And baby makes three...

...hours between "milkings."

Caught you off guard there, didn't I?

Yes, as mentioned briefly in my last (and very belated) post, our little bundle of joy is here.  Baby G is rockin' it so far.  We love him to bits.  So much so that, after our nursing partnership turned into more of an angry one-sided relationship, I have dedicated much of my days to making "magic Mommy Juice" by exclusively pumping (EPing) and feeding it to our little man via bottle.  It's great, because Hubs gets to help!

Here he is, my lazy baking partner!  Graham Raymond Richard, born 11-Oct-2013, 5 lb 14 oz!  Proud first time mommy, daddy, and grandparents are all doing well.

How is this relevant to my food blog?  Well, since we have an extremely hungry little man (born a little too small for everyone's liking), milk-making has become a big deal around here.  It's pretty much the ONLY food I make these days; we adults have mostly been subsisting on leftovers generously provided by friends and family or frozen microwave/oven meals.

I swear, there's a recipe in this post.

See?? I swear this isn't all about baby!!

I'm trying all sorts of things to make the most Magic Mommy Juice possible.  I forget how I came across this recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip "lactation cookies", but I finally (after 3 1/2 weeks with G-man) got a spare hour to pull them together.  They're tasty (and, they're a perfect excuse to eat cookies without impunity)!!

Apparently the "magic" ingredients are oatmeal (I've been eating a huge bowl every morning), flax, and brewer's yeast.  I've used flax before as an egg substitute, so that was nothing new.  I'd never seen brewer's yeast before, but after some help from a Bulk Barn associate, I got my hands on some.  I used the max amount called for in the recipe (4 Tbsp, or 1/4 cup); it sort of made the cookies taste malted.  Reminded me of an oatmeal stout I had once.  Not a bad thing!!

Here's the brewer's yeast!  It's very interesting in that it's a byproduct of beer-making; it's not active or alive at all (it's already done its job, making delicious booze!)  I had a guy in Bulk Barn try to convince me to buy active brewing yeast from his website; the helpful store associate chided him for trying to steal away customers!  Plus I had to explain to him that this wasn't for home brewing.  He didn't believe me.

My lonely Kitchenaid; it's been about a month since she saw any use!!  Mixing up the dough here.

Finished product!  Tasty stuff.  Even Hubs had one (after I assured him that they wouldn't turn him into a dairy cow like me)!  I've packaged some up for my friend with a 4-month-old, and there's a store of them in the freezer for whenever Teh Kimmeh's baby girl bundle of joy arrives!

Ah, motherhood.  It's all new and exciting to me, but I'm doing my best (with the amazing, constant, wonderful support of Hubs) to have my cookies and eat them too!

Thinking that Medela is the most wonderful company in the world,
-Honeybee

Sometimes, the simplest breakfasts are the best.

Case(s) in point, which need very little input from me:

Eggs over easy, bacon, wheat toast with margarine, and peach slices.  Coffee alongside.  Gorgeous.

Correction: the eggs are basted, not over-easy.  I had enough bacon grease in the pan to do 'em up like Grandma used to.  Look at that lovely yolk!

My obsession with blood oranges rages in February, when they're in season.  Freshly-squeezed blood orange and clementine juice, on ice, with a touch of Splenda to sweeten.

Add a bowl of hot maple & brown sugar oatmeal, and you've got Sunday breakfast.

Just one lone blood orange left- I bought a bag of nine or so on Thursday.  Obsession, thy name is Honeybee.  More on the citrus cravings in a future post-- I must stop procrastinating and get some work done.

Happy breakfasting,
-Honeybee

Sunday Cranberry Apple Oatmeal Pancakes

 Some mornings just call for a large, pampering breakfast.  For example, the morning after the consumption of a bottle of wine at a dubious “wine bar” and copious amounts of dancing at Gio’s… thankfully pancakes seem to have anti-vino-hangover-headache properties for me.  Huzzah.

Normally, I cure hangovers with a super-greasy bacon-and-eggs breakfast… but I already felt bad enough about myself, so I reached (yes, AGAIN) for my G.I. Diet Clinic’s recipe for oatmeal pancakes and fiddled with it a bit.  I’ve made these pancakes before… the only downside is the 20-minute oat-soaking time period.  But, just get them soaking, make some coffee, prep the rest of the ingredients, and feed your cats… it doesn’t take much extra time overall.  Undoctored, these are delicious, but they needed some oomph for me this morning.  I accomplished this “thusly”, as Alton would say:

Oatmeal Cranberry Apple Pancakes
Adapted from “The G.I. Diet Clinic” by Rick Gallop
(Seriously, I hope he doesn’t sue me)

Makes five respectable-sized pancakes… which is supposed to be 2 servings for those without hangovers.  One serving for those suffering for their EtOH transgressions.

• A generous 1/3 cup large-flake oats
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 1/8 cup (or 2 tbsp) ground flaxseed
• ½ tbsp Splenda
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 1 Omega-3 egg
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¼ of a large apple, peeled and chopped
• ¼ cup dried cranberries

1. In a 2-cup measuring cup, soak oats in buttermilk for 20 minutes
2. In large bowl, combine flour, flaxseed, Splenda, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. When the 20 minutes is up, whisk the egg, oil, and vanilla into the buttermilk-oats mixture.  Pour over flour mixture and stir until just mixed.  Add the apple and cranberries and stir just to incorporate.
4. Meanwhile, heat non-stick griddle or large non-stick frying pan over medium heat.  Give it a quick spritz of non-stick spray oil.  Ladle about a half of a soup-ladle’s worth of batter onto the griddle for each pancake.  Cook until bubbles appear on top, edges are starting to brown, and the top has almost completely lost its shiny “uncooked” sheen (about 3 minutes or so)
5. Flip pancakes and cook for another minute or two until golden.  Transfer to a plate and devour. 

I call this piece, "As the Pancake Turns".  But is it art? ;)

These doctored pancakes are probably okay in the G.I. world, but what I did to them next most definitely is NOT:

That’s right.  Margarine and table syrup.  It’s not even light syrup, which tastes gross to me.  I was tempted to buy the “diabetic” pancake syrup in the store, but I couldn’t justify spending twice the amount of money for half the amount of product.  It’s also not maple syrup, which is incredibly expensive and, in my opinion, too runny.  My mom always bought a huge jug of No Name table syrup for family pancake mornings, and if it was good enough for her, it’s more than good enough for me.  Blood sugar levels be damned!! (Well, for me.  No disrespect to those for whom monitoring this level is serious business).

The combination of a warm, sunny (if windy!) fall morning combined with these delicious pancakes chased away the blahs of overindulgence from the night before.  A great start to a gorgeous Sunday.

Wishing that all pancakes could be considered healthy,

-Honeybee

Outrageously overboard oatmeal

I've been really enjoying this whole blogging adventure so far.  However, I think I might be coming off as a touch obsessed to those nearest and dearest to me.  Case in point: I finished prepping a simple meal while talking to Hubs via Skype.  I sat down to eat it, and he promptly shouted, "WAIT!!!"  Utensil already halfway to mouth, I shot him a curious look... to which he jokingly inquired, "Aren't you going to take pictures of it first?!"  If memory serves, it was mac and cheese.  Not exactly blog-worthy... but sadly, the thought HAD crossed my mind even before Hubs interjected.  Am I just dedicated?  Slightly obsessed?  Who knows?  And to borrow Hubs' life philosophy, who cares?!

Anyhow, I opened with that little interlude because the oatmeal I made reminded me of it.  I mean, really, what's so special about oatmeal?  Why blog about it?  Well, two things.  One: I feel as though making homemade, not-from-quick-cook-oats, honest boiled-on-the-stovetop oatmeal is going the way of the dodo.  Why go to the trouble when it's so easy to hit up Quaker for an instant single-serving pouch of pre-flavoured hot cereal?  Two: The G.I. Diet cookbook has a good and simple recipe, I was out of cold cereal, and I had a bunch of fruit and nuts that I thought might combine together nicely.  This led me to making a giant bowl oatmeal a few weekends ago.  The base recipe is G.I. friendly, but I doctored it up with a few extra ingredients.  Therefore, I do not recommend its use for weight loss purposes... just for delicious breakfasts.  Read on!

Homey Strawberry-Apple-Hazelnut Oatmeal

Adapted from "The G.I. Diet Clinic" by Rick Gallop

Makes one gigantic bowl (technically two servings)

• 1 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup large-flake whole oats (not quick-cooking or rolled oats; read carefully!)
• 1/8 cup (or 2 tbsp) wheat germ
• 1/8 cup (or 2 tbsp) chopped hazelnuts
• About 1/4 cup frozen strawberries
• About 1/4 of a large apple, peeled and diced
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In large pot, bring milk, water, cinnamon and salt to boil.
2. Stir in oats and wheat germ and return to boil.
3. Reduce heat to low.  Add strawberries, apple and vanilla.
4. Cook, stirring, for about 8 minutes or until thickened.
5. Stir in hazelnuts and honey.  Let cool slightly and serve.

I'm not really sure what possessed me to add all of those flavours into one bowl, but it worked.  Obviously, you can doctor this by adding any type of nut or fruit you so desire.  I usually just throw in a handful of dried cranberries or raisins, along with some rough-chopped almonds.  The original recipe calls for Splenda instead of honey, to make it G.I.-friendly, so that's an option too.  If you're trying for healthy, though, remember to split the quantities in half here; my recipe makes enough for two people.

An important point, before I go: I'm not meaning to knock instant oatmeal.  I was practically raised on the peaches-and-cream and maple-and-brown-sugar Quaker varieties.  Mmm.  But, I know how loaded with sugar those can be; and honestly, it doesn't take that much longer to make homemade oatmeal (as a former coworker pointed out).  You can even make this by combining all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and popping it in the microwave for about five minutes, stirring every so often... the only concern is that sometimes it boils over and makes a mess in your appliance (hence why I recommend a larger bowl).

This isn't actually a cereal bowl; it's a medium-sized mixing bowl.  This was a VERY hearty portion.

Hoping I've inspired some of you to return to a simpler time of homemade porridge,
-Honeybee