Oats Archives - Kitchenmess

For those of you who love granola, it can easily be made within the comfort (and confines) of your own small kitchen (trust me, I know this because I have a small kitchen) in a total of less than 30 minutes. All you need is the base ingredient, rolled oats, plus fruits and nuts of your own choosing. The beauty of making your own granola at home is the control you can exercise over what goes exactly into your pot (not to mention the considerable cost savings). As an additional bonus, it also leaves your house smelling absolutely amazing for hours afterwards (thanks to the cinnamon). The honey delicately sweetens the oats while the sea salt adds an interesting savoury dimension that makes your tastebuds hunger for more. Try this recipe for yourself – it is not overly sweet and is sure to become a real crowd-pleaser.

Granola with Honey and Seasalt (19 of 29)

INGREDIENTS:

(Serves 10. Makes 6 cups.)

4 cups of organic rolled oats
1/3 cup of organic coconut oil
2/3 cup of organic honey
1 teaspoon of organic vanilla essence
1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1 cup of chopped nuts and dried fruits (I used a breakfast mix – pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and blueberries, raisins, flax seeds – plus a handful of almonds I crushed myself).

Granola with Honey and Seasalt (2 of 29)

METHOD:

1) Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Line two roasting trays (or if you have large over, one roasting tray) with parchment paper. If using raw almonds, crush the almonds in a mortar and pestle.

2) Mix all the dry ingredients together – oats, cinnamon, salt, chopped nuts and fruits – in a large bowl.

Granola with Honey and Seasalt (28 of 29)

3) Mix all the wet ingredients together – coconut oil, honey, vanilla essence – in a smaller bowl.

Granola with Honey and Seasalt (27 of 29)

4) Combine to two together by pouring the wet ingredients into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir together with a spatula (or your hands) until the oats are all evenly coated.

5) Spread the mixture onto the two roasting trays in an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes. Then remove from oven and stir. Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Granola with Honey and Seasalt (22 of 29)

6) Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely. Store it in an airtight container for storage.

Granola with Honey and Seasalt (6 of 29)

To serve as a healthy breakfast treat, top the granola with some greek yoghurt, fruit (I used nectarines), and drizzle with honey. Can also simply be served with milk. Enjoy 🙂

Decided to add another pancake recipe to my rather paltry breakfast collection on Kitchenmess. To amp up the fibre content of the pancakes, this time round I decided to inject some “oat goodness” to the wholewheat batter. To further boost the “health appeal” of these pancakes, I added some greek yoghurt into the batter and some baking powder to give the pancakes more “fluff”.

As for the syrup, I went a bit experimental by simmering the blueberries with maple syrup in an attempt to make my own home made blueberry compote. No rocket science here but these pancakes are not only healthy, but they also taste superb. For those of you who have kids, it’s definitely something you can feed your kids on without the associated guilt factor.

INGREDIENTS:

For pancakes (serves 1 – makes 3 medium sized pancakes):

1/3 cup wholewheat flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup full-cream/2% reduced fat milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons of yoghurt
Butter, for frying pancakes

For blueberry compote:

1/2 cup of blueberries
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 tablespoon of water

METHOD:

1) Make blueberry compote. Heat a saucepan over low-medium heat. Chuck in the blueberries and add maple syrup and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer for 5 minutes. Keep warm.

2) Make pancakes. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Pour in milk and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla essence. Whisk together until well combined.

3) Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add a small pinch of butter. Once melted, add a ladleful of pancake batter and cook on low heat. Flip when bubbles start to rise to top and continue to cook until batter cooks all the way through. Repeat process for remaining batter.