Fast and Fabulous Oatmeal

Guest post by Fran Blank, The Country Cousin at The Kitchen Cousins

Cold mornings are here and I love a hot breakfast that warms me up and keeps my stomach happy until lunch. Traditional recipes for cooking oatmeal have always left me with a bowl of pasty, gluey gruel AND they took time AND stirring. I thought I would share two ways to make oatmeal worth eating. The first recipe gives you a bowl of chewy, yummy oatmeal AND takes less than 10 minutes AND you only have to stir it a few times - just to mix things up. The second oatmeal recipe has NO cooking, is put together before you go to bed, AND is company "brunch" worthy.

Both recipes start with regular whole oats, NOT instant oats.

1. The Best Oatmeal I Have Ever Eaten!

This recipe makes two generous servings.

- Mix together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil:
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 to 1/2 cup of dried fruit - raisins, cranberries, cherries (my favorite), bananas, etc.
pinch of salt

- When the water boils pour in:
1 cup regular oats and stir to moisten

Put on a lid and take the pan off the heat. Allow the pan to sit, off the heat, for 5 minutes. Remove lid and give things a good stir. Spoon oatmeal into a bowl and then get creative. Top with your favorite sweetener: honey, raw sugar, real maple syrup, brown sugar, ?? Toss in a small handful of walnuts, half of a banana, sliced, or half of an apple, chopped, or any fresh, frozen, or even canned fruit - whatever you have. Pour in a little milk and YUM!! The bowl of oatmeal pictured below has dried cherries, sliced bananas, walnuts, maple syrup, and milk. Now that is oatmeal worth eating!

2. Breakfast Parfait

This is soooo simple and soooo good! The recipe is from my friend, Linda, and we used it for a healthy eating program we did for our local after-school program. The children LOVED it! They came back for seconds!

- Before you go to bed mix regular oats and apple juice half and half. Cover and refrigerate over night. The amount is measured by the number of servings you will need. For example, one cup oats to one cup apple juice should be enough for two generous servings.

- The next morning dish up a portion of the apple juice/oats mixture and top with vanilla yogurt and fresh fruit in season (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, ???), or frozen or canned fruit when fresh is not available. You can also layer this in a parfait glass - oats, yogurt and fruit and it is company worthy. The pictured parfait was topped with frozen blueberries and mango chunks.

I have made this with canned pineapple, peaches or pears. Use the juice from the can to mix with the oats and the fruit for the topping. Then - - add extra toppings that accent the juice and fruit. For instance if you use pineapple toss in some coconut. Use your imagination.

A healthy breakfast is like a hug from Mom. Not a bad thing for any of us.

Hey from the farm,

Fran The Country Cousin

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"Chicken Kiev"

Guest Post by Mary Ann, The City Cousin at The Kitchen Cousins

“Chicken Kiev”

OK, OK.  Don’t get too excited.  This isn’t really Chicken Kiev.  Chicken Kiev is rolled up with butter and seasoning in the middle.  This is seasoned, but its not rolled.  A friend asked me to make Chicken Kiev.  I flattened the boneless, skinless breasts, seasoned them, put the butter in the middle and began to roll the first one.  “What are you doing?” she asked.  “Making Chicken Kiev,” I replied.  Well, that’s not what she had in mind, hence the quotation marks. Here’s how it ended up.

Ingredients

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (slightly flattened to uniform thickness)
• Flour and panko bread crumbs (roughly 1/2 and 1/2)
• Oil for frying
• Mushrooms
• 1 cup Chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons Butter

Directions

Flatten the chicken breasts slightly to a uniform thickness, approximately 1/4 inch. Pound it out between two pieces of waxed paper or plastic wrap.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Dredge chicken in the flour/panko mixture.
Fry chicken until golden brown. Working in batches, keep the browned chicken warm in a 200°, preheated oven.
In a separate pan, saute the mushrooms. The only mushrooms I had in the house were portabellos so I used those.
Pour off any remaining fat from the pan used to brown the chicken. Do not rinse or wipe the pan. Those little bits on the bottom translate directly into flavor. Add one cup of chicken broth (or, if you're a sauce freak like me, 2 cups). Boil briskly for a few minutes to reduce the sauce to a slightly syrupy consistency. Add two tablespoons of butter, return the chicken to the pan, add the mushrooms and there you have it. Enjoy!

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Easy Decadence - A guest post from The Kitchen Cousins

Guest Post - Mary Ann, The City Cousin at The Kitchen Cousins

OMG Easy Decadence

I don’t know how many of you have noticed, but there are now chocolate cream cheeses on the market.  OMG!  Its just like cream cheese icing.

And if you haven’t had that, well, I just don’t know where you’ve been.

I quickly paired the cream cheese with mini- or two-bite brownies. Spread some chocolate cream cheese on one of those babies and you’re on your way to Choco Heaven! 

If you can wait just a minute or two, you can make two-layer decadence. You need a very sharp knife and you have to be very careful but you can make mini two-layer cakes. It takes a while to get the hang of it but you can’t have more fun eating mistakes. Milk chocolate with white chocolate in the middle, milk chocolate on top with peanut butter in the middle, white chocolate with raspberry jam in the middle…. I’m drooling just thinking about it. 

You can take a few dozen brownies and a tub or two of chocolate cream cheese to a party and you will be an instant hit. I also understand they have a dark chocolate cream cheese but I haven’t been able to find it.  Its probably just as well.  I’d just have to have at that with a spoon!

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