Today I had a productive day in the kitchen. I made some muesli. I prefer it to cereal when I want a cold breakfast. I usually have porridge during cooler weather, but at this time of year, I often have yogurt (which I usually make at home), berries. peaches or bananas, and muesli. If I don't have or want yogurt, I have milk instead. The muesli is good either way.
It's a simple thing to make--place two cups of jumbo oats (old=fashioned rolled oats in the US--not quick oats) in a shallow bowl. Microwave for 3 minutes, stirring at one minute intervals. Then add whatever you like. I add raisins, coconut, walnuts, and almonds. I let it cool and store it in a container. It takes just a few minutes, is healthy, and really tasty.
I think it would also be good with cinnamon instead of chocolate and cooked apples instead of berries. That would be a nice autumn dessert. Peaches would be good, too, maybe with a little vanilla and maple syrup and banana sounds yummy.
Making the ricotta leaves me with a thinner whey that works really well for breadmaking, so I made a loaf of rye bread with some of it this afternoon.
I have more whey in the fridge so will think about what kind of bread to make after this loaf is done. If I think I'm not going to use it before it goes off, I'll put it in the freezer.
I hope the week has started off well for you and that you're safe and well.
6 comments:
I think great-grandmas should get whatever they want! :-)
I love how you cook/eat! I used to actually have a yogurt maker when my kids were little and I think I wore the darned thing out. lol My kids had lots of fresh food when they were babies/toddlers.
I love oatmeal on a cool/cold day. Summer is usually a slice of rye bread with butter and coffee.
I don't like the really hot, humid days but I love our Fall days here and early summer. I love to see things green and growing. Our growing season is a very short one. xo Diana
Productive days in the kitchen can be so enjoyable ...
All the best Jan
Wow and here I was sat here thinking 'it was one or the other'.
I have an Instant Pot Pressure Cooker that I've been using for at least 7 or 8 years now as my primary cooking device. One of it's 'claims to fame' aside making the best 1-hour dry bean chili in the world etc (and just about anything else in 3 mins), is that you can make yogurt in it. I knew we could use the 'pour off' whey for breads and things but never did I imagine making it into ricotta! I didn't realize there would be enough left to create yet another dairy dish with. Do you have to use full-fat to get that or is that with any % milk?
I love your muesli recipe, those things together can be so wonderful. Do you ever toast it a bit to bring out some of the crunch / nuttiness? (Before adding the raisins). The only other device I have is an Air Fryer so I'm ever 'crunching things up'. I don't 'fry' things per-se but it's definitely a way to get the flavor profile of something to come forward without having to use a BBQ or some more expensive process, and they don't heat up the house or take much energy - which is helpful in the warmer months.
The ricotta flavor ideas and things were so great because I often use yogurt WITH it or cottage cheese so it's like 'duh', of course - just add it to that in the first place. The idea of it being chocolate is so much fun as well.
I'm glad the weather has been 'less intense' for you this summer. I also prefer it that way. So much better if one can dress in layers and always be comfortable than to always just be hot / uncomfortable.
<3 <3 your food posts!
It's true, Jan! There is something very satisfying about seeing--and eating--the results of a productive day in the kitchen :-)
Joy--I toast the oats in the microwave. I don't like it too crunchy, like granola, which upsets my stomach. Toasting it in the microwave is perfect.
I looked into the IP a while back and decided that it wouldn't be useful for me, since I already had the small appliances to do the same things. They're also not cheap here. No air fryer, either, although those are available at Lidl and Aldi sometimes. I have a mini-oven, which suits my needs better, so haven't looked at them when they're there.
I use whole milk for the yogurt, because it makes a thicker yogurt. Then I strain it to make it thick Greek yogurt, which is why I have enough whey. For the ricotta, I use the whey left after straining and half whole milk and half low fat. One of these days I will try the ricotta with all low fat and see what happens. Vinegar or lemon juice could be used instead of the whey, if there wasn't enough of that. :-)
Thank you for explaining about the whole milk and everything. That's just so genius to make several dishes from the one effort. It's my favorite way to cook. Funny i can't deal with various types of granola etc either. I know when I lived in Scandinavia, oatmeal was amazing there. The stuff here of any sort doesn't seem to agree with me either. =/ Not sure what the difference is. A friend of mine got a super fancy IP so she could make fancy cheeses and fancy yogurts etc because you can program the settings however you want but as much as that might appeal to me I'm not as likely to go that far. Being that I live in such a tiny place I can't afford to have so many single-use items so it worked out in that sense and was cheaper (Amazon Black Friday prices are super cheap) between that and the Air Fryer (same low price) I don't need anything else. The funny thing about the fryer is it doesn't fry anything it's just like a mini oven on turbo so it'll crunch up the cheese on your mini pizza or portions of casserole in a few seconds because it heats so fast and doesn't turn things to rubber like the microwave. Almost as good as BBQ but indoors. I like the quick 3-5 min set-it and forget it aspect of things like this especially since they cook fast and burn nothing. (With my health issues now, standing over a stove is probably going to result in disaster lol.) I guess as I age I have found my stomach gets really messed up by smelling things cook all day, it releases the juices for digestion (dr says) and makes me nauseated. I get it tho that what you have works fine as it is. I was glad to get rid of that stuff since I couldn't use it anymore. I have 1 foot of counter top which is where the dish rack goes, so you can see why lol.
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