Elevated simplicity – Bite Sized Oatmeal “Cookies”

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Sometimes in the morning, my standard bowl of oatmeal just doesn’t seem creative enough.  When I first heard of the magical 2-ingredient cookies I knew that it would be a fabulous base to transform my morning bowl of oatmeal into something even more spectacular.

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The idea is simply mixing oatmeal and a banana together and baking them into “cookies”.  (Fair warning: these are not really cookies, so I try not to think of them like that – no cookie should lack it’s necessary butter and sugar, that’s my golden rule)  I don’t stop with the oatmeal and banana in this fun recipe, to make my little oatmeal bites I add in what I would to my usual bowl of oats!  For this example I added cinnamon and raspberry.  You could also add cocoa powder, chocolate chips, raisins (yuck), coconut, nuts, seeds – the combinations are endless!  The greatest part about this breakfast is that it feels like you’re eating a plate of cookies for breakfast, but you’re getting all of the amazing nutrients of a regular bowl of oatmeal!  I like to eat them accompanied with a glass of almond milk for added nutritional value to round out this cute, simple, and fun breakfast!

OATMEAL BREAKFAST COOKIES

The Ingredients:
1 banana
1/2 cup oats
Optional:
Desired mix-ins! (cinnamon berries, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, nut butters, etc.)

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mush a banana into a bowl and mix in oats until thoroughly combined
3. Fold in any desired mix ins
4. Drop 6 circles of the “dough” onto a greased baking sheet
5. Bake for 14 minutes
6. Enjoy!

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My morning miracle – White Chocolate Coconut Scones

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I think that the Gods and Goddesses of baking are watching over me.  Why do I think this?  Well, this morning I made coconut white chocolate scones and almost everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.  However, in the end, they still turned out INCREDIBLY scrumptious!  It’s kind of a miracle.

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I woke up extra early to make this morning time treat for my friends.  That was my first problem, I had barely wiped the sleep from my eyes when I began pulling ingredients.  The second problem arose when I was jolted awake by the realization that I didn’t have enough flour!  While that might deter the ordinary baker from continuing, I remained determined to see these scones through!  I was only about 1/4 cup short of flour so I began scouring my pantry for something I could potentially use as a filler.  I found cake flour.  I won’t lie, I have no idea what the difference between regular flour and cake flour is, but I decided they were similar enough that the cake flour could be used to make up for the little bit I needed.  I continued mixing all of the ingredients and hoped that the risk would pay off. 

are they not the same thing?
are these not the same thing?

The next hitch in the plan came when the recipe called for the use of a pastry knife to mix in the butter. A what? I thought about looking up what that was and figuring out the proper way to use one.  I thought about doing that, I really did, but then I just used my hands to mix it in instead.  I really hoped that whatever a pastry knife was worked in a similar way to fingers!  After that, the only problem was that I didn’t cut the scones into even triangles so some of them were HUGE!  While some were teeny tiny!  I don’t truly consider that a problem though because in the end, people just had size options!

After the entire baking adventure was complete and the scones were done, I felt good about the outcome.  The last step was to “drizzle” white chocolate over the top of them.  We all know how good I am at doing that… NOT.  So I didn’t even try,  I just melted the chocolate and smeared it on top with a knife!  Nobody complained.  Everybody loved them.  One of my co-workers told me that they were, “the best scones I’ve ever had!”  Wow!  I tried a bite and I won’t lie, they are amazing.

I’m telling ya, I’m being watched by the mysterious Gods and Goddesses of baking!

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WHITE CHOCOLATE COCONUT SCONES


The Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup +2-3 tablespoons coconut
1/3 cup white chocolate

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
3. Mix in cold butter with your hands (or the mysterious pastry knife) until butter is mixed in and the dough is crumbly
4. In a separate bowl, mix egg cream and vanilla
5. Add the wet into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined
6. Stir in 1/2 cup coconut
7. Form dough into a flat round disk, about 8-9 inches in diameter
8. Place on a baking sheet and cut into 12 triangles
9. Brush each triangle with a a little bit more cream (just enough so the coconut will stick) and then sprinkle with the coconut
10. Bake for 20 minutes
11. Melt white chocolate in the microwave
12. “Drizzle” melted chocolate over scones
13. ENJOY!

A daybreak tradition – Oatmeal

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Did I mention that I have an oatmeal obsession?  Because if I haven’t then I’d like to make that abundantly clear right now: I LOVE OATMEAL!  Every morning I make myself a big bowl of it to start my day off right.  It took me a few months of trial and error to finally figure out exactly how I like my oatmeal.  Now that I have a great recipe that works, it’s difficult to stop myself from making it for EVERY meal!

My morning oatmeals all share the same base, though what I mix into it changes based on what I have available in my house at the time.

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I start with 1/2 cup of quick oats, 1/2 cup of vanilla almond milk, and 1/2 cup of water.  I throw those three things in a bowl, mix it up, and put it in the microwave for two minutes.  (Actually, I really put it in for exactly 2 minutes and 15 seconds.  I’m not sure why but at this point I’m obsessive about this timing)

While it’s cooking in the microwave I start preparing my mix-ins.  I cut any fruit that needs it and get together the right portion of anything else I might add in.

Once the oatmeal is done I let it sit for a minute to thicken up.  Then I mix in a packet of truvia and a bit of cinnamon.  You can substitute real sugar for the truvia, or any other sweetener you like.  Sometimes I sub in a tablespoon of vanilla protein powder.  As for the cinnamon, I rarely substitute anything in for it a;though occasionally I use a teaspoon of cocoa powder instead for a chocolatey flavor!

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Next come the mix-ins!  My favorite combination is a banana, raspberries, and almonds but some other options that I use from time to time are:
-coconut
-nectarines
-strawberries
-blueberries
-raisins
-pecans
-apples
-peanut/almond butter

You can mix and match anything that sounds good to you.  As long as you have the base of the oatmeal right it will be super delicious!

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