Tag Archives: dessert lovers

Gingerbread White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

My sister and her husband hooked me up for Christmas. In addition to the fantastic vanilla bean paste they gave me, I also received four bags of nondairy white chocolate chips. Hooray! Time to make those white chocolate recipes I’ve been dreaming up.

017

The white chocolate chips add an unexpected sweetness that mellows out the intense gingerbread spices. To keep this porridge healthy, go easy on the chocolate chips. The banana makes the oatmeal sweet and healthy, and a small handful of white chocolate chips will just add a hint of pizzazz.
(more…)


Peanut Butter Blossom Baked Oatmeal

Once upon a time, I liked cookies. Doesn’t every child? I loved my mother’s chocolate chip cookies (why was the rest of the world incapable of making decent chocolate chip cookies??), the white chocolate chip macadamia cookies from Subway, big puffy snickerdoodles, fork-pressed peanut butter cookies, frosted sugar cookies, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the incredible peanut butter blossom.

001

Now, I must rant that I’ve never understood why people are so incessant about this being a “holiday cookie.” What the heck does a peanut butter cookie with a chocolate Kiss have to do with the holidays? Nothing.
(more…)


Sweet Potato Gingerbread Oatmeal

Sweet potatoes are so dreamy. They can be silky and creamy, or fried and crunchy. They can be salty and packed with herbs, or sweet and packed with spices. I do love me some sweet potato oatmeal.

sweet-potato-gingerbread-oatmeal-25282-2529

This recipe is quite different from my other gingerbread recipes, mostly because I allowed sweet potatoes to be the star. It seemed pointless to mask the sweet potato flavors completely since I already have gingerbread recipes, so I intentionally elected to make this more of a “gingerbread-spiced sweet potato” recipe (and I’m pleased with the results).

(more…)


Cranberry Brownie Baked Oatmeal

I need to go back to all my chocolate baked oatmeals and redo them. I need to fix them knowing what I know now. I must improve them…ASAP…because I now know the secret to a banana-less, applesauce-less baked oatmeal.

008

It’s avocado. AVOCADO! Duh! Why didn’t I think of that earlier? Avocado is used all the time as a replacement for butter and eggs in vegan baking. Ugh! I could have saved myself from so many unnecessary banana flavors.

This trick worked like a charm for this recipe. I was too lazy to drag out my food processor, so I just mashed the heck out of this avocado and mixed it by hand with the other ingredients. Before adding the oats and cranberries, I tasted the chocolate-avocado mixture…and it’s like PUDDING. It reminded me of the dairy-free pudding I often make when I have avocado to use up…but without the banana!
(more…)


Apple Pie Steel-Cut Oatmeal

My grandma makes a killer apple pie. The apple filling reaches the perfect point between firm slices and mush. I don’t want to have to chew my apples when I’m eating pie, but I don’t want to slurp them like applesauce, either. She nails this balance every time.

apple-pie-steel-cut-2-

The extra special twist is that her apples come from her backyard. An apple tree was planted in her yard each time a new grandkid was born. This means my brother, sister, cousins, and I each have our own apple tree. We take great pride in the apples that grow from them. Each time my grandma makes a pie, someone asks, “Whose apples are these?” There was a stretch of time when my tree was the champion, pumping out dozens of apples throughout the harvesting season. My apple tree is a boss. (more…)


Pumpkin Pie Steel-Cut Oatmeal

For over a year, I had to stomach the fact that my Salted Brownie Baked Oatmeal was my #1 most viewed recipe. I mean, that recipe was fine and dandy, but number one?? C’mon. Not even close. I could name thirty recipes that I’d pick over that one.Luckily for me, the most wonderful thing happened about a month ago. As always, August and September ushered in the yearly pumpkin craze, and my Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal received a great deal of love on Pinterest. Out of nowhere, this recipe vaulted into the #1 spot and surpassed the Salted Brownie by thousands of views. COOL. I feel like my Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal is a much better representative of my blog than the Salted Brownie.

024

I love my pumpkin pie recipes. Certainly, they’re not my MOST favorite, but they’re in my Top Ten. You might think that I’d be satisfied with a stove-top, baked, and overnight version, but no, I’m not finished. Now that I’ve fallen in love with steel-cut oats, it just made sense to add another variation to my pumpkin pie family.

(more…)


Mexican Hot Chocolate Oatmeal

To all of you who turn your noses up every time I stir bananas into my recipes where they don’t belong, you are in luck! With great self-control, I resisted the mashed banana. I did it for YOU.

0031

Obviously, regular hot chocolate is brilliant. I never realized how much I loved hot chocolate until I moved to the East Coast and experienced the brilliance of L.A. Burdick’s and City Bakery. These places serve up rich, thick, chocolate goodness that just coats your throat with luxury. What makes Mexican hot chocolate unique is the addition of cinnamon (and occasionally other spices). I included an optional pinch of cayenne, for I never turn down an opportunity for a little fire!
(more…)


Peach Pie Oatmeal Smoothie

I used to slurp down tons of smoothies. At the beginning of my junior year of college, I used to whip up some relatively extravagant breakfasts (by college student standards, anyway).*  Sometimes that included oatmeal, but not always. (It wasn’t until January or February of that year that oatmeal became a daily ritual.) Often, I would make smoothies. These were usually banana-based (because that’s what I could afford), but I occasionally splurged on mangoes, peaches, or pineapple.

*If you’re interested, here’s a post from my old blog where I documented all my breakfasts for the week.

peach-pie-smoothie-002

I never really added oatmeal to my smoothies, though. I thought of that concept a little over a year ago when I made my Green Monster Oatmeal Smoothie, which was actually just a cheap trick to add variety to my blog (at least I’m honest). I was like, “Hey, I’ll put oats in a smoothie, so I can have something other than porridge recipes on my blog! Har-har!”

But here I am, adding another smoothie recipe to my blog. This time, however, it’s not just a cheap trick. The idea for this recipe came about the other day when I was attempting a new pancake recipe. As I licked the batter, the flavors and creaminess delighted me. It tasted exactly like a peach pie! I realized then that oats in a smoothie add more than just fiber and bulk; they add flavor, too! A smoothie without oats just tastes like peaches. A smoothie with oats tastes earthy and sweet, like someone took a slice of peach pie (crust and all) and blended it up.

(more…)


Tiramisu Oatmeal

[Update: I feel the need to nudge you in the direction of my newer overnight version of this recipe. It’s simpler and tastier. Give it a try!]

I once told you that peach cobbler is my favorite dessert. Another time, I told you it was pumpkin pie. Well, both of those statements are only partly true. Actually, it’s a three-way tie…with tiramisu.

tiramisu-008

In fact, when my birthday rolled around, what did I chose for my “birthday cake?” Yep. Tiramisu. From Vivaldi Cafe in Greenwich Village. There was live jazz. 🙂
(more…)


Cookie Dough Muesli

Yes, there are recipes for instant and edible cookie dough all over the internet. You could certainly make any of them and be perfectly happy.

So why did I make my own version? Well, I didn’t make cookie dough, exactly. I made a muesli form of cookie dough. What up?

cookie-dough-muesli-003

Like I’ve explained before, muesli is a Swiss breakfast consisting of uncooked oats, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits. It’s typically eaten with yogurt, milk, and/or fresh fruit (kind of like granola).

This recipe actually started a year ago when I made CCK’s flourless chocolate chip cookies. I really liked the result, but I realized that I liked the dough even more, and I frequently made it for dessert or a snack. As the months passed, my recipe simplified and progressed until I realized it was kind of like a muesli. Not exactly, but kind of. So that’s what I’m going to call it. 🙂
(more…)