Rhubarb strawberry crisp

3 cups rhubarb, cut into small pieces
3 cups strawberries, cut into small pieces
1 cup sugar
1 1⁄3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup old fashioned oats
1⁄2 cup butter

In a large bowl combine rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, 1/3 cup flour and cinnamon. Put into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

In another bowl combine with brown sugar, oats. Cut butter into flour mixture. Sprinkle over rhubarb/strawberry mixture pat gently.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes in preheated oven.

Apple coffee cake

Rhubarb coffee cake with rolled oats crumble topping

Made this in Ireland with raisins and apples. Today I made it again, but with rhubarb. I made a double recipe. Here is the recipe below as a single recipe with my changes.

Mix in large bowl
1/3 cup melted margarine
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs (did put them in this time)
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix in medium bowl
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups peeled, chopped rhubarb

Crumble Topping
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted margarine

Add dry ingredients to wet and fold in. Sprinkle crumble topping on top of batter.

Took about 38 minutes this time without the convection oven. Use a toothpick to test when done.

Apple coffee cake with rolled oats crumble topping

I wanted to make an apple coffee cake so I found this recipe and used it as a guide. I am currently in Ireland and they have self-raising flour here which already has baking soda in it (I think). So I didn't add any soda to it. At the last minute I did add a tsp of baking powder, which I am glad I did because I forgot to add the eggs.

Here is the recipe as I made it. It was quite crumbly and not very high because of the lack of eggs, but it is very good, although too sweet. The original recipe had even more sugar than I used.

Mix in large bowl
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar (I think 1/2 a cup would be enough)
2 large eggs (I forgot these)
1 cup sour cream (I used milk because I didn't have any sour cream)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I didn't use this either because I didn't have any)

Mix in medium bowl
2 cups all purpose flour (I used self raising)
1 teaspoon baking soda (I didn't use because self raising flour has it)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apples (I used one chopped unpeeled granny smith apple and 1/2 cup raisins)

Crumble Topping
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats (called for flour)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter (called for 4 tbsp)

Add dry ingredients to wet and fold in. Sprinkle crumble topping on top of batter.

I baked it at about 350 in a convection oven and it took about 25 minutes. If it had been a regular oven it would probably have taken more than that. The original recipe called for 35 to 40 minutes.

Raisin Oatmeal Banana Muffins

When we went to Ireland in 2013, one of the restaurants there served a great banana bread with dinner. It was so good. So when I came home I sent them an email asking them for their recipe.

Below is an adaptation of that recipe (sorry I can never leave a recipe alone). The original recipe included cinnamon and raisins, which I had never seen before in a banana bread recipe.

My recipe below maintains those two ingredients, and in this version, I also changed the recipe to include oats. I have to say I have a hard time not including raisins, oats and cinnamon in many of my recipes. I also reduced the amount of fat that was in the original recipe and exchanged some of the white flour for whole wheat.

Mix into medium bowl:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups raisins

Mix into large bowl:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup of buttermilk or soured milk
1/2 cup canola oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups mashed bananas

Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix just until moistened.

Scoop into lined muffin pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 21 muffins. You could probably make 24 muffins, they would be a bit smaller.

Granola bars, part deux

Put in large bowl and microwave to soften and combine:
3/4 cup honey (use 1/2 cup honey or maybe brown sugar?)
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup apple sauce (use 1 cup to hold together better)

Incorporate dry ingredients into wet ingredients:
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
3 cups rice krispies
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Press into 9 X 13 inch greased pan.

Put in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

They were good but too sweet. Next time I'll reduce honey to 1/2 cup and increase applesauce to 1 cup. They also were too crumbly so the additional applesauce should hold them together better.

Peanut butter oatmeal cookies

I made peanut butter oatmeal cookies one day while in Victoria. I can't remember what my motivation was. Anyway they were pretty good.

In Victoria our condo had cable TV service. At home we don't have TV service, we only watch Netflix. We don't feel the need to throw money at Bell or the other cable providers, and Netflix is way better anyway.

The only channel I did watch sometimes was the Food Network. I do like to watch cooking shows. But I would record the shows first so I could fast forward past the commercials, which seem to have increased exponentially since I last watched commercial TV.

Mind you, most of the shows on the food network are fairly useless, like Food Factory. This show tries too hard to be cute. It also shows how some products are made in a factory. I don't really care how they're made. I want to know what the recipe is. Plus, many of the products they showed being produced contained 90% sugar. Gross.

Then there were other shows that showed competitions like Chopped, which wasn't bad, but very stressful to watch. I don't want to get stressed when I watch TV.

Then there were food shows (as opposed to cooking shows) where almost no actual cooking takes place. Like one guy who goes into diners or whatever, and makes all kind of noise as he inhales big greasy gobs of whatever concoction being served. Gross times two.

I want to watch actual cooking shows. You know where someone cooks food and tells you how much of each ingredient is in it?

One show which I liked was the Spice Goddess. Bal Arneson is from India and cooks food using Indian spices. She made a macaroni and cheese recipe that I want to try. I love macaroni and cheese, and I love Indian food. Though it sounds like a weird combination to me, but I will try it.

Anyway back to the Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies

1 cup flour (whole wheat or all purpose)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins (chocolate chips would be even better but it was lent and I gave up chocolate)

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (or regular peanut butter)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg (I would probably increase to 2 eggs as the mixture was very crumbly)

Mix first seven ingredients into a small bowl.

Mix remaining ingredients into a large bowl.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and incorporate. Use your hands if you have to.

Make smallish balls of dough and place on greased cookie sheet. Press down with fingers or a floured fork.

Cook for 10-12 minutes at 350 until the cookies start to brown.

Granola bars for Jesus - the recipe

To see how this recipe came about, see here.

4 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup melted, or liquid honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup natural peanut butter (could use regular)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup applesauce (mine was made from 1 spartan apple and one royal gala apple and a 1/4 cup water)
1 cup raisins (or nuts if you're Jennifer or Johanna and don't like raisins)

Mix everything together. You many have to use your hands to mix it as it will be very thick.

Grease a cookie sheet. I used a 12 X 16 pan (I'm guessing since I didn't measure it). A smaller cookie sheet would have been better, since the mixture wasn't enough for the whole pan. Just grease the portion of the pan that you use.

Press granola mixture firmly and evenly into pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes at 325, or until the edges start to brown.

Cool. Cut into squares. I made 16 large squares. Cut them smaller if you like.

Store in freezer. Or give them to the homeless.

Eating your oats the non mushy way

I don't like porridge. It's mushy and makes me want to gag. So I never eat it.

But recently I've discovered steel cut oats. And I don't cook them. I soak them in milk in the fridge for two days then eat them like that. They are very good. And nutritious. And filling. And they're not mushy.

1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup skim milk (or whatever % milk you like)

Put in plastic container, cover and into the fridge for two days.

Take oats out, place in two bowls, and add more milk (or not).

Add some brown sugar (maybe 1-2 teaspoons).

Add some raisins and a good sprinkle of cinnamon. Could also add chopped apples or other fruit.

This makes two good servings. I notice that the package directions say to use 1/4 cup per serving, but that's not enough in my opinion.

This is a good source of protein, fibre and probably about 400 calories.

Quite yummy.