Living in a Cereal World

(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.