A Tea Journey
It occured to me when I posted my Cranberry Walnut Buttermilk muffin recipe the other day, I have never posted a recipe for apple pie spice. So here it is.
Adapted From Served Up With Love
1 TBS cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
In a small bowl, combine all the spices. Mix well. Store in an airtight container.
The weather around here is crazy. It’s to cold for air conditioning but too warm to turn on the heat. Seriously, it is in the 60’s during the day but anywhere from the low 50’s to high 30’s at night. I deal with it by leaving the windows open durning the day and adding an extra blanket to the bed at night. I also make sure I get a hot breakfast on those morning the temperatures are on the low side of the thermometer.
My favorite hot breakfast is oatmeal because I can make it in the pressure cooker and leave it on the warm mode while I get ready for my day. You could also make this in the crockpot, if you have one small enough. If you are old school, you could even make this on the stove to. You just have to watch it a little closer.
From Breakfast Drama Queen
1 cup almond milk
1 cup water
½ cup steel-cut oats
Pinch of salt
⅔ cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon blackstrap molasses
1 apple, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pressure Cooker: In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Place trivet in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Add enough water to the bottom of the pressure cooker to bring to pressure. Set the bowl on the trivet. Lock the lid and cook for 15 minutes at high pressure. Naturally release the pressure.
Stovetop: In a small saucepan, add water and milk. Bring the liquid to a boil. Add the remaining ingredients, cover and reduce heat to medium. Cook 20-30 minutes. Enjoy.
Adapted From Dahlia Kitchen
1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 easpoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pressure Cooker: In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Place trivet in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Add enough water to the bottom of the pressure cooker to bring to pressure. Set the bowl on the trivet. Lock the lid and cook for 15 minutes at high pressure. Naturally release the pressure.
Stovetop: In a small saucepan, add water and milk. Bring the liquid to a boil. Add the remaining ingredients, cover and reduce heat to medium. Cook 20-30 minutes. Enjoy.
Yesterday I woke up with a sexy rasp to my voice. Last night, when I got home from work, the sounds coming out of my mouth scared my birds and rats. This morning I have no voice at all. Sigh!! This happens at least once a year. The crazy part is I have no idea why I lose my voice. I am not sick, well obviously, something isn’t right with me but I don’t feel like I have a cold or anything. I just can’t talk.
My friends find it funny when I lose my voice. I am a bit of a talker, okay more than a bit. It drives me crazy not to be able to communicate. Nobody feels sorry for me, not even my own mother. I texted her last night and asked her why everybody finds it so funny when I loose my voice. She replied, “They don’t find it funny. They find it peaceful.” Gee, thanks, mom. However, if you ever wondered where I get my smart ass from, now you know.
Between having a crazy busy day at work and feeling very annoyed about loosing my voice, I didn’t really feel like cooking. However, I knew I had to make something for my work lunch today so I decided to make sloppy rice ( sloppy joe served over rice). I threw my rice in the pressure cooker and a 1/2 pound ground beef into some water to thaw and went to take a hot bath to see if I could sweat out whatever is making me lose my voice. When I got out of the tub, I remembered to put the rice in fridge but totally forgot about the ground beef. Needless to say, no sloppy joe for me today.
Fortunately, I had a plan b. I turned my rice into fried rice. All you really need is cold, preferably day old rice. The rest is whatever vegetables you like. I kept it pretty simple today with just celery and carrots as I was too lazy to cut up and cook the chicken I had in the fridge.
Pantry items: basmati rice, celery, carrots, soy sauce, and sesame oil
Ingredients
2 TBS neutral oil
2 cups cold, cooked rice
¼ cup onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic, minced
½ tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 TBS soy sauce
1 tsp dark sesame oil
protein choice
Put a tablespoon of neutral oil in a large skillet over high heat. When hot, add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and brown, 5-10 minutes. When done, transfer to a bowl. Add the protein and cook 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Put remaining oil in the skillet, followed by the garlic and ginger, about 15 seconds later begin to add the rice a little bit at a time, breaking up the lumps and stirring into the oil. Return the meat and vegetables to the pan and mix well. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix well. 2 servings
Note: this recipe is incredibly versatile. Feel free to use whatever vegetables you have on hand, stir-frying the hard or frozen vegetables until tender before adding then to the rice. Please to feel free to use any protein you have on hand. Remember, using day old, cold rice will prevent mushy fried rice.
Adapted from How To Cook Everything
I have 5 pounds of wheat bran in my pantry. I have no idea what I bought that much wheat bran for but it is there in my pantry so I have to find a way to use it up. So I was delighted to find a recipe for Honey Apple Bran muffins. Unlike most bran muffin recipes this one didn’t add a lot of excess sugar to disguise the fact there is bran in the muffins.
Ingredients
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 TBS milk
2 TBS canola oil
2 TBS honey
3 TBS lightly beaten egg
1 cup tart apple, peeled and chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with non – stick cooking spray, set aside. In a small bowl, combine wheat bran, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; mix well. In another small bowl, combine the milk, oil, honey and egg; mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until the ingredients are just moistened. Fill each hole 2/3 full of batter. Bake for 15 -20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
One of the things I have learned about myself as I learned to cook is cold, processed breakfast cereals don’t really do anything for me. I would eat a huge howl of cereal in the morning and three hours later I would be at the vending machine looking for something to satisfy me till lunch. Not healthy for my waist or my wallet. so I am always looking for new things to add to my breakfast routine.
This morning all I had in my pantry and fridge was an apple, milk and some oats. Yeah, I haven’t been grocery shopping in a while and the pickings are getting mighty slim. There had to be something I could do with these ingredients.
On a whim I googled baked oatmeal and began to search. Most of the recipes I found required ingredients I didn’t have so I kept on looking. I finally found a recipe I had all the ingredients for at Simply Recipes. I set it to baking while I did my bird and rodent chores and got ready for work. My apartment started to smell so good. When I finally sat down to eat it was kind of like eating a slice of pie for breakfast.
A Cuppa And Conversation 