: Monday : Nourishment :

~Big Pot of Soup~

I threw this pot of soup together from things I already had around. It consists of red and yellow peppers, onion, garlic, and potatoes sauteed in olive oil. I added tomato, chickpeas, orzo pasta, water, and numerous delicious spices. Cheap, easy, and it went a long way. In fact, I was working outside so much, I made this for lunch one day with the intention of serving it for dinner, as well. We also enjoyed it the following day. I accidentally left it out, but had I remembered to put it away, I would have frozen the rest for a future date. It was served with baked bread and kale.

~Making use of Oatmeal and Oat Flour~

I just made a large batch of oat flour by blending rolled oats, quite simply. Plus, when I make oatmeal for breakfast, there tends to always be leftovers that I don't want to just waste. So, I experiment and create new things with it.

The other night, I made oatmeal "burger patties" once again, adding eggs, flour, organic black beans, and spices to the saved oatmeal. For some reason, I didn't capture a shot of the final product. Oh well. Also shown above are organic potato wedges ready to be baked. I cut the potatoes and tossed them with sea salt, italian seasoning, chili, garlic, and olive oil. The entire meal was served with organic beets and greens, and it was superb! Simple, yet satisfying.

These oat muffins were pretty good, but I didn't use buttermilk as the recipe called for and I don't think I utilized non-alum baking powder, so they didn't turn out as my baking usually does. Also, I have never really made use of oat flour in cooking before, so everything is a bit of an experiment at this point.

I know I was featuring pancakes on last week's posting, but I keep trying new recipes for homemade pancakes. This one was quite tasty and moist. It was made with a mixture of oatmeal flour and all-purpose flour (although, I like to substitute that with wheat flour). If you would like to try it, the "Heart Healthy Oatmeal Pancake" recipe can be found here.

There were several other delicious items on our menu this last week, but somehow I didn't capture any more photos of my cooking. Until next week... Happy cooking, baking, grilling...whatever you like! Food is a celebration of life. Try new things. Make your diet a little more colorful, healthy, and tasty. If you have any excellent recipes I should try, let me know in the comments below and I will feature you and the recipe next week.