Hi Roni,
I love your site and how you put your own spin on recipes. I was wondering how long/many attempts does it usually take for you to get your recipe right? I had an idea for oatmeal made overnight in the crock pot/slow-cooker, so that my husband could have it at 4:30 am before heading out to work. I found a recipe on another site and the results weren't to our taste, so I know I'll be going through some trial and error until I get it the way we like it. Is this how you come up with some of your recipes? How many attempts until you either have it or give up? Just curious, do you have a crock pot oatmeal recipe? Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
-Patty
Hi Patty!
What a fun question! Let me answer the simple one first so I can get all long winded about the other. 🙂
I do not have a crock pot oatmeal recipe although I've been considering trying it. I know others that do and I hope they chime in the comments. 🙂
Now onto my recipes, which I try REAL hard not to call recipes but ideas. For most of my dinner ideas I take one shot at it and I'm usually happy. I mean there are some I continue to experiment with like the Salisbury Steak with Noodles and I probably make it a little different every time. You have to remember my goal with GreenLiteBites isn't to provide exact recipes that are perfect, I'm not a chef. My goal is to inspire and provide ideas to lighten and health up everyday meals. Most of my posts are more like archives of what I did to make the dish I made for dinner that night.
However, when it comes to more baking ideas, like Whole Grain Pancakes and Whole Wheat Banana Muffins I experimented a bit before posting. These ideas started with a goal (i.e. making a good 100% whole grain pancake) and I wouldn't post it until I got to a certain point with the recipes. I'm doing this now with some cookies ideas. I've already made 2 batches trying to get them just right and I've been getting everyone I know to taste test them! If you remember my whole wheat pizza dough idea took weeks! My family was sick of pizza when I was on that mission! lol
Now, there are times I have complete flops that I don't post about. It happens! 🙂 Normally it's when I'm trying to push the envelope reducing fat or using all whole grain flour without compensating for it. But again, my goal is to inspire and learn with you. To me it's all about the journey, sharing and learning together along the way. This worked, this didn't, kind of stuff.
Another goal of mine is to show people they don't have to be a slave to recipes and they don't have to have formal training to cook good healthy meals for their family. It's about having fun, involving the kids and not blindly adding a stick a butter just because that's what mom did. 🙂
Thank you SO much for the question, I hope I didn't babble too much on ya!
-Roni
This is a little off the topic. It's a recipe for cold oatmeal. You use 1 and 1/2 cups of steal cut oats, 1 and 1/4 cups skim milk, 2 tablespoons of honey and a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix and let it sit overnight in the fridge. No slimy oatmeal, it's very good this way and a filling start to any morning. I use half one morning and half the next. You can omit the cinnamon and put fruit in this in the morning. Don't add fruit before you intend to eat it as the fruit doesn't hold up well to sitting in the oatmeal mixture overnight.
Steel Cut Oats in the Crockpot
1 c oats (cannot be Quaker rolled oats, must be “steel cut” or “irish” – look in “healthy” section of grocery store instead of breakfast aisle – I have seen them at Kroger and HT but not FL or Walmart)
4 c water
1/2 c raisins or 1/3 c craisins
1 apple, peeled and diced
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
Put all of above in crockpot. This cooks best in a smaller crockpot so I used our 3 qt instead of the 6 qt. Mix and cook on low overnight. This amt of water is good for 8 hrs or so. If you are cooking for only 6 hrs, you may reduce water to 3 cups.
You can experiment with other additives such as maple syrup, other fruits (raw or dried). You will get a “crust” on the inside of your crockpot but just let it soak and it should clean up fine. This recipe makes approx five 3/4 c servings and is roughly 191 calories per serving.
What a timely post! I am sitting here with a recipe for cranberry cornbread in front of me and I have notes scribbled along the side of the page as I try to make it healthier. Still after plugging it in to a recipe analyzer, I am not happy with the numbers. So back to the drawing board to see what I can come up with that will still retain the cranberry cornbread basic idea without compromising my own ideas on what constitutes healthy for me. And then I have to actually make it and see if it's edible. LOL Thanks for all your inspiration, Roni. You are the catalyst for so many GOOD things in my life.
Roni, Thanks for answering my question. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who makes certain meals differently each time (especially meatloaf LOL). Also to Kristen above: I'll be checking out you recipes, I've been using the steel cut oats but need some ideas for variety, thanks!
I have several recipes for steel cut oatmeal in the crockpot on my site. Hope that might help. (regular, pumpkin, & strawberry rhubarb)
Roni....I love your quote about "not blindly adding a stick of butter because that's what Mom did". I know it's true in my family...my Mom and my Grandma cooked things SO HIGH in calories, fat content, sugar content and bleached white processed flour. OMG....and my Mom to this day still prefers the white processed flour rather than whole wheat anything. I am so glad I have an open mind, because it was really no problem to start eating healthy, and now I feel empowered by it.