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Oatmeal High in fiber, lowers cholesterol, makes a meal, if you can handle it, I can't. As a cereal on the breakfast table I'll be the first one to run the other way. But, find ways of adding it to other foods that you like, it becomes an ingredient that increases fiber, adds nutrients, crunch, and texture. Did you know that a gram of fiber cancels a gram of carbs when you're working on reducing your carb intake? Problem is, how many of us can think of anything other than oatmeal cookies? I had to scratch my head when I decided that I wanted to add more oatmeal to my diet and have found a few recipes that I thought were pretty good, and a couple that I came up with on my own, and then found myself surprised when an old family favorite fit right in. Below you'll find some desserts as well as some proper meals and things to get your body working better with some added fiber. Be prepared I tend to tell a bit of a story along with the recipe, can't help it, for me cooking is fun to do and fun to share, sharing involves stories! Mind you, I'm not aiming for low-cal/diet foods here, just some foods that are tasty enough to look forward to and have an added benefit in that their fiber content has been kicked up a notch. By using these as part of a 'Mini-Meal' eating plan you come up with a healthier way of eating while still being part of the human race! hehehe ThyroGeek aka Topper (Linda)
Oatmeal
Cookies Meats Topper's
Oatmeal
Crusted Pan Fried Chicken ... and the other stuff White
Bread (rolls, buns, hoagies) with Oatmeal If you have some recipes that you'd like to share, please contact me...
Oatmeal
Cookies 1 cup
shortening Cream shortening, brown sugar and eggs. Add milk, mix Sift and add: Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. Mix Add oatmeal. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes, cool slightly, remove from pan.
Chocolate
Oatmeal Cookies 1 cup
sifted all-purpose flour
Coconut
Oatmeal Cookies 1/2 c. Crisco
Easy
Oatmeal Muffins A simple but delicious recipe for oatmeal muffins. Prep Time: approx. 15 Minutes. Cook Time: approx. 25 Minutes.
Oatmeal
Brownies Oatmeal Brownies (oatmeal layer) Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until tooth pick in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
Topper's
Potty Cupcakes Mix
together: ******* Did you know that you can freeze bananas?******* Yep... whenever you have some that have gotten a bit too ripe to eat but don't have enough for baking, just peal them and then freeze. I usually freeze them on a cookie sheet so that they aren't all clumped together, then toss in a bag. When I'm in the mood for baking I just take out what I need. They only take about an hour to defrost on the counter, depending on how warm the room is, or take them out the night before and leave in the fridge. Trust me, freezing them in the peel still on is NOT fun, you have to get the peel off before they get soft or it's a real mess, and trying to pick the peel off the banana while it's still frozen solid is guaranteed to freezer your fingers! Another
good idea is to watch for your local store when they have a bunch of over ripe
bananas an either put them on drastic discount or give them away for free. You
can get a bunch then and freeze for when you need them.
No
Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies 2 cups white sugar Combine the sugar, milk, butter and cocoa in a saucepan and bring to a boil, cooking 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients. Stir and mix well. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper, letting them stand for 30 minutes before serving.
Fruit
Crisp with Oatmeal Crunch Topping 4 cups peeled and sliced apples,
can use peaches, strawberries, just about any fruit
Topper's
Oatmeal
Crusted Pan Fried Chicken I'm probably adding more instruction than many of you need...but some beginner cooks might have an easier time with the extra info. Notes and
handy stuff to know:
The chicken
should be completely defrosted and not refrigerator cold. The colder the chicken
the more likely that meat won't cook through. DO NOT leave the chicken out on
the counter for hours!!! But do take it out as you start setting up your coating
station and heating the pan. If doing more than one or two pans worth at a time,
put the other 'batches' in the fridge and take them out as you put the batch
before it in the pan. That will get the chill off it so that it cooks through
and even. ***
I have to amend this. Since I first set up this page I've made a bit of a
change. I season the chicken pieces, all the way around, and use plain ground
oatmeal, with no flour... and do the rest of the recipe the same. I've been able
to omit the flour, going with all oatmeal, and the seasoning is working out just
fine. You still need to use a bit more seasoning than you think, again the
oatmeal can take it. Don't go over board your first time though, try it and then
add more seasoning in your next batch if you find that you need it. Click here
to go back up to the ingredient list.
Baked
Tilapia with Oatmeal Turns out that the end result of this dish is only loosely based on the original recipe but I still love it. We made a version of it today, versions vary by how we end up making the 'breading'. In these pictures it was made with 1/2 home made bread crumbs and 1/2 ground oatmeal. I'll give both recipes, the original, and our variation. The original Recipe for Parmesan Tilapia 6 Tilapia
Fillets Preheat oven to 375 F. Rinse and dry Tilapia Fillets. Mix 2 eggs with water in bowl. Combine butter with bread crumbs, grated Parmesan and paprika, set aside. Dip tilapia fillets in egg wash and then lightly coat with bread crumb mixture. Place in greased glass pan, bake at 375F for 12 to 15 minutes, until just done. Do not over cook. We haven't made the original version yet. So I can't say how well they keep in the fridge or how well they freeze. I would suspect that they'd lose their 'crispness'. ****** Ruth's Baked Parmesan Tilapia Fillets
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk (more or less depending on the size of your baking dish) 1 stick butter, melted 1/2 tsp Paprika 1/2 cup prepared bread crumbs (we make this in all sorts of combos using any of the following, in any combinations or a single ingredient to total 1/2 cup: Oatmeal, ground oatmeal, bread crumbs (fine or coarse), crushed soda crackers, commercial bread crumbs, corn flake crumbs. We mostly do oatmeal most of the time... at lease half of a mixture will be oatmeal) 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (have also used the stuff in the green shaker can... and the Ramano that comes in the red shaker can) 6 slices of onion, any variety you like. (if you end up with more than six fillets cut more onion slices... The bags we get from Aldi have anywhere from six to eight fillets) Salt and pepper to taste Preheat oven to 375 F. Rinse and dry Tilapia Fillets. Lightly grease glass baking dish and add enough milk to make about 1/4 inch layer in the bottom of the dish. Combine butter with bread crumb mixture, grated Parmesan and paprika, set aside.
The milk, seasonings and melted butter have made a yummy sauce that you can pour over the fish or use for pasta, rice or potatoes to serve with the fish. We portion this to make six meals, three for each of us. I don't like the onion, so the slices are pulled off of my meals and put on Ruth's after it comes out of the oven. For me, the onion flavor is okay.. but I don't want to eat the onions! hehehehe We serve the rice with mac and cheese or cheesy rice, herbed rice, vegies or salad... whatever rings our bell when we do the meals. In the pics that I've included here we had herbed garlic rice and used the sauce in the bottom of the baking dish to pour over the flavored rice... happens that we didn't do vegies this time, just a larger portion of rice.
The other two... made an excellent lunch!! hehehehe A BIG meal for a mini mealer but we all need a treat once in a while!
White
Bread (rolls, buns, hoagies) with Oatmeal Baking bread is really not at all hard. I'll run through some stuff after the recipes if you're a beginner.... There are several variations. Single Batch 1 1/2 cups
flour If using
instant yeast (I get
this at SAM's in bulk for a buck and a half a pound) If using the
little packets For both Sprinkle some more flour on the top of the dough, enough so that your hands don't get all stuck in it... Knead the dough about 10 minutes (I'll add at the bottom how to knead, for those that don't know) Grease a bowl that is at least double the size of your dough ball. Now put your dough ball in the greased bowl and then turn it over, greased side up. Cover the bowl with a damp paper towel and put it in a warmish, draft free spot to rise, it will take about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how warm the room is. When the dough has doubled in size. Take your fist and punch the dough down, don't get crazy about it and put your fist through the bottom of the bowl or anything, your just punching it to get a bunch of the air that the yeast have made to whoosh out. Flip the dough over, cover with the damp towel and let rise a second time. That should go faster than the first rise... more like 45 minutes to an hour. When the dough has doubled again, it's time to shape it. Cover with damp paper towel to keep the growing dough from forming a crust and not being able to rise up nice and fluffy. This batch will make 1 small loaf in a loaf pan, 2 small french bread shaped loaves, 4 hoagie/sub sized buns, 8 brat/hot dog sized buns, or 32 mini meal buns. You can brush melted butter on the tops of the shapes before you set them to rise and/or brush with melted butter when you take them out of the oven. Double Batch 3 cups flour Follow mixing, resting, kneading, rising instructions above. This batch will make 2 small loaves or 1 large loaf in a loaf pan, 4 small french bread shaped loaves, 8 hoagie/sub sized buns, 16 brat/hot dog sized buns, or 64 mini meal buns. Let the shape you choose rise until doubled, usually 20 to 30 minutes, then bake in a preheated 350 degree oven. 30 to 35 minutes if you're using a loaf pan. 25 to 30 minutes if doing shapes on cookie sheets. You can bake the buns/loaves on two regular size cookie sheets or a half sheet (industrial baking sheet)
Quadruple Batch 6 cups flour This size batch is easier to do if you add half the dry ingredients to the liquid first.. So, mix up the flour and oatmeal, then set aside about half of it. Add the liquid to the first half and mix, then let rest for maybe five minutes.. then work in the remaining four cups of dry, then follow the same resting, kneading, rising instructions above, This batch will make 4 small loaves or 2 large loaves in a loaf pan, 8 small french bread shaped loaf, 16 hoagie/sub sized buns, 32 brat/hot dog sized buns, or 128 mini meal buns. Let the shape you choose rise until doubled, usually 20 to 30 minutes, then bake in a preheated 350 degree oven. 30 to 35 minutes if you're using a loaf pan. 25 to 30 minutes if doing shapes on cookie sheets. You can bake the buns/loaves on four regular size cookie sheets or two half sheets (industrial baking sheet) The big batch allows you to do several shapes, you could do part as loaves, part as brat buns, part as mini meal buns. The smaller shapes tend to rise a bit faster so bake in stages. Kneading bread dough This is actually pretty cool. Kneading bread correctly gives you a better texture to your bread, allows it to stay moist longer and develops more gluten allowing it to be lighter/fluffier and higher in protein. When you have the dough out on the counter in front of you and have some flour added over the top to keep it from sticking to your hands it's time to get started. Gather the dough in from the sides, closer to you, imagine the 8 and 4 on the face of the clock, pickup/push the dough folding it over the other half of the dough, it's still pretty sticky at this stage be patient. Now turn it a quarter turn and repeat. Sprinkle on more flour if needed to keep it from sticking to you or the counter. Turn it a quarter turn and fold it again, continue doing this, quarter run then fold until it firms up a bit and isn't so sticky. Now as you do the quarter turn and fold it push against the folded dough with the heals of your hand(s), the smaller batch takes only one hand... So it's a quarter turn, fold, push to stretch it into the upper half. Give it a quarter turn, fold bottom half over upper half, push and stretch with the heals of your hands. Quarter turn, fold bottom over top, push and stretch. Add a sprinkle of flour, as needed to keep it from sticking to the board. The dough is ready when it's all stretch and forms a nice smooth ball. Add ONLY the flour needed to keep it from sticking. If you add too much flour you head up with a heavy dry bread. When your dough ball is ready, put it in the greased bowl, flip and cover. Storing, using, freezing bread Now, a trick. Take a metal spatula (pancake flipper) and use it to scrape/scoop the stuff off the counter. The bits of dough, the left over flour all that stuff. Then use a damp wash cloth to clean up the rest. If you clean it up right away its a LOT easier to do then if you let it dry. Same with the bowl that you mixed the dough in. Using a paper towel and hot soapy water will let you clean it up quickly with not much work, then toss away the paper towel with all the little bits of dough that you washed out of the bowl away. If you use your regular dish cloth it's a mess to get all the wet gooey bits of dough off the cloth. I bake bread just about every week. I very rarely buy bread. This type of bread freezes nicely. I let the shapes cool and air dry for a few hours, this develops a bit of a crust on the bread, flip it over when you are letting it cool so that the bottom can dry, then it can be wrapped for storage. If you bag it without letting it dry for the few hours (I'm talking two to three) it will get clammy in the bag and molds too quickly - remember no preservatives in this bread! I lay it out on the cookie sheets and let the buns and rolls freeze, then bulk bag them. That allows me to take out just what I need and not be committed to taking what ever stuck together when it froze. Increasing nutritional content When I want to kick up the protein content of the bread, when planning on using it for a meal foundation, I make a couple of changes: Add egg. For the double and quadruple batches you can add egg as part of the liquid. Use one egg as part of two cups of liquid. So for a double batch... dump one egg in the bottom of your measuring cup and scramble just enough to break the yolk, then add warm water to make two cups of liquid. For a quadruple batch... dump two eggs in the bottom of the measuring cup, scramble just enough to break the yolks, and then add warm water to make four cups of liquid. Adding egg to the recipe makes the bread a bit softer. Add milk. A quick and simple way that doesn't require any scalding or cooling is to add about 1/4 cup of powdered milk for every 2 cups of flour/oatmeal, this will make the bread a bit softer. Need some pictures, right? I use 'half sheets' if you've ever seen a baker's full sheet.... Sheet cakes and half sheet cakes... those are the same pan sizes. So I'm likely using a larger baking sheet than you, just keep that in mind looking at the pics. I try to use 12 oz soda cans in the shots to give a sense of perspective.
Above, left to right. Mini buns getting ready to rise, the sheet in front was done first, you can see that it's already risen quite a bit. In the center pic the rear sheet is still rising, the front sheet is baked. On the right.... both sheets are baked... the rear one came out of the oven first and you can see that we had to sample to be sure that they were worthy of freezing!
Oatmeal
Pancakes 1 cup flour Sift together dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Add dry mixture to wet mixture. Stir until flour is moistened, do not over stir, batter will be lumpy. Cook on griddle, medium heat. Flip when bubbles are popping on surface and edges are slightly tanned. Makes 12 dollar size or 8 four-inch pancakes.
Oatmeal
Gravy This is more of a concept than a recipe. By adding some ground oatmeal to the mix you get to kick up the fiber content of your gravy. Make the rue as you normally would, when it's almost to the point where you add the water or broth add some ground oatmeal and let it cook as you stir for just a minute or so.
Turkey
(chicken) nuggets **coming soon**
Turkey
Burger Salisbury Steak This is a ratio thing. I'll give you the basics, based on one pound of meat.. then just increase the ingredients in proportion to the amount of meat that you are using. Feel free to play around with the seasonings to suit your tastes, your mood, or what is in the pantry! Recipe for 1 pound ground meat 1 pound ground turkey (you can also use, beef, pork, chicken or a combo. A fun thing I like to do on occasion is take a brat and squeeze the meat out of the casing and mix it with the meat for my burger mixes. Fewer calories than eating a brat but that great yummy flavor through the turkey burger!)
1 cup oatmeal Seasonings: 1 to 2 tsps each of any combo of the following: sage, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, Italian seasoning, use your imagination and make it as 'safe' or 'exciting' as you want. Mix with your hands or a mixture until JUST blended. Over mixing changes the texture of the meat. Divide the mixture according to the portions sizes you use. For mini meal portions I make 10 patties per pound. First 'ball' the portion with your hands and then flatten so that it's about 1/2 inch thick, use your hands to 'round' the patty if it's irregular, and then press it a bit more so that it's about 1/2 inch thick. To pan fry in oil.. put enough oil in the bottom of the pan to keep from sticking. On medium heat cook the patties on one side until browned, time varies depending on the size of the patties and how many are in the pan. Then flip and cook the other side until browned. Set aside. Make your gravy, either a pan gravy from the goodies still in the pan or use a packaged gravy mix. I use the pan drippings. Once the gravy is made place the patties back in the gravy and cook for a bit longer. This finishes cooking the meat through and infuses the gravy a bit into the meat. Serve with mashed potatoes, rice or pasta with the gravy ladled over and add a vegie and you have a meal. These freeze nice. For mini meal portions I use standard muffin tins. One mini patty per cup then add 1/3 cup of the gravy. Freeze. Once frozen I heat the sides of each cup with hot water to knock out the frozen cube. If you heat the bottom of the cup a vacuum forms and they are tough to get out. If you run hot water all over the bottom some of the chunks will fall out, some will thaw too much and either get stuck in the cups or SPLAT when they fall out. It's a bit of a trick to get used to, but once you get the hang of it it's a great way to freeze a lot of foods for mini meal portions... and for quick meals of any kind. The frozen chunks can then be bulk bagged. Just grab a chunk and add a vegie with bread, potato, pasta or rice and you have a great meal.
Turkey
Burger Meatloaf (or meatballs) Meatloaf This is a concept thing. Take the basic recipe for the Salisbury Steak and instead of making individual patties make a meatloaf. Fill the loaf pan(s) with the meat mixture, don't fill them all the way to the top. Use a spatula to slide between the meat and the sides of the pan and make a gap. Not really big... about a third of an inch wide at the top, it will be narrower at the bottom. You'll want to do that all the way around. Then you can be a bit fancy and round the top a bit, if you want. The reason for the gap around the sides is so that the grease that renders out of the meat while baking has a place to go. Some folks will pour off that hot grease 15 minutes or so before the end of baking so that the sides of the loaf will crust a bit. It's a personal preference thing. Baking time is 45 minutes to an hour at 350 F. The top will be browned. One loaf cooks faster than several at the same time. Smaller loaves cook faster than larger loaves. The juices will be clear. If you slice it there should be no pink, it should be evenly cooked all the way through. You can use that collected grease to make a pan gravy. Pork and beef release a lot more grease than turkey or chicken. Meatballs Same meat mixture technique. But I make meatballs. I cheat. I use a small cookie scoop to portion the meatballs so that they are all the same size, then use my hands to make them nice and round. I place them on a greased baking sheet and press just a wee bit to make the bottom a bit flat, to keep them from rolling. Bake at 350 F for 20 to 25 minutes. You can use them right away... or freeze some for later. To freeze. Take the cooled meatballs off the baking sheet and put them on another (clean) one, then put them in the freezer. When frozen you can take the off the sheet and bulk bag them. You can use these anywhere you'd use a regular meatball... spaghetti, stew, soup, sandwich, BBQ sauce with a toothpick on a party tray, pizza, hot dish/casserole.... use your imagination. I've used them as a quick protein/fiber snack when away from home. You can eat them hot or cold. They microwave great.
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