Leftover Summer Fruit Baked Oatmeal

I love summer fruits, but sometimes our family has a hard time eating all the delicious that come into our house quick enough. I think we have a tendency to over buy fruit because we are all so excited about all the delicious fruits coming into season. When I notice our fruits starting to go bad, I usually make large baked oatmeal where I use up any fruit that needs to get eaten. In this case I had some Rainer cherries and apricots that had to be eaten.

I also add whatever nuts that I have on hand. My mom is currently visiting, and she has been told to eat more protein, so added a full two cups of nuts to this baked oatmeal. I soaked both the nuts and oats over night to make the oatmeal easier to digest. My mom loved this baked oatmeal. She would eat the leftovers cold while I chose to heat up my leftovers. Little BBQ called this baked oatmeal a cross between cake and pie. Miss Bubbles can eat a huge serving of this healthy breakfast in the morning. This leftover summer fruit baked oatmeal was a huge hit at our house.

Ingredients

• 2 cups steel cut oats (do not use instant oatmeal)
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2 cups walnuts, chopped
• 2 cups water
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 ¼ cups milk or milk substitute
• ¾ cup honey
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups mixed fruit, pit removed and chopped
• 9 x 13 in glass pan, greased

Directions

1.       Mix the oats and buttermilk in a medium size bowl. Cover the bowl and place in a warm place over night.

2.       Mix the nuts and water in a medium size bowl. Cover the bowl and let set over night.

3.       Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

4.       Drain the water from the nuts. Rinse the nuts with cool water.

5.       Mix the buttermilk oat mixture with the nuts.

6.       Add the baking soda, salt, milk, honey, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla. Mix well.

7.       Gently add the fruit to the oat mixture and stir.

8.       Add the oat mixture to a greased 9 x 13 in glass pan.

9.       Bake the oatmeal for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes or until the oatmeal is golden brown on the edges and no longer looking soggy in the middle. This baked oatmeal is very moist so a tooth pick will not come out clean when inserted in the middle.

10.   Serve warm.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

How to Train Melons and Cucumbers to Grow on a Trellis

Trellising melons and cucumbers can save a lot of space and allow you to grow more fruits and vegetables in a smaller space. A lot of people do not realize that you can train melons to grow on a trellis allowing small plot gardeners to enjoy home grown melons. Training your melons is an easy task. You just gently unwind the small growing tips and wrap them around your trellis. This easy tip will allow even small plot gardeners to enjoy home grown melons.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Oxtail Soup

I first saw oxtail soup on Pinterest, and I was intrigued. I have always wanted to use oxtail in a recipe, but I have never gotten around to it. I finally bought 2 lbs of oxtail to make a slow cooker Hawaiian oxtail soup. I have a lot of lemon grass growing in one of my herb pots, and I had a few carrots that were ready to be picked, so I thought this was the perfect time to make some Hawaiian oxtail soup. Most Hawaiian oxtail soup recipes use star of anise, but I used anise hyssop instead because I have lots of anise hyssop growing in my garden right now. Both star of anise and anise hyssop add a licorice flavor to dishes, so this was a perfect substitution to make my soup utilize more local ingredients. 

This is a very hearty soup with a very rich broth. During the last 30 minutes of cooking, I added lemon grass, my soup enhancer cubes, and anise hyssop which were perfect because the greens did not become an over cooked mush. This slow cooker Hawaiian oxtail soup was very filling after a long day. I can see myself making this soup again in fall when I have more carrots available from my garden.

Ingredients (serves 6) inspired by many sources including Simply Recipes and In Our Kitchen

• 2 lbs oxtail
• 2 tsp coconut oil
• 6 quarter slow cooker
• 10 carrots, chopped
• 2 daikon radishes, chopped
• ½ cup raw peanuts, soaked over night
• ½ cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 inch piece of ginger, bruised
• 5 cups Filtered water
• 4 green soup enhancers
• 2 large stalks of fresh lemon grass
• 1 sprig Anise Hyssop

Directions

1.       Sear the oxtail in a pan with the melted coconut oil on medium high heat. Turn the meat on all sides to brown the entire oxtail. You do not want to cook the meat all the way through.

2.       Trim the excess fat off the oxtail.

3.       Add the oxtail, carrots, radishes, peanuts, mushrooms, orange zest, salt, and ginger to the slow cooker.

4.       Fill the slow cooker with water to the top. I added about 5 cups water.

5.       Cook on low for 10 hours.

6.       Add the green soup enhancers, lemon grass, and anise hyssop.

7.       Cook on low for 30 minutes.

8.       Remove bones, lemon grass, anise hyssop, and ginger before serving.

9.       Serve hot in bowls.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

Healthy Soaked Whole Wheat Cherry Clafoutis

I love cherry season, but our region lost most of their cherries due to an usually warm March followed by freezing temperatures in April, so I am being very picky about how I use my fruit this year. We did not can any cherries this year. Thankfully, I still have a few jars of cherries inapple juice from last year in case I get an extreme cherry craving.  One thing that I did make this year with cherries was healthy cherry clafoutis. I am still trying to get better about soaking my grains, so this recipe uses soaked sprouted whole wheat flour.

Traditionally, most clafoutis recipes are not made with any buttermilk, but the buttermilk soak added a nice subtle complexity to the cherry clafoutis which worked well against the sweet cherries. I used maple syrup as the sweetener in this recipe which added a delicious subtle maple flavor to the batter. This clafoutis is not dessert level sweet. Instead this clafoutis has a subtle sweetness which is perfect for breakfast.  I baked my  clafoutis in a deep dish pie pan, but a regular pie pan, cast iron skillet, or 8 inch square glass pan could have been used instead depending upon what you have on hand. Both kids loved this clafoutis for breakfast. We found it to be a nice change of pace from out normal eggs or oatmeal.

Ingredients (serves 8)

• ½ cup sprouted whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• 1 pie pan, greased
• 20 black cherries, pitted

Directions

1.       Mix the flour and buttermilk in a small bowl. Cover the bowl and set in a warm place over night.

2.       Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

3.       Mix the eggs, maple syrup, milk, applesauce, vanilla and sea salt in a small bowl.

4.       Slowly incorporate the egg mixture into the flour mixture.  Do not over mix.

5.       Pour the batter into the greased pie pan.

6.       Arrange and place the cherries in the batter. Press down gently to make sure the cherries are fully incorporated into the clafoutis.

7.       Bake the clafoutis for 20-22 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and separating from the edge of the pan and a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the clafoutis. 

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday