Living in a Cereal World

As I was saying, I had leftover cranberries and needed to do something with them so I figured I'd just throw them in my apple pie. Well, not just. I knew I had a couple of different apple-cranberry pie recipes. All I had to do was find one that called for fresh (not dried) cranberries and wasn't a deep-dish pie so I wouldn't have to go out and buy more apples. As it was, I threw in a sixth apple from the fruit bin just to make sure I had enough. Oh, the recipe?  Festive Apple-Berry Pie . For your festive occasion, a pie that looks festive. Really. Cut a slice and peek inside the rest. It just looks like a holiday pie with the bright red of the cooked cranberries. Mine looked pretty much like the picture although my crimping skills are still a work in progress. And the taste? It would've been a perfectly fine regular apple pie but sometimes you get bored with perfectly fine regular apple pie. It doesn't take much for me to like a pie so I'll just say this one w

I came across this recipe for  Cranberry Poached Pears  in the Thanksgiving issue of Good Housekeeping but as you know, we went away for Thanksgiving so I had to hold on to it 'til last Thursday, when we had Second Thanksgiving. I had my brother in mind since he detests cranberries and cranberry sauce in all forms. But he will put away a pear--and he did. Just picked up his tiny pear and ate the whole thing with his hands. So I was successful on that front. My mom didn't like them for some reason. She can't even give me a good reason, though, so I can't offer any adjustments there. Everyone else ate them, though, and again the next day with leftovers. It really helped to be able to make them in advance since I was so busy last week. All month, when you think about it. Oh, and I didn't need the whole bag of cranberries so I had to do something  with them. Tune in next entry to find out what I did with the cranberries!

We interrupt the holiday recipes (seriously, so many new recipes!) to bring you an actual cereal review. I finally opened the Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch this morning. It looks like they took Cinnamon Toast Crunch but instead of coating it in cinnamon and sugar they ran it through the Frosted Cheerios line. If you're looking for a cereal that tastes like cookies, you'd be better off with Holiday Sprinkles Cookie Crisp. Now that's  like eating a bowl of sugar cookies. I'm not complaining about the Sugar Cookie Toast, though; you know super-sweet cereal does nothing for me anymore. I'm glad it's not as sweet as I feared because goodness knows I've eaten enough actual  sugar cookies this week. My point is that I won't have to worry about wasting this one. I mixed it with honey nut Oatmeal Squares and blueberries, which gave it an almost blueberry muffin-like feel. Hey, did you know blueberries (at least the formerly-frozen kind) turn your milk blue? I did

Oh, look, I found time. I waited for my siblings to be available before I tried this  Pumpkin-Apple Quick Oatmeal . And let me say, it is apple-y. If you're not a big apple fan, you probably won't like cooking your oatmeal (partially) in apple juice. I suppose you could use just water and see what happens. I think the nutmeg is supposed to cut down on the sweetness but I felt like it was actually a little too heavy on the nutmeg. Definitely keep the honey handy. And one more thing, while I did add a dollop of Greek yogurt, it still wasn't creamy enough for me so I added some milk to reach my preferred texture. Okay, one more thing: it only served the three of us. Maybe it was the size of our Xmas bowls? They're nice bowls.

Well, it's that time of year: I get busy, people need to be fed, and I don't make the time to blog. So don't be surprised if this is the only entry this week, even though I'll have several topics by Friday. Last week I wanted a non-red sauced pasta dish, so I thought I'd try this one out on the family:  Garlicky Shrimp Pasta . I've made a similar dish with a Betty Crocker recipe and I think the main difference is the Italian seasoning. It's a lot of Italian seasoning. I didn't even use it all because I was worried it was too much. It mostly stuck to the shrimp, which was a good thing, but for the rest of the dish I hesitated to add all that was left. Needless to say, it did not lack for flavor. But don't leave the Parmesan out at the end; I think it balances everything out.

Saturday was the perfect day for a cookie experiment: my first-ever snickerdoodles.  Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles , to be exact. I think I've been holding to on this recipe for a year now. They're just the right size to be a nice little giftable cookie, which was a plus. And I had some pumpkin butter I needed to use up (plus plus). I should point out that mine looked like a traditional puffy snickerdoodle, as opposed to the picture--maybe they were flattened out before baking? And again, my new cookie sheet worked great. If you've never had a snickerdoodle, it's hard to explain the texture. They're not dry like shortbread, or chewy-cakey like you might expect. It's somewhere in between those two. And the spices make for a more interesting flavor than a regular snickerdoodle. More layered, maybe? I can't think of the word I want. Dare I say delicious again? I know I use that word too much. I can't help it when it's the truth, though.

...and there's gonna be cookies. Seriously, the day after the oven was fixed I made my first cookie of the season. Sure,  Oatmeal Scotchies  aren't technically an Xmas cookie, but I had to bake something  oatmeal this month. And I hadn't had these in years, which explains why I was surprised at how much they much spread. At first I thought maybe it was the new cookie sheet (the oldest one got burned up last week) but then I remembered it has to do with the ratio of butter to flour. It didn't adversely affect the flavor, though. Butter + butterscotch chips = come on, now. I even threw in a few raisins because I felt like it, but make sure you use the whole bag of chips like the recipe calls for. Next: well, you'll see. I just finished my second cookie this morning but I'm not ready to write them up yet.

French Toast Crunch  is back.  Why no exclamation point? Because I was never a big fan. I remember being really excited about it the first time around and then disappointed in the actual product. I think the issue was that it didn't taste like my mom's french toast. But why should I have expected that? It wasn't Cerealmom's French Toast Crunch. I think it more closely resembles restaurant-style french toast, which has more of a crispy, almost puffy exterior. And at that point in time, believe it or not, I'd never had french toast in a restaurant (I have since then, at Bob Evans and IHOP). Keeping that in mind, I may have to try a box. Not a priority, though.

Long story short: the oven broke. The oven is broken and there goes the weekly meal plan out the window. Okay, lucky for us, it only affected one day--yesterday. So I started thinking about other proteins and remembered, hey, can't you slice up a pork tenderloin and cook it on top of the stove?  Yes, you can, so we tried this:  Sauteed Pork Medallions with Lemon-Garlic Sauce . It was pretty simple, we already had most of the ingredients (just needed the pork!) and...I can't think of a third thing. The finished meat was sooo tender, though. I just had a sandwich with some of the leftovers. And the good thing about cooking the sauce after  the meat--besides scraping up all the browned bits, of course--was that you weren't forced to eat a lot of lemon juice and garlic if you didn't want to. I'll be combing my recipes for more pork tenderloin recipes now. ******** In other news, Xmas cereals are really a thing this year. There's Christmas Crunch, a Christmas-y Ca

We went away for Thanksgiving this year, so we had to get up early to beat the snow (we didn't. Okay, I  didn't). But I knew I'd have to eat breakfast in the car--thankfully I don't get carsick--so I made my other oatmeal cup right before we left the house. Now, I didn't take notes, so this is mostly going on memory. I couldn't even tell you which berries were in it. Blueberries and some red berry. Maybe I should go look that up. Okay, it's dried cranberries. And that's where the flavor comes from, basically--just the berries. But there are  plenty of berries. And I knew from  last time  that it would stay hot for a good long while. Yes, even in the car. I do like the other flavor better but I'm sure I'll be buying both again.

I went away for Thanksgiving this year, so that necessitated bringing a dish that I could make in advance and  would travel well. Pound cake it is! But not just any pound cake.  Pumpkin Pound Cake . So what's the difference between a pumpkin pound cake and a pumpkin bread? I would say the density, basically. I couldn't eat a thick chunk of cake (although I would've liked to). The canned pumpkin makes it moist, of course, and the spices made the batter smell just like a pumpkin pie. You'll also want to eat more than you actually can. I didn't do the glaze, though, because it probably would've just melted away and/or stuck to the plastic wrap; I'm sure that would take the finished cake from spectacular to awesome--or vice versa.

Good idea: birthday cake! Bad idea: overindulging in birthday cake (plus eating a cereal  I shouldn't have been eating , among other factors). It was simple, I thought: find a recipe for a small cake--so we could finish it well before Thanksgiving--preferably with no icing, and not too much effort. Well, this  Banana Upside-Down Cake  fit the bill. I love upside-down cakes. I've made pineapple (of-course), apple, pear...why not banana? And it's a very moist cake. Probably why I ate too much. It's just too tempting. Two notes: mine stuck a little bit. I couldn't quite put it back together; luckily no one cares about style points at home. And while two large bananas were  the right amount for my 8x8 pan, I had to cut around some bruises, which left empty spaces on the cake that should've had banana slices. But if you like big bites of caramel, it's not really a big deal.

Or, A Lesson in Reading Labels. So, I've had this cereal stashed away for a few weeks (with hot cereal season upon us it's taking up more of my mornings) and last week I finally noticed a warning on the box: contains pecan, walnut and almond ingredients. I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I'll try to put it in the nicest terms possible again: all nuts--except almonds!--upset my stomach. So now I'm concerned, because I really want to try this cereal (and not waste my money). I decided this morning to pour just enough to cover the bottom of the bowl and mix with other cereals--that would be enough to review, anyway. And...it's not as peanut butter-flavored as I would've liked. Which was really disappointing, considering it's Jif  cereal. Now maybe it has more natural flavoring than the other peanut butter cereals I like, but it still wasn't enough for me. Oh, and later, when I'm brushing my teeth, here comes the tummy discomfort. So

I know, I know, it's been months but I'm just now getting to this one. I peeked in the bag before pouring--the cereal looked awfully familiar but I couldn't place it. It had that sweetened sheen and puffy texture that is not  characteristic of most Cheerios. Next I tasted a cluster. It was surprisingly nutty. I know there's almonds involved but the flavor of the clusters makes it seem as if there's no oat component at all. Impressive. Then I tried the Os. That's  where the cinnamon is. It really caught me by surprise. My mind must not have been on breakfast yesterday morning, because I knew what flavor this was. I purposely chose to open it the day after I bought it even though I could've waited. Overall, I need to try it again to get the overall effect. Separately, though, plenty of cinnamon and almond. (Half an hour later it hit me:  Fiber Plus Cinnamon Oat Crunch . That's what these Os remind me of, but with different grains.)

Now this  is oatmeal in a tub. Or cup, if you prefer. I think tub's cuter. Anyway...I wasn't planning on ever trying another one of these oatmeal tubs after my disappointing experience with  Special K Nourish  but I had a coupon plus I love the Protein Granola (seriously, one of my favorite new products this year) and  I just happened to be in Target yesterday, where I knew I could find it. The coupon was for two; luckily both flavors were appealing. This morning I had the Cranberry Apple Crunch. Upon ripping off the lid (all the way--oops) I saw the amount of oatmeal, which looked reasonable, and really big pieces of dried apple. Nice . All I had to do was add boiling water--the preferred method--stir, and cover. After the three minutes were up it was still a little thick for me but adding more boiling water helped. The oats look like they could be rolled oats (the label doesn't specify); they're definitely not the typical ground-up instant oats. Finally, flavor:

(Banana-rameters?) My mission, should I choose to accept it (I did): bake a cake on short notice with a cake mix, preferably Bundt and/or pound. I found three options from my recipe box and it was decided: I would make this  Banana Pudding Cake . Bonus! No icing required. I picked up a Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mix because it was the cheapest, not realizing that a) It's called "Super Moist" because it already  has pudding in the mix and b) it's not the size called for in the recipe. But does 18.25 even exist? Is that an old size? You know how products these days keep getting ounces shaved off and they think no one'll notice. I  notice. So anyway, I ended up with a super-Super Moist cake, what with the extra pudding and the mashed banana. But, surprisingly, it held together. I didn't have a runny batter or  a mushy finished product. And everyone seemed to enjoy it. I could've used a recipe with more banana, though. We'll see if that ends up being

1. I was finally able to find some Thomas' Pumpkin Spice English muffins while they were still in stores. The flavor isn't all that much different from their pumpkin--without the swirl, of course. But there's still plenty of spice in every bite. I didn't even feel the need to add any sort of topping. 2. New this year from Celestial Seasonings: Caramel Apple Dream tea. I had to try it based on the name alone. The scent of the unwrapped box teased a drinkable apple pie. The flavor? Not that far off. Definitely a stronger apple taste but the caramel comes through at the end. It's slightly different from their Cinnamon Apple Spice and a little bit better in my book.

...those spices pull me back in. I had some leftover canned pumpkin so I looked up non-oatmeal pumpkin cookies and found these:  Old-Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies . Well, I figured, it's the brand I have, so they can't be that bad. And they're not bad, not bad at all. They have that soft chewiness that happens when you make a moist pumpkin cookie dough, but it's not gummy or weird. Just a little bit chewier than, say, your average chewy chocolate chip cookie. I also didn't feel like making the glaze, so I threw some dried cranberries in there. I put them in my pumpkin bread, so, same difference, right? I think so. Good cookie.

At least I think it's new. Apparently Kashi used to make granola and then they stopped and then they started up again...I don't know. I should really make up my mind to do some research sometimes. But anyway, to the granola. The clusters have a nice crunch to them--attributable to the chia?--and aren't too sweet, as I've come to expect from Kashi. And if you're a fan of raisins you're in luck; this mix is loaded . I'd say in my one serving the other day the ratio of granola to raisins was pretty much 1:1. In look and in flavor this reminds me of Cascadian Farm cinnamon raisin granola but possibly better. This'll require more testing.

I just wanted to take a minute to mention two things. First, Thomas' Cranberry English muffins. You know I only started eating English muffins a few months ago, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that they make seasonal flavors. I love the big chunks of cranberries in these. They look to be cooked down whole. As much as I love dried cranberries, you can't beat baking with fresh. The second thing is Thomas' Pumpkin Bread. I usually get Pepperidge Farm's every year but I hadn't gotten around to picking up a Pumpkin Spice yet so it was a good week to try this instead. The first thing I tasted was a strong hit of nutmeg. Just opening up the bag smells like the season. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin (quick) bread, what have you. I might actually like this flavor better than Pepperidge Farm, which, if I recall correctly, has more cinnamon to it.

I thought I was off my apple kick but I had one more recipe to try:  Apple Cinnamon and Wheat Germ Coffee Cake . Oh, yeah, and I'm still trying to use up this wheat germ. I also had a Fuji apple that needed to be used in something, so I added half a Granny Smith to get the correct amount of apples. As for the coffee cake, there's nothing extra special about it; it's your basic cinnamon-y flavor with a simple streusel topping. If you thoroughly fold in the apples you'll probably get apple in every bite (it's a lot of apples). The cake has a nice texture, not too dense and just moist enough. I'm sure I'll be making this one again.

When I was a kid, my mom made a baked flounder dish that was swimming (no pun intended--really) in watery tomato sauce and and bits of cheese and we loved it . So when I found this recipe for  Tilapia Pasta  I thought, hey, let's upgrade this concept and bring it into the 21st century. Of course there were objections. I ignored them. Plus I was able to use fennel for the first time. You hear on cooking shows all the time how fennel has a licorice flavor, which I am not a fan of, so I held off on trying it. But I hoped in this dish maybe the tomato sauce would mask that flavor. And I couldn't really taste the fennel in one bite--I had to try a piece on its own to really get an idea of the flavor. It wasn't terrible. I could eat it again. Definitely cooked, though. The raw fennel was waaay too strong for me. This is a pasta dish I will absolutely make again sometime. I wouldn't make any changes to the recipe except I don't think it makes six servings realistically

Actually, the answer to that is yes , but my point is that the other day I roasted garlic for the first time. You know, cut the top off, drizzle the rest with olive oil, wrap it in foil and roast for an hour. I've been wanting to try this for some time but was afraid. I know it sounds silly but I had no idea if I'd like the flavor. And this coming from a person who loves garlic! But then I found this recipe for  Roasted Garlic Turkey Burgers  and decided to stop being silly. I thought from the ingredients list that these might taste like a classic beef burger but, no, they still have a flavor all their own. The roasted garlic somehow permeates all of the meat--there is no bite without it. But also, there's no bite , meaning it's a mild (but flavorful!) garlic flavor. I also had mine with lettuce and tomato like in the picture and, I'll admit, a little mayo to make sure it wasn't a dry burger. Next time I'll probably try a different bun, though; ciabatta bu

As a kid I always prefer the leg area of the chicken. Not sure why--maybe it was more moist? Or maybe it was because I didn't want to have to use a knife and fork on a chicken breast. These days I eat a lot more white meat (thanks, boneless chicken breasts!) but it seems dark meat has its benefits, too. So I sprung a new recipe on the family last night:  Roasted Chicken with Apples . Now, my dad prefers breasts but will eat thighs as long as the meal is substantial and the chicken isn't falling-off-the-bone stew-y. It seems the secret to getting everyone to eat thighs is the sage. You put sage on just about anything, it tastes like Thanksgiving. I'll be adding this recipe to the "Safe to Make Again" pile. And eating leftovers for dinner tonight.

So why buy another pumpkin spice oatmeal when I already  have one ? Honestly, I thought my brother finished it last time he was here. Also, I'm on a pumpkin kick this month. And  you know, sometimes you see a display and it's like, I have to try this.  Was it worth it? Sure, why not? It's an instant oatmeal, so I could make it with boiling water. It has more of the orangey color I was expecting. Also, it's heavier on the nutmeg. I couldn't quite get it as thick as I would've liked; more patience yesterday plus a little less water probably would've done the trick. I'm sure I'll get all the pumpkin out of my system by the end of the month.

Well you know when people come to visit I like to bake a little gift for them. My kind of hospitality. (Plus I get to eat some.) Unfortunately it seems this particular visit has fallen through. Good thing I like oatmeal cookies! I cut this recipe for  Oatmeal Blues Drop Cookies  out of my local paper sometime last year during the holiday season. I've had raisins and I've tried dried apricots but this was the first time I'd ever put dried blueberries in an oatmeal cookie. The first thing I tasted, actually, was the lemon zest--but in a good way, not a pucker-up-tart way (which is also not a bad way but not good for cookies). Lemon zest and blueberries just pair so well together. After that comes the hint of nutmeg and the sugar topping, which is just sweet enough. My only issue was trying to put drop cookies in the sugar/salt mixture. It's not as easy as rolled balls of dough. However, it's still a necessary step for the full effect of the cookie. (Oh, and of c

You may ask, "Why are you reviewing this  again ?" Well, this is the two-and-a-half minute version. And there are a few differences. The flavor was a little milder, and the texture was thicker. Not just thicker than instant Cream of Wheat, but thicker than the original two-and-a-half variety. Don't let the small amount that one serving makes fool you. It was plenty filling.

Yep, I finally opened it. (Oh, by the way, I'm back early.) I had yogurt and this granola the morning I left, so I debated waiting to review it until I had it a second time, but I just couldn't hold out. Not that I'm overly excited or anything, I just wanted to do this now. I'd been wanting to try this since it came out earlier this year but I wasn't sure if it had actual peanuts in it--which is not an option for me. Eventually I checked out the ingredients list; it was a go. So it's basically the same peanut butter flavor as the bars, just not as crunchy. It's kind of hard to describe this granola on the spectrum of baked/roasted oat mixture. It's not super light and crispy, but it's not bordering on burnt, either. It's actually pretty good, even with fruit and yogurt added into the equation. ***** There's other new granolas out, too. Kellogg's has a bagged one but I'm not sure yet if it's an old product repackaged. Did they

Well, no, not really. But I keep telling people I can eat cream cheese if it's baked, so I had to back that up eventually. I found this  Cream Cheese-Filled Ginger-Cherry Pumpkin Bread  last week and knew immediately that I had to make this for my visiting brother. I will say off the bat, based on my results, if you have (or can find) a 10-inch loaf pan you should probably use that. Mine got a little squished when I flipped it out of the (9-in.) pan--it might have needed to cook a little longer. I should really invest in some wooden skewers to use as testers. A few adjustments I had to make: I omitted the fresh ginger because nobody else loves it like I do (and I think it would have taken this pumpkin bread over-the-top in a good way), and I don't like dried cherries so I substituted dried cranberries. This is a dense, literally heavy bread and really makes a better dessert than breakfast, but, you know, eat it as you will. Also, it took me an hour, what with the batter prep,

There must be a near-infinite number of ways to prepare chicken. At least in one's lifetime. So here's another one:  Spicy Basil Chicken . I actually found this by accident; I was just looking for different ways to prepare snow peas when I came across the other parts of the recipe. The recipe gives you the option of omitting the spice (chili sauce) altogether, so I did. I've always had a sensitive stomach, and my aging parents can't eat like they used to, either. I also didn't want to buy fish sauce just for this recipe but I intend to get around to it--I'm pretty sure I have enough recipes now to justify that purchase. But for a soy sauce-based alternative, the chicken was pretty good. I would never have thought of basil as a complimentary herb. It's like two different flavor worlds, you know? And the rice on it's own was too strong of a citrus burst; you really need to have a little bit of everything in every bite. I admire chefs--even magazine chefs

I know I'm not crazy. I've seen a new Kashi bagged granola in the organic section of a local grocery store and again the other day at Target. One was chocolate and the other was a chia-berry thingy. I wasn't really paying attention because we had a house issue consuming my mind all weekend, but I know I'm not making this up. I'll keep looking for online evidence. But while I'm here, a brief mention of  Rice Pilaf with Cranberries . Now that I have a wild rice blend , of course I'm going to use it. Just keep in mind that it takes 45 minutes to cook and prep accordingly (the extra ten minutes of steaming was just enough to cook the onions, almonds, and cranberries).

My sister keeps me up-to-date on all the latest English muffin news, informing me the other day that Thomas' has a pumpkin spice English muffin out now. I have yet to see it around here but I will be buying that one. ******* And now for the non-breakfast part of this entry. I'm still trying to finish this bag of bulgur and found this recipe for  Bulgur-Mushroom Stovetop Pilaf  in my very first binder from five years ago (when I was only collecting recipes, not making them). Every time I make something with bulgur my mother insists she doesn't like it, but she'll eat anything with feta on or in it. The mushrooms and peppers didn't hurt either. This was also the first time I'd ever bought wild rice--which reminds me, I need to find more uses for it. The apple juice only works, I think, because of the sweet peppers; otherwise, everything about the flavor would be off. I also conveniently didn't mention the usage of apple juice in this dish and nobody else

(We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog entry for this important announcement: Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. 2014 AL East Champions!! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Now back to Living in a Cereal World.) So, after the last--and first--time I  stuffed peppers  I was primed to try it again. Enter this convenient recipe from People magazine:  Spinach and Meat Stuffed Peppers . I wasn't sure how filling it would be so I made the full meat mixture but only stuffed four pepper halves. I had only a little bit leftover. If you spread this out over eight pepper halves you might be able to eat two but I don't know your eaters. I don't think this recipe would have worked if it was all pork (not enough flavor) or all beef (you'd get that feeling of a wad of meat sitting in the pit of your stomach). The two meats together provided a nice balance. And none of the combination of peppers, tomato sauce, spinach or Parmesan cheese was upsetting to anyone's delicate natur

A rarity: my dad actually had a birthday dinner request--crab cakes. I have so many binders full of recipes now that it was easy to say, hey, I have a crab cake recipe I want to try. Namely,  this one : Maryland-Style Wheat Germ Crab Cakes. Of course my mother turned up her nose at the idea of wheat germ in and coating her crab cakes, but I usually just ignore her objections. She almost always (with the exception of quinoa--boo) changes her tune after sampling the final product. Here's the secret to wheat germ: it really doesn't taste like anything. Seriously, it might as well be bread crumbs. Which is the purpose it serves in these crab cakes. As for the flavor, at first I thought oh, what a bright, fresh, lemony-herb flavor. Then the Old Bay sneaks in on the back of your tongue (or whichever part of your tongue tastes "spicy"). In short, they were delicious, and the leftovers were even better as sandwiches.

Yeah, I went back and bought it. And then I ate some Monday. Hey, the mornings are getting cooler. I think I'll be having tea next week. Anyway, to the oatmeal. There's fewer packets but more in them. They call for 2/3 of a cup of water instead of the usual 1/2. I ate two packets anyway because I was hungry and it's, you know, oatmeal. Tearing into the packet was like ripping open a canister of pumpkin pie spice. It smelled familiar and enticing. The finished product dialed the flavor down a notch, though. I don't know why. Too much water, maybe? And I was surprised it wasn't more pumpkin-colored like the  Archer Farms  version I had a few years ago. But maybe that's a good thing, no artificial coloring. Still, it could've been more pumpkin-y. Of course, nothing tops  making it myself , so I'll have to try that again the next time I have leftover canned pumpkin.

Well, it's close enough, anyway, so I made my dad  Apple Crisp Pancakes  yesterday. One of these days I should ask him what he actually wants, but he's still getting his cake, so, whatever. I don't usually make pancakes with Bisquick because some people in this family claimed not to like Bisquick pancakes (we've always been an Aunt Jemima family as far as I can remember). At least until last month when they changed their tune: "I'll eat Bisquick pancakes in a pinch." "I'll eat them in one of your recipes." And I'm on an apple kick this month anyway, so that fell into place. First off, Bisquick pancakes are filling. Sooo  filling. I made one of mine too big and couldn't finish it. As it was, we could've fed at least two more people. I'll have to remember to eat some of the leftovers. But back to the pancakes: even that quick bit of heat broke the apple chunks down enough to not flare up my allergies. And the streusel fillin

I'm sure you've noticed in stores. Step aside, back to school sales, it's time to shove pumpkin down our throats. Okay, I'm not really  complaining; I look forward to these flavors (I may have over-peached myself last month), just not necessarily the marketing. I noticed an end-aisle display of a new Quaker Pumpkin Spice instant oatmeal the other day. I may have to go back to the store and get one. And I've already had Thomas' Apple Pie english muffins. I couldn't help myself. Also, my sister recommended it. But she also recommended topping them with chocolate peanut butter. Ehh...that sounds too complicated for my palate. Knock yourselves out, though.

(I'm just going to wing this entry.) I was in the mood for oatmeal cookies--we're having a still-undetermined number of guests this weekend--and I found this recipe...last week, maybe? It's supposed to be a healthier version of  Kitchen Sink Cookies . I ended up making them for a work party the other day and they don't make very much so I assumed I'd have to make them a second time. Luckily for me I had just enough apricots, chocolate chips (yes, a sub) and brown sugar and applesauce left. I didn't add the nuts--you know I don't do nuts in my baked goods--and I didn't have any dried cherries on hand so I just added more chocolate and apricots. So maybe it's missing a little something but nobody needs to know. They're chewier than a regular chocolate chip or  oatmeal cookie but not gummy and weird. And they're just as filling. Just double this recipe and serve it to a crowd already. Football season's coming up, you know.

Ok, so I'm a little late to the cauliflower game. Roasting, hiding it in other foods, whatever. If you, like me, grew up forced to eat (around) rubbery cauliflower with dinner, you'd hold off on trying that again, too. So I found this  Herbed Mashed Cauliflower  recipe from Land O' Lakes and I figured it was worth a try since (1), it was mixed with potatoes and (2) the flavor would be masked with the Saute Express square. I cut the recipe in half--which was plenty for three--and I think the flavor wasn't affected by that, either. I got raves and more importantly, I ate cauliflower.

(I realize I've been out all week. Wrist flare-up. NBD.) What would you do if you had two perfectly round peppers unused for a recipe? Surely you wouldn't toss them. Perhaps you'd want to stuff them? That's what I was thinking when I found this recipe for  Bulgur-Stuffed Summer Vegetables . I was actually looking to replace my mislaid Lemon Orzo recipe but this was right on the front page. Lucky me. I had the peppers and I'm still trying to use up my bulgur, so why not? We were already planning on grilling porkchops so the oven was free. I halved the recipe, so I cut out one zucchini and the tomatoes entirely. It had been a while since I last used bulgur, so I'd forgotten how it really cooks up. I actually had too much stuffing when I was through. And I was really surprised at how the vegetables didn't stick to my baking dish. Next time, as usual, more seasoning (I always under-season out of fear of overseasoning) and more cheese was also requested.

I finally got around to opening this over the weekend. As I struggled with the bag (sometimes I'm not patient when I'm hungry) I thought I smelled maple. Then, once I got the bag open, maybe cinnamon. Then I looked at the box: "lightly sweetened graham flavored cereal." Ooookay. How do you flavor something like "graham?" I don't even know if I could put my finger on what graham--or a graham cracker, probably--tastes like. And the shapes seem totally random: a person, a tree, a star (?) and one other thing. I'm assuming there's a commercial that explains this but I haven't yet looked for it. Also, owing to the multi-graininess, the individual puffed pieces are larger than original Rice Krispies. It's not a bad flavor, but not a must-buy again.

I tried to squeeze in one last treat before my brother leaves, so I went with ice cream sandwiches. He's not a big wait-for-it-to-thaw, scoop-it-yourself kind of guy but he will eat a portable ice cream dessert that doesn't involve any work on his part. I found these Ginger-Peach Ice Cream Sandwiches by accident but it is peach season, so I thought I'd try it. It's a two-step process: I did the ice cream part Wednesday and made the cookies yesterday. You could shortcut and buy peach ice cream but like I said, it's peach season...why pass up fresh? The cookies are perfect for a ice cream sandwich--just the right size for me to eat a whole one (and not feel guilty) and not too sweet. The sweetness should be in the ice cream. I will say that I didn't really taste any of honey that the peaches were cooked in but it doesn't matter. It's that combination of peaches and ginger that lifts this to the category of extraordinary ice cream sandwich.

I probably should've waited to review this because I only had a small taste but I've been itching to write a review. First off, I didn't get any dried apple pieces. I know they're in there, though, because I can see them (thanks, clear plastic bag front!). Unlike the Cascadian Farm box granola, this comes in thick clusters, which I don't think was really necessary. I'm trying to think which brand of granola is cluster-y...Honey Bunches of Oats, maybe? I think that's what they going for. The predominant flavor I got was nutmeg. Now, I like nutmeg as much as the next person, but this was just too much. I need more apple, so I hope I get it next time with a full serving.

I'll admit it, I could stand to eat more fruit. So why not try it for dinner? I'm somewhat open to expanding my palate. This  Mediterranean Skillet  recipe calls for dried apricots (although the wording is odd) and fresh quartered grapes. I don't actually like grapes; the texture is weird to me and the flavor is too tart--but I know roasting brings out the sweetness in veggies so I hoped a similar principal would apply here. The combination of sage, parsley and basil works surprisingly well with the sweet apple chicken sausage and the grapes. The only thing I didn't do was make enough rice, but I learned from my mistake as you'll see in a few entries. ******* I know you're probably sick of dinners. Hang in there; oatmeal season is fast approaching.

...but this one I made almost a month ago. Bobby Deen's  One-Pan Roasted Chicken and Broccoli --which I actually tore out of a People magazine last year, I think--might actually be the most simple chicken recipe I've shared here. Just cut up the ingredients and let the oven do the work. You can easily cook for fewer or  more people, and you know how I feel about roasting vegetables. Also, the chicken came out perfectly tender. I don't know how to plug this one any further. ******* Totally unrelated to chicken (yay! says everyone ), I tried the limited edition mango lemonade flavor of Dannon's Light and Fit Greek yogurt, and let me tell you...whooo, was that ever mango-y. Maybe the acidity of lemon intensifies the flavor of mango? It was good, though.

Here's a recipe I'd been sitting on for the last three years:  Chicken, Mushroom and Asparagus Stir-Fry . Now those are three of my favorite dinner ingredients, so why wait? Well, I wasn't sure about the oyster sauce. Or the stir-fry sauce. You may recall that I finally tried oyster sauce back in April when I made  Pork Lo Mein . It's just been sitting in the back of the fridge ever since so I figured I might as well use it. It turns out that the combination of the two sauces tastes exactly  like takeout beef and broccoli, so I guess that's what they use? It's a familiar taste, at any rate. I thought the final dish was delicious, and being a stir-fry, easy to put together. Highly recommended.

I had to admit I didn't expect to like Nature Valley's  granola ; I also didn't expect to like it enough to try another flavor, but when you put dried cranberries and almonds together...well, that combination's almost unfair. It's pretty much daring me not  to try. I ate the first cluster right out of the bag; it wasn't quite as sweet as I remembered the other flavor being, but sometimes underwhelming works with certain components. The rest I tasted with yogurt and I noticed the cranberries and almonds were actually in  the clusters. Usually those kind of add-ins are just mixed in the bag but Nature Valley consists of big granola clusters (except whatever breaks up in the bottom of the bag, of course) so it makes sense for all the ingredients to be bunched together that way. It's not my favorite flavor but I welcome the opportunity to add variety to my granola lineup.

Here's another example of a main cut down to side size:  Braised Mushrooms with Angel Hair Pasta . The ingredients are simple and straightforward, so I think fresh herbs are key. And if, like me, you don't the seasoning right on the first try, at least you know people are going to fill up on mushrooms. I don't even remember what we served along with this. I should've made a note of that. ********* I haven't been keeping up with sending discontinued items to the Cereal Graveyard. So long,  Fiber One Frosted Shredded Wheat  and Fiber Plus Cinnamon Oat Crunch.

Answer: you Google "leftover chicken recipes," where this  Spiced Couscous and Chicken  popped up. I just happened to have everything on hand except the almonds so I had to try it. This was sometime last month after we ate half a roasted chicken; I don't know about you, but I can only eat so many chicken sandwiches. I wasn't sure how adding the chicken to the dried couscous was going to work but by adding the hot water you not only cook the couscous, you also reheat the chicken without drying it out. My only other issue was with not adding enough ginger (for the people who don't think they like ginger) but next I might just go for it. Also, my mother couldn't wrap her head around eating a meal in a bowl that wasn't soup. I told it wasn't a big deal, she could've used a plate. Her literal logic is mind-boggling sometimes. But anyway, it's tasty. ******** (There will definitely be a granola review next week, btw.)

So last night I attempted to finish off the blueberries with a  Blueberry Iced Tea  but my brain just couldn't get the recipe to line up with the box instructions. So I basically had to wing it. I think my tea was too weak and I didn't have enough blueberries plus  the recipe doesn't mention any sweetener and I didn't want everybody to have to do it themselves so I added a little bit of sugar. Probably not enough sugar. But I drank it anyway. So did my brother. So there. In other news, I'm almost ashamed to say I only got 17 of 21 right in this  Breakfast Cereal Quiz . I'll tell you right now, Smart Start/Wheaties and Honey Smacks/Golden Crisp are hard to tell apart. How many can you name?

I know I've been posting sporadically lately but, you know...summer. So I thought I'd highlight these Healthy Orange Blueberry Muffins  I made yesterday. I'd promised my brother I'd make him some blueberry muffins from scratch the next time he visited but I've also noticed he's getting more food conscious, so these muffins were just the type I needed. First, I cut the recipe in half. And I wrote out all the measurements, too, so I couldn't mess that up. Except I did forget the salt...but I didn't notice anything out of place in the final product. I used about half a pint of blueberries (now I need to go find some options for the other half) and all of a small navel orange. I also opted to substitute honey for the sugar, so the resulting flavor had notes of all three--meaning sweet/orangey/berry. The crumble is optional--I think it would be fine without it--but I went ahead and did it to make sure everybody ate the muffins. These are going on the &quo

I debated whether or not to review this (the last Kashi cereal I planned on trying); when I opened it last week I was in a hurry to get out of the house for a day-consuming road trip so I didn't take as much care as I usually would. The first thing I noticed was the flakes. I was not expecting them to be so puffy. That's not something you typically get in a corn flake. The small amount I had (mixed with another cereal) had more blackberries than blueberries; I'm not even sure I had any blueberries. It didn't have much sweetness, either. Looking back, it reminds me of their  Strawberry Fields , but with a different flake and and berries. That might sound weird but it's in the same vein, really.

General Mills announced their new product rollout the other day, so I just wanted to mention the items that pertain to the cereal department: Gluten-free Chex oatmeal in apple cinnamon, maple brown sugar, and a variety pack that includes those and original (plain) flavor. I've already seen it in one store over here. I'll probably pick up a variety pack when the weather cools off. Two more flavors of Nature Valley Protein Granola -- peanut butter and peanut butter/dark chocolate. I might try the peanut butter if there's no actual peanut bits in it. new Cascadian Farm Protein Granola in apple crisp (yum) and dark chocolate coconut (ehh...I might try it with a sale + coupon) And lucky Canadians get a MultiGrain Cheerios with ancient grains. Maybe we'll be seeing it here come January?

I don't often follow an entire meal's worth of recipes; usually I just pick out one part because I don't want to screw up multiple parts in one dinner. But everything was laid out perfectly in Cooking Light's  Herb-Roasted New York Strip  recipe, so it was pretty easy to follow. First, I used their suggestion of subbing boneless porkchops (since I don't eat steak); they still cooked just fine and had plenty of flavor. Oh, this isn't mentioned in the link but it was in the issue; just use a pack of four boneless chops. Also included in the magazine was instructions for roasted potato wedges--you stick them in the oven first and they finish right alongside everything else. Let me see if I can find it... here it is . They were tender and not undercooked, which can happen with potatoes. Our only issue was making a few too many. We could have made do with two. As for the peas and carrots...you know how people say everything's better with bacon? Well, in this

(Yes, I'm just getting around to this.) So I know I've gone on the record several times about how my dad loves carrot cake. It is his favorite cake, far above any other. So why did I make him a pound cake for his birthday  last year ? I don't know, but I guess I learned my lesson: don't make birthday cakes all about you. Because a week later, he went out and bought himself a chunk of carrot cake. Cut to: Father's Day. I decided to play it safe and make a classic  Carrot Cake . The only substitution I made was a Greek yogurt frosting (because I found out the hard way that I can't eat cream cheese frosting). That cake was in the fridge for a week and I'm sure he ate most of it. At least half. I guess that means he liked it? I still didn't use as much carrots as I could have but I was pretty close this time. And my layers did  sink a little from too much water in my shredded carrots but it wasn't a disaster like the loaf carrot cake I made a few ye

So it's the time of year to experiment with pasta salad. Up now:  Soba Noodle Salad . Some firsts for me--I've never had soba noodles before, so the cooking method and texture were new experiences. I also don't really eat raw red pepper strips--cooked, sure, all the time--so I wasn't sure if I would like it. I should also mention here that it can be tricky to measure half a cup of julienned red bell pepper and snow peas; you'd be better off just cutting up the amount that you prefer. I, for one, could've used more. Overall it had a good flavor and did what I intended, which was to complement our  teriyaki pineapple turkey burgers . Now I'll be looking for other uses for soba noodles.

Yep, I finally opened it. I had a moment's hesitation before breakfast the other day--what if it's original dry Cheerios (my least-liked Cheerios)? But no, it has the typical slick coating of a Honey Nut Cheerios. In fact, it tastes just like it. So why not just add protein to Honey Nut Cheerios? Or all  Cheerios, for that matter. But anyway, back to this one. It looks to be two different grains in the Os but the ingredients list says it's just oats. Maybe only some are coated? I'll have to look more closely next time. And I didn't get many granola clusters in my first bowl but I'm assuming they're in there. This brings me back to my question, though, because now you have this, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch all encroaching on each other's flavor territory. I hope the Cinnamon Almond flavor brings something new to the table (so to speak).

I'm a big fan of Betty Crocker; I used to read various cookbooks for fun when I was a kid. Even though I didn't understand anything about cooking I'd still pick out dishes and put them together as meals. So I don't eschew Betty Crocker now in favor of more "upscale" recipe sources--if I see something I want to try, I'll do it. Such was the case with  Mozzarella Pesto Stuffed Chicken Breasts . I'm always looking for new ways to cook chicken, and who doesn't like stuffing foods inside other foods? It's pretty straightforward: butterfly the chicken breasts, spread with pesto, line with mozzarella, seal tight with toothpicks. I did not anticipate the finished product having mozzarella oozing out of both ends but it was  visually appealing. The only thing you might want to consider is adding more flavor to the bread crumbs--Italian seasoning, maybe? Play with it, you'll figure it out. ********* I did something new yesterday: I put blueberri

So I mentioned  recently  that my dad and I both spoiled Father's Day breakfast by having pancakes the week before--today we made up for it. The  Blueberry Blossom Pancake  was worth the wait. They're thinner than the buttermilk pancakes I usually make but there's so much to the recipe that you don't really need a thicker pancake (and you don't have to worry about raw batter in the middle). First, don't skip the streusel. It is sweet, buttery and an important component. Second, don't skip the blueberry syrup, either. It doesn't take any real amount of time to toss some maple syrup and blueberries in a blender. I will confess, though, that you almost don't need syrup. The pancakes practically melt in your mouth, and the blueberries provide their own juices. There's nothing like poking a hot berry and watching the juice run everywhere. But don't spear it so hard it bursts on your clothes. Ugh, blueberry stains. Oh, and follow the direction

Ugh, this morning. I don't want to get into details, but let's just say it involved multiple spiders. So after adding that to my pre-breakfast chore list I thought, screw it, I'm opening the Berry Blossoms. I've been looking for them for months and found them by chance last weekend. I was supposed to be buying  Fiber One frosted shredded wheat  (this was  the last place in town still selling it) but alas, it looks like I'll be sending this one to the Cereal Graveyard. They must have had to make room for the Fiber One/Cheerios protein cereals. As I walked past the Kashi section I just happened to notice Berry Blossoms were on sale, so that was a no-brainer. As for the cereal itself, it's the same grain mixture and shape as  Honey Sunshine  but with a vague berry flavor that you can't really pin down. It reminded me of a more subtle Berry Berry Kix. I think I may actually like it more  than Honey Sunshine.

...this time with the addition of chickpeas. I came across this  Orzo with Chickpeas  recipe in my collection--I guess I missed it the first time around--and jumped at the chance to use orzo again. I was worried about the dish not being filling but I'm not sure why; chickpeas should fill you up easily. The only issue I had was accidentally picking up Mediterranean Herb feta instead of the regular kind but it just added more flavor. And as usual, herb adjustments will be necessary next time.

(Yes, I am just now getting around to opening the box. I've been away!) First things first, it's always a good idea to look at the front of a box before deciding to try a cereal. I know this sounds obvious but I was really caught off guard. I thought this cereal was chocolatey  almond, meaning chocolatey chunks mixed with almonds (not unlike  Chocolatey Strawberry ). But no, they meant chocolate, which in this case is cocoa-dusted multigrain flakes. I guess that counts. Also, that's not really my chocolate speed. Don't get me wrong, it tastes good, but I'm not always in the mood for that much chocolate flavor. It even turned my milk chocolate-flavored! It's like Cocoa Krispies for grown-ups (although I'm sure some would argue Cocoa Krispies already fits that bill. You know what I mean). So I'll just keep mixing this little by little until I finish it. Hopefully with some Cheerios Protein soon.

I made my annual  Midwest sojourn early this year--that's why I haven't updated in a week-- and stayed in the same place as last year so there isn't much to report in the breakfast department. I did  remember to bring my own granola down with me so I could eat yogurt the first day. The second day we went out for breakfast. I had blueberry pancakes, which I had been planning to make from scratch for Father's Day, so I think I'll push those back a week (my dad also had pancakes, so I don't feel too bad about it). The third morning I had oatmeal from the vat with the usual toppings but I seriously considered having coconut and almonds instead. Maybe next time. ****** Still looking for Cheerios Protein. I've seen it advertised but not yet in stores.

(I warned you I can't stay away from the lame puns.) I put Mother's Day meals off for a week so my sister could partake and it was a good thing I did because otherwise I don't know what we would've done with all the extra brioche. Why did I have brioche? To make  Strawberry French Toast , of course. I had intended to make this recipe with regular unsliced white bread (that would've looked like the picture) but I couldn't find any, so I went with the brioche instead. Actually, you know what? It might have been challah. It was definitely a braided egg bread and perfect for French toast (and labeled that way--"egg bread for French toast"). At any rate, the shape made it a little tricky to cut pockets but I managed to stuff about four strawberry slices per half. And the egg and milk mixture was delicious with the (say it with me) cinnamon . I'm seriously thinking about making my regular French toast that way. The most important thing was that my

Sometimes I forget that the best way to use up a product is to find recipes at that particular website. In this case, it was teriyaki Saute Express, and the recipe:  Teriyaki Shrimp Lo Mein . It seems like I make these Asian-inspired dishes frequently enough, so I try to vary the proteins. And we do like shrimp, but I don't want to shrimp us to death, either...at any rate, it was a good week to try this recipe. I seriously thought about omitting one of the teriyaki squares in case the flavor was too intense but I ended up leaving it alone. If you wanted to, I would suggest cutting out the one mixed with the noodles. I also didn't use the green bell pepper and the red pepper was more than enough. Somehow the cilantro got thrown away before serving; I think you need it to really finish the dish. Overall, good flavor, didn't upset my stomach--next time I'll be sure to keep the cilantro close by.

Was it an unintended consequence or a secretly hoped for one? Either way, I'm still trying out new side dishes for a receptive audience. This time it was  Angel Hair with Tomatoes and Basil . The recipe suggested you could turn it into a side dish so I did so by cutting it in half. That was just enough for three, although I'm still not great at measuring pasta amounts. The flavor was tomato-y but not too much, which was good for the acid reflux watchers. I could've used more basil but, again, I'm still working on seasoning to taste. It was definitely a make-again, though.

You thought I was going to make through a whole month without trying a cereal, didn't you? Well, I haven't run out of material yet. I wasn't expecting to like this one since I wasn't crazy about the dryness or texture of the  other flavor . And I was right, the addition of cinnamon makes a world of difference. Or maybe I was just feeling charitable this morning. Or maybe it was the mixture of cereals and banana. Whatever the case, I liked this one a lot more and will be adding it to the permanent rotation. ******* I didn't mention that I had strawberries on my cereal twice this week. That's not something I would typically put on Oatmeal Squares  but I'm starting to think strawberries go with just about anything.

My mom loves strawberry shortcake more than anything, dessert-wise, but Easter was so late this year that I didn't want to make anything cake-related this time around. Instead, this was my Mother's Day gift:  Strawberry Meringue Pie.  Similar elements, different take. At least that's what I was thinking when I chose it. It turned out to be more of a lemon meringue pie with fresh strawberries--so dad ate most of it--but let's not split hairs. It helped that it called for jarred lemon curd. One less step for me. This is a really simple pie, and best eaten the day you make it. Not that that stopped us from eating the leftovers. And I'm now on a strawberry kick. I'm hoping next month to shift that over to blueberries.

We're still having some freakishly cold nights but there's been enough warm weather to start making pasta salads. And what better way to make a pasta salad than to choose the ingredients yourself?  Parade  lays it all out for you; you come up with the combinations. It's like the Choose Your Own Adventure of pasta salads, except you don't have to cheat to succeed. I started with mezze penne because I felt the regular size was too big for the rest of my ingredients: chopped celery, shredded carrots, diced hard-boiled egg, and capers for extra flavor. Next time I'll probably add peas, too; that's what I think of when I think "classic" pasta salad. Process of elimination led to the creamy Dijon dressing--I don't think I can handle the other two. I made it ahead of time and was concerned that it was too dry but everyone else thought it was fine. Actually the next day the flavor seemed even stronger. Other combination ideas: broccoli/chickpeas/almond

I'm sure I clipped this  Rice-Pasta Pilaf  recipe years ago thinking, "Hey, this looks like Rice-A-Roni," because the best way to get the people I know to try new things is to tuck it in something familiar. The key here is the cilantro. If it looks like too much, it's probably not enough. We had enough rice for leftovers the next day and I had to season it again . Also, if you really want it to look like Rice-A-Roni you have to break your spaghetti into super-small pieces. I wasn't too worried about it. ********* I'm sure you want a cereal update. I only have one in the pipeline right now, probably next week.

I know it seems like I've been saying this a lot lately but here's another recipe I've been dying to try:  granola bars . I swear my print version calls them Chewy Granola Bars but the website says Cinnamon Granola Bars, which makes sense since the article was about cinnamon. Anyway, they are  chewy granola bars. I'd never used wheat germ in my life; back in the early '90s my dad went on a wheat germ kick, so I always thought of it as weird health food. It actually helps with the composition of the bars; otherwise, I'm not sure if an all-oat chunk could really be called a bar. I especially liked that it only made twelve bars--what would I possibly do with more than that? As it was, I took half to class and everybody raved. Next time I make them--there will definitely be a next time--I'll be sure to try adding dried fruit bits. All I had this time was a bag of dried apricots, not that there was anything bad about that.

I liked this recipe so much I felt punny when I took post-dinner notes. It's  Tabbouleh with Green Beans and Feta . Tabbouleh is one of those dishes I've been meaning to try forever but chickened out for whatever reason. But now that I have bulgur in the house I need to use it, so why not try a tabbouleh with ingredients I know and love (green beans and feta)? The only thing I didn't have was a steamer basket, so I just boiled the green beans for six minutes--they probably weren't as crisp as they would've been otherwise but they weren't mushy, either. The dressing gives it a sweet-tart flavor and really balances the feta. This would be a great alternative to pasta salad during grilling season (and the leftovers hold up well, too)!

(Well, as instant as I get, anyway. I need my ideas to marinate a little bit.) Do you ever read a recipe in a magazine and think, I need to make this now? My "now" took a week but it resulted in these  Island Burgers  from Good Housekeeping last month. I have a go-to turkey burger recipe but I'm open to trying others. The only thing I wasn't too sure about was the jerk seasoning, so I cut it back by half a teaspoon and it still had plenty of flavor. It was almost like eating a taco in a burger with the heat and spice in the meat cooled by the mixture of Greek yogurt and mango. And the leftovers for some reason didn't taste as spicy. I also hadn't had an English muffins in ages . My child memory has them feeling dry and having a weird aftertaste so I never really had any desire to eat them as an adult--except for the occasional Egg McMuffin, but I haven't had one of those in years, either. The multigrain ones from Thomas' that I used for this recipe

(As you'll see, I'm still a bit behind.) This Easter we had guests, so it was the perfect excuse to make a cake.  Angel Flake Coconut Cake , to be precise. It seems there's a lot of coconut cake recipes out there but I saw this one first and made up my mind immediately. I have to be honest, though. The frosting sounded kind of gross to me. I don't really want pudding (however pudding-y it may have been mixed with the Cool Whip) on my cake. That's two separate desserts that I don't want to combine. I know, that's really rare for me. But anyway, since we're kind of over super-sweet frostings, I thought I'd try a  Greek yogurt frosting . Yes, it's for cupcakes, but I didn't need that much anyway. It came out as more of a glaze but that was actually perfect, since I only had enough flaked coconut for the cake batter and the finished layers (it was left over from the  coffee cake  I made in March). The sides were bare but that can make for a pre

Have you ever woken up and said to yourself, I want to try oatmeal pancakes? I hadn't either, until a few weeks ago. I don't know why but I dove into some 'net research and settled on this one:  Oaty Pear 'n Pecan Pancakes . I had the oats, of course, some Aunt Jemima pancake mix that needed to be eaten, and a pear. I omitted the pecans but I can see how they would complement the oats. The texture of these oatmeal pancakes is a little...textured, I guess. They're not gritty; the oats have softened somewhat. But you can tell the difference from a regular pancake. And the chopped pear cooked up just enough for me to be able to tolerate it. I'd actually forgotten to consider that when choosing this recipe.

So a few weeks back I made a  sugar-free banana bread . Why sugar-free? I thought for the occasion there'd be plenty of other sweets/baked goods, so I was just trying to be courteous. Also I needed a simple recipe due to time constraints. Since there's no sugar, the flavor really hinges on the bananas. They have to be just the right amount of ripe, and I think I could've used a whole cup. But it tastes exactly how you how might imagine, like a banana bread with no sugar. I should've brought along a flavored cream cheese or butter; I ate it as is, but you might prefer a topper. Maybe next time I'll do healthy and sweet. It's possible!

I used to eat Nature Valley granola bars all the time in college; in fact, it was one of my four food groups--granola bars, Lunchables, Pop Tarts, and Hot Pockets. Little did I know that the College Student Diet was going to screw with my gums. You know those long slivers of oat that you sometimes find in granola bars? I had one of those get stuck deep in my gums one too many times, which made them (already sensitive no thanks to yours truly) puffy and red, and I decided, that's it, no more Nature Valley. So I've gone *coughcough* years since trying any  new Nature Valley products but the granola finally piqued my curiosity. Also the coupon helped. I went with the basic Oats 'n Honey so the flavor wouldn't mask any shortcomings. And, actually, there aren't any. The texture is nothing like the granola bars. It has a nice toasted crunch which also rounds out the honey's sweetness. It's not so flimsy that it immediately gets soggy or full of hard chunks that

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I'll admit it again: I've never had Grape Nuts. Ever in my life. Never. I'm still not entirely sure what they are--some kind of nugget-y thing. I know there's no grapes or nuts involved. So I thought I'd try Grape Nuts Fit because there's a little more to it. Then my mind was made up for sure two weeks ago for two reasons: there was a coupon attached, and the flavor was Cranberry Vanilla. I didn't realize it had a flavor. The cereal consists of the original Grape Nuts, granola, puffed barley (which reminds me of Golden Crisp), and nicely-sized dried cranberries. I didn't really pick up on a vanilla flavor but that might've been overpowered by the other cereal I mixed with this. I can't see myself eating a bowl of this straight, so I'll continue mixing.

Even though I haven't blogged all the side dishes yet, I still thought I'd wrap this up today. The most important thing I learned is that with a little planning, you don't have to rely so much on boxed sides. This plays to my strengths of plans and lists. Lots of lists. It's a great opportunity to try more grains and eat more vegetables. I hadn't anticipated that part. And since it ended up being not that hard, I don't see a reason to give it up. There's still so many recipes out there--I couldn't possibly get to them all.

You may recall an entry from a few weeks back: I tried mmm...muffins Blueberry Muffins oatmeal and  I screwed it up.  I also said I'd try it again with a few adjustments. Okay, one adjustment, really. I used the same small pot as before, adding water and oats together (which is not  what the package directs). Then I brought it all to a boil, turned it down and simmered for 90 seconds. Finally I took it off the burner and put a lid on it for two minutes. Ta-da! Real oatmeal. It seems these rolled oats just take a little bit longer to cook--that's the difference between barely softened, runny oat water and actual  oatmeal. It still has a more chewy texture than the instant oatmeal you're used to but the flax seeds provide a crunchy contrast. Also, your desired thickness may vary so definitely lift the lid and check after the first minute. I could've splashed some milk on there to loosen it up a little but it wasn't a huge deal.

Seriously, I think I've made three recently and there's others that I haven't gotten to yet. This one is a Vegetable Rice Pilaf , another simple side dish where I just had to throw in some frozen vegetables. I was worried it wouldn't be enough but the ratio of vegetables to rice actually worked out fine. I think my bag was supposed to have lima beans in it but I swear I didn't see any. There's really not much more to add. Mild flavor, simple side.

I'm getting out of order with my blog entries (not that you'd know the difference) but when I saw the cover of this month's Relish I knew I had to make these  Easy Cream Cheese Danish . You may ask, cream cheese? Really? Yes, really. I can eat it baked--even baked a scant fifteen minutes. And I already had peach-mango preserves in the fridge, so, why not? My mother didn't believe you could use any flavor of preserves: "Strawberry?" Yes, any.  "Apricot?" Yes, the recipe says any flavor. Two recipe notes: I cut the recipe in half since you're basically eating two crescent rolls at a time. It would also be easy to double this for a crowd (hopefully a crowd with helpful hands). And don't skip the brown sugar step (although I eyeballed the amount--a tablespoon was too much per portion for my taste). That's what elevates this from cream cheese and crescent rolls to   Danish.

I went way  back for this one. Back to when I was only collecting recipes to be collecting them, not making them. In fact, the name has changed:  Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey and Cinnamon  was originally called "Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey Butter." The name change makes sense though, since there's no butter involved. I was traveling two weeks ago and wanted a side dish with little effort when I got home. I'd say dumping all the ingredients on a roasting pan and sticking it in the oven is not all that much effort. The only thing I really needed to change was the amount of potatoes. Two was more than enough for three people. I guess I haven't really figured out sweet potato sizes yet. And because I used fewer potatoes, I should have also cut back on the amount of olive oil. But everything else came together; now I have another way to cook sweet potatoes for the majority of the year.

I never really study a box right before opening--the only thing I'm thinking is "need. food. now."--so what poured out of the box this morning was not what I was expecting. I thought it would just be regular Honey Bunches of Oats with some chocolate chunks and almonds so imagine my surprise to find big chocolate oat clusters in my cereal bowl. I was concerned at first that they would be too chocolaty but picture Cocoa Krispies with oat clusters instead of rice. I think they're just dusted with cocoa powder (and maybe sealed with honey for good measure) and they are...I don't know, I use "delicious" so much. But everything about this cereal is pretty close to perfect. From the clusters to the small chocolatey bits to the almonds, I feel like a lot of thought went into this product. I used this to top off my Crispix and banana this morning and I can't believe it never occurred to me to put chocolate and bananas together. I mean, I just finished off a

I had to get this in while I was still in a hot cereal mood. My initial reaction...it's hard to say. I think "disappointment" is too strong a word. It's just that I've had other flavors of Cream of Wheat that I've liked better. This one just tasted like Cream of Wheat with banana extract added. Of course it's going to have artificial flavor but it was just too much . That's the only way I can describe it. Too much. But I can't complain entirely. Sliced bananas in real Cream of Wheat isn't ever going to happen for me, so...next best thing? I may change my mind the next time I have it.

Another halved main dish for the Lent Challenge:  Lime Couscous with Summer Veggies . Of course, it's barely Spring, but I had half a box of couscous and needed to do something with it. Yeah, so...half a box of couscous was actually too much, so the end product was sticker than usual but we still ate it. And after previous attempts to use lime juice didn't go over too well, I went with the lemon juice substitution. I also could've used a little bit more dressing but overall it had a nice flavor and we got to eat summer squash and carrots. I can't really complain, just tinker.

I know I've been saying it a lot lately: easy, easy, easy. But I mean it this time (and, well, every time): this  Pork and Egg Lo Mein  is really easy to put together. Actually most skillet dishes are, which I why I make so many of them. Sliced pork and red pepper, cooked egg, a bag of broccoli slaw--hardly any work involved at all. So why did it take me two years to try it? Well, I'd never tried oyster sauce before--that I knew of. If you smell or taste it though, you realize it's a familiar flavor in Chinese takeout. It makes this dish taste just like store-bought lo mein, but fresher. Maybe they still use MSG where I live, I don't know, but this recipe just felt lighter and healthier. And I'd never had broccoli slaw, either, come to think of it. My 12 oz. bag was plenty, by the way; I think the 4 cups the recipe calls for would've been overkill. ****** Totally off-topic but I had to acknowledge the passing of my favorite website ever ,  Television Without

You know, I didn't think it was possible to combine raisins and Mini-Wheats. The contrast in textures and sizes wouldn't work well on a spoon. Then Kellogg's had to go and stick raisins inside  the Mini-Wheats. Of course! I finally tried it this morning. Smell test first: like a box full of raisins. I approve. Then the taste test--first, a hint of cinnamon. Then a mushy interior that reminded me of plum baby food. Then I got the raisins at the end. Yep, it's definitely a raisin filling. I was skeptical at first but it's actually pretty good. This might be my new favorite Fruit in the Middle. (I just checked the label. There's not actually any cinnamon in there. Still good, though.)

(The backlog keeps growing but I'm skipping ahead to a cereal review because I wanted to get one in this month.) Strawberry Fields is the Kashi equivalent to Special K Red Berries, the main difference being more grains in your flakes (rice plus red wheat). I thought I'd try it because I really liked the multigrains in Raisin Vineyard but I have to say, the quinoa in Raisin Vineyard adds a little something. It's a little lighter and crispier, I think. That red wheat can get really crunchy, so I prefer the contrast in textures. Not that Strawberry Fields is bad, mind you. The freeze-dried strawberries had a really intense berry flavor--I don't know if they were super-ripe to begin with or perhaps it's the combination of strawberries and raspberries. To be honest, though, I didn't even notice the raspberries. I was in a hurry last week when I opened that box; I'll try to be more observant next time.

I don't know how long  Pi Day  has been around but I always forget about it every year. Two days after the fact I found a slideshow of pies at bettycrocker.com and settled on  this one , Scrumptious Apple Pie. So, is it? In a word: yes, although I think of scrumptious foods being a little more decadent, which is the opposite of how I like my apple pie. I want my apple pies to be simple and not weighed down with a bunch of spices and what-have-you. The apples should be highlighted , not masked, and that's precisely what this pie does. You can't get much more scrumptious than that.

If you need a side dish on a weeknight, you want something easy, right? Well, that's what I thought when I found this recipe for  Basil-Infused Pasta . I halved the recipe to make it side-sized: half the spaghetti, half the pesto. What I forgot  to halve was the reserved pasta water. I realized this halfway through the (second) cooking time, when I looked in the pot and thought, "There's no way all this water's going to get absorbed in fifteen min...ohhhh." So I dumped half the water, and of course, there went half my basil flavor. The rest was edible, not terrible, but obviously lacking. I blame my just waking up from a nap and trying to get my head on straight. I did, however, make a tasty pesto mayo with some of the extra pesto. Just a tablespoon of pesto in 1/2 cup of mayo was all the basil-y goodness I needed.

So one of my approaches to the side dish challenge has been to find meatless meals and cut them in half. I picked this recipe,  Couscous with Dates, Raisins and Almonds  to complement  this salmon . It was  kind of tricky to keep my orange zest, orange juice and cinnamon straight, so I'll recommend making sure you're fully awake and alert to do this. Once I marinated the salmon, there was no stopping until dinner was served. But back to the couscous. I omitted the dates but I didn't really feel their absence. Even with the recipe halved it still cooked correctly in an 8x8 pan. Yes, there's a lot of steps but it's definitely worth it. Especially the toasted almonds. I can't believe I'd never toasted almonds before. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I can't really put into words what toasting does to sliced almonds but if I hadn't, the dish would have been more bland. More blah. Oh, and don't be afraid of the cinnamon. It doesn't

Actually, no, I made a coffee cake.  Muffin Glory Cake , to be precise. I don't how I find these recipes. Obviously I'm not specifically searching for "recipes made with muffin mix that aren't  muffins." But the add-ins reminded me of carrot cake and you know how much my dad loves carrot cake. Yeah...he ate most of this. I skipped the glaze--I didn't think it was necessary--and omitted the nuts but followed the rest exactly. Which is probably why it burned slightly. The recipe says 400 degrees but the coffee cake instructions on the box say 375. I think it would've turned out better had I done it that way. ***** I know you're wondering, where's the cereal reviews? Next week. Really. At least one.

It isn't often that I make a dish for which everybody  wants the recipe but last week--during my Side Dish Challenge--I did. It's pretty straightforward, this  Simmered Italian Rice ; rice, chicken broth, Italian seasoning, Parmesan. Oh, and fresh spinach. Who couldn't do that? Apparently my brother thinks he can. His cooking knowledge is limited, so I was definitely surprised when he asked for this recipe. I've been trying to choose my sides based on their ingredients complimenting the main dish, so I served this alongside  Mediterranean Herb Crusted Tilapia  (which, apparently, I hadn't mentioned here before. Huh).

So you know how Bisquick products always taste like Bisquick? Like how I can tell the difference between scratch biscuits and Bisquick ones, or homemade waffles and the Bisquick version? Not that that's a bad thing. I bring it up because if you like Bisquick waffles you should try  Banana-Nut Waffles , which is the familiar taste plus bananas and nuts. Everybody in my family liked them; my brother even ate the leftovers. Out of everything I've made over the last week or so, this gets my highest ranking. I didn't follow the recipe quite exactly (you know I don't bake with nuts) so I offered the pecans as a topping along with the maple syrup. If I'd had leftover banana--actually, I had just enough--I would've sliced that as a topping, too. Who doesn't like a waffle bar? But anyway, the mashed bananas in the waffle batter were plenty of banana flavor. It didn't even need extra spices. If I come across a scratch recipe, though, I'll give that a shot as

I always use guests as an excuse to bake but if I had known they'd given up dessert for Lent, obviously I wouldn't have insulted them in that way. I mean, I made these  Spiced Oat and Pear Blondies  right in front of them! And they made so many... But anyway, I hope you like brown sugar. If so, you'll be in brown sugar heaven. These blondies are super-sweet, like a classic kind of blondie you might get at a restaurant with unnecessary ice cream and flavored syrup...but at least these have fruit? I'd never used a Bosc pear before and mine were huge. Only one was needed to make two cups. I also have to say, the second time around tasted better than the first. And they also have plenty of oats. And I'm going to eat one more, so there's that. ****** I don't usually mention snack/junk foods here but my visiting brother likes to graze so these products get the cerealfyre stamp of approval: Chex Mix Popped, Green Giant Sweet Potato Fries (they're really mo

Well, it's happened again: the dreaded blog backlog. I'm actually skipping over entries so I could write today about the granola I just tried. It was that  good, I guess. I can still taste the honey. The sweetness reminds me of Quaker's honey bun oatmeal (I think they still make that)--light but intense. The clusters aren't overly crunchy and there's just the right distribution of almond slivers. I didn't need to pick any out or shake the bag looking for some. I look forward to eating this again.

That was the idea, anyway. Why not stick a meatless meal in between two meat-heavy days? I came across this  Asian-Style Fried Rice and Beans  while on my side dish search and didn't want to cut this one in half. Luckily we had guests coming, so I knew it would get eaten. Seriously, it makes a lot. There's still some left over! As you may know, I make a few  shrimp fried rice   dishes  so I had the general idea. The brown rice and chickpeas in this make it very filling; I didn't even need a cheater egg roll (baked for the meatless-objectors). I thought it was pretty good but didn't need the lime juice. I understand why it's there--the lime complements the tart/citrusy flavor of the cilantro--but it's just a matter of personal taste. I will definitely make this again when the opportunity arises and probably scramble an egg in it, too.

No, not giving up cereal! Ha ha. But even though I've been giving things up for Lent for a while now, I didn't realize until last year that I respond well to a challenge. This year I've given up processed sides, which challenges me to find side dish alternatives. Here's the first:  Lemon Orzo . I started with this one because I've made it before (although I vaguely remember it). I wasn't sure how exactly simmered orzo was going to cook so I brought the water to a boil first and then simmered the rest of the way. It was fully cooked and all the liquid absorbed in 15 minutes. The trick is to add lemon juice to taste. Don't just dump it all in there, unless you really, really like the flavor of lemon. Not tasting my food first is a bad habit I've got to kick. ****** Happy National Cereal Day! I celebrated by eating one spoonful too many of  Island Vanilla  squares/biscuits.

I was determined to try somebody  else's oatmeal before the winter was out, and who could resist blueberry muffins? I'll start with this: mine did not turn out like the  picture on the box . I had hot chewy oats and runny water. I'm used to thick, creamy instant oatmeal. Now there's several reasons this may have happened. Perhaps it's optimal to be made with milk. That's not going to happen, so, next. Perhaps it's best made in the microwave. I tried the stovetop option after realizing at the last minute that I couldn't make it with boiling water like the Quaker kind (always read your instructions!). I did exactly as it said but my oats just weren't thickening. So I dumped it in my bowl and tried microwaving. That didn't help, plus  I burned my tongue. Did I mention this was Monday morning? I must've been operating on an Oscar hangover. So I will try this on the stove again, this time adding the oats before  bringing the water to a boil li

I like to make scratch biscuits every now and then but they're usually so buttery. Enter the  yogurt biscuit . I'm only just now familiarizing myself with the other potential uses for Greek yogurt, so this is the first recipe I tried. I wasn't going to buy self-rising flour for just one recipe, though, so I had to adapt some all-purpose flour with baking powder and salt. Now maybe they didn't rise as much as they should have but I still had normal-looking biscuits. They were less fluffy and more chewy like the recipe said but that was fine by me. I'll probably add this to my biscuit recipe rotation.