this just in... oatmeal is full of oaty goodness!

A few weeks back, when I posted this, I said I would get back to you regarding the facts about oatmeal.  So, here for you, is an oatmeal primer.

Despite the fact that it is super healthful, oatmeal remains one of the least eaten available foods in the world. The USDA estimates that only 5% of the world's entire oat crop is actually eaten by humans. The rest is eaten by cows and pigs, which are then eaten by some humans.

Oatmeal has many health benefits. It reduces your cravings for other, less healthy foods by hanging out in your stomach for longer than, say, a bag of chips. Remember, your mom (or grandma) used to say it "sticks to your ribs?" This helps you feel full and eat less.

Oatmeal is full of Vitamins A and B, calcium, iron, and the all important fiber! It has minimal traces of fat (as long as you don't pile butter and brown sugar on it!) and it has zero cholesterol. In fact, oatmeal's fiber acts like little sponges soaking up the bad cholesterol in your body, while leaving the good alone. So, you are more healthy after eating your bowl of oats than you were before.

So, which kind of oatmeal should you eat?

I'll start with the least processed, and therefore most healthful oat, and go down from there.

The Oat Groat is the whole oat from the plant, with only the outer hull removed. They are super packed with nutrients and fiber, but they have to be soaked and cooked for a long time. I guess they're similar to wheat berries off the wheat stalk.

photo borrowed from wisegeek.com

Next are Steel-cut oats. These are also called Irish, Scotch, Pinhead, Coarse-cut, or porridge oats. These are just groats from above that have been chopped up into smaller pieces. More surface area means less cooking time, with the same nutritional value. It also makes for some thick, but not gummy oatmeal.

from the good people over at healthy supplies in the UK

 McCanns Irish Oatmeal and the fine people over at Bob's Red Mill put out some great steel cut oats.

Here's a great recipe from Alton Brown (my hero!).  This came from the episode called "Oat Cuisine" (he's so clever with the frequent play on words).

Overnight Oatmeal
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats
Episode: Oat Cuisine

1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup dried figs
4 cups water
1/2 cup half-and-half
In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients and set to low heat. Cover and let cook for 8 to 9 hours.
Stir and remove to serving bowls. This method works best if started before you go to bed. This way your oatmeal will be finished by morning.



Here's a link to a printable version.

Next on the oat chain are rolled oats, or old fashioned oats. This is what we all think of when we think of oatmeal. The oat groats are steamed, rolled, and sliced into flakes so they cook really quickly. You see them in granola and trail mix and cookies. They're steamed and processed, so they lose some of their nutrients and fiber-power in the mix.

The wisegeek people had a lot of oatmeal pics available

Quick oats are even thinner flakes of the rolled oats. Otherwise, they're the same. If you use these for your cookies they might not come out as fluffy.

Then we have the instant oat, of instant oatmeal in the package fame. They are precooked, and just need to be mixed with a hot liquid. They usually have flavor, salt, and preservatives added in. It might be healthier than your bowl of cocoa pebbles, but they're not really "healthy" per se.

It may be "high fiber" but it's also high in sugar, salt, preservatives, etc.

Seriously, just get up 5 minutes earlier and make some quick cooking oats, or better yet, the old fashioned kind. Even better, set up the crock pot and use Alton's recipe up there.

Here's a comparison of steel-cut versus rolled oats, again from the wisegeek peeps.  The Instant oats are even further processed.  They roll much of  the nutritional benefits right out of the oat! 

I use quite a bit of rolled/old fashioned oats when I'm making granola bars or the occasional oatmeal cookie.  But the steel cut variety is really where it's at for nutrient dense, fill up your belly oatmeal at its best.

Cranberry Almond Quinoa Bars

We've been trying to incorporate healthier snacks into our regimen over here at the Hoff House, and this one is a winner.  These Cranberry Almond Quinoa are nutrient dense, highly satisfying, and are incredibly easy to make.

the finished product, topped with some peanut butter

I found some recipes similar to this on the internet, but some of them were really confusing and/or poorly written (not specifying if the amount of quinoa needed was dry or cooked, for example).  So, I decided to do one of my classic recipe re-boots and come up with something great.

For these bars you will need:

• 1 C. uncooked quinoa
• 4 eggs (or the equivalent of egg substitute)
• 1/3 C. of some kind of milk.  I used Vanilla soy milk, but I think almond milk would be good too, it might enhance the almond taste
• 1/3 C. honey
• 1 tsp (or thereabouts) Vanilla extract
• 1 Tlbsp. Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 C.  almonds (you can use any kind of nut or opt for no nuts)
• 1/2 C.  dried fruit.  I used cranberries, but you could use raisins, apricots, apples, anything you'd like.

You'll also need parchment paper.  This silicone infused paper provides great non-stick protection you can put right in the oven.

Step One:

•  Preheat the oven to 375.
• Lightly grease an 8x8 pan, then line it with parchment paper.  

I used olive oil spray to grease my pan.

As for the parchment paper, you can simply make a sling by cutting the paper to 8 inches wide, making the length long enough to hang over the sides, but I opted for complete coverage.  cut a square at least 12x12" and then cut into the corners by a couple inches.  

 Now place the parchment into the greased pan, with the cut corners in the.... um, corners of course.  The sections you cut should overlap, giving you complete parchment coverage.  You might have to cut a little deeper to get everything settled correctly.  It won't be pretty, but it doesn't need to be.  It just has to keep your bars from sticking to the pan.

Step Two - 

• Cook your 1 cup of quinoa according to the package directions, and let it cool completely.

Step Three - 

• Beat the 4 eggs in a large bowl
• Add in the milk, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, and honey
• Mix thoroughly

there are cinnamon clumps here, but they were eventually beaten into submission

 Step Four - 

• Add in your fruit and nuts.  I love the combo of almonds and cranberries.  Next time I think I'll do apples, and maybe banana chips. 

 Step Five - 

• Stir in the cooled quinoa 
• Pour the mixture into your prepared pan

 Step Six - 

• Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.  The honey will make the finished product look NOT done in the middle.  Check the edges, they should be dry and pulling away from the parchment a bit.  If you touch the middle it should be damp, but no quinoa should come off on your finger. 

the middle still looks wet, but it's done.

 Step Seven - the beauty of the parchment

• using the edges of the parchment, lift the (soon to be) bars from the pan and place on a cooling rack as soon as possible.  
• Pull the edges down to help the cooling process

De-panning would be difficult without the parchment paper

• When cool - cut into bars.  You can make them whatever size you'd like.

By themselves, these are a chewy, slightly crunchy very satisfying and filling snack or light breakfast.  To pump them up a bit, smear some nut butter (I had peanut) on top.  I also heated mine up a bit to slightly melt the pb.  Delicious!

I ate one of the bars for breakfast, and was full (and full of energy) until lunch. 

Notes on nutrition: 

For the health benefits of the honey and cranberries you can check out my earlier blog post here.

Quinoa - 2013 has become known as the Year of Quinoa (see the link below), but it is actually an ancient food.  The Inca of South America have been enjoying quinoa for centuries.  Inca warriors ate quinoa to help maintain strength and stamina.  Usually classified a grain, it's actually a seed, and is related to swiss chard.  Quinoa was recently declared a kosher food, and can be eaten during the Jewish high holidays.  Quinoa contains 9 amino acids, and has a similar protein content to cow's milk.  It is full of riboflavin, which can help prevent migraines.  Quinoa is, of course, gluten free, and has been shown to be well tolerated by those suffering with IBS. It is high in fiber, iron, and magnesium.  You can learn a lot more about quinoa at this site.

Almonds - There's something about almonds that make them the ultimate pick-me-up.  Countless times I've been struggling to stay awake during a lecture or at work, and a handful of almonds saved the day.  They are Justin's new favorite snack, and he often snacks on a few on his commute home to stay awake and alert on the horrible 91 fwy.  Almonds help lower bad cholesterol, and are high in fiber.  They are full of B vitamins, which help in cell function.  Almonds are an excellent source of manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium, and are full of vitamin E. Here is a site full of information on almonds.

Make your own peanut butter cups!

In my mind, peanut butter + chocolate = delicious, always.  I saw this post  from Fifteen Spatulas for homemade peanut butter cups, and decided to tweak (as is my way) and make it my own.

I also thought this recipe would be a good opportunity to talk about using a double boiler.  The recipe from Fifteen Spatulas uses the microwave to melt her chocolate.  I haven't had much success with that method, but if you want to use the micro instead of the stove, you should check her post out.

I was also interested in trying this out because, if it was successful, we could create a peanut free version for my nephew, Chan, who has a peanut allergy.  The options are endless, really.  Sunflower butter is what I'm guessing my sister would choose for Chan, because he has to avoid not only peanuts, but also anything made in a facility that uses peanuts and tree nuts.  But you could use cashew, almond, macadamia, or any other sort of butter. 

However, since this was my first attempt, I used good old goober butter.  I also chose to use dark chocolate chips, because not only are they delicious, I can claim that these treats are more healthy because of the antioxidants found in dark chocolate.

Here's the step by step, a more concise recipe can be found below.

Step One: gather your supplies:
  You'll need:

• muffin tins - you can use mini, regular, or giant... whatever size cups you want to create.  This recipe perfectly filled one 12 and one 6 cup muffin tins
• paper muffin/cupcake liners - you know, to fill in the tins.  I got mine at Michael's for .75 on clearance.  I think it's a pack of 100 or so.
• a double boiler.  I'm pretty sure you can buy an actual fancy device called a double boiler, but like my hero, Alton Brown, I don't believe in uni-taskers.  I don't have room in my tiny kitchen for a bunch of gadgets.  I've always just made my own.  You'll need a pot, and a heat proof bowl (like Pyrex) that fits somewhat inside.  More on this in a bit...
•  measuring cups and spoons, a couple big spoons (probably not metal), a sifter of sorts, and a freezer.  
• Ingredients:
• 1 cup peanut butter (or whatever kind of butter you choose)
• 2 bags (mine were 11.5 oz each) of chocolate chips (mine were dark)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 + 1/8 cup powdered sugar... This 5/8 of a cup, but I don't have a 5/8 cup, nor do I want to measure 1/8 cup 5x, so... however you want to measure this is fine...

somehow, I left a bunch of supplies out of this pic...

Step Two: line the muffin tins with the liners.  Maybe this is self-explanatory, but, someone might not know...

 Step Three: set up your double boiler.
 OK, chocolate can be a crazy thing.  It can't get too hot, you can't let it burn on the bottom of the pan, you can't get water in it.... it's like a really high maintenance friend.  You can melt chocolate in the microwave, like I said above, but in my experience the mess isn't worth it.

If you are really against using a double boiler you can use a trick I saw on Good Eats with my hero, Alton Brown.  Put a heating pad inside a large heat safe bowl, a towel on top of the heating pad, and then put your chocolate in a smaller bowl and set it on top of the towel.  Set it to medium, and then to low once your chocolate is melted.

Here's what I do.... to make a double boiler get a pot and a pyrex bowl that fits about half way inside it.  You do NOT want your bowl to get close to the bottom of the pot.  Put a few inches of water into the pot, and make sure there's at least an inch between the bottom of the bowl and the water.

make sure there's space between the water and the bowl, lest your chocolate burn!

** Put ONE bag of  chocolate in the bowl, turn on the heat and bring the water to a boil.  The steam created by the boiling water will gently melt the chocolate.  Stir occasionally, it will look ugly for a few minutes, but the chocolate will melt and become shiny and beautiful.  I've never run into any trouble using a double boiler.  Sometimes old school is the best school.

I use wooden spoons because they don't conduct heat and get hot.  Silicone would work too.

That was a long step three...

Step Four:  While your chocolate is melting, you can begin assembling your peanut butter filling.

Make sure you use another heat proof bowl for the filling, as we will use the double boiler for this bowl too.
I'm a fan of these plunger style measuring cups (another thing Alton taught me about) for measuring goopy stuff, like yogurt, mayo, honey, etc.  You can also measure multiple ingredients using displacement.   

The plunger measuring cup is great because once you plunge you can scrap off the goop, you could never get all of the peanut butter out of a regular measuring cup.  Well, I couldn't at least.  Add a 1/4 cup of regular butter to the bowl. and set it aside for a bit.

Also measure out the 1/2 cup and 1/8 cup of powdered/confectioners/icing sugar (whatever you like to call it)

my cute and colorful measuring cups

Step Five: by now you're chocolate is probably melted.  It should look glossy like this:

beautiful melted chocolate

Now you'll start filling your muffin tins.  I used a tablespoon to make sure they were all even.  You could use a disher, or anything really, but by using a tablespoon I (purely through luck) came out pretty much perfectly even with the 18 muffin cups. 

 When they're all filled kind of tap and shake the tins around to smooth out the chocolate and make sure the entire bottom of the cup is covered.

Now put the tins in the freezer.  I had to shuffle stuff around in my very small freezer to make room, and to make sure the tins were even.  Leave them in for at least 15 minutes.

freezer super full of fruit/veg/ice cream/ etc.

Step Six: Set the chocolate bowl aside because we'll be using it again.  BE CAREFUL when you take it off of the pot because STEAM BURNS ARE AWFUL!  Set the bowl with the peanut butter and butter on the double boiler and melt everything down. 

 

Step Seven: Remove the melty peanut buttery goodness from the stove and sift in the powdered sugar.  You don't have to use a sifter, but if you do it will be much easier to mix the sugar in and avoid lumpage.  Lumps are bad.

sifting is good - lumps are bad

 Step Eight: stir the sugar into the peanut butter mixture until it is completely mixed in.  It should be stiff but smooth.

 Step Nine: by now your chocolate should be hardened.  It will look like this:

 Spoon the peanut butter mixture on top of the chocolate.  I used a tablespoon again, and it came out great.  Be sure to spread the mixture out, since the chocolate is cold it will start to harden the peanut butter right away.

 You'll have to shake and tap the tins a bit more vigorously to get the peanut butter to flatten out.

 Put the tins back in the freezer for another 15 minutes.

Step Ten: While the peanut butter is chilling we will melt the second bag of chocolate.  Put the chocolate bowl back on the double boiler and melt.  When the peanut butter is set spoon the final layer of chocolate on top of the peanut butter.  Chill the tins for a final 15 minutes.  (all this waiting was the most difficult part of the process!)

Once the chocolate is completely set you're done!  Here's one fresh out of the freezer.  You can see the layers of chocolate and peanut butter. 

Unfold the wrapper and enjoy! 

 You can use more or less chocolate and/or peanut butter depending on what you like.  I think mini muffin tins would make cute little cups too.

I put my cups in a gallon zip top bag in the fridge.  You can keep them in the freezer, fridge, or on the counter depending on how hard or soft you want your cup to be. 

 

 Frodo (who is always curious) really wanted to be my assistant and was in the kitchen the whole time I was working on these.  His tail is wagging so fast you can't even see it.  He's a cutie.

As promised, here's a more concise recipe

2 bags chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 + 1/8 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter

• line muffin tin with 18 cupcake liners
• melt 1 bag of chocolate chips in a double boiler
• spoon melted chocolate into bottom of liners and chill 15 minutes in freezer
• melt peanut butter and butter over double boiler
• remove from heat and sift in powdered sugar, mix well
• spoon over chocolate.  Tap and shake tins to even mixture out.  Freeze another 15 minutes
• melt remaining bag of chocolate, spoon over peanut butter mixture, freeze another 15 minutes