Oatmeal Recipes - A few more to try -

Okay, I think if I try to serve my family one more oatmeal recipe, they might revolt.. I've tried a lot of recipes, and didn't post the absolute failures ... so believe me, lots and lots of oatmeal has happened here. I ended up going thru over 20 lbs. this month with just random recipes tried ... maybe 150 on a real year of food storage wouldn't work so well. But, I wanted to share a lot of the links that I found, but didn't try ... yet.

• Fried Oatmeal
• Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins -
• Baked Oatmeal
• Micro Meatloaf
• Fruit n' Oat Scones - pampered chef recipe ... yum!
• Homemade Granola- Martha Stewart Recipe
• Meatballs - I've been told these are really good, but I'm waiting for hamburger to be on sale for $1 a pound.
• Pear and Granola Muffins
• Pumpkin Chickpea Burgers
• Scandinavian Oatmeal Crackers
• Three Pepper Oat Pilaf

Let me know if anybody tries any ... there are a lot on my list to make sometime soon!

Oatmeal Recipes -Oatmeal Pancakes -

Since moving to Cheyenne we make a LOT more warm breakfasts. Something about sending my son off to school for the day with something warm in his tummy makes me feel better when it's near negative digits. Of course, this summer will be ALL about the cereal ... but during the cold months it's been all about any kind of warmth we can get! As a result I've tried a dozen or so different pancake/waffle ideas ... and I've come to the conclusion that we need to have more pre-made pancake mix in our food storage. It takes a lot more work to make something, than to just add water.
Today's pancake mix can be found here. And it was pretty good, but seriously ... bisquick from now on baby! And as fast as we can go thru it, why worry? Especially when it has a year and a half expiration date???

Oatmeal Pancakes
2 c. oats
3 c. buttermilk (remember how to make buttermilk? 2 tbsp. vinegar to each cup of pre-made powdered milk)
3 eggs, well beaten
1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
dash salt
1 tbsp. oil
butter or extra oil for the griddle

Puts the oats in a large bowl & add the buttermilk. Let them soak overnight. The next morning, add the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and oil. Heat the flat iron surface-griddle, oil the pan and pour the mixture out to desired size. Brown on both sides and serve.

Oatmeal Recipes - Honey Oatmeal Whole Wheat Bread -

This is my favorite bread recipe, hands down. It's perfect and the kids love it. I've had lots of yeast failures, but this one hasn't failed me yet. I usually only make a half a batch and mix it in my bread machine (which makes one nice loaf). Whenever I've tried making it with my kitchen aid, the machine really sputters, and it's a really expensive machine to replace! I'm afraid I don't even know where I got this recipe from (it's been a few years), so if anybody ever figures it out, please let me know. :)

Honey Oatmeal Whole Wheat Bread

3 c. warm water
1 tbsp. instant or quick rise yeast
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/3 c. honey
1 tbsp. salt
6 cups whole wheat flour (I usually do half whole wheat flour & half white flour)
1/2 c. oatmeal
1/4 c. gluten w/ vitamin C (I'll confess I don't have any gluten in my food storage ... yet ... and even without this the bread is always amazing, I just add a bit more flour to make up for the missed gluten)

Combine the first 5 ingredients and mix well. Add 5 cups flour, oats and gluten flour. Mix well. Continue to add the other 1 c. flour slowly until the dough forms a ball in your mixer, scrap the excess dough off the sides of the bowl. Allow the mix to rest for 5 - 10 minutes. While mixing, preheat your oven to 100 - 125 degrees.
Oil the counter surface & your hands (use oil, not flour). Pat your dough on the oiled surface and slice with a knife into 2 large even loaves. Pat down and roll into your loaf shape, then put into greased bread pans. Turn off your oven, cover the loaves loosely with saran wrap and put them in the warmed oven to rise until double (about 45 - 60 minutes, depending on the humidity in the air). Remove the loaves from the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the loaves for 25 - 30 minutes. Remove from pans and immediately place on a wire cooling rack.

**OR ... you can do what I do, half the recipe, throw it in your bread maker & set it to dough. It'll beep after 1 1/2 hours, ready to be shaped into a loaf and put in the oven ... easy-peasy.**

Oatmeal Recipes - Oatmeal Bread -

So, after looking more at the prudent homemaker's website, I noticed she continually mentioned this Walton company and when looking more into them, I found a lot of great looking food storage recipes. Including Oatmeal Bread.

This was a very yummy bread, I topped it with some brushed on melted butter, and the kids and hubby devoured the first loaf within an hour or so. I ended up having to add quite a bit more flour than they suggested (almost 1 1/2 c.) so that it would be pliable enough to knead. It was a good bread, not too sweet at all.

It did call for buttermilk, so again I used some pre-mixed powdered milk that I keep in my fridge and 2 tbsp. of vinegar together. It makes a great knock off of buttermilk, but for a fraction of the cost.

Oatmeal Bread (makes 2 loaves)

1/2 c. warm water

2 tbsp. dry yeast

3/4 c. water, boiling

3/4 c. rolled oats

1 c. buttermilk

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. honey

2 c. flour

1 tbsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3 - 3 1/2 c. flour

In a small bowl, stir the yeast and 1/2 c. warm water together; allow to stand until the yeast dissolves and bubbles up. In a medium sauce pan, bring 3/4 c. water to a boil; stir in oatmeal and cook for several minutes. Remove from the heat and add the buttermilk, oil, and honey.

Sift flour, salt and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and oat mixture and beat with a wire whip or a slotted spoon; let stand for 5 minutes. Gradually add enough remaining flour until the dough is soft enough for kneading. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 8 - 10 minutes or until a soft, elastic ball forms. Place the dough in a clean greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to rise until double in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down the dough and divide it into two even portions; cover the bowl or towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Form the loaves and place into greased 8 x 4 inch pans. Cover and let rise until double in bulk again. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 - 50 minutes or until fully down. Remove from oven and turn out to cool on a wire rack.

Oatmeal Recipes -Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins-

If you haven't checked out the Prepared LDS Family website, you should. She puts a lot of time into her site and has a lot of valuable information gathered together. When I was searching for more oatmeal recipes, this site was one of the first that came up in my searches, and I love her chocolate chip oatmeal muffins!

When I was first making the muffins, I thought I had done something wrong, because they were very plain looking as I placed them into the oven, nothing at all like the golden color of her muffins, but while they baked they turned golden & delicious. :)

I hadn't taken any photos when all of a sudden I realized my children had DEVOURED the other 9, so I quickly placed them on a platter and snapped a picture, they didn't even make it to dinner (and I made them late in the afternoon).

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

1 1/4 c. flour

1 c. oatmeal (I used quick)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2/3 c. low-fat buttermilk (I used the reconstituted powdered milk that I keep in my fridge, alone with 1 tbsp. vinegar to make it buttermilk)

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. honey (and to keep the honey from sticking to the measuring spoon, I use the same measuring spoon that I used for vegetable oil, then it slides out more easily, maybe it's a well known fact to most, but I never knew to do it until Paula Deen mentioned it on an episode)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 c. regular chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees & grease a 12 muffin pan. By hand, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, soda and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, honey, and egg and mix well. Add wet and dry ingredients together. Mix until just blended, do not over mix! Spoon into each muffin cup, about 1/2 - 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes and remove muffins from pan after about 5 minutes.

Oatmeal Recipes - Oatmeal Cake -

I really like the shelf reliance website. They have lots of great recipes and ideas. I'll never, never, never pay hundreds of dollars for a metal ramp to rotate my cans, but the recipe part of the site is nice. Which is were this oatmeal cake recipe is from, I've earmarked lots of other ones to try too.

They weren't kidding when they described it as homey looking. But, it was a very rich cake. When we tried it, we all agreed that it would be PERFECT warm with some vanilla ice cream on the side. I had a bundt cake pan and thought that it would look pretty from it, but despite greasing the life out of my pan, this thing crumbled when I tried to flip it out. So, a basic, bland picture it is! LOL. My son loves powdered sugar so I sprinkled some on it when he decided it didn't look good enough to eat, and the picky eater was satisfied. :)

Oatmeal Cake

1/2 c. butter

1 c. quick oats

1 1/2 c. boiling water

2 eggs

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. white flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

In a medium bowl, combine the butter, oatmeal and boiling water in a bowl; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining cake ingredients together. Once mixed, add the oatmeal mixture and stir. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Oatmeal Recipes - Easy Granola Bars -

These did not taste like granola bars in the sense that I expected. More like a cookie bar. If I make them again, I would use old fashioned oatmeal, not the quick oatmeal. It made it more mushy and less palatable. The recipe can be found here, but just in case the link ever gets moved, I wanted to post it as well.

Easy Granola Bars

4 1/2 c. oats
1 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. honey
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 c. miniture semi-sweet chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, etc. for your granola bar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease one 9x13 inch pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ingredients. Stir in the 2 cups assorted ingredients for your granola bar. Lightly press the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 F for 18 - 22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes and then cut them into bars. Let the bars cool completely in a pan before removing or serving them.

Oatmeal Recipes -Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies-

Last night was the RS birthday celebration. It was wonderful. But it followed a very busy day, which included whipping these delightful cookies together, painting various furniture (we only have had two nice painting weather days in the months since we moved here ... the last two), bargain grocery shopping, and trying to whip up some homemade cinnamon rolls for the party gift exchange. These yummy cookies are definitely worth the extra stress it added to my day yesterday.

As an added side note ... I always tend to make a double batch when I make cookies. Lots of times I try to freeze the second half to defrost on another date. But, I won't double the amount of chocolate chips I put in the batter. It cuts costs a bit, and no one ever noticed when I started doing it, so I guess it's all good.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 c. packed brown sugar

2 sticks of butter, softened

1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp. milk (another great way to use up that powdered milk I keep mixed up in the fridge!)

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. quick or old fashioned oats

1 pkg. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat the brown sugar, butter and sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, chocolate chips and mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto un greased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or for 12 to 13 minutes for crispy cookies. Cool for 1 minute before eating.

-Oatmeal Recipes- Oatmeal Irish Soda Bread

Okay, so I debated even posting this recipe. But, I did try it and as a once a year only kind-of deal, I guess it would be okay. But seriously, St. Patty's Day would be the ONLY time of year I would actually make this again. Purely for the whole "we're having a fun Irish dinner" kind of deal. I made this recipe for Oatmeal Irish Soda Bread. My husband said it looked kind-of green ... which wasn't intentional. It's the first bread I've made in a REALLY long time that didn't turn out right AT ALL. I couldn't bribe my kids to eat it, even the baby turned it down. And don't ask me why I chose to eat it, but I regretfully did ... and suffered heartburn for the rest of the night.

A few substitutions I did:

• I used my pre-mixed up powdered milk that I keep in my fridge (I have been using up a little over a #10 of powdered milk each month this way!).
• I found a link that suggested adding 1 tbsp. vinegar to 1 c. milk to make buttermilk. Which I've done before in other recipes and it's been just fine before too.

Anyways, worth trying I guess. LOL. Hopefully next time produces a better result!

Oatmeal Recipes - Pre-Made Oatmeal Packets -

Okay, this is the awesome oatmeal kind of breakfast I wanted! :) I don't know if I have mentioned how awesome Lisa is, but she is always pumping out great ideas and keeps so on top of her blog, she's awesome! She posted these ideas from a self-reliant sisters meeting and here's the link.

Instant Oatmeal Packets

Blend 1/2 c. oats in food processor until powdery. Then in ten individual ziploc baggies combine, 1/4 c. quick or instant oatmeal and 2 T. powdered oats with a pinch of salt.
To use: Empty packets into the bowl and add 2/3 c. of water. Microwave for 1 and a half minutes and it's ready to eat!

She also lists a bunch of variations. I made the kids the raisins & brown sugar, except with craisins instead. So yummy!

Oatmeal Recipes - Sneaky Oatmeal -

So, I saw this great idea over at everyday food storage's blog. She made sneaky oatmeal. Seriously this woman is amazing with all of her recipes, my goal is to become such a great food storage cook.
So, I made up a batch and put the instructions on a little sticky on the top of the #10 can. I was busy trying to feed the kids and do dishes and hadn't tried any for myself, when my husband came in. After trying it, he informed me that it wasn't as flavorful as he was used to, but my kids had seconds and thirds. I thought it wasn't bad, but I want to research some more pre-made oatmeal packets to try tomorrow morning.
The one interesting thing she did is mix up the powdered milk into the oatmeal recipe, but my kids wouldn't eat the oatmeal without another form of real milk in front of them. So it used up milk, but I still had to use real milk too. Here's her recipe in case you didn't click over already:

Sneaky Oatmeal Mix
4 c. oatmeal
2 T. powdered milk
2 T. sugar

Mix ingredients in an empty #10 can and set aside.

To use the mix simply mix 1/2 c. oatmeal mix & 1 c. water and microwave for two minutes.

Last Week's Great Accomplishment

So, last week we completed a major food storage milestone here. My 2 year old is potty trained!!! YEAH!!! And before you say that's not a real food storage related thing ... do you realize I just cut the number of diapers I need to store in HALF!?! He's the third child and this was the best one yet! LOVE IT! :)
As for a real food storage recipe, I've been trying lots of them and have more to post starting tomorrow. The goal is still 25 recipes for oatmeal, so there will probably be a few extra posts some days ... hope it helps someone! :)

Oatmeal Recipes - No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies -

Okay, so this cookie was the one that came up with everybody I talked with about food storage. But, it is a good recipe, and definitely uses up those oats! I tend to make a double batch of them each time, since I can never keep them on hand very long. This recipe is also a great way to use up some of your powdered milk, and I know that you all are storing some pre-made milk in your fridge, right? The link can be found here.

My 4 year old has recently found her voice about likes & dislikes. She came up to them and while my 7 year old was chanting, "yeah, yeah, yeah!" She told me they looked like poop. Thanks sweetie, that makes me feel so ... great about it.


Food Storage Items Used: Oatmeal, Sugar, Milk, Peanut Butter.


Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter/margarine
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. milk
1/8 tsp. salt
3 c. quick cooking oats
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 tbsp. vanilla extract



Directions:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, cocoa, milk and butter. Bring it to a rapid boil, stirring occasionally.


Let boil rapidly for one minute, stirring the whole time. Remove from the heat source and stir in the vanilla, salt, peanut butter and oats.


Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and allow cookies to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.


Now sit back and enjoy all the wonderful songs of praise your children will give you when they see the yummy treat you've made them. :)

Oatmeal Recipe - Brown Sugar Oatmeal Raisin Bread -

So my kitchen is an absolute disaster pit right now. But! I have found lots of new, yummy oatmeal bread recipes to share! I seem to find the same ones over & over again and have found lots of great new blogs because of all the searching. :)

The first one I wanted to share was brown sugar oatmeal raisin bread. This bread was a bit time consuming, but so worth it! I made three smaller loaves instead of two larger ones & froze two. They seem to have done well with the freezing too! I used only what I had on hand, so I substituted craisins for raisins & regular flour for wheat flour (we don't have a grinder yet, they are expensive!). The bread itself is rolled a bit at the end with a mixture similar to the cinnamon rolls I make, so it makes for a yummy strip of sugary goodness through out it. It is so yummy & I've definitely added it to my food storage recipe box. I'm really excited to try out more of this guy's recipes, yum-o!

And a tip for using your food storage more. I always keep a pre-mixed up container of my powdered milk in the fridge & substitute it whenever a recipe calls for milk. I notice I'm using about a gallon or so a month, and just finished up my first can of powdered milk since the move. :) Just check the can for instructions, but the brand I have calls for a quart of water to be mixed with 2/3 c. of powdered milk. Powdered milk also doesn't have to be scalded as called for in many recipes.

You can make buttermilk for your bread (like I did in this recipe) by adding 1 tbsp. of vinegar to 1 c. of your pre-mixed powdered milk.

Food Storage ingredients used in this recipe: oatmeal, whole wheat flour, oil, yeast, powdered milk.

Here's his recipe adjusted for using your food storage(since a lot of things I link to get moved around I've noticed). I would definitely recommend checking out his site for pictures to show you what to do exactly.

Dough:
2 1/4 c. buttermilk (or 2 1/4 c. pre-mixed powdered milk with 2 1/4 tbsp. vinegar pre-mixed together)
2 tbsp. butter
1 egg (beaten)
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast (this is the equivalent to one yeast packet)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/4 c. rolled oats
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. bread flour
1 c. raisins

Filling:
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbsp. butter (melted)

Warm up your pre-made buttermilk to 105 - 110 degrees (that's the temperature to help grow your yeast). Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl. Now add in the brown sugar, salt and butter. Mix till well blended and allow to cool down. Add the beaten egg & mix well.

Now add in these dry ingredients: the rolled oats, whole wheat flour, cinnamon and yeast. Mix for a few minutes until well mixed and allow to rest uncovered for 10 minutes.

Start to add in the bread flour. When it becomes to hard to mix in your bowl, pour it out onto a flat surface and continue to add the flour slowly. Knead for 8 minutes so the dough can become smooth and elastic.

Allow the dough to rest again for 5 minutes. This will help the dough to relax. Add in the raisins and knead again until all the raisins are incorporated into the dough.

Add a little oil to the bowl and place the dough into the bowl. Flip the dough over a few times to lightly coat on all sides & cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest until dough has doubled in bulk, about an hour.

Cut the dough in half and take one piece of dough at a time and roll it out to a 16 x 7 rectangle. In a small bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon to make the filling. Brush half of the melted butter onto the dough. And sprinkle half the sugar cinnamon mixture on top of the butter.

Roll the dough like a jelly roll and pinch the seam closed. Place onto your baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap to allow to double in bulk again, about one more hour. After that take a wooden spoon and press down the middle of the dough, all the way to the bottom.

Preheat your oven to 375 & allow the dough to rest and rise some more for about 15 more minutes. Place a pan on the bottom shelf with water in it to create steam & place the bread loaves on the top of the oven. Bake 30 - 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Information about Oatmeal

If you'd like to read about the types of oats out there, check out the self-reliant sisters link here. Lisa (the gal who runs that blog) is a really amazing gal and keeps up on so much information for it, it's a wonderful resource. Personally, we store almost exclusively quick oats. My kids prefer them and they never notice them in the bread recipes I've tried (which is a big bonus!).

They suggest that you get at least 25 lbs. per adult of oats. They need to be stored in a long term storage container (such as the #10 cans, 5 gallon food-grade buckets, or pouches) and have a shelf life of up to 30 years. we try to use buckets as often as possible, they cost about the same as the #10 cans, but we can re-use them. So it's a one time investment, versus every #10 can we use costing us an additional $1.

We just bucketed 100 lbs. of oatmeal this week, and I was surprised at how much we were really able to store in each bucket. We pushed the food down a bit, to make it hold more & we were able to store 19.5 lbs. per 5 gallon bucket.

Food Storage Focus for March -Oats-

So I'm going to try and increase my food storage recipe bank. I need simple, basic recipes. Things that my children can & have & will eat again and again (on purpose).
I decided to start with oatmeal & increasing my recipe bank there first. So that will be the focus on March, using that grain! We just got our year's supply of oatmeal, and I've been surprised how hard it's been to find recipes for oatmeal besides chocolate chip cookies & oatmeal for breakfast.
As I've read more & more about food storage, I noticed something on the prudent homemaker's site. She said that their family is actually using 3x's the amount of food suggested by the church to store. I'm really curious to see how much I use up this next month with all the baking we'll be doing.
And my family is really excited to get to be the guinea pigs of the fun recipes I've been researching! :) And what was the joke my son pointed out??? Oh yeah, on Hannah Montana (Lord help me for letting them watch that!) the other day they called something "Nature's Broom" ... lol ... guess with all the recipes we'll be trying this month that might be happening over here.