Crock Pot Breakfast: Cran-Maple-Apple Steel Cut Oats

Happily helping Mommy mix the cinnamon in!

Isaac was more than willing to help me prep this crock-pot meal. He loves to help in the kitchen and especially loves each of the ingredients that went into this meal. He sampled everything and became excited when he found out it would have oatmeal in it. Then, he adapted 'Someone's in the Kitchen with Dina" to.. "Someone's mixing apples with Mommy", making it into a full fledged song re-mix.



Once he realized the camera was on him,
he became my ham again :)

This is an extremely easy crock-pot breakfast. The trick was to throw everything in the night before and just cook on very low all night.


Crock Pot Breakfast: Cran-Maple-Apple Steel Cut Oats
(GF, DF/CF, CoF, SF, NF, EF)

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of steel cut oats
         (I used Gluten Free Bob's Red Mill- be sure you use steel cut and not regular oats!)
3 diced Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup Craisins (dried cranberries)
2.5 cups apple or apple-grape  juice  (I used apple-grape for some extra zing)
3.5 cups water
1 TBS cinnamon (in retrospect, maybe cuting this down to 1-2 tsp would be better!)
2 TBS Maple Syrup
Pinch of Sea Salt

Throw it all in, cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Let me know your thoughts!

Naturally,
Raych

3-Ingredient, Non dairy Frozen "Ice Cream", Banana-Chocolate-Peanut Butter!

This recipe is AWESOME. That's really all I have to say about how it came out. I did not develop this recipe at all, but rather, I'm passing it along to you from a pin I found on pinterest: http://userealbutter.com/2010/08/12/single-ingredient-ice-cream-recipe/.

The irony of this web address, is that this recipe does not call for any dairy. I wish I would have known about this recipe when my eldest son Isaac was younger. He was unable to consume dairy without getting "ill", an "intestinal milk allergy", not lactose intolerance. While he can now each most dairy products within limitation, I would give him (and my younger son Henri) this treat anyday! Lets face it, I feel like the whole family shouldn't be eating as much dairy as we do... since we all get stomach issues. Not to mention that this is a relatively healthy snack!

The only sugar in this treat is from the banana. I use all-natural panut butter with no sugar added. For my littlest guy Henri, I only used banana and cocoa. For whatever reason I am worried about having him try peanut butter, I don't remember being this nervous with Isaac. That being said, he will be tryign peanut butter tomorrow... when we are at my praetns house... which is closer to "help" shoudl we find out he's allergic. I live in the woods and at least 20 minutes form the nearest medical center- food allergies scare me. Henri is already known to be allergic to kiwi and mango (like me).

Ok, so on to the recipe...

This is the blend at a Fro-Yo consistency,
you CAN freeze longer for an ice cream texture!

Non-Dairy "Ice Cream", Banana-Chocolate-Peanut Butter

GF, DF/CF, CoF, SF, EF (Can make it NF, as I did for my mini-man!)

"4 bananas, just slightly overripe (I used 5 or 6 bananas)
2 tbsps creamy peanut butter (and I used 3 TBS)
2 tsps cocoa powder (Dutch process) (I used 1 TBS, to much chocolate before bed doesn't work for my kids)

DO NOT FREEZE THE WHOLE BANANA, you’ll have a heck of a time blending that beast.
Peel the bananas and slice them up into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick disks. Place the banana slices in the freezer for about an hour or until they are frozen solid. Put the frozen slices in a food processor and pulse. First they will start to resemble gravel, but keep going. The bananas will soon turn into a frozen mush – at this point, start scraping the sides down. The banana begins to blend into a creamy texture. When the bananas look like whipped ice cream, you can add your mix-ins like peanut butter and/or cocoa powder..."

The quantity I made was a little over a pint. Enought to feed 4 of us pretty good size servings. I would reccomend that you re-freeze the blended banana & other ingredients before serving, otherwise is more like a smoothie or "yogurt". I blended the chocolate in first, then removed some for Henri, THEN added in the peanut butter.

The whole family enjoyed this treat. I will definately be making this again!

Let me know your thoughts!

Naturally,

Raych

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Cranberries and Quinoa

It sure has been a while since I have posted any recipes. That being said, I have been constantly writing down new recipes, with no time to actually post them! It's a busy life :)

I started a new teaching job at the begining of this school year, adding an extra 20 minutes of commute time and a tiny bit more stress to my schedule. It has been a struggle to get tastey, healthy, and 100% natural home-cooked meals on the table every night. Unfortunately, that has meant the addition of some shortcuts in my cooking.

Tonight's meal, however, was a different story... a return to my goal or providing my family with some healthy made-from-scratch goodness. I can not, in any way, take credit for this recipe... I quite honestly found its precursor on pinterest. My adaptation is very similar to the original found at http://cookieandkate.com/2012/roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-cranberries-and-barley/. Biggest differences being my preparation technique and timing... and the fact that I do not use barley... I'M GLUTEN FREE! Either way, this sounded like a deliciously nutritious fall meal, using mostly ingredients that are IN SEASON (another big goal).

Once we had finished this dinner, which I had served with a sub-par steak (sorry to my hubby, Justin) I returned to my pinterest page to collect the recipe for another pin... a banana/peanut-butter/chocolate faux ice cream. That recipe should also be posted tonight, with credit, of course, being given to it's original author!

And before bed... I will be prepping up a delicious steel cut oat based breakfast to cook over night in the crockpot! If all goes to plan, that recipe will be posted tomorrow. I had a quick conversation with a woman in the GF section at Price Chopper today regarding what I do with steel cut oats- so maybe she'll search online and find my recipe too?

So, here is the recipe. It could be used as a main course, depending on the grain you use, or as a side-dish (you could avoid the grains all together).

(The picture does the final product no justice- DELICIOUS!)

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Cranberries and Quinoa

(GF, SF, CoF, EF) It can be made without the pecans or the gorgonzola if you need DF/CF or NF!

Ingredients:
1 lb Brussel sprouts, "cleaned" and sliced in half
1 cup fresh cranberries
Sea salt Olive oil
1 cup quinoa
1 tsp onion powder
A little under 1/4 cup Gorgonzola
3 Tbs Pecans, crushed
Balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs Maple syrup

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400* F
Prepare/slice and clean the Brussel sprouts
Toss the sprouts with 2 Tbs olive oil and 2 tsp sea salt
Heat a frying pan to medium temp, then add the Brussel sprouts.
 
 Try to keep the sliced side down for a nice golden color.
Cook for about 2 minutes.
Add 1 cup of cranberries, stir, and immediately transfer to a casserole/ baking dish
Bake at 400* F for 30 minutes, stirring once.

Meanwhile, in the pan you just cooked the sprouts in... Add 2 Tbs olive oil and 1 cup quinoa.
Stir, then stir in 1 cup water and the onion powder.
Allow to cook for a bit, until water is absorbed, then add another 1 cup of water
Remove sprouts/cranberries from oven
Toss in pecans
Drizzle balsamic vinegar and maples syrup over the top.
Serve over the quinoa sprinkled with Gorgonzola.

This was delicious and decently healthy. I am actually considering making this as a side dish, without the quinoa, for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks!

Let me know your thoughts; and, as usual- email me should you have any recipes you would liek to see adapted to Gluten free or allergen friendly. I am always up for a challenge!

Naturally,
Raych