread it on a pan and let it dry, then put through my flour grinder, before toasting it on low for about 5 minutes (constantly stirring) in a dry skillet. Alternatively, you can spread your whole (or flour) quinoa on a pan and toast at about 200-215F for an hour or so.. but pan toasting it much faster.

Ok, NOW you are ready:
Combine all dry ingredients in medium bowl.

Combine all wet ingredients in large bowl (except add ins)

 Add dry to wet. Stir until just combined (at this point-taste for sweetness, check for moisture- you may need more milk/juice).

Fold in the cranberries/chopped apricots.

Mmmm MM
Shape into teaspoonful rounds on pan (most vegan cookies keep the shape you put them in and do not spread). Bake at 4 minutes (for a moister cookie) 5 minutes for a cakier cookie) and 6-7 minutes for a crunchy on the outside (but kind of dry cookie). I recommend baking 3 cookies alone. Try then at 4 minutes.. see what you think, bake some more-or add more sweetener/liquid. On the last try I added an additional Tbs of milk and finally added in 1 Tsp of Maple (the rest of the batch was sweetened with juice) and while they were tastiest (due to the maple!), they were also a bit moist for me.

My favorite way: 4 minutes at 350, right off the pan, with a thick cake batter consistency. I added 2 Tbs of milk to this, baked the second batch for 5 minutes and they were perfect! They have the whole soft baked oatmeal cookie thing going on.

Nutritious and Delicious!!!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Running Silent & Vegan BlueBerry Oat Bars

Fresh Snow this Morning Knee Deep
A few days ago my Ipod battery died 2 minutes into a 3.17 mi run.  A run that normally takes me about 29 minutes.. but it seems I run much slower without distraction! Running silent in the snow was actually very soothing. It was really quiet, but pretty noisy too with each step a satisfying crunch! I've always said people that can run miles and miles silent are amazing. And they are. But now, I understand a little bit better. I have been in the habit of pausing my Ipod every other song to practice getting silent. But, the big difference is I left the ear buds in! So the breath is very loud and you can still hear the electric whirring of the Ipod. Needless to say, I don't do pause my Ipod much. Taking it out entirely a whole other experience!

The other night I had my *monthly* oat craving. I don't eat very many cooked grains, but I do make sure I get enough carbs for fuel through raw breads and dates (love!) etc. However, around that time of the month I get crazy fruit or carb cravings. It's usually around this time I eat 4-5 apples a day or 8 kiwis, 20 dates, etc. Maybe it's the snow, but I was craving oats. There is a fabulous recipe for raw oatmeal I'll have to post. Also see the porridge in a previous post. However, this craving hit at 9pm.. my usual bedtime. I was eating a handful of plain uncooked barley oats while I searched for a healthy recipe as my tired mind was a blank. Thank you Fat Free Vegan Kitchen! This lady R O C K S vegan cooking/baking. I did use her recipe. Not to mess with perfection, but I also changed a good bit to fit my personal needs.

Yummy!
Fat Free Vegan Kitchen Blue Berry Oat Bars
1 pint blueberries
1/4 cup agave nectar (I juiced two granny smiths-and doubled the juice-omitted agave)
1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with enough water or juice to form a smooth paste (I used arrowroot)
3 cups oatmeal* (regular, not instant)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces unsweetened applesauce (I used fresh pulp from the juicer)
6 tablespoons (3/8 cup) agave nectar (again-subbed juice)
6 tablespoons (3/8 cup) water
1 teaspoon vanilla

I didn't have an issue as I thought I would subbing in extra liquid. The batter was actually perfect. Once baked, the crust was thick and had bits of beautiful green apple skin throughout. They held together wonderfully once cooled. I ate four, cured my craving and the hubs demolished the rest. I must admit he made most of these, while I delegated instruction! :) They aren't very sweet.. so the blueberry filling really pops. They are perfect. Amazing recipe  Susan V!

Click on the links for the full recipe. She has an amazing blog and many recipes.. you are sure to find a healthy substitute for your craving!

What do you get cravings for? Do you think your mileage can determine what you crave? Do you ever run *silent?*
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