: Monday : Nourishment :

~Breakfast~

I made a few batches of oatmeal pancakes this week with fruit and eggs, but I think we've seen enough pancakes for a while. So, instead, I will feature a simple breakfast of essentially oatmeal with almonds, flax seeds, milk, and a little brown sugar for the boys. I would have included dry fruit instead of the sugar if we would have had some on hand.

~The Bakery~

Luke and I made our Sunday bread, which was thrice as much as what is shown below (not to mention, this hadn't risen in the photo as much as it ended up rising), but I wanted to feature his dragon. He was very proud and ate his creation with dinner that night.

I also made carrot bread. The recipe can be found through my other webpage, Busy Hands : Busy Minds. Of course, I made it slightly different, as usual. I didn't have pecans or almonds, so I used walnuts instead. Moist, sweet, and delicious.

And we also made super moist banana walnut bread...it was nearly gone in half an hour.

Super Moist Banana Walnut Bread

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar, brown sugar, and/or honey

4 bananas, mashed

2 eggs, well beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour (I use wheat often times)

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

 

1. Cream your butter and sugar/honey.

2. Add bananas, eggs, and vanilla.

3. Sift dry ingredients together.

4. Alternate adding the dry mixture and buttermilk to your butter/sugar mixture.

5. Add walnuts.

6. Pour into a greased loaf dish and bake at 325 degrees for 70 minutes.

 

 

Now, shown below is the oatmeal muffins gone right. A couple weeks ago, I attempted these, and they didn't turn out so well. This time I used non-alum baking powder and buttermilk. It made all the difference. These ended up being moist, sweet, and very comforting.

~Dinner~

I made several yummy dinners from Everybody's Natural Foods Cookbook, including Super Veggie Burritos and a Cheese and Vegetable Pie. We also enjoyed a delicious Barley Casserole as shown below. Although, I didn't have cooked barley on hand, so I used leftover cooked wheat berries, which are very similar, and I used more greens than what was called for.

This was also topped off with wheat germ, a good replacement for bread crumbs.

This one was called Susan's Fritada, which included tons of zuchinni, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, parmesan cheese, butter, olive oil, garlic, and spices. Very delicious.

This one below, I threw together, but it was wonderful. I had sweet potatoes that needed to be used, so I peeled and diced them, sliced up a few organic carrots and an onion, grabbed a bunch of walnuts, and suateed them in spices (like nutmeg, cinnamon, italian seasoning, sea salt....) and olive oil. Meanwhile, I cooked some amaranth. I threw them altogether with some chopped red chard and popped it into the oven for about a half hour at 350 degrees. I served it with fresh dandelion greens and homemade vinegarette dressing. I think I might use this as a side dish come Thanksgiving. It was so good!

So, enjoy your life-sustaining meals this week. Slow down. Enjoy every bite. Savor the natural flavors. Take some time to do a little home cooking. Enjoy.