oats – OwlCat Designs

June 14, 2012

Granola Power Bars

Hiking or kayaking was on my list for the past weekend, but the weather has been a little , shall we say, un-cooperative. Since last night it literally thunderstorms every hour. So I have been limited to moving out onto the deck with book, cookie and tea, then back in, then back out with juice and book, then back in… My poor kitty ‘Einstein’ is terrified of thunderstorms. He runs into the basement and hides. He’s been there pretty much all day 🙁 saw him once, I think I will take some water and food down to his little corner… Poor fellow.

But on the upside of things, being limited to close to the house, I had plenty of time coming up with something that would be yummy (criteria number one), give me some sustained energy (i.e. complex carbs) and would be portable enough to take along, you know on hikes and such. Like a power bar. And since I really, really liked the granola I made recently (and this one), I started there with my ingredient list… And as an added bonus I supplemented with sprouted lentils for protein. To try lentils was an idea I got from Leanne’s Beach Bum Trail Mix Doesn’t that just look awesome? Heck, if they can go into trail mix, imagine how they would be sprouted and put into bars!

Ready for outdoor adventures! If only it stopped pouring…

Even my boyfriend, who’s not all that concerned with healthy eating, loves these!

Sprouted Lentils, before drying

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup popped amaranth grain (buy or do it yourself)
3/4 cup sprouted (and dried*) red lentils
3/4 cup date pieces or chopped dates
1/2 cup sweet brown rice flour
1/4 cup flax seed
1/4 cup flax meal
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 cup water
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup rice syrup
1/4 cup honey or agave nectar

* to dry the lentils after sprouting, preheat oven to 350F and place sprouted lentils out on a baking sheet. Cook for about 25 minutes, until crunchy. Ok, so I got a bit picture happy. Did I mention, it was raining all day?

Directions

Mix oats through brown rice flour in a large bowl, set aside
Mix flax seed, flax meal, chia seed, water and apple sauce, let rest 20 minutes. Then add the sweeteners and the peanut butter and mix until well combined.
Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients in the bowl and stir until incorporated.
Spread on a lined baking sheet (a US quarter sheet or half of a bigger cookie sheet works well) until about 3/4″ thick
Bake at 350 for 60 to 65 minutes, checking and turning the sheet after 40. Then turn oven off and leave them in the oven overnight.
In the morning, cut into rectangles roughly 1″x 4″, makes about 24

I used one side of a US half sheet size. Spread it out, it won’t go anywhere. And makes for some odd shaped bars at the end, you know, the ones YOU have to eat right away, to make it neat 😉

May 28, 2012

Gluten-free Vegan Oatmeal Cacao Nib Cookies

Oh yeah, AND raisins!

These are so ridiculously awesome. The cacao nibs give them a dark chocolate flavor you can smell from the oven all while being gluten-free and low sugar! A quick word on cacao nibs/cacao bean: coming from the Theobroma cacao tree, sometimes wrongly labeled cocoa nibs/cocoa bean, which from my understanding refers only to the extracted butter or powdered stuff. The mayan word is: kakaw, they might be on to something, I mean, they’ve only been using the stuff for ever. Just sayin’

Gosh, you have no idea, but just writing about those cookies makes my mouth water, and of course they are already gone… (I see some more baking coming up in this girl’s future) They are chewy and fragrant and yes, the texture is somewhat different than regular oatmeal cookies, after all there are mostly oats in there (and they are made without gluten flour).

Dark cacao nibs (essentially pieces of cacao bean)

If you are cultivating your sweet tooth, please feel free to use more ‘sweet stuff’. The cookies here are getting some of their sweetness from the raisins, but they would be a perfect treat for my Dad, who doesn’t really like sweets. I am a big believer in flavor over just plain sweet, or salty for that matter; and these cookies fit the bill perfectly.

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup millet flour*
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup cacao nibs
1/4 cup flax meal
2 tbsp chia seeds
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup almond or other nut butter
1/4 cup agave nectar, maple syrup or honey**

* I used millet because of its sweet, nutty flavor, but you could most likely use other gluten-free flours

**if using honey, the cookies are no longer vegan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF
In a large bowl, combine first four ingredients (oats through cacao nibs)
In a separate bowl, mix flax meal and chia seeds with the water, set aside and let rest for 10 minutes.Then stir in the agave nectar and almond butter
Stir the flax mix into the bowl with the oats, add up to another 1/4 cup of water if dough looks too dry.
Drop cookies by the rounded tablespoon onto a prepared baking sheet, and bake until golden brown on the bottom and just starting to turn golden on top, about 8 to 11 minutes.

Makes about 30

May 26, 2012December 16, 2017

Apple Raisin Granola

I am back after taking a mini vacation up to a beautiful Bed & Breakfast in New Hampshire. Right on Lake Winnisquam. Sometimes you just need to get away from it all… Ahhh! It’s just the best to have someone make a lavish breakfast for you, and there were always freshly baked cookies. It’s like visiting your favorite Grandma, without having to help out in the kitchen 🙂 More on that soon! But before leaving, I had to make a few things that I could bring, for snacks and since I really did not know about the whole cookie thing they had going until we got there… And besides we were going to be on the road for six or seven hours. So I decided on another granola. Thanks to Heidi over at LightlyCrunchy who made this fantastic Apple Cranberry Granola, I was inspired to add the apple rings to my granola instead of just indiscriminately munching on them. I had never thought of using up my dried apple rings in a granola, what an ingenious idea!

before adding milk or yogurt, can’t decide which I like best…

I go through phases, I find something, love it eat a whole bunch and then, not sure, but forget about it for a while? or get kind of tired of the taste? Anyhow I found myself with a good size bag of dried apple rings living in my cupboard, so now it can find its way into my breakfast and snacks 🙂 Delicious! The only thing I will work on for next time? Portability. Try eating granola while in the car… Not easy!

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 cup dried apple rings, chopped
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
(1/4 cup agave nectar or honey, optional*)
3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
4 tbsp flax meal/ground flax seeds mixed with 6 tbsp water, let rest 5 minutes

* If you are making this for the first time, use the additional sweetener (the honey or agave syrup) especially if you are trying to transition kids or the ‘I don’t have a sweet tooth’ husbands to a lower sugar diet, then over time gradually reduce the amount of sweetener added

Directions

Preheat oven to 275º F
Mix all the flakes, flour and seeds with the raisins and the apple pieces
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients: rice syrup, honey/agave, coconut oil and the flax meal mixed with the water.
Add the wet ingredients to the oat mixture, stir well until evenly distributed, spread on a lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Stir, bake 10 minutes, stir again and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

November 19, 2011December 16, 2017

5 minute Snack Cakes

Pumpkin White Chocolate version here shown made with rolled oats…

and Tropical Mango version with Raspberry Mango Sauce, shown made with Quinoa (I know, it looks like Ketchup; Trust me it tastes TOTALLY different!)

For breakfast, as a snack and the best part, it’s utterly delicious cold as well AND when cold, they are portable (minus the garnish)

You can make these with rolled oats or any other flakes such a quinoa or barley flakes. You might have to adjust cooking time a little, but whatever is on hand works for these!

As an easy alternative to getting a mango, peeling and pureeing it, I have used mango baby food. One of my friends turned me onto the idea of using baby food as a flavoring for plain greek yogurt. Check the ingredients, but the brand I use has no added sugar, some flavor varieties use fruit juice to add extra sweetness. Don’t like mango? Make it juts with apple sauce or maybe a pear baby food?

Tropical Mango Banana Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup quinoa or oat flakes,
1/2 ripe banana (1/4 cup)
1/4 cup mango purer (use 1 small glass of mango baby food, 4 oz)
1 tbsp sugar (palm sugar, etc)
(1 tbsp Chia seeds, optional)
1/4 cup rasbperries, frozen or fresh
Mix 1/4 cup of the mango, banana, oats (or quinoa), sugar, and Chiang seeds if using in a bowl
Grease two 8 oz ramekins with some oil on a piece of papertowel
Fill and smooh the top
Microwave on high for 3-5 minutes, depending on the power of your device. It’s done when the top does not look liquid anymore and the sides gently separate from the bowl.
Run a knife around the edge, inverted on a plate and serve with raspberry mango sauce (below), or your favorite topping. Such as maple syrup, almond butter, Apple sauce.
Or eat out of the bowl

For the raspberry mango sauce, heat the raspberries in a small saucepan then stir in the remainder (1/4 cup) of the mango puree

Pumpkin White Chocolate Oat Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oat or quinoa flakes
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tbsp sugar
1 dash cinnamon
1 dash pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp vanilla
White chocolate chips and coconut for garnish (optional)

Mix all ingredients except chocolate and coconut in a bowl, then divide into two 8oz prepared ramekin forms.
Microwave on high for 2 min 30 sec to 3 minutes.

Run a knife around the edge, inverted on a plate and decorate with white chocolate chips, cover with the just removed ramekin and allow heat to steam the chocolate until soft (you can also re-microwave for 30 seconds), serve with coconut, or your favorite topping.