make your own granola

This winter we all switched to oats for breakfast and we haven't looked back. We eat it as oatmeal or muesli with honey, brown sugar, fruit or yoghurt on top.

Oats are delicious and they're a superfood so I feel healthy and virtuous eating them. And its made me extra happy to see the boys head off to school with a healthy filling breakfast. I like that they are good for Mr F's cholesterol too.

Check out this link which explains the many different ways oats are fabulous for you.

I like my oats granola-ed too. If you make your own you can fill the granola with other healthy stuff you love.

When I made my first batch on a whim I just used what I could find in the pantry, I had some leftover cashews and currants and slivered almonds, sultanas, coconut and sesame seeds and we always have maple syrup and brown sugar for cooking and pancakes.

You can't always rely on pantry staples though and this is my current quick, cheap, low fuss method. Buying the additions as mixed bags of nuts and seeds and fruits makes it quick and easy, they sit in the cupboard until I make another batch and its cheaper to get a good variety. Much cheaper than store bought granola too.

I've added a list below to give you some other ideas for ingredients. You could use as many or as few as you liked. The best thing about homemade granola is tailoring it to your own tastes, you can lower the sugar content, omit the salt, make it nutfree and add or leave out anything you want. This version is high in additions. If there are too many for you just add more oats.

Home Made Granola

Ingredients

5 cups traditional oats (don't use instant)
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites (optional, for crispiness)
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp salt

2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 pack Paleo mix or similar
1 pack Orchard mix or similar or see the list of additions below, I like pecans, goji berries and apricots.


Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius fan forced.

Measure oats into a large bowl. Add oil, maple syrup and brown sugar. Add egg whites and salt and vanilla extract.

Mix to coat.

Lay out oat mix on baking trays. Use a couple so that you don't have to make the oats too deep and they all get cooked.

Cook for 15 minutes on 180 degrees.

Check at ten minutes so it doesn't get burned.

Meanwhile some of the nuts in the premixed packs I buy aren't peeled or chopped. I soak the skins off the almonds (cover with boiling water for five minutes or until the skins just rub off). And then I chop them all into smaller pieces. You can sliver your almonds too if you have the patience!

I use the premixed paleo and orchard mixes because they give me a really good range of additions without buying them all individually. I like the variety and its simple. Alternatively, and if you are going to make this regularly, buy the things you like in bulk and mix them yourself. My mixes have walnuts and cranberries, pepitas and coconut amongst other things, you can see them in the pics above.

Turn oven down to 160 degrees Celcius.

Add the mixed nuts and seeds and fruit and stir through. Cook 8 minutes.

I cook the oats first and then mix in the additions later once I've lowered the heat. Its easy to burn the sultanas and other fruit and while I like mine cooked they can cook too much. If you don't like your fruit cooked add it to the crunchy oats at the end. Or add the nuts earlier and hold back the fruit.

Make it how you like it!

Take out and turn and cook another 10 minutes. Keep going till its like you like it, but be careful not to burn it.

The added oil and egg whites help to make the crunch so if you don't like it crunchy omit them. I've made a batch without oil too and its fine if you want to be healthier. Similarly lower the sugar content or swap the syrup and brown sugar out for honey or another sweetener.

Granola Additions

As I've said, the best thing about homemade Granola is tailoring it to your own tastes. To me the goji berries are especially nice toasted, they turn into little soft crunchy versions of themselves. I've always avoided them as a health fad, but they're delicious! I also like nuts like cashews and walnuts in my granola for their nutty crunch, and I cut up dried apricots for the burst of sweetness they spread through each mouthful.

Here's a list of other things you could put in.

Grain - Spelt, Barley, Wheat, Oats

Oils - Vegetable, peanut, grape seed, olive.

Egg whites - for crunchiness. Optional.

Seeds - pepitas, sesame seeds, linseed, pumpkin seeds.

Dried fruit - currants, sulatanas, dried banana, apricot, dates, pineapple, pawpaw, cranberries, blueberries, apple, dessicated or flaked coconut, dried figs or dates, goji berries.

Sweetness - maple syrup, honey, brown sugar

Nuts - almonds, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, macadamias, walnuts, pistachios

Flakes - wheat, wheatgerm, bran, quinoa

vanilla extract, cinnamon

homemade gozleme

I'm pretty sure we're pronouncing Gozleme wrong (goz-lemmy), especially when I hear other people saying goz-le-may! But whatever you call it it is delicious in any language.

I first tried gozleme at market stalls years ago, and it quickly became a firm favourite that I looked out anytime I was buying lunch from a stall. The type I like are made simply with spinach in pastry and a big squeeze of lemon juice on top.

Miss A started making proper gozleme a year or two ago, after we'd tried faking it with some wraps and cheese back here for her birthday lunch. Our fake version was tasty but didn't have the thin pastry wrapping round its filling as in the delicious originals.

The recipe we started using is this one from taste.com.au (a favourite recipe site). Its not traditional, I've read you need a certain flour for the proper version, and this market stall recipe on the sbs site doesn't use yeast, but requires you start ten hours ahead to let it rest and then roll and fold, roll and fold... I think I'll stick with our version for now.

Gozleme is a quick simple lunch which lasts on the table about two minutes. And its vego, which is always a good addition to our eating.

We recently made it while we were camping, on the camp grill plate, which shows you how simple and easy it really is.

This batch was made for our girl's birthday lunch last week (she's sixteen, can you believe it?!!!) according to tradition, and I took some photos along the way for those of you who haven't tried it.We like to add prefried mushrooms and you could also try onions, olives, eggplant, mince, egg, anything! Use baby spinach or just spinach leaves, no stems.

The only thing that would make it even better would be spinach straight from the garden and homemade feta, but I'm working on that (if you've seen my instagram feed you will know I got a cheesemaking kit for Xmas! But more of that soon!)

2012

I can't quite believe we've left 2012 behind already, can you?!

It was a good year, a busy year with lots of happy times and not too many sad.

Looking back, it was a creative year too. I often feel like I don't get everything I want done, so I love these end of year roundups and photo mosaics, where I get to see what I've actually achieved - it gives me a great sense of accomplishment!

There's nothing like collecting all your work together to remember the times through the year, what you were doing, what was happening, what you made.

For example looking here I see that this was the year I finally learnt to crochet and embarked on a bullseye quilt, which is still 'in progress'.

I made a quilt for little Poppy, my second, but definitely not my last, in fact I've started another starry quilt which I need to get back to...

This was a year for sewing and one where I actually made some clothes for myself. I grew in confidence and started to learn more about how patterns come together, how sleeves fit armholes, how linings fit within skirts. I have many new patterns in the stash and one of my dreams is to design and print some material and then make some clothes with it for me!

At the end of the year I celebrated five years blogging and was included in Pip's Ace Bloggers list around the same time. It feels like a wonderful milestone to have blogged regularly for five years, it has given me so much. My little Flower Press business which has also enriched my life marked its fifth anniversary too and that felt good.

I created tutorials - for foam and perspex printing, for my small baby quilt and for stencil screenprinting. It felt good to share what I'd learnt. In return I followed many tutorials, pinned many projects and became an instagram addict!

I did my first collaboration and made a wonderful marble starter kit with dear Alisa, something we're both very proud of.

I made soap, I made bread, I made yoghurt, ricotta and jam. I planted more vegies and reorganised the garden to make it more a mix of ornamental and productive. 

Our family worked hard, we played hard, we did our best. We ate healthier, we lived simpler, we cared for others around us, we looked at art, we were creative, we exercised, we lived. My heart is full watching my beautiful children grow a little more into the wonderful people they are.

I'm excited about 2013. Some ideas are slowly percolating in my mind. I've learnt not to be too specific about goals, to let life steer me through my year. But I do know that there will be more of all of this, another big mosaic next year with lots of creative life. 

And I know that as always my lovely blogging community will inspire and encourage me and help show me the way.

While making this I couldn't resist looking back at the last four years of mosaics, I think this one's the biggest! Here's the list of links for 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008 if you're interested. And for individual photo links for those images above, click the mosaic picture to be taken to flickr.

ricotta pasta & cauliflower pizza

I've been meaning to try making ricotta for a long time, I live in the Italian heart of Sydney though and have a beautiful artisan cheese shop down the road and fresh ricotta at my local supermarket. Yesterday though I had one of my bursts of cooking enthusiasm and a couple of spare litres of milk in the fridge and so I thought I'd make some for dinner.

I also wanted to try another crazy looking recipe I'd seen online, via pinterest, for cauliflower based pizza. Yes, cauliflower based pizza. Instead of a dough you use steamed cauliflower and cheese to form a base for your toppings.

The ricotta was so simple. First I heated my milk and cream and salt to 190oC and then took it off the heat and added lemon juice. The internet seems decided that adding a bit of cream to your milk gives you a better ricotta, which isn't so dry. It was delicious. I might have added a tad too much lemon but for a first try it was wonderful, and so easy. Here's a recipe.

I used the ricotta as a base for a favourite old Marcella Hazan recipe (download link is first one) which my sister was addicted to for a while. You fry some bacon, or in this case my new favourite (from that local Italian supermarket) Speck. Add a large bowl of defrosted peas, add to cooked pasta and lay on a base of ricotta, then stir through. Top with grated parmesan and... yum.

As a side dish I made a plain pizza using the cauliflower base. Grate and steam about a cup of cauliflower (eight minutes in the microwave, no added water) mix with equal parts of mozzarella or other cheese (about a cup), one egg and two crushed cloves of garlic. Flatten this mixture out on your pizza tray and cook for fifteen minutes on 230c till golden. Pull it out then to add toppings, in my case some passata, mozzarella and kalamata olives and put it back in to melt the cheese. Here's a more detailed explanation.

So delicious!! The kids adored it. D gave dinner ten out of ten and J had fifths. They are all eating so much at the moment, all three of them and I had to hide this tiny sliver of pizza to keep it for today to photograph. The good news is its even better the next day.

I love both these recipes and they will go on the regular roster. Not only are they both delicious and quick, but with all fresh ingredients and handmade cheeses and bases and a homegrown salad you know exactly what you're eating, and I love that!

lunch

Girls for lunch yesterday and I made these mini quiches the night before. So easy with quick puff pastry rounds pressed into muffin trays. I filled them with caramelised onion and goat cheese, bacon with parmesan and swiss cheese, and chorizo with olive and baby tomato. With the leftovers I made a large quiche for dinner that night.

The filling was fresh organic eggs mixed with cream and sour cream, salt and pepper and poured over the filling in the prebaked crusts. If I had more time I would have made my own shortcrust, next time.

We had them with asparagus, green salad, beans and new potatoes.

They bought home made flourless chocolate cake with cream and strawberries, vietnamese pork and noodle rice paper rolls, cheese, fruit and biscuits and champagne. The only thing I'd change would be a couple more hours with these favourite women!

sausage and bean stew

If you live on the East Coast of Australia it seems they've been talking about the extreme weather event to come all week while the sun shone defiantly and the sky stayed blue. Then yesterday afternoon it hit with a screech of wind and rain and its been cold and windy with random patches of blue all day. There have even been reports of snow out west where we're headed this weekend and I'm wondering if I can knit some more woolies before Saturday!

All of which inspired this meal which I first made a couple of weeks ago. I'm certain there's a recipe for this sort of thing out there somewhere but this one is mine and uses what I had on hand at the time - chicken sausages with lots of different beans and my old favourite tomato base. It makes a heart warming and healthy stew to help fill those empty legs my children seem to have at the moment. I think the sausages make it a bit more child friendly too, they love it.

I made it early today (which I never do) and it gave me the chance to take some pics along the way. I must say it was lovely cooking away with the sun and rain duelling outside the kitchen window, listening to the radio and pottering about. And its such a nice feeling knowing that dinner is all ready I must do it more often, maybe finally invest in a slow cooker. All thats left to do is slice some crusty bread and pour a glass of wine.

The chicken sausages are so light and tasty. Some are plain and the others are chicken cheese and spinach. I really love all the sausages you can buy these days, aren't we spoilt! All measurements are approximate and you could easily use different beans or perhaps lentils, add some vegies (I popped in some pumpkin), some chilli or a different meat, pork sausages would be nice. (p.s. I love this locally made Massel stock which is vegetarian - even the chicken stock - and all natural and free of lactose, gluten and msg.)

Bean and Sausage Stew

olive oil
salt and pepper
2 onions chopped
3 garlic cloves crushed
100ml white wine
1 cube vegetable stock dissolved in 350mls hot water
 2 (or 3) cans chopped Italian tomatoes
3 or 4 cans of beans (cannelini, kidney, lima, chickpeas, borlotti) I drain and rinse mine
2 packets chicken sausages

heat olive oil in large pot or casserole dish
fry onion and garlic till soft and golden
add white wine and stir for three minutes
add stock cube, water and cans of tomatoes cook down, approximately 15 minutes
meanwhile fry the sausages in a separate frypan or grill
add beans to casserole, cook ten minutes
add sausages to casserole (cut into large pieces)
season to taste

cook a bit longer then serve with crusty bread and glass of wine!

p.s. Winter warmer recipes very welcome! (And thanks to Tiel who emailled me about Boston Baked Beans today, sounds so delicious, its top of my eat list now!)

Do you have a slow cooker? What's the best one to buy, and what do you cook with it?