Oats & Quinoa with Blueberries & Chia Seeds

Day 140: Bonus Blog

This blog is a bonus because it was brunch, not supper. Laura's making supper now, so stay tuned for the actual Day 140 blog.

Oats & Quinoa

Oats & Quinoa with Blueberries & Chia Seeds

I have oatmeal most mornings for breakfast. Sometimes I add other grains to it, like spelt or rye flakes, but we were out of spelt and rye today. What we did have on hand was some puffed quinoa, which we had bought ages ago but hadn't tried, so I used that and some chia seeds today.

Puffed quinoa, rolled oats & chia seeds

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup puffed quinoa
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 tsp salt

Served with:

Brown sugar
Almond milk

Directions:

Bring the salt and water to a boil on high heat. Add the oats, quinoa and chia seeds and turn heat down to medium low.

Oats & quinoa cooking

Cook 2 or 3 minutes, then cover and turn down to low heat and continue cooking another 10 minutes. Add the blueberries and stir them in. Turn off heat, but keep covered another minute so the blueberries thaw, while grains stay hot.

Oatmeal, quinoa, chia seeds & blueberries

I divided the cooked grains into our two bowls and topped with a heaping teaspoon of brown sugar and then added almond milk to mine.

Bowl of oatmeal

Laura used brown sugar and maple syrup in hers. With the exception of the sweeteners, this is a pretty healthy meal, and super yummy to boot.

Variations

You can add any mixture of grains to oatmeal. The Bulk Barn has a few different mixes including a 12-grain one, which I've tried, and it's really good. We also add flax or hemp seeds to it sometimes.

You can also use any fruit you like, but be careful about when you add it. Apple or pear can be added right from the beginning and it will cook and soften, but frozen berries or tropical fruit should be added at the end and allowed to thaw but not cook.

Frozen wild blueberries

You can also use any sweetener you like, or pass on sweetener altogether, since the fruit itself goes a long way to adding sweetness to complement the salt and grains. You can also use whatever milk you like, but we prefer almond milk with any cereal.

Reviews/Comments

I give this a 10. You can't go wrong with the "delicious and nutritious" combo. Laura loved it too. She said it was the best hot cereal she ever had.

Mushroom Rice Burgers & Coleslaw

Page 139

I think Laura would have preferred Sloppy Joes tonight, but I had my heart set on a veggie burger. She made the coleslaw and I prepared the burgers. I didn't get the best picture of it because the bun was so soft that it squished in and stayed that way when I tried to lift it up.

 Mushroom Rice Burgers & Coleslaw

Mushroom Rice Burgers

These burgers are pre-cooked and frozen, so they only need about 4 or 5 minutes on each side to thaw and brown. I also sautéed some onions and mushrooms to have on them, and sliced an avocado for mine, though Laura didn't have avocado.

SOL Cuisine

This is a brand of burger patties that we really enjoy. It's no butter bean burger, or anything crazy like that, but they make a decent patty. We like it better than Yves Meatless Beef Burgers and even better than the Presidents Choice World's Best Meatless Burger, which are pretty good. One thing we love about SOL Cuisine is that they make a bunch of different kinds of burgers. We've tried several of them and they're all decent. Some are even soy-free, like the Sprouted Quinoa Chia Burger. They also make a lot of wheat free and gluten free products.

SOL Cuisine Mushroom Rice burgers

Coleslaw

We used a package of coleslaw mix for this, which is easier than shredding cabbage and carrots.

Ingredients

1/2 cup salad dressing
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
3/4 can crushed pineapple + 1/4 cup of the juice
1/2 tsp. pepper
pinch salt

Laura's coleslaw

Reviews/Comments

I was really craving a burger, so this was awesome. I really like the SOL Cuisine patties and the bun was soft and good and the coleslaw was addictive.

I score this an overall 7 as a meal.
Laura wanted sloppy Joes, so she probably isn't going to rate it as high...lol

Laura Tompkins I was thinking it was an 8, actually.

My rating was probably too low in retrospect. I might have been too harsh. It was pretty darn good.

Stir-Fried Vegetables

Page 138

The egg rolls in the freezer were the inspiration for this meal. We decided to make a stir-fry and had most of the ingredients for one.

Stir-Fried Vegetables & Egg Rolls

Stir-Fried Vegetables

Broccoli
Onion
Mushrooms
Red pepper
Cashews
Sesame seeds
Stir-fry sauce (recipe below)
2 tbsp peanut oil

Chop them chunky and fry on medium-high for 7 or 8 minutes in the peanut oil, stirring very frequently. Mix in the seeds and sauce.

Vegetables being stir-fried

Stir-Fry Sauce

Well...I wish I could share the stir-fry sauce recipe with you, but I didn't write it down, and didn't pay a lot of attention to the amounts I was using. Sorry! The vegetables had to be tended to so they wouldn't burn so I was just throwing stuff in the bowl willynilly. I can tell you that it was super good and I wish I had paid more attention.

My Best Guess Recipe

Brown sugar (about 1/3 cup)
Rice vinegar (about 1/4 cup)
Soy Sauce (between 1/8 - 1/4 cup)
Sesame oil (probably 1 tbsp)
Sesame seeds (maybe 3 tbsps?)
Corn starch (I'm thinking about 2 tbsp)

Mix it all up with a fork until smooth and pour it in with the vegetables. It will thicken within a minute or two.

Stir-Fried Vegetables

Homemade Plum Sauce

Original recipe here
While I ran out for broccoli and a red pecker, Laura cracked open a new jar of plum jam and made  a batch of plum sauce to have with the egg rolls.

Recipe

3/4 (16 ounce) jar plum jam
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp dried minced onion
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Combine everything, bring to a boil, turn off heat.

Homemade plum sauce

Using Plum Jam

Last fall I had an opportunity to pick some plums from my aunt's neighbor's tree and came home with 21 lbs of them.

Plums

I intended to make a few jars of plum jam and a lot of plum sauce. So, I started looking up recipes for plum sauce...you know, the kind you process like jam, that have a 2 year shelf life. Nearly every recipe I found was like the one above. They call for a bottle of plum jam. So, I made 3 batches of plum jam, and mannnnnn, what a pain in the arse it was. Took me a Sunday afternoon and three evenings, because the pits of 21 lbs of plums had to be removed. Such a mess too. But so worth it! The jam tastes amazing and is really good on a buttered roll or soft homemade bread. And the homemade plum sauce is not even comparable to store-bought stuff; they're like 2 completely different sauces. Might be because of using damsoms instead of red plums? Anyway, if you have plum jam, I recommend you try making this sauce to have on egg rolls or rangoons, or whatever other fried delight you have on the go.

Homemade plum jam

Stir-fried vegetables & egg rolls

Reviews/Comments

Most of the vegetables were perfectly cooked although the bigger pieces of broccoli could have been cooked a bit more. The sauce was really good. Separately I rate the stir-fry a 10, the egg rolls a 4 and the plum sauce a 10. Overall, it's a 9.

Laura gave me her compliments; she really liked the stir-fry a lot.

Toasted Egg-n-Veg Sandwich

Day 137

My night to cook again, so I went with quick and easy, as I usually do. I wanted to have fried potatoes with this meal, but didn't feel like putting in the time or effort so when Laura suggested we have fruit with it, I realized that she's a freaking genius.

Toasted Egg-n-Veg Sandwich

Toasted Egg-n-Veg Sandwich

I made that name up. HAHAHA I hate it but I also love it. I made the sandwich up, as in, it's not already a specific kind like Toasted Western, but it's based on the same concept. The westerns are made with peppers, onions, ham and cheddar and we didn't use any of those ingredients in ours, but it's similar despite the different veggies and the use of feta cheese instead of cheddar.

Ingredients

4 slices potato bread
4 eggs
1 tsp Srichachi
1 handful of spinach
4 oz sliced mushrooms
2" cube of feta (s'all we had on hand; it was the perfect amount)
Sprinkle of salt & pepper
1 tbsp butter for cooking, more for buttering the toast
Mayo to spread on the already buttered toast (we're indulgent like that)

Directions

I started with the mushrooms and butter. While they were sautéing I cracked the eggs into a bowl and stirred in the Srirachi, beating them until they barely started to fluff a bit.

Eggs & Srirachi

Sautéed mushrooms

Once the mushrooms were sautéed, I threw the spinach in and enjoyed watching it wilt while I moved it around with my spatula.

Sautéed mushrooms & spinach

Then I moved the mushrooms and spinach to the side and poured in the egg mixture. I crumbled the feta over the eggs, took a pic, then began to stir.

Mushrooms, spinach, eggs & feta

While the eggs were still a bit wet, I mixed in the veggies then piled them together in a rectangular clump, letting them meld together as the egg cooked and cheese melted. With the spatula, I divided them into two squarish shapes and flipped them. Sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Egg-n-veg squares

Since they were thick, and I wanted to be sure the egg in the middle was thoroughly cooked, I covered them and cooked them a few extra minutes on each side. Covering keeps the heat in.

Covered egg-n-veg

I buttered and mayo'ed the four slices of toast and placed the fried yumminess on two of them, covered with the other two, and sliced them in half.

Toasted egg sandwich

Laura sliced the cantaloupe and arranged it on the plates. I took another pic. Voila! Yummy supper, with decent nutrients. 

Toasted egg sandwich with cantaloupe

Reviews/Comments

This sandwich was so enjoyable. I ate slowly and savored all the flavors. Laura really enjoyed her sandwich a lot, too. I give it a 9.

I wanted to put onion in this. Not sure it would have been better with it, but the reason I didn't is because when I went to the fridge to get the 1/2 onion I put in there God-knows-when, I found this:

Sprouting onion

Laura says I could have cut the spouted part off and used the rest. What do I know? I threw it out. :(

Leftover Squash Soup with Grilled Havarti on Rye

Day 136

I know how fancy that sounds. Well, except for the "leftover" part. I bought the rye bread to have with the leftover soup, but I couldn't resist making a grilled cheese with the Havarti slices we had.

Squash Soup with Grilled Cheese

Reviews/Comments

Supper was fantastic. Totally 10.

Buttercup Squash Soup

Day 135

One of my favorite kinds of soup. If I see cream of squash on a menu, I can almost never resist ordering it. One day I thought, "How hard can it be to make some at home?" Turns out, not hard at all.

Buttercup Squash Soup

Roasted Squash

Cut your squash in half and scoop out the pulp and the seeds. Place in roast pan with the inside facing down and add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan so it won't dry out while roasting. I use about 2 cups. Roast at 350 degrees F for 40 - 45 minutes.

Raw squash

Roasted squash

Ingredients

2 medium squash
2 cups water
1 large onion
1 Granny Smith apple
1 tbsp butter

Kaboucha squash, onion & apple

1 box veggie broth
2 cups coffee cream

Cream & broth (featuring sticker from squash)

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Squash soup seasonings

You can add more or less seasonings as preferred. I stick to these amounts as a simplified reference point. Then we do the taste test to see what it needs more of.

Directions

Peel and chop the onion and apple. Sauté in a soup pot with the butter until the onions just start to turn clear and add a cup of the veggie broth along with the seasonings. Cover and cook until tender.

Onions & apple

Scoop out the cooked squash and add to the pot with the onions and apple. Add another cup of the veggie broth and stir until combined. Simmer about 10 minutes to meld the flavors then turn off the heat and let cool a bit. Add the rest of the box of veggie broth to cool further.


Once it's not steaming hot it can be blended in batches and added back to the soup pot.

Squash soup blending

Reheat until a boil is barely reached then turn heat down. Once the bubbling has stopped, add the cream and stir quickly. Ready to eat! It's good with a lot of different breads, but we like soft rolls or rye bread. We also garnish with some roasted pumpkin seeds, which we usually get when they go on sale at the Bulk Barn.

Buttercup squash soup before the cream

Buttercup squash soup

Reviews/Comments

So delicious, I could seriously eat this once a week. But, Laura would get sick of it quicker than I would and that wouldn't be good. I give it a 10. I do wish I had some rye bread to have with it though.

Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

Day 134

When it's my turn to cook, supper is not as fancy as Laura's meals usually are. You may have noticed. But, I am big on comfort food, and can usually at least do justice to or even improve on an old stand-by.

Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

So Easy to Make!

I actually combine pancake mix and cooked oatmeal to make oatmeal pancakes. No, I have never looked up a recipe, and I'm sure there are some out there that would be worth trying out, but this meal is something I make when I want to eat in 15 minutes. It's so easy it's not worth calling a recipe, but I'll share how I make it anyway.

Compliments Original Complete Pancake & Waffle Mix

I almost always buy pancake batter that only requires water, instead of eggs, milk or anything like that. Why fuss over pancakes? Also, after making pancakes from scratch, I've found there is no good reason not to just buy the mixes. Maybe you have a great recipe I should try that might be a mind-changer? If so, please share...I'm not afraid to mix a batter if the taste is worth the effort.

Erin's Oatmeal Pancake Recipe

2 cups water
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup pancake mix
1 cup water
1 cup blueberries
1/8 - 1/4 cup butter (for frying and topping)
Maple syrup

Mixing Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

Boil the 2 cups of water and add the rolled oats. I don't use quick oats. I use the large flake or rolled oats, which is important for the texture, for me. Cook about 3 or 4 minutes or until cooked and thickened.

Rolled oats

Combine the pancake mix with water until it's the correct consistency to make pancakes. I put 1 cup in the ingredient list above, but all the amounts there are approximate because I don't measure...sorry!

Add the oatmeal to the pancake batter, combine well, and fold in the blueberries. Again, the amounts are approximate. I didn't even use all the oatmeal that I cooked because I thought it might be too much.

The leftover oatmeal

Regardless of what ratios you use, as long as it turns out to be a good pancake batter consistency, it's all good.

Oatmeal blueberry pancake batter

Cooking Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

Heat a frying pan or griddle to medium heat and melt a tbsp of butter in the pan. Tilt the pan so the butter coats it evenly. Pour about 3/4 cup of batter in the hot pan and cook about 4 or 5 minutes until the center of the pancake has bubbles coming through and the edges look kind of dry. Then flip it and cook about 3 to 5 more minutes, depending on the thickness of your batter. Normal batter would only require another minute or two, but I find the oatmeal kind takes a bit longer.

Oatmeal blueberry pancakes cooking

Oatmeal blueberry pancakes in progress

When the pancakes are done, flop them onto a plate and slather them with toppings, like butter or maple syrup. We use both.

Oatmeal blueberry pancake

Reviews/Comments

These were super yummy, and way better than regular pancakes. Seriously.