Muesli: An Alternative to Cereal Killers

I'm a huge fan of elaborate, well-balanced breakfasts, but I'm usually running extremely late in the mornings and have to resort to scarfing down a bowl of cereal. Unfortunately, even some of the healthier cereals have high-fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient. As for children's cereals, many have more sugar per serving than a Hostess Twinkie. This may seem irrelevant, but nearly 60% kid's cereal consumers are actually adults!

Thankfully, I've recently stumbled upon a much cheaper and healthier alternative: home-made cereal. This recipe for home-made muesli takes less than 20 minutes, makes at least three times as much cereal as store-bought boxes for under $4 and is absolutely delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs rolled oats
1.5 cups dried fruit
0.5 cup nuts
maple syrup (or honey)

Start out by raiding your local bulk bins for ingredients--get creative! (For this recipe, I used a pound of rolled oats and a half pound of "6-grain hot cereal" from a local store, with whole wheat, rye, oats, barley, sunflower and red wheat.) Grab a large bowl and pour in your rolled oats.

Next, mix in your dried fruits and nuts. Chop up anything larger than raisins and crush any whole nuts with the bottom of your measuring cup. (I used dried apricot, raisins, dried pineapple bits, dates and almonds.)

Finally, mix your ingredients well and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Drizzle maple syrup or honey and broil for 3-5 minutes.

 

Just pick out any slightly burned raisins (it's absolutely impossible for me to not burn anything when I'm cooking!)  and let cool. Put the muesli in your favorite jar and enjoy with milk or yogurt.

Let me know if you have any questions, and good luck!

No Knead to Stress About Bread-Making

My mother is French, so naturally I consume copious amounts of fresh bread. Unfortunately, freshly-baked bread isn't always the most convenient option. Until now.

No Knead Bread has quickly become one of my favorite recipes because it is one of the simplest. Prep takes about 5 minutes, the bread rises for over 12 hours and cook time allows just enough of a break from the kitchen to review for a Biology midterm or edit a French paper. All you need for this recipe is a cast-iron dutch oven (I got myself a deep skillet and cover for $40, and I've used it nearly every week since I got it!)

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon yeast (I use Fleischmann's, but any Active Dry yeast works!)
1 1/2 cup water

Before you get started, preheat your oven to about 450 degrees, and place you dutch oven and lid inside to preheat the cast iron.

First, mix the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. (I decided to make a whole wheat loaf, using half whole wheat and half regular flour. I also added about a teaspoon of fresh rosemary from my backyard!) I always add about a tablespoon of brown sugar because it tends to make tastier bread.

Next, add the water (lukewarm) and pull together into a ball with your hands.

This is the best part. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and stick it in a warm place for over 12 hours to rise. 

Flour up a surface, dump out the dough, flatten it and fold it into a ball. Next, sprinkle some flour or bran (raid some bulk bins) over your dough:

Drop it into the preheated dutch oven, cover and cook for about 30 minutes. Go study something. Uncover and cook for another 15-20 minutes, and voila! Beautiful, delicious, freshly-baked bread.

Just like every other aspect of cooking, baking bread takes a lot of practice. I had beginner's luck and made a perfect first loaf, but it took a few more tries to get it right again. As expected, I burned a few loafs.

Inspired by this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU

Let me know if you have any questions, and good luck!

Smoke in the Kitchen

I believe that anyone can cook. However, after three years of frantically fanning the smoke detectors, putting out flaming saute pans and scraping burnt food scraps straight into the trash, I've realized that cooking takes a lot more practice than the Food Network makes it seem. Though my friends and I still find ourselves dousing flames on occasion, we've discovered that just about anything can be cooked from fresh, healthy ingredients--usually a much cheaper endeavor than frozen dinners or take-out. 

As a college student, I've learned that cooking takes practice and effort. I've also learned that this is well worth the work with respect to one's health and sanity (cooking is not only a great way to procrastinate, but the best de-stresser). Not to mention, using locally-sourced, seasonal ingredients is an easy way to help out the local economy and still be easy on your wallet.

Essentially, I'd love to share my simple, delicious recipes to anyone who just needs a few pointers and some easy recipes to start out with.

Enjoy, and don't be scared to burn anything!