Living in a Cereal World

...before I try overnight oatmeal. Which is exactly what happened. It's officially summer and I just can't deal with hot oatmeal this time of year. I've heard of so-called "overnight oatmeal" in the last year or so but it sounded gross and weird to me. So what changed my mind? I found this recipe from Eating Well for  Raspberry Overnight Muesli : vanilla yogurt, rolled oats, fresh raspberries, almonds. I have all of those things. Okay, I'll try it. And it was actually pretty good. It's not quite like eating cold oatmeal--the visual idea of which totally turned me off--but more like eating yogurt with really soggy granola. This is why the raspberries balanced that out texture-wise for me. I can't imagine substituting blueberries; my mind and tongue just can't handle it. And the crunch of the toasted almonds also helps. I'd actually eat this again. Now I'll have to go back through my recipes and see if I clipped/printed any overnight oatm

...is dessert and breakfast in one. I could've sworn I'd mentioned before how much my dad loves  carrot cake but I can't find a single entry to back me up. Anyway, he does. But he's also stopped eating cake since he started eating healthier and I wanted to respect that for Father's Day. It just so happened that a month or two ago I tore this recipe for  Carrot Cake Pancakes with Sweetened Yogurt  out of a magazine (don't ask me which, it's long gone) with plans to use it eventually. Obviously Father's Day was the perfect time. One of the aspects of the recipe that I was attracted to was the boiled carrots. Yes, really. If you've ever made a carrot cake, you know what a pain it is to grate carrots. So boil and puree with the wet ingredients? Yes, please! (And even so, there's still visible bits of carrots in the finished pancakes, if that's important to you.) Bonus? It turns your batter orange. And it was worth the one-hour refrigeration wai

...like homemade peach muffins. This was a "get rid of stuff in the fridge" morning: I wanted to finish off a bag of frozen peaches and I also had a little bit of whole wheat pastry flour left. Oh, and just enough brown sugar. But the peaches were the point, so I decided to try this  Praline and Peach Muffins  recipe from Betty Crocker. It may not have the greatest rating but they were wolfed down in my house, and that's what important, right? No need to waste perfectly good muffins. I ended up not using all of my frozen peaches--I thought I had too much--but it turned out that I should have because I ended up with the muffin that had one  peach chunk in it. But now I can speak to the muffin itself: sweet, but not too  sweet; not dense or chewy; really, a good muffin base for whatever you might want to throw in there. The idea is to showcase the peaches, not have an overwhelmingly cinnamon streusel-type muffin with some peach chunks tossed in as an afterthought. I'

It has the same simple granola base as the other Bear Naked granolas  I've   tried , which is to say that's not a lot of sweetness, or weird artificial flavors. Or giant clusters. It's especially good as a topping. This one has freeze-dried strawberries, blueberries and raspberries and it still wasn't overkill to add fresh berries to my yogurt. So if you're a fan of subtlety...here you go.

I know I've been cutting back on the dinner entries but this fish was so surprisingly good I couldn't not share it:  Browned Butter Flounder with Lemon Sugar Snap Peas . I've never made browned butter before--out of fear of scorching it--so I've held back on trying any recipe with it. And yes, I may have over-browned it a hair but it still tasted fine. And I messed up the mint step by adding it to the butter sauce but it worked with the thyme. We just poured (or drizzled, technically) it all over the fish and the peas and got the herb flavors, the butter, and  the lemon in every bite. ******* In other delicious flavor news, I finally got my hands on a pack of Thomas' Limited Edition Cinnamon Vanilla English muffins. Soooo much cinnamon. Even more than in the cinnamon raisin variety. They make your kitchen/toaster smell fantastic, too.

Yes, I am finally back with a cereal review and, you know, I really like it when these "touch of" flavors are true to their label. If you're looking for a gluten-free flake cereal, particularly one from Special K, and just want a hint of sweetness, this is a nice option. Of course, my opinions are for entertainment purposes only--maybe it's not  the best gluten-free flake cereal option, for all I know--so if you're on a strict gluten-free diet, you know, do your research. If you're like me, though, and just want a break from wheat sometimes, this is a nice hearty flake that tasted great with the blueberries I piled on yesterday morning (I really  missed my berries while I was away). That reminds me, I think I have another granola to review this week.

...because I just realized I'll need to make something else in August. Anyway, you know how I like to travel with my own cookies for the fiber boost because you never know how you'll be eating on the road/in another place? Well, I do. I thought I'd blogged that at least once but apparently not. Back to the cookie at hand. Or in the kitchen, not too far way, if you want to get technical. Usually I make oatmeal cookies when I travel but I thought I'd try these  Multigrain White Chocolate Cranberry cookies  instead. I already have a go-to white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookie so swapping the oats for some Great Grains (that's the multigrain cereal called for) didn't seem like a huge departure. I used the cranberry almond Great Grains for two reasons: they complemented the other ingredients, and I don't like any of the other flavors of that cereal. They somehow make the cookies chewy and crunchy at the same time. Sometimes you bite down on a flake that'

Now that I've introduced my family to the wonderful world of  scones  it was time I tried another flavor.  It just so happened that I had a banana in the freezer so  Banana Yogurt Scones  it was. As it turned out I actually had a little bit too much banana, so that may have affected the final texture. It wasn't bad, just a bit of a sticky middle layer. I went ahead and separated the scones and then put them back in the oven for three more minutes (any more and they would've been too brown on the bottom). I also don't have a food processor so I made these by hand. It didn't take too  much time. Like most of my Sunday morning recipe forays I'd say roughly thirty minutes, start to oven. I also forgot to sprinkle the turbinado sugar on top but honestly, we didn't miss it. ******** One more thing: I tried Eggland's Best eggs for the first time (that I can remember) yesterday and boy, did they make a fluffy omelet. (And no, I am not being compensated to s