Tasty Thursday: Another Savory Oatmeal

I used to be a huge lover of macaroni and cheese.  Once I became both vegan and gluten free I thought I would never find a substitute for mac 'n cheese that I found as satisfying as the boxed stuff I ate as a kid.  I've been on a binge for savory steel cut oats and it occurs to me that the reason may be that it has become my new mac 'n cheese.  It certainly tastes as good to  my mature taste-buds as that powdery stuff did to my childhood taste-buds so you may see quite a few more versions of the steel cut oats, nut milk, vegetable broth and nutritional yeast combination.  And really, what could be better than something you dump in the crock pot, turn on high and come back three or four hours later to enjoy?


Into my crock pot I put:

1 cup organic steel cut oats
1 cup 5X protein unsweetened almond milk
2 cups veg broth (I used organic mushroom broth)
1 cup nutritional yeast
6 organic carrots, sliced into coins
1 garlic scape, chopped
3 small yellow beets, peeled, halved and sliced
cilantro (You may cringe, but the cilantro was kind of dried up, having been stored in a cloth bag in a drawer in the fridge, but I came across it and tossed it in anyway.  Tasted fine to me.)
3 organic celeriac stalks/leaves, sliced (I'm sure a stalk of celery would work just fine, however it would be a slightly less strong flavor.)
salt to taste

I set the crock pot on high, went out to an appointment, returned three hours later to a perfectly cooked batch of oatmeal.  Yum!

Tasty Thursday: Savory Oatmeal and Veggies

You've probably noticed by now that I am a fan of nutritional yeast and tend to favor carrots, onions and kale when I cook veggies.  I woke up today with a mad desire for savory oatmeal that just wouldn't subside until I set this up in the crock pot, let it cook, then dug in.
  
I forgot to take my vitamins the past two days so I'm guessing the desire for nutritional yeast came from my body seeking B-12.  The yen for steel cut oats came from, I think, the hope of being able to dump something in the crock pot that was easy to assemble but would be tasty and delicious.  Also, I have some business travel coming up and needed some leftovers to freeze in snack-size bags to take along for meals away from home.  Most of the things I cook are quite liquidy and as we all know that doesn't cut it when you're going through airport security.  I shouldn't have any problem with little bags of oatmeal and veggies.  This turned out so yummy I had it for both lunch and dinner.  It fed one sleever, plus two 'normal' eaters with enough for leftovers.

To my crockpot I added:

1 cup Bob's Red Mill organic steel cut oats
1 cup 5X protein unsweetened almond milk
2 cups Pacific organic mushroom broth
1 cup Bob's Red Mill large flake nutritional yeast
1 bunch beautiful organic CSA lacinato kale, chopped
8 medium organic CSA carrots, sliced into coins
1 organic CSA sweet onion, sliced
salt and garlic powder, to taste

I stirred it all together, cooked it three hours on high, then stirred it again before serving.

Have a savory oatmeal recipe you like?  I'd love it if you shared it here.

Tasty Thursday: 86 Lemons' Vegan Carrot Cake and Zucchini Bread Oatmeal

Carrot Cake Zucchini Bread Oatmeal, what could be nicer to wake up to on a Saturday morning?  This was my first foray into eating oatmeal post-sleeve, despite having been told quite a few times that it was an option.  Oatmeal, prior to surgery, was giving me stomach bubbles and pushing my blood sugar up and it's a grain, why eat a grain post-surgery?  But it looked so good and I planned to boost the protein so I gave it a try.  I measured four tablespoons into my bowl, added a little extra 5X protein almond milk and a couple of drops more vanilla stevia then mixed a half scoop of unflavored protein powder into it.  I was able to eat two and a half tablespoons.  It filled me up but didn't give me the uncomfortable feeling I sometimes get.  Three hours later I took a little spoonful of it for a snack and did get that uncomfortable feeling so I know it was still in my stomach.  It kept me pretty much full from 7am until 1pm when I had a low blood sugar and needed to have something to bring my number up.  I think that a two and a half tablespoon serving that keeps me full for hours and hours, even if it is a grain is ok now and then and will plan to make this recipe again.  Here is how I modified from 86 Lemons' recipe.

I did not oil my crockpot.  There was a little bit crisped on the top edge on one side but I mixed things up before serving anyway and it mixed right in.  I'll note that I made a double batch, not realizing how much the steel cut oats would puff up.  Even feeding three of us full portions we have some left over.  I plan to freeze two and a half tablespoon servings and hopefully they'll do ok defrosted and popped in the microwave.

1 cup organic steel cut oats
3 cups 5X protein almond milk
2 small farm carrots, grated
1 small farm zucchini, grated
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ground clove
1 teaspoon cinnamon
splash of Grade B maple syrup
2 droppersful vanilla stevia

We like vanilla and I would have wanted to use the optional vanilla extract but at 9pm last night when I put it together I discovered my choices were whole vanilla beans, vanilla sugar or vanilla stevia.  It was too late to get to Trader Joe's to get alcohol-free vanilla so I made do with what I had, reduced the maple syrup and subbed the vanilla stevia.  Next time I plan to use vanilla extract and maple syrup.  I used no nuts because I'm not at the stage where I can have whole nuts yet and I didn't think adding nut butter would work for this.  If you try it with nut butter won't you please share your results with me?

I cooked this on low overnight and we were very happy to wake up to it.

Tasty Thursday: Crockpot Red Beans and Veggies

It's a rainy fall day here so that calls for soup, right? I had a crock pot lentil soup recipe I had wanted to try but when I looked in my bean stash I discoverd I had only red lentils and in my experience those tend to get very soft very quickly so I wasn't sure if they'd work for that recipe. But I did have red beans so this is what went into my crockpot:

1 bag dry red beans, rinsed
5 cups water
1 cup chopped CSA onion
3/4 cup chopped celery (have I ever mentioned I love cooked celery but dislike raw?)
1 cup carrots, sliced into half moons and quarters
1 tsp fresh CSA thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
3 garlic scapes, chopped
1/2 tsp Applewood smoked sea salt (I added more to mine at the table)

Cook four hours on HIGH, serve over rice if desired.

What's in the Crockpot Wednesday? Mango Beans

I am not only in love with my crockpot because it lets you make something fantastic while you're not even at home, I am also in love with it because it lets you cook something yummy without further heating up the house when it is 96F outside.

Yes, we're in the middle of the toasty days of summer. So when I saw this recipe for Mango BBQ beans I knew I would not only be modifying it to what I have on hand at home, but would be putting it together in the crock pot.

My version contains:

can of organic black eyed peas

can of conventional kidney beans

can of organic black beans

a bunch of organic green beans picked by my daughter at our CSA farm yesterday, cut into pieces

two yellow CSA onions, chopped

two purple CSA onions, chopped

four cloves CSA garlic, chopped

five cloves CSA garlic, whole

can of organic tomato sauce (I know, I should have used CSA tomatoes. I realized that after I poured the can in.)

Trader Joe's frozen mango halves

a little tap water

a couple of shakes of pumpkin pie spice (we seem to have run out of Allspice and I felt that was as close as I could get)


I plan to add the liquid smoke later. Not sure if I will need any agave, will taste test later in the day.

Can't wait to try it later.

UPDATE:  Added liquid smoke and some Agave/Maple syrup.   Not too great calorie/carb wise, but the beans do taste delicious.