Pumpkin Oat Bran

How can you not start your day in a good mood with such a bowl like the one above for breakfast?
I am a firm believer that eating breakfast is essential to start your metabolism in the morning (after hours of fasting overnight) and get you going through your day.
With that in mind I always try to make our breakfast nutritious and delicious, and with a kid in the house sometimes the fun factor enters in the mix and we are sure to have a great start in the morning.
For the bowl pictured above I cooked 1/2 cup of oat bran with 1/2 cup water, 1 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin, about 1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon, a dash of ground clove (or sub 1/2 to 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice) and sweetener to taste (I make mine unsweetened, but Matheus likes his with either honey or maple syrup). Put everything into the pan and cook on medium until oat bran is cooked and you achieved the desired thickness.
I like it more loose than most people, not a fan of thick and gummy oats or oat bran. I like it a bit on the wet side, and since it thicken as it sits, I always take it of the stove before it gets to the consistency I like.
Ultra easy to make, plus oat bran cooks so fast that in less than 10 minutes you have a nice and warm bowl of steamy goodness! Top with a tablespoon of almond butter and you have a totally nutritious breakfast to start your day. (Coconut butter is also amazing with oats and oat bran! I am slightly obsessed with this combo lately...)
And if you are like us, you will strategically place that almond butter right in the center of your bowl, then add a couple of raisin eyes, a chocolate chip mouth and your masterpiece is complete: Mrs. Pumpkin Oat Bran is in the house! (And boy those chocolate chips were delicious in there, melted chocolate goodness!)
The same ingredients are just as good with oatmeal in place of the oat bran. It may take a couple more minutes to cook, but so worth it.
I love oats in all forms!
Ana

Peanut Butter Brownies

Matheus has a thing with the peanut butter grinder of our local natural store. He think is the coolest think to turn it on and see zillions roasted peanuts inside become peanut butter! Does he like peanut butter? Well, not really… but the always begs for me to buy some for him when we go to this particular store, just because of the machine. Most of the time I won’t buy it, but there are some days I end up giving in.
He is always hearing about peanut butter and pb&J sandwiches from his friends; he has tried it several times, but definitely doesn’t care for it at all. Neither my husband nor me grew up eating the stuff ourselves, so we are not crazy for it either (although we all like to eat salted peanuts!). I don’t even buy peanut butter, unless I am making one of my husband’s favorite ice creams, which by the way I should post here, in another post, of course.
The other day Matheus went to the grocery store with me and he had to have his little peanut butter/grinding machine fix, so I bought the smallest amount for him, and we all came home happy.
However, after one week, the thing was still sitting there, at the corner of the refrigerator shelf, completely isolated and ignored. So I decided to use it up in come sort of recipe, and hope that at least someone would eat my baked good.
I then found a recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies, and decided to give it a go, as Matheus declared that he would eat a cake with the peanut butter in it, and oh yes: “I love chocolate chips mommy”!
He indeed ate the brownies, and said he liked it, but nothing major as some other cakes and stuff I make that he really likes (one piece and then it was the brownie’s turn to be forgotten and left in the corner by itself…)
I have to say that this is not my favorite recipe. First of all, because to me brownies should be chocolate! It was actually interesting trying this recipe, as the texture of the finished cake (yes, to me this should be called cake, but anyways…) was exactly like that of a chocolate brownie: was moist and sort of fudgy in the middle. The peanut flavor however was very subtle, so I believe that the amount of PB could be increased here, or maybe adding some crushed peanuts to the batter might help too.
It is super easy and quick to make, so I will post the recipe and the improvement options for you all, in case someone would like to try it! ‘Cause for me… if I want brownies, I will make brownies, and by that I mean chocolate brownies, of course!
Oh, and before I go, I just wanted to say that the chocolate chips were a good complement here, and just as Matheus, I liked them too!
Ana

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Brownies (Adapted from Cooking Light – Jun/00)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate minichips
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 350°.
Coat bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray (do not coat sides of pan).
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, chocolate chips, soda, and salt in a bowl.
Combine sugars and remaining ingredients in a bowl; stir until well-blended. Add flour mixture, stirring just until blended. Spread batter in bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool on a wire rack.

And more cookies…

We were going to have a play date last week and since we were in a chocolate chip cookie mood we decided to make some more to share with the friends. This time though I choose a slightly different recipe, with peanut butter in the dough, as I had some in the fridge that needed to be used up.
Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookies is basically your usual recipe for chocolate chip cookies with a couple tablespoons of peanut butter added to it. I actually upped the peanut butter, adding an extra tablespoon (as I said, needed to use up the peanut butter and I wasn’t going to leave one tablespoon in the fridge anyway…), I also added and extra tablespoon of butter to it, as some people that made the cookies commented on it being a little on the dry side.
Well, ours were not dry or crumbly at all; they were actually perfect, crispy bottom, crunchy edges and chewy middle, very delicious! There were not much peanut butter flavor to it, a very subtle taste, but it definitely added to the texture of the cookies, and since I used natural peanut butter there were those tiny little pieces of ground peanuts through out the cookies, which made them taste even better!
Matheus and the Husband really liked it, and I was very pleased with the results on this one (I am not a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies…), which has already been added to our list of favorites!
If you like chocolate chip cookies do give it a try, cause these are really good!
Oh, and by the way….the play date was rescheduled and we ended up eating all the cookies ourselves during the weekend, yum!
Ana

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg white
3/4 cup regular oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon all-purpose flour into a dry measuring cup, and level with a knife. Combine flour and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Place the granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and egg white in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 2 minutes). Add flour mixture, 3/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup raisins, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips, stirring until ingredients are well combined. Cover and freeze cookie dough for 10 minutes.
Divide cookie dough into 30 equal portions, shaping each one into a ball. Place the dough balls 2 inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray, and flatten dough balls with the bottom of a glass. Bake the dough balls at 350° for 15 minutes. Remove the cookies from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
Yield: 30 cookies
Cooking Light, April 2004