Tag: Oatmeal

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Oatmeal Cake

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Last evening at dinner, Randy and I were sitting at the table and since I had devoured my food way before he was finished, as I usually do, I began to tell him about a chicken and rice dish my mom use to make. Getting up to go get the cookbook that I believed had that old chicken rice recipe, I discovered looking through the pages, a recipe that my mom and Aunt Gladys had made too many times to count. I remember always thinking “why did they like that boring cake that didn’t have frosting 3″ thick and no sprinkles or chocolate anywhere close to it” so I really ate too much of it. As I began to read the recipe to Randy, he told me that it sounded pretty good to him, so since I had everything in the house needed to make it, I began to gather the ingredients.

The result was this amazing cake with a baked on topping that maybe is just good to “older” folks that don’t like a lot of sweet gooey frosting. Some of our friends drove their golf cart over this morning early to show off their grandson and took some home. They loved it. Randy has taken a piece overtime he walks through the kitchen, and so do I.

The recipe was from a cookbook put out by the workers from school cafeterias in Corpus Christi back in the 60’s. I never did find the chicken and rice recipe, but will keep looking!

Ingredients: Makes a 9×13″ cake Preheat oven to 350.

1 1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup regular oats

1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 heaping teas cinnamon

1 teas vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teas soda

Pour boiling water over oats in a small bowl and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes.

Cream butter and both sugars. Add unbeaten eggs, cinnamon and vanilla. Mix well and then add oats, flour and soda.

Pour batter into greased 9×13 pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until cake is just done. While cake is baking prepare topping.

Topping:

Combine 4 tables butter, 2/3 cup light brown sugar, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup chopped pecans, 4 tables Eagle Brand Condensed milk and 2 egg yolks. Mix well and pour over cake as soon as you take it out of the oven. Return to oven and bake another 10 minutes. *That is why you just want to bake, just until it is almost finished baking, when you pour the topping over, since it will finish baking those last 10 minutes.

 

Breads · Breakfast · Daily Thoughts · Starches · Uncategorized

Baked Oatmeal

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A friend of mine yesterday remarked how much she loved oatmeal for breakfast. During our conversation (yes, most of my conversations are centered around food) I ask her if she had ever had baked oatmeal and she replied that she had never heard of it.

When we lived in California I had the blessing of being a mentor mom to a group of gals in the MOPS (moms of preschoolers) study at our church. One of their favorite things to bring for snacks were these baked oatmeal bars. I’m not a huge oatmeal person, but these were really good. So I promised Marilyn that I would post the recipe today. Try it…you might be surprised how good they are!

 

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tables granulated sugar

1 1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas ground cinnamon (I will add a little more than that as I like more cinnamon flavor)

1 cup whole milk

2 eggs

2 tables canola oil

1 teas vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8″ square pan.

Combine oats, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Whisk the milk, eggs, oil and vanilla together in a separate bowl. and stir until eggs and mixture are well combined. Set aside until flavors blend about 20 minutes. Add to oatmeal mixture and stir until thoroughly blended. Spread in prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cool and cut into squares.

I might add about 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips before baking.

A great breakfast on the go meal!

*Taken from Allrecipes.com

Daily Thoughts

Butter Fried Turkey Bacon

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

I tried, I really tried to cook something a little healthier for my sick hubby yesterday. He has been at home for 3 days and I thought I would go to the store and get bacon to make him his favorite sandwich, a BLT…but…when I got there, I thought to myself, if he gets worse and has to go to the hospital and they take his blood, only to find out butter runs through his veins instead of the red stuff, I will really look like a bad wife. I decided to buy turkey bacon instead of the real stuff. It made me so proud that I was buying something halfway healthy, I pranced down the isle to check out actually looking at organic lettuce and tomatoes, but decided to save money and buy the ones with lots of pesticides instead; that way, I have money left over to stop on the way home and buy myself a cupcake…a treat for buying healthy turkey bacon.  When I get home, I wake him up, (bless his heart, he has only slept about 7 hours today already) to let him know I just bought food to make his fav BLT…He got so excited, he actually opened his eyes and almost rolled off the heating pad. It was great explaining to him that since I was really concerned for his health, beginning today, I had substituted turkey bacon for the real thing.  You would have thought I was serving him wheat germ sprinkled over alfalfa sprouts for lunch, by the look on his face. He told me that the only way he would eat the turkey bacon is if I fried it in butter, to give it taste and color. It was then and there that I decided that I am through with trying to be fit and healthy. Butter is our life and bacon is our game. We might not live to be 100, but the years we have will taste mighty good….am headed to the store as we are almost out of butter and I have to make oatmeal cookies for our snack tonight…they must be good for us, they have oatmeal in them, which we have heard on commercials, can help reduce cholesterol. If we eat enough of them, maybe our cholesterol numbers will come down under 300, Will be curious to see if the oatmeal cookies do the trick.

Cookies

March Munchies

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It is finally here, the time of year when we begin to think about capris, sandals and possibly traveling. It is beyond me how someone might plan a car trip without thinking about what they might snack on for the 500 miles they are cooped up in the car, sometimes with small children or even just a spouse who, like mine, doesn’t like to talk much (and please don’t even go there, I know what you are thinking, “he probably doesn’t ever get a change to say a word”, there I said it for you) and depends on me to carry the conversation for the 8 hour trip. I can do that, I can carry the conversation for hours, but even I need a break from talking and that leads us to Munchies. I brought this recipe home with me from Corpus, where I was staying with a friend of my mom’s, since she lives in a nursing home, I now stay with her friend Jane. Jane loves to cook and is a really great cook. When I would get home from the nursing home at night from visiting my mom, Jane would get up the minute I walked in the door and by the time I sat down on the couch to watch TV with she and her husband, there on the table would be a plate of warm cookies to go with my Dr Pepper. She would take them out of the freezer and nuke them until they were just warm and soft. They had 3 sons, so I get the honors of being treated like their daughter. I told her that before I left, she had to give me the recipe. She called them Cowboy Cookies, but they really are just oatmeal cookies with a flair..here is the recipe. I have made them twice in one week and now Randy thinks that I should have them warm and waiting as soon as Wheel of Fortune starts. They are perfect for taking in the car for munchies. Goes great with that cup of coffee you depend on to keep you awake driving down the road, unless you want a CD of me talking…Will sell you one of those for $12.99..I think you might enjoy the coffee and cookies much more.

1 cup of Crisco shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 eggs, at room temp

2 cups flour

1 teas baking soda

1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

2 cups oats, quick-cooking or regular, uncooked

1 (6-oz) package semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup shredded coconut or 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup raisins (optional) (I actually used crasins)

Cream shortening and sugars and mix well. Add eggs, beat until light and fluffy. Stir in dry ingredients and blend well. Mix in oats, chocolate chips and vanilla.

The dough will be crumbly. Drop by teaspoonful on greased cookie sheets (I used parchment paper so I didn’t need to grease that) and bake at 350 for about 10-12 min.