Cranberry Walnut Cereal

As a Mom with a full time job a quick breakfast in the morning is a must, this has been refrigerator oatmeal for months and the kids (well me too) are tired of oatmeal. So cereal has become our best friend for right now, but finding cereal that has a low sugar content to keep my sugar sensitive hyperactive son on his best behavior throughout the day is very difficult and if you do find some that doesn't taste like you are eating cardboard the price may kill you anyway. If you have seen my son on a sugar high you would understand this is to preserve my sanity and keep his teachers from giving up on teaching. I have also made a real effort to reduce the number of preservatives in the food that we eat on a daily basis as I believe preservatives are not helping the hyperactivity. I stumbled on this link for a Healthy Cereal from a juicing website that has some great tips for a healthy lifestyle, my disclaimer so to speak is they do not know who I am or even that I was inspired by their recipe to make my own cereal. Yes, we do incorporate juicing and smoothies into our everyday diet especially when its 100+ degrees during the summer months; the flip side is I work closely with both my own and my kids doctors who believe in a healthy balanced diet as a lifestyle not something you do for a few months then go back to the fast food. I encourage everyone to talk to their doctor, if you don't feel comfortable talking to your doctor find a nutritionist to work prior to making any lifestyle or diet changes.

Just a little teaser to get you in the mood for breakfast. Trust
me this is really amazing and will keep you from snacking all
morning long, or is that just me that snacks all morning long.

I was rummaging around my kitchen looking for ways to change up the recipe and to ensure my kids will not only eat the cereal, but love it. So I ran across some dried cranberries that were left over from making chocolate cranberry oatmeal. I measured out the 1 cup of nuts in my inspiration recipe and looked at it and thought this will not last very long at all and I need it last more than 1 day, so the recipe below was born. The serving size here is only a 1/2 cup. What how is that suppose to fill me up you say, trust me this is extremely filling and has no extra fillers that we have become accustomed to allowing us to fill the cereal bowl to the top. I came up with the serving size basically by going through a lot of this trying to gauge how much is a reasonable without being too much. For me this is a little closer to 1/4 cup, but ultimately I went with the 1/2 cup size that is also a single serving of oatmeal. When I first began making this and filled the bowl up then added milk it didn't take long before I thought what have I done there is no way I can finish this. Well I didn't finish it and the dogs got an extra treat in their bowls. I know they shouldn't eat people food so shhh don't tell anyone.

I use my fingers to spread the coconut oil, the bonus here is
that coconut oil is a super moisturizer for dry skin.

Since this is something that is very new to so many people, I am going to provide a lot of photos to ensure that you are successful your first time around. Plus when this is burnt it will stink terribly and I don't wish that on anyone.

Use a glass oven safe pan and rub coconut oil on the bottom to prevent the cereal from sticking during cooking. This doesn't need to be a lot at all. I put just enough on the pan to cover the bottom.
I do this first because I tend to forget and then have to scrub and scrape, which I hate!

Please note that I do not endorse any particular brands, this is
just what is readily available in my area and therefore on hand
in my pantry. The jar is honey from a local apiary, support
your local farms and farmers when you can.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Coconut Oil
1/2 cup Honey (I encourage you to try local honey)
2 cups Walnuts
2 cups Oatmeal (old fashioned not quick oats)
2 cups coconut (I encourage you to go unsweetened if you can find it, I cannot find it so I use sweetened)
1 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp cinnamon

I always buy the walnut halves and pieces as they are a little less expensive that the already chopped ones. I also like to control the size of the pieces so I choose to give them a rough chop with my favorite santoku knife.

I am sure if you are skilled using a single serve blender you can chop the nuts in one of those. I prefer not to use that method as the nuts get a little too pulverized for my likes, and I may be a control freak.




I also like to vary the size of the nuts between pieces size and larger almost half size. I like the variation and the texture that it gives the final cereal, but this is only my preference and can be changed to your preference. After the nuts are rough chopped I measure out 2 cups, this can be close enough if you chop a few too many nuts. After the nuts are chopped and measure out I dump them in the glass pan as that is where I everything up.

I also like to rough chop the cranberries as the size of these vary greatly out of the bag. I try to cut most of them at least in half. These are pretty sticky so they will stick to your knife. These also tend to get chewy during cooking which doesn't bother me but I am sure it would if they were left whole. If you cut a few too many, go ahead and throw them in the mix; this will not make a difference you will just have more fruit, which isn't a bad thing at all.




After I have the cranberries measured out, I just add them to the walnuts in the pan. I love the color of the cranberries against the walnuts, so had to share that here. As you can see my pan sits directly on the right side of my cutting board so this process goes very quickly.

Because I use a ton of oatmeal, I guess I really love oatmeal, I don't even bother to remove it from the cardboard package although I know I should. If you have ever tried to pour from those containers, you know that it makes a huge mess as it will not pour evenly. I know the inner seal has a pour spout but I almost immediately rip that off as soon as I get it home. So after months of pouring getting oatmeal all over my kitchen, I finally broke down and bought a funnel.




Yes, I who thinks funnels are for sissies and just a way to get us to part with more of our hard earned dollars bought a funnel. Let me tell you that was the best 2 bucks I spent. Just remember I won't tell anyone if you choose to buy a sissy funnel too, just wear dark sunglasses and a hat when you buy it and no one will ever know.








So after getting the 2 cups of oatmeal measured out I just dump it into the glass pan with the walnuts and cranberries. As you can see I am pretty methodical about dumping the ingredients into the pan. I just love the mix of colors as the ingredients are layered into the pan.

The coconut, I typically am not extra generous with, but I do try to get it to be close to 2 cups. This gives an overall sweetness to the cereal and I want the sugar to be kept pretty low. If you have been lucky enough to find unsweetened coconut, I will be jealous, but feel free to walk on the wild side and add an extra handful or two.










If you only read this caption, you must resist the urge to stop
here and eat it all. I had to take a picture for you before I
started munching away!

I literally then dump the coconut into the pan with the walnuts, cranberries, and oatmeal. This looks so amazing to me, I also am very tempted to just grab a handful and start munching away. Must resist the urge!











This is the fun part, carefully mix the Walnuts, Cranberries, Oatmeal and Coconut until it is all well mixed. I like to use a wooden spoon here, but I am sure metal or plastic will work just as well. At this point I also look for pieces of Cranberry or Coconut that have stuck together, if you have any just break them apart or consider it your bonus for working so hard.

This is the fun part, carefully mix the Walnuts, Cranberries, Oatmeal and Coconut until it is all well mixed. I like to use a wooden spoon here, but I am sure metal or plastic will work just as well. At this point I also look for pieces of Cranberry or Coconut that have stuck together, if you have any just break them apart or consider it your bonus for working so hard.

 

Once this is all mixed up get ready for the sticky part.I always use a 2 cup glass measuring cup as coconut oil is somewhat messy. Do the best that you can and scoop out 1/2 cup coconut oil and press it into the bottom of your measuring cup. Don't worry if it isn't perfect, you can see mine is far from perfect but is pretty close to 1/2 cup.

Note: If you like crunchier cereal you can double the coconut oil and honey and cook 60 minutes. When you remove the cereal from the oven be sure to lay it out on paper towel lined cookie sheets to allow any excess oils to be absorbed by the paper towels before transferring it to the jars.

Next I just add 1/2 cup of honey right on top of the coconut oil in the glass measuring cup. This was I can microwave it right in the measuring cup and have one less bowl to clean up.

Because I don't want to have to clean up my microwave after any type of sticky explosion, I accidentally put marshmallows in the microwave for a minute and they grew out of the measuring cup and basically filled the entire microwave with sticky white fluff. That being said the clean up was a nightmare. So now my rule is use extreme caution and only microwave in 10 second intervals when there the potential for sticky things to explode.

In my microwave after 20 seconds this is how the coconut oil and honey look. At this point instead of risking my afternoon to clean up a huge mess, I just stir the coconut oil and honey until the remaining pieces are fully melted. This won't take long at all, if the pieces are being resistant or just taking too long to melt I will smash them on the side of the measuring cup and then they melt pretty quickly.

After the coconut oil and honey are melted, they will stay separate in the measuring cup so don't worry about that. I give them a quick stir and then pour it over the cereal the best that I can. I then mix everything together until the walnuts, cranberries, oatmeal, and coconut are all covered in the melted coconut oil and honey mixture. Bake this for 30-45 minutes stirring every 10 minutes until the liquid is all evaporated.

After it's all mixed up I like to add the cinnamon on top by sprinkling it all across the mixture. You could completely do this before mixing, but I just prefer to add it afterward. You will want to make sure that as many of the pieces are covered in cinnamon much like the picture.



I set the timer for 10 minute intervals so I don't forget about stirring the cereal. To stir I basically push everything to one end of the pan and then pull back to the other end making sure the top is rotated to the bottom, then I spread it back out. 

After the 20 minute mark, the smell is beginning to spread throughout the house and it takes a ton of willpower to not snack on a few pieces, trust me if you can hold out the cereal is completely worth it.



 

After 30 minutes,  there was still quite a bit of liquid on the bottom of the pan, so I set the timer for another 5 minutes. After the 30 minute mark I always set the timer for 5 minute intervals because burnt nuts and coconut does not smell all that great. I also snagged a little bite for me..shh...I ate it without taking a picture so I will deny it, and it's just as amazing as can be.  When all the liquid is crystallized and the cereal is golden brown, I remove it from the oven. I let the cereal cool enough to make sure when I transfer it to jars condensation doesn't collect. While the cereal is cooling I make certain to continue to stir every few minutes to keep from having a single huge chunk of cereal.

Because I was also baking pound cake I was having a terrible time getting the cereal to cool so I transferred it to a cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and that did the trick. You know when the cereal is cool enough to jar up when it's no longer hot to the touch (warm is perfect to jar up, but hot will condensate and cause you trouble) and the cereal has gone from soft to crunchy.

You can see my canning jars are ready as I am getting ready to jar this up as I intend to save the cereal while we finish up some Raisin Almond that was not as successful the first go round.

Even if you don't intend to store your cereal I encourage you to use jars, they are always easily washable, have no chemicals, and will not melt if they get put on the bottom rack of the dishwasher. You can also get the plastic screw on lids, I bought my plastic lids on amazon here and they are pretty inexpensive, but considered an add on item. How I got around that was grouping all my add on items together into a single order, which worked out great. I love to get a box of random stuff, especially when they are all my favorite items.

Definitely take a whirl at trying to get your jar to seal, as this will take some practice; I will admit I am terrible at canning and may not always do things that a true canner would do. I do encourage you to make sure that the jars and lids are appropriately sterilized, I use the high heat setting on my dishwasher which is almost always filled with jars. If your mother is like mine she has said you cannot reuse lids, but as long as there are no knicks or rust I will reuse them and know that it's a 50/50 chance of not sealing but I walk on the wild side and take the risk.

While the cereal is still warm in the jar, I place the lid and ring onto the jar. Much like canning the cooling process will seal the jar; the shelf life is really undetermined because what my kids don't eat within a few weeks my mother will sneak out of my house to put on top of her yogurt.Today one of the quart jars sealed almost immediately, the other didn't and I happened to be cooking in the crock and moved the unsealed jar over next to the crock to see if the heat would coax the jar into sealing. The crock did not put off enough heat to get the jar to seal; I am sure my mother would have tried to heat the jar and cereal and use a new lid and ring. This wasn't necessary as my sweet neighbor came over to see what was going on, I think she smelled all the goodness and wanted to snack, and I gave her the jar that didn't seal since she loved it so much and would eat it right away.

My favorite way to eat it is with milk in a small bowl on a saucer, but rarely that happens in my house!

My mother on the other hand prefers to eat the cereal on top of her favorite yogurt, which is laden with dyes and processed ingredients, but I will take every inch of success that I can with my family and be happy that they have given up almost all the commercial cereals!

 

 

 

 

For a printable recipe click here.

My Favorite Pound Cake

After a few warmer than usual days, today was not so warm and windy cold. Cold as in I had to get my coat and scarf to leave the house, cold as in my heat is on high in the truck, cold as in can I just get in bed and stay there! Cold as in it's a perfect day to think about summer while baking to warm up the house; when I think of summer I think of strawberry shortcake. Well it's only shortcake in spirit because I hate shortcake, but I sure do love poundcake especially light fluffy melt in your mouth poundcake. This one dish no matter where or when I eat it takes me to summer nights sitting on the patio with family and friends. Perfection!

I truly have never shared this recipe before, I have even hid the original recipe from my family to ensure that no one else would ever show up with the same dish to a potluck, because you can guarantee I will bring some type of strawberry and poundcake dessert. It is irrational but this is something that I worry about to the point that it will keep me up for several weeks knowing that a potluck is coming. But I have had my arm virtually twisted by my precious friend from design school. She is an amazing true Southern girl and has moved home to Mississippi, and I am in Texas....how can we have summer nights under the setting sun sharing a great summer dessert if we are so far apart.  So this is for you Angie, a truly amazing lady and true Southern Belle, we just won't think about everyone else who also have the recipe now!

Now down to the real reason we are here, the making of my favorite pound cake, this is by no means a healthy recipe so definitely enjoy in moderation.

First collect all your ingredients together, anything ingredient that is refrigerated will need to be room temperature. Everything is a basic pantry staple for most people with the exception of the cake flour and whipping cream. I have tried to substitute these for items that I typically have on hand, but once you have it this way you sure can't stand anything different. It has been so long since I tried to substitute the ingredients that I do not remember what works and what doesn't work substitution wise. If you come up with one that works, please share.

First you have to get your pan ready, I prefer using a bundt pan. Mostly because saying it makes me happy but this is also a good size recipe so you need to be prepared. I have a heavy aluminum bundt pan, which works wonderfully. I am not sure where you can purchase these, but mine came from an estate sale and was just a few dollars. If you are a bundt pan aficionado, my pan is to the right and I would love to know more about it. If you don't have one like this for years I used the cheapy one that my mother sent in UPC labels from syrup and it came in the mail....why do I remember this from so long ago...I really do not know why my brain retains so many random things. If you do not have a bundt pan or are making this with the intention of making a trifle with square pieces of pound cake you can use loaf pans. I have used 7 1/2"x 3 3/4" mini loaf pans using the same cooking time with great success. It is very important at this stage to butter and flour your pan or pans, yes you can use the spray as long as you use the one with the flour added. The outer texture will be a little different if you use the spray but not to the point of being noticeable.

 

Ever since getting a stand mixer, that is my go to piece of equipment when it comes to baking. My tip to you is never try to use your kitchen aid to attempt to break up cold butter....your whisk will get all bent up and you will have a deformed whisk for all eternity because replacing it is futile as you will do it again, maybe only I will do it again as I have bent a few lot of whisks beyond recognition with cold butter. I do have a new spare whisk for when mine becomes unrecognizable unusable. If you bend your whisk and all the wires are flattened out just do your best reshaping it and take it for a spin in your bowl to make sure it isn't hitting the bowl too bad.

Please note that when kitchen aid says
"Not Dishwasher Safe"
this isn't a suggestion it really should say if you put this in the dishwasher all the shiny pretty finish will become pitted and dull, so just don't do it. But maybe I am the only rebel out there who says I installed that dishwasher and I plan to use it for everything! In all seriousness the pitted top of the whisk and bent tines doesn't make my kitchen aid stand mixer any less of a excellent addition to my kitchen.

 

Now onto the important stuff, cream 3 sticks of butter and 3 cups of sugar together until it's light, fluffy and a pale yellow color.

Once it's light and fluffy add 3 cups of cake flour and 6 eggs alternating 1 cup of flour and 2 eggs until all the flour and eggs are incorporated and well mixed.

 

After the eggs and flour are incorporated and well mixed add 3tablespoons of vanilla extract. This is going to look like a lot, but trust me you will love the end result. After adding the vanilla mix on medium speed for 2 minutes or until the vanilla is incorporated throughout.

 

 

After everything is mixed together you should notice that the batter is getting lighter and fluffier. Add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and mix for another minute. You may need to use a spatula to incorporate the cream at the beginning as it tends to splatter a lot. I just begin on low speed and work my way up to a medium speed. This will be very quick as once the whipping cream is added you are going to mix the batter for only 1 minute at which point this is what it should look like.

Once you have everything mixed together pour the batter into the pan or pans of your choice.

It is very important to preheat the oven to 325 degrees fully prior to placing the pan in the center of the oven. I have found that if you have many pans it is best to space them out so that there is plenty of air flow around the pans. Once you place the cake in the oven and shut the door do not open it again for 90 minutes, not even to peek until the time is up. This will be the longest time of your life, well maybe not but I am always glued to the oven door with the light on...I guess I am afraid it may run away..not really but I still tend to watch through the door a lot more than I would even check. The world won't stop spinning if you do open the door, but the cake will be denser, heavier, and will take longer to cook.

After the timer goes off, you can open the door and you should be able to see the top of the cake is golden and the edges are browned. I always like to check with a toothpick or butter knife in a location that won't be too noticeable if this is for sharing. If it comes out clean I transfer the pans to a waiting wire rack to cool slightly. Once the cake has cooled enough that I flip the cake out of the pan onto the wire rack to cool the remainder of the way to cool completely long enough that I can cut into the cake.

 

Once the cake is cooled completely, slice into pieces and serve with some strawberries and whipped cream while dreaming of summer nights with great friends and family.

 

I hope that you love this pound cake as much as I do and make a ton of great memories with friends and family while enjoying this on summer nights. Also please don't blame me if you show up to a potluck with it and there is none left when you get through the line, I tell my family if you want some you better get through the line early!

For a printer friendly recipe click here.

Hallway Bathroom Inspiration

 

In my small house the bathroom seems to be even smaller when there are 3 of us trying to get ready all at the same time. So after 5 years there is quite a bit of wear and tear on the bathroom. As soon as I moved in the white had to be painted over and I chose a greenish color that is pretty neutral and blah, but it has worked for quite some time. 

I wanted to give you an idea of what is currently in the fabulous builder's spec bathroom that I have been living with for the past 5 plus years.There is a not so amazing mirrored 4 bulb light that keeps blowing light bulbs, builder grade linoleum, and off the shelf vanity with a faux marble top. One of my biggest pet peeves is when you approach a counter and it looks like granite which would be cool to the touch especially in the air conditioned world we live in, but when you touch it the cool touch isn't there and my plasticy marble top is never cool to the touch. That said I may not love it, but nothing is so terrible that is is causing the bathroom from being used. I know that I can make this bathroom amazing, now let's see if I can do it on the $500.00 budget that I have set for it.

Since I can be easily swayed and get off track when purchasing
supplies I decided I needed to do an inspiration board much like
I have to create material boards at work to keep on track.           

What I plan to do:

*Board & Batten on the wall across from the vanity. This will be where the towel hooks are mounted
*Paint above the board & batten, and all other walls and ceiling Grey.
*Refurbish the existing vanity from 3 door to 3 drawer and 2 door and paint inside and outside new white color to match the board & batten.
*New tile
*New vanity light fixture
*New shower and vanity faucet
*New moulding throughout

In the inspiration board there is a purple bathroom image that I have loved for so long that I have lost the link to the original. If you know where it came from please let me know so I can update here and give the original poster credit.

My progress so far includes painting a test area of the gray on the wall. The linoleum is currently being pulled up by the new puppy, why did I adopt yet another lab mix?