Yoghurt oatmeal

Things usually are clichés for a reason. Take the saying "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day". Everyone keeps saying that. Is it really? I have been reading up quite a bit on intermittent fasting, which is basically the idea that you should only have a 6-8 hour feeding window each day, have three meals during that window, which is built around your workout, and the fast for the rest of the day. There is a rather good blog called Leangains, which is written by a guy who is a personal trainer and nutritional consultant. And based on the photos of him, I would say he is definitely doing something right, he looks absolutely amazing and is able to keep to at a very low body fat using intermittent fasting. The conventional wisdom is you neet to constantly eat small meals to keep your metabolism going, but it's clear from looking at this guy, there are several approaches to food and nutrition which will work. I am a strong believer in trying out different approaches and doing what feels right for you. My approach to weight loss was built around strict calorie restriction, four meals spread evenly across the day and very strictly keeping away from starch carbs. However, I did try the intermittent fasting for a while as well, as I thought it really sounds quite sensible. And I don't believe your body will actually care very much whether you eat one big meal a day, or five or six really small ones. It's all about psychology, and what will work for you. Well, let me tell you, the intermittent fasting did not work for me. In theory it sounded very good, and it did allow me to have quite a big meal in the evening, which I really love. Evenings after workout is when I crave food the most, and when I stray off the nutrition plan (which has been embarrassingly often lately) it's always in the evening. So I thought by restricting my eating in the morning and day, when I'm at work and can't sneak away to the fridge, I would be able to eat more in the evening, thus hopefully reducing the risk of slipping onto that slippery path of having treats. First I tried a feeding pattern with pre-workout lunch at 3 or 4pm and then a big dinner post workout. It was a horrible pain to go from 9pm to 3pm the next day without eating. It was totally horrible. Especially on days when I bike to work, I thought I would die of hunger by 9am, and then still had 6 more hours to go. So I changed it up to brekkie at noon, then lunch at 3pm and a post-workout dinner. But I have to say, as much as I really wanted that to work, my preferred distribution of meals is brekkie post-workout in the morning, then a snack at noon, lunch at 3pm and dinner post workout in the evening. I have changed things around thanks to the intermittent fasting experiments as I used to have lunch at noon and a snack at 3pm, but it seems to work out better for me the other way around. The moral of the (disturbingly long) story is that you should be open in trying different things, and see what works for you. So for me, the cliché about breakfast being the day's most important meal is true. And this is when we finally come to the point of this post! (Yes, I can see the relief on your faces).

Once again we have Pinterest to thank for a great idea. I saw this pin with no-cook oatmeal in a variety of flavours, and immediately had to try it out. Technically, oats are not part of my nutrition plan. Neither is dairy. But hey, neither was that jar of Marshmallow fluff I stuffed my face with earlier this week, so on the grand scheme of things, I don't think this oatmeal will be why my ass is constantly in an outward expanding motion. I will try to cut down on sugar. And eventually other carbs as well. But until then, I really wanted to try this out. And I love the idea, basically a combination of oatmeal and muesli. Great to eat quickly before heading off to the gym in the morning, a good fix of carbs with some protein added from the yoghurt and chia seeds. And easy to take along to work or wherever. Works as a snack as well, would probably work as a pre workout snack in the afternoon quite well. Easy and so convenient to pre-make for the whole week at once! And endless options to vary the flavourings, only your imagination is the limit. 

The basic recipe:
25 g (1/4 cup) porridge oats (or other cereal, I use about 1/3 millet flakes and 2/3 oats)
70 g (1/4 cup) yoghurt (full fat Greek is my favourite)
80 ml (1/3 cup) milk, rice milk, coconut milk or other liquid (like left over whey from making cheese)
1-2 tbsp chia seeds (or flax seeds or maybe some other seeds)

things for flavouring, like berries, fruit, maple syrup etc. I made one with blueberries and unsweetened strawberry jam, and another with strawberries, raspberries and vanilla extract.

The howto:
Mix everything but berries and/or fruit in a jar, close lid, give a good shake, add the berries/and or fruit and give another shake. Pop in the fridge at least over night, or up to a few days. The original recipe says she used half pint (one cup) mason jars, whereas I used empty marshmallow fluff jars which are much bigger, I would guess at least a pint or so. At least there is room for more berries that way, and stirring the ingredients is easier when the jar doesn't get too full.

The verdict:
Yet another genius food idea which is fast, easy, affordable and only needs a couple of ingredients. And I really loved both the taste and the texture. I'm a big fan of oatmeal as well, so that might partly explain it. But I would say that even if you don't like oatmeal you should give this a try, as it tastes quite different. Somehow the combination of oats and yoghurt has a good harmony. I have only kept mine in the fridge over night and the oats (I am currently using Tesco Organic oats, which are the hugest oat flakes I have ever seen in my life) have been a very nice texture, soft but with some chew left in them. I don't know if keeping the oatmeal in the fridge for more than one night would make them softer. The chia seeds are very neutral in flavour, basically just consider them a nutritional add on, they don't bring much to the flavour or texture. Also, you might need to experiment a bit with the amount of liquid depending on type of cereal and type of yoghurt used. And on your preference of how solid or runny you like your oatmeal. I used the same basic recipe for my blueberry flavoured batch as well as my strawberry and raspberry one. The strawberry and raspberry oatmeal turned out much runnier, partly I think this is because I used a lighter yoghurt (goat's milk yoghurt versus full fat Greek in the first batch) but also because both berries did release quite a bit of liquid during the night. So with softer berries, I would decrease the amount of liquid or use a heavier yoghurt. But experimenting with these things is half the fun, and both batches did end up tasting really good anyways, so don't be scared, just jump in there and trust your gut. Both for measuring the ingredients and for sampling the results!

The options on how to flavour the oatmeal are endless, this is a perfect time to use your imagination. I have actually gone so far as to consider quite disturbing flavour combos, like throwing in some bacon. I mean, choc chip and bacon muffins or pancakes sound absolutely delish, so why not choc chip and bacon oatmeal? You can swap millet for some other favourite cereal, use your favourite seeds, use any yoghurt (or liquid, I guess you could substitute things like orange juice here as well) you prefer, and the combination of flavourings in endless. There are some brilliant ideas in the post where I originally discovered the idea (from The Yummy Life) and there are more ideas here. The flavour combinations mentioned in those two posts are:

• mango, honey and almond extract
• blueberries and maple syrup
• unsweetened apple sauce, cinnamon and honey
• banana, cocoa powder and honey
• banana, peanut butter and honey
• raspberries, raspberry jam and vanilla extract
• canned mandarine, orange marmelade and honey
• cherries, chopped dark chocolate, vanilla extract and honey
• cocoa powder, espresso powder and honey
• coconut milk (to replace the regular milk), pineapple and honey
• pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, maple syrup (ok, can you get more American than that??? well maybe if you added peanut butter)
• chopped peaches, raspberry jam and vanilla extract
• chopped pecans, cranberry sauce, honey and nutmeg
• dried apricots, crystallised ginger and almond extract

That should be enough to give you some ideas. Basically any fruit or berry you can think of, with something sweet (if you fancy that, although with berries and fruit, I personally don't think it needs any other sweetener than the fruit sugars. I like the slightly sour flavour of the yoghurt to come through). For some reason making this in a jar instead of on a plate (which you can do of course) makes it much more fun to eat. My jars are quite big, so they fit a lot of fruits/berries, it's of course up to you (and your tolerance for added calories) how much you want to add to the basic cereal mix. I can't wait to try more flavours, I bet the banana ones are going to be awesome. I also have some raw chocolate and sesame seed paste which I haven't been able to find any use for, I think it would go great with some banana. I think that will be the next one I try.

Weekend beef stew... Or is it a casserole?

This weekend I have been abstaining from cooking, as I'm visiting my sister up North. That doesn't mean I'm not eating well, as my sister is at least as good a cook as I am. On the menu this weekend, among other things: veggie soup with home baked bead rolls (Sis makes the most amazing bread rolls in the whole wide world, I think they deserve a future blog post of their own), pancakes with chocolate spread and strawberries, meat stew and apple crumble with home-made fro-yo. She even made home-made almond butter which turned out amazingly creamy and much tastier than the store bought one (not to mention cheaper as well). There was a bit of a discussion about the name of the meat dish, is it a stew or casserole? Well. It's a stew, it's cooked in a casserole... Pick your favourite, as I'm typing this on an iPad and typing on the virtual keyboard is a bit of a pain, I'll stick with stew as its quicker to type.

I wonder whether mine and Sis' shared love for cooking is a result of genes or environment. This would be a good tangent to air some thoughts about the whole nature vs nurture debate, but I won't go there. All I can say, in our childhood home almost all food was home-cooked. Both my mum and dad used to cook, with dad cooking if we had pizza, steaks or BBQ and mum cooking the rest. We also cooked a lot with my sister, even as kids. We would plan a three course menu, and then we were allowed to have the kitchen all to ourselves. Our parents always ate everything without complaining, although I'm sure not everything turned out perfect. We had several cookbooks we liked, one was a UNICEF cook book for kids, with recipes from all over the world and drawings of how to prepare the dishes. From that book, one popular recipe on our menu was prawn cocktail and avocado. We also had a Donald Duck cookbook, and our favourite recipe was crumbly raisin cakes that we would make for pudding. We also used to cook Grandma Duck's pork chops, which were oven baked in cream on a bed of sweet corn. And my mum had a black binder full of recipes. Some where cut from magazines, others were just scribbles on a piece of paper. It contained recipes for such 80s classics as mocca squares (I guess only Finns know what these are, they are a bit like brownies, I will most certainly post the recipe sometime) and lime meringue pie. These were often baked and served when my parents would have guests and my mum would cook up a feast. So, we certainly grew up in an environment which encouraged us to learn cooking skills, made us appreciate different kinds of food and above all, think of home cooked food as the norm instead of ready made meals or takeaways.

So, the recipes below are stolen from and cooked by my sister.

 Beef stew (serves 6-8):
800g diced beef
Butter or oil for frying
One big lee
3 onions
3 parsnips
One small swede
4 carrots
1/2 bottle of red wine
2 beef stock pots or cubes
Bay leaf
Black pepper

Roughly chop all the veg. Brown the meat in butter or oil in the casserole (or a frying pan if you don't have a casserole that can be used on the hob). Add the veg, and fry for a few more minutes. Add the wine, stock cubes, spices and water to fill the casserole. Bake in a 175 degree oven for at least 2 1/2 hours, but the longer the better. Serve with salad and mashed potatoes or sweet potato mash.

Apple with a hint of rhubarb crumble (serves 6-8):
10 apples
Rhubarb (we only had 1 stalk, but I bet more will be great)
1tsp Vanilla paste
1tsp ground cloves
1tbsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
Crumble:
175g Demerara sugar
150g white flour
200g rolled oats
1tsp ground cloves
1tbsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
200g butter

Peel and chop apples and rhubarb, cook them in a little bit of water for about 10 minutes together with the spices. To make the crumble, mix all dry ingredients and spices. Cut butter into small cubes and use your fingers to make a crumbly dough together with the dry ingredients. Use a big ovenproof dish (26-28 cm), place the fruit on the bottom and spread the crumble on top. Bake in 175 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until a beautiful golden brown. Serve with frozen yoghurt and strawberries.

Frozen yoghurt:
950g organic, full fat Greek yoghurt
3tbsp organic honey

Freeze the ice cream maker over night. Mix yoghurt and honey. Chill in the ice cream maker while the crumble is baking.

The verdict:
After a hike in the Peaks, this was the perfect hearty meal to get warm and make up for the calories we shed climbing Grindsbrook, and almost getting blown away by heavy winds on the way back down.

The stew is heavenly, it was cooked for three hours and then left in the hot oven over night to bake. The veg gets really sweet and tasty after the long cooking, and the meat just crumbles. If you like you veg really crunchy, this is not for you, but if you like full flavours and super tender meat, you should definitely try this out.

I usually wouldn't make a crumble myself, and that's one of the exciting things of eating someone else's cooking, you eat things you wouldn't think of doing yourself. I love the combination of hot and cold, so I loved the crumble. Piping hot apples, the sweet crumble adding crispy texture and then the velvety smoothness of the ice cold yoghurt was heavenly. I think frozen yoghurt was a much better choice for this than ice cream, as it wasn't too sweet, and was a great contrast to the sweet crumble. I'm embarrassed to admit my self control broke down completely, and I not only went back for seconds but even for thirds. I can't wait visit this restaurant again.

 

I don't like Mondays

To get in the right mood, you might want to listen to this... Can we just skip Mondays altogether? Gone is that wonderful freedom of waking up when you want (well as long as it's before gym classes start...) and having a lazy breakfast consisting of muffins or pancakes or whatever other yummy thing you can come up with. Instead, five days of slaving away at the salt mines ahead. 


I was thinking, is there anything you could do to make Monday mornings a little bit less painful? Well, maybe it would be possible to have something really tasty and uplifting for breakfast at least. But it has to be really quick. Of course the leftovers from Sunday's brunch are always a good way to go, give the muffins or pancakes a quick re-heating and maybe a drizzle of maple syrup. But it wouldn't be terribly exciting to blog about leftovers, now would it. Then I came up with the perfect solution. Alcohol! 


Truth is, I have been craving rum raisins for a while, after stumbling upon them in several recipes. Embarrassing fact, but I can actually eat unbelievable amounts of raisins in one sitting, I can't stock them at home as I will immediately destroy a whole big pack. One evening I even ate raisins despite having some chocolate in the house. Not saying I would think raisins are better than chocolate, don't get me wrong here, but sometimes I just have this overwhelming craving for the small, sweet, wrinkly, underrated gems of goodness. 


I made rum raisins a few months ago for some chocolate pralines (which turned out to be a horrible disaster but are on the list of things that just need a bit of R&D) and had some rum raisins left over. So I had them for pudding together with yoghurt, and that was an absolutely divine combo. I decided to throw in some other dried fruits in addition to raisins (well, the truth is I didn't have any raisins at home, but some leftover raisin-berry mix). I acknowledge that this is not the most nutrient rich breakfast, but hey, it's Monday morning... 


Rum and raisin-cherry-cranberry yoghurt 
Greek style, organic, full fat yoghurt (yes, don't even think of using any of those bland low fat horrible watery concoctions for this)
raisins and/or dried berry mix
dark rum


The howto:
Make sure you read through the instructions very carefully before you begin as preparation of this dish is very complicated. Take raisins/berries and put in a container, add a splash of rum, put on a lid, give a vigorous shake and marinate in the fridge overnight (shake the container a few times before you go to bed if you remember). In the morning, scoop some yoghurt onto a plate, pour over the marinated yummyness. Finish off with chopped nuts or as I did, some leftover orange curd I made on Friday.


Well, you can guess that estimating nutritional info for this is a bit hard, as it depends on serving size, type of berries, and type of yoghurt among other things. I use 100g of full fat, Greek style yoghurt and 25 g dried berry mix and about 1 tbsp of rum. This comes to approximately 230 kcal (9.6g fat, 24g carbs and 5.0g protein).


The verdict:
When my alarm clock went off on Monday I jumped out of bed with a big grin on my face thinking of my brekkie. Ok, so maybe not quite, but the thought of it got me through my morning workout. And it is heavenly, the almost too sweet berries, the kick of the booze and the velvety softness of the yoghurt. Too bad this is high on carbs, otherwise I wouldn't mind having it every morning.