There’s a post I have been REALLY wanting to get out to you about responding to questions from kids… because if you have a toddler like me, you’re probably fielding a lot of questions alll the time! And I recently found a new strategy I LOVE using with my little girl. But man it’s been kinda crazy times over here, and every night that I’ve meant to pound out that post, something else has come up.
So instead, today is about oatmeal. Because I’ve had this post ready to go (but kept forgetting to snap a picture for it). It’s really yummy oatmeal! My friend just happened to test the recipe this week, and she liked it, too! “So tasty, quick and easy!” It really is yummy, so I hope you try out this warm, toasty, stick to your ribs oatmeal with the cooler seasons approaching!
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This is my new go-to oatmeal recipe. But wait, JoEllen, you already posted a steel cut oatmeal recipe! Ah, yes. I did. And I still like that one! It’s chock full of steel cutty, apply, cinnamony raison goodness! And you can freeze it into pucks and simply reheat in the morning- what’s not to like?
Nothing, except that I have a new recipe I’ve been using and loving, and I prefer it for many reasons:
- I use quick cooking steel cut oats (which are only $7.99 for 112 ounces from Costco!). Faster and less expensive.
- I use my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker, so I really can just dump everything in and then forget about it until it’s all done.
- I use less liquid (about half the amount of my previous recipe!), which means the oatmeal is more toothsome and chewy. When I reheated frozen batches from my old recipe, it came out a bit mushier than I preferred.
- I skip the apples now, which makes it SO MUCH FASTER. I will probably add them back if Costco ships them through Google Shopping Express again, but until then, I probably will take the easy breezy route and just use raisins as my add-in. Such a time saver!
I usually double this recipe and freeze two batches the same way I described before. It works great! I also find that the bottom sort of caramelizes in the Instant Pot, which I find kind of awesome. It adds a toasty nuttiness to your oatmeal (though the pot is admittedly annoying to clean afterward)!
If you don’t have an Instant Pot, this same recipe works on the stove top (instructions below). Enjoy!
We eat this all the time. Everyone loves it. I enjoy roasted Brussels sprouts on their own, but this easy sauce definitely takes it up a notch and makes it something special! It was this dish that caused me to go and buy a vegetable book in the first place. If you’re in charge of veggies or looking for a good side dish to bring to the next gathering, try this one!! It won’t disappoint.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange Butter Sauce
From Fast, Fresh & Green by Susie Middleton
Ingredients
- 1 lb small Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved lengthwise
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp fresh orange juice
- 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest
- 2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, toss the Brussels sprouts with the olive oil and 1/2 tsp of the salt. Arrange the sprouts in one layer, cut side down, on the parchment.
- Roast until brown and tender, 15-18 minutes. (The tops will be dark brown and crispy and the sprouts should feel tender when pierced with a paring knife.) Transfer the sprouts to a mixing bowl.
- Combine the balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, orange juice, and orange zest in a small saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium heat just until it’s hot (you will see a bit of steam), but not simmering. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cold butter, several pieces at a time, whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth and creamy. (Don’t reheat the mixture or the butter will break and the sauce won’t be creamy.) Pour the sauce over the sprouts and stir thoroughly but gently until most of the sauce has been absorbed. Transfer the sprouts and any remaining sauce to a serving platter or dinner plates.
Life’s been good.
Here’s what I’ve been up to lately:
- These chocolate chip cookies are amazing. They come out chewy, buttery, savory-salty in a great way, gooey, chocolatey, crisped up just right… possibly my new favorite, which I really didn’t think could happen.
- Good Old Fashioned Pancakes. They are really truly fluffy pancakes. I can’t think of how many times a pancake advertised itself as fluffy and came out disappointingly flat. This batter was unusually thick and, well, fluffy even when I dropped it on the pan, but nothing weird happened. Just satisfyingly fluffy and moist pancakes when they finished. I added banana slices to mine. Blueberries next time. Yum.
- Carving out some ME time. Like, I actually asked my husband for a day off, and he took a day off from work that very week so he could give me a real day off! I went shopping. Like, real shopping where you browse at your own pace, try on clothes, and wait in line to buy the things you decided you liked. Cannot remember the last time I had the luxury of time and space to do that! I also visited the great outdoors (for a whole 30 minutes…) and got a massage. Aw yeah.
- Getting swamped in preschool research again. I had actually already gone through all this in January and applied and enrolled and everything. Done. But now it’s July and my child has already changed and grown so much since then that I’m reevaluating our whole arrangement. Of course it’s the Bay Area, and it’s July… which means I am way behind the game now if I want to actually get into one of our top choices. We’ll see! 😛
- I actually tried one of those TasteMade recipes someone posted on Facebook and the pasta I made was SUPER TASTY! It’s super not good for you (Heavy cream? Sausage? Cheese?!), but doesn’t that just convince you that it really does taste great? It does. It’s like the other creamy carbonara-y penne dish I love, but even easier. So I’m posting the recipe here for me, so I won’t have to search for and then scroll down to the bottom of this page to find the recipe on my phone. I served it with Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange Butter Sauce (recipe coming soon!) and everybody was very, very happy with dinner last night. Yum.
It’s been a pretty mellow but sweet summer, and we are enjoying these warm California days. Happy weekend to ya :).
This is a delicious Swiss chard recipe: soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, butter. Yum. The toddler GOBBLES it up. Husband likes it. I love it. Now I can finally add something fancy sounding like Swiss chard to my cooking repertoire, and by golly rainbow chard is GORGEOUS on a white plate. Even on a wok, don’t you think?
I like this recipe because it uses up the whole thing- leaves and stem. Not that I’ve ever cooked it any other way, but the author’s blurb seemed to imply that people usually don’t eat the stem. Well, it’s super tasty and adds great texture to this dish, so hooray for using all the parts!
First, you tear up the leaves and chop up the stems. Then you toast the pine nuts (she does it in her pan, I do it in the toaster oven while stir-frying), stir-fry the stems and garlic, then add the leaves, stir in the sauce, butter, top with pine nuts, and YUM. So delicious!
If you’ve never tried Swiss chard, I think this is a truly delicious vegetable dish you will want to make again and again!
“More bwoccoli pweeaaasseee!!”
Did she just say what I thought she did?
I heaped more broccoli on her plate and she went for it.
A couple minutes later, again: “More bwooooccoli peeease!”
Husband and I exchanged a glance. Just earlier, she saw the dinner spread and had spontaneously made up a song about spaghetti and meatballs on the spot. Now, five minutes into dinner, she still hadn’t touched her spaghetti and meatballs. She was just eating more broccoli!
“Ben, I feel like I just earned a mom badge of some sort.”
The My-Kid-Asked-for-More-Vegetables one, I think. AKA the “More broccoli please!” badge:
I’ve served broccoli and cauliflower this style several times, and she always eats it up. But when she kept asking for more today, I knew I had to share the magic with you! The whole family loves enjoying broccoli and cauliflower this way. I’ve even made the sauce without the ginger and orange juice, and it was still quite good (but better with!). It’s perfect for a meal where you’re going to get your hands on your food anyway, and I’m pretty sure dipping sauces are one of the best kept secrets to getting toddlers to eat anything!
Try it out, and if your toddler asks for more broccoli at dinner, be sure to leave a comment here so I can send you a personalized .png badge ;).
A while ago, I shared my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and dropped in a fun link about the chemistry of cookies. I really like the video and think about it each time I put my baked goods in the oven, anticipating the delightful Maillard reaction!
Well, Julissa noticed that little linky, and she thought I’d like this neat infographic she helped make on The Science of Baking. It feels like stuff I remember learning from the geeky chef Alton Brown at some point, but all summed up in one infographic with cute little burping yeasts to boot (see “Leavening” below). I did like it, and since I want to read it again and again, I figured you might enjoy a look-see. If you love baking and appreciate knowing what a teaspoon of baking soda actually does, or why you shouldn’t sub in bread flour when you’re baking a cake, this is the infographic for you!
I’ve also decided that if I ever make Ben another sappy Valentine’s day card, it’s going to feature something cheesy like “You Can Be the Sugar to My Amino Acids” in it somewhere. That, and maybe You can be the 0 to my 1 (does that even make sense? I hope that is even a compliment… #nerdfail).
I hope you like it, and please feel free to comment with more cheesy analogies :].
Granola: Great on yogurt, with ice cream, or on its own as a snack.
Last week, I made some. Then I put some in a bag for my friend. A couple days later, she texted me:
“Really this is the best granola I have ever had… Makes me want to become a hippie and try my hand at it”
…Need I say more?
So here is the recipe in case you turn up the Beatles and make some groovy granola :].
I decided to cook Chinese food this week. My trip to the Asian market was definitely in my Zone of Proximal Development (i.e. a learning stretch for me!) since I decided to wing it with no game plan. I can wing it comfortably at places like Sprouts and Trader Joe’s, but Asian markets are another story.
This produced some anxiety that I haven’t felt about grocery shopping for about half a decade, but I think the stretch was good for me. I generally avoid Asian markets because I can’t speak Chinese very well, and they usually can’t speak English very well, and that makes for a frustrating combination… especially when I look so very Chinese. I can feel the judgment creeping in their voices as they stare intently at me and repeat themselves louder and louder, thinking: She looks Chinese. She knows some Chinese, so she must be Chinese. Why can’t she understand me? SMH.
Sometimes they really do shake their heads at me and look at their coworkers in disbelief. Not exactly a confidence booster.
Who doesn’t like fried chicken? It’s salty, it’s crispy, it’s delicious. YUM. We get some serious fried chicken cravings every so often, but I don’t always love the grease, and it’s not something I’d feel awesome about feeding to my family. I did try making some buttermilk fried chicken once, about ten years ago… and there are reasons I haven’t tried again. Not only did I have to waste cups and cups of oil afterward, but it made the house smell like fried food for days! Also all that work and oil didn’t really feel worth it to fry up 4 pieces of chicken.
Sometimes I want that crunchy, salty, tender, chicken fried goodness without the mess and without feeling guilty that I’m feeding my family fried stuff. Enter CHEEZ-IT CHICKEN. It’s really good, and totally hits the salty crunchy chicken spot! Just try it once, and you’ll be sold! Some reasons you will love this recipe:
- It’s not actually fried. It’s baked.
- It has the crunchiness and saltiness of fried chicken.
- It’s basically a shake-n-bake recipe. Super easy to do!
- It uses just 4 common ingredients – chicken, Cheez-Its, sour cream, and butter!
- Super kid friendly. My toddler gobbled. it. up.
The chicken before it went into the oven.
So if you’re looking for a way to shake up your chicken routine (literally and figuratively!), try this out sometime!
<image to come! my fingers are always dirty when i need to take a picture of this one… *oink oink* 😉 >
I love me some good ribs. This recipe from my dad was my go-to favorite for a long time, but it takes about 3 hours to get that fall-off-the-bone goodness going in the oven. With my new Instant Pot
- Rub ribs, then place them in the Instant Pot with chicken stock and ketchup.
- Set on high pressure for 15 minutes.
- Cover with bbq sauce, and broil for 2-4 minutes.
YUM.
I can’t say I’ve liked everything I’ve tried in my Instant Pot so far. I’ve had some hits, like the ribs and this Beef Bourguignon I’ve done twice so far, and some misses, including a really disappointing kale and carrots recipe. These ribs are definitely a hit, though! We had friends over recently and it was a snap to throw these ribs together for dinner.
This recipe is pretty straightforward and simple, especially if you have some Butt Rub
My husband and I personally liked the ribs better when I made them with the rub recipe below, but we also enjoyed it with the Butt Rub
So if you are also figuring out ways to make the most of your Black Friday Instant Pot splurge, try this recipe out. It’s a keeper!
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