Oatmeal, crispy

In case it isn't obvious, I <3 oatmeal. It's good for you, it makes great cookies, it is a perfect breakfast... it's just all around fabulous.

I found a really simple recipe to maximize one of my favorite things to make delicious, crispy cookies in greater than or equal to 20 minutes.

Using Martha's Oatmeal Crisps recipe as a rough guide, I mixed together 4 tablespoons of vegetable margarine, 3 tablespoons of agave syrup and 2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour. Once these were suitably stirred (made easier by the fact that there is no air conditioner in the kitchen and it was approximately 300 degrees in there - I'm surprised they didn't begin to bake on their own) in 2/3 of a cup of steel-cut oats. I placed these on parchment on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for around 15-20 minutes.

These are delicious. The only sad part was that there weren't that many of them! I'm going to have to triple this next time... that's how much I love oatmeal!

Oatmeal for your face

My only memories of using oatmeal as a skin product are traumatizing and involve one horrible case of the chicken pox, my best friend who I infected and a communal oatmeal bath that might have soothed a little, but still left me feeling itchy.

Thankfully, those days are in the past. Now, oatmeal is my daily breakfast (the instant kind, of course), but I haven't found a medicinal purpose for it in years.

Martha is bringing it back, however. In her section on "Crazy Beauty Tricks That Really Work," she touts the powers of oatmeal: soothing, anti-inflammatory, rich in beta glucan a "soluble fiber that creates a tin, moisture-retaining film on the surface of the skin."

I decided to give it a try. She recommended that I place whole oats in a washcloth, secure with a rubber band and wet with warm water. Then, I took the warm water, now cloudy and splashed it on my face. I air-dried, per her instructions.

I might not have the chicken pox, but this definitely left me feeling moisturized and calmed from the stress of the day. Plus, now I smell like breakfast!

Read more at Wholeliving.com: Crazy Beauty Tricks That Really Work

Ahhhhh-gave

In my quest to at least limit, if not totally eliminate sugar and carbs from my diet, I finally found agave. For a while there, I dabbled with Splenda. Here and there I experimented with Equal. For a two day period when my office only stocked Sweet'n'Low, I went there. These liaisons were short, fleeting, and unsatisfactory.

And then, today, I found agave syrup, the perfect sugar substitute. Let me just say... it. is. fabulous! Agave nectar is commercially harvested from a variety of agave plants in Mexico. The particular agave syrup I found is from the blue agave plant, if anyone cares about specifics. It tastes like heaven. Except better.

For my first baking attempt with agave, I tried Martha's Oatmeal Cookies. I knew that I wouldn't get it perfectly right the first time, particularly because agave is a liquid sweetener, and is therefore not a perfect baking substitute for sugar. In addition, I was planning to bake vegan, which adds a whole additional element of difficulty. Both of these elements combine to produce flat, cake-y cookies that don't stay together as well as regular cookies.

I started with two cups of agave, subsituting for both the brown and granulated sugar. Because agave has such a unique, sweet flavor, I figured this would be appropriate. Instead of butter, I mixed in two sticks of vegetable margarine with the agave. In place of the eggs, I stirred in a cup of Sprite Zero.

For the dry ingredients, I mixed together three cups of rolled oats, one cups and two tablespoons whole wheat flower (instead of white flower), baking soda, baking soda + creme of tartar (to replace the baking powder) and 1/2 cup flax meal (to replace the wheat germ). I skipped the toffee bits/raisins all together because I am really not supposed to have either of these.

While, as expected, the resulting cookies were a bit flat and crumbly, they were absolutely delicious. I really love the agave alternative. It definitely doesn't taste as fake as Splenda; plus, while more expensive, it's all natural and not full of chemicals with unknown biological actions.



Recipe (from Martha Stewart, http://www.marthastewart.com/282206/oatmeal-cookies?&backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/oatmeal-cookie-recipes#slide_4):

Ingredients

• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 12 ounces good-quality chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 1/2 cups golden raisins, or 10 ounces toffee pieces

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Starting with the mixer on low speed and increasing until it is on medium, beat until the mixture is creamy and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract, then scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and mix to combine.
   
2. Combine the rolled oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and wheat germ in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture, then mix on low speed just to combine, 10 to 15 seconds. Remove the bowl from mixer stand, and stir in your choice of chocolate chunks, golden raisins, or toffee pieces.
   
3. Line the baking pans with parchment paper. Use a large (2 1/2 ounce) or small (1 1/4 ounce) ice-cream scoop to form balls of dough. Place the balls of dough about 4 inches apart on baking pans. Bake until golden and just set, about 18 minutes for large cookies and 14 minutes for small cookies. Remove from oven; let cool on pan 4 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
   

Oatmeal "cookies"

I have been totally craving something sweet. As those who know me are definitely aware, I have a major sweet tooth and pretty much adore dessert. This has been difficult given that I can't really have sugar or carbs anymore. I am literally at the point where I am stuck chewing sugarless gum, chugging Diet Coke, or brushing my teeth if I want a sweet taste. This is unacceptable.

So today I took on a challenge: attempt to bake healthy cookies that are pre-diabetic approved. As it turns out this is easier said than done.

I decided on Oatmeal Cookies as the perfect antidote to my case of the sugar blahs. Of course, I had to make some intense substitutions to Martha's recipe.

Based on some extensive internet research and some logic, I made the following substitutions to the recipe:

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour - substituted whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour - substituted whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ - substituted whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder - substituted creme of tartar and baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened - substituted margarine
• 1 cup granulated sugar - substituted Splenda
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar - substituted sugarless maple syrup
• 2 large eggs - substituted 1 cup of Sprite Zero
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups raisins - omitted, I can't have dry fruit anymore

Once I mixed all the ingredients and baked the cookies, I was ready for a taste test. The resulting oatmeal balls did not taste like cookies, but were definitely part way there. They were a bit doughy, no doubt due to the use of wheat flour instead of white flour, which is much more water absorbent. In addition, they weren't nearly as sweet as most cookies, perhaps because I substited sugarless maple syrup for brown sugar. 

This is definitely a work in progress, but I won't give up! Next time, I'll have to figure out how to make the cookies less doughy and a bit sweeter. Until then, I'll definitely be enjoying these "cookies".

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together oats, flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add oat mixture; mix until just combined. Mix in raisins.
2. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.
3. Bake until golden and just set, about 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks using a spatula; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - Martha Stewart Recipes

Soap good enough to eat

Soap-making has became one of my favorite crafts. It's just so simple and so versatile! All it takes, in most cases, is a chunk of glycerin and some miscellaneous ingredients and you're good to go.

In this soap-making edition, I decided to use some ingredients that I (and many other Americans) have lying around in my kitchen. Martha calls these soaps, "Pantry Soaps," and for good reason - they are one step below edible.

Martha had a variety of different "recipes" for kitchen-based soaps, but I went for the one that seemed to have a really interesting texture. I was immediately drawn to the soaps she made that had oatmeal in them, for this very reason. Plus, it brings me back to taking an oatmeal bath as a child with the chicken pox, and although this is not necessarily a happy memory, it still reminds me of childhood.

I melted down some glycerin, as per usual. Then, I added in a tablespoon of honey (which I am not longer allowed to eat, but I can still use on my body... I hope). Instead of ginger, I used a tablespoon or so of cinnamon because I absolutely love the way it smells. Finally, I added in the main ingredient: plenty of oatmeal.

For molds, this time, I decided to use cupcake foils, because I thought they would make a really interesting texture on the soaps. I poured the soap into the foils while they were in the cupcake pan, so that the pan would make them keep their shape.

An hour or so later, I had these awesome soaps that smell amazing and will make great gifts. The one issue will them is that, as I had predicted, the oatmeal sunk down towards the bottom of the mold and is all clustered towards the top of the soap now. Damn you, gravity! Thwarting my best plans again.

Craft is by Martha Stewart at marthastewart.com. For more about this craft, visit http://www.marthastewart.com/article/pantry-soaps.

Oatmeal and Almond Deliciousness

I am not a huge oatmeal fan. As I child I would take the instant packets and add a tiny amount of water to them until it made a thick paste and scarf it down with a 1:1 ratio of oatmeal to brown sugar. Now, I eat oatmeal because it's a healthy breakfast as compared to the sugary pastries I am always tempted to scarf down as a work in the morning.

Despite my reservations, Martha's Oatmeal-Almond Crisps looked too good to pass up... plus they seemed really simple to make. I mixed brown sugar (after all, how can you have oatmeal without brown sugar?), butter, an egg, and (imitation) vanilla extract together and then added in plenty of rolled oats and sliced almonds.

I also added a bonus ingredient: wheat bran. I have been on this fiber kick lately because I have high cholesterol (ridiculous for a skinny 22-year-old, but probably due to my over-consumption of In'n'Out when I'm home in LA) and it's supposed to reduce cholesterol and just be all around healthy for your digestion. One serving of wheat bran has 24% of one's daily value of fiber, good step towards getting healthy.

The fiber-loaded oatmeal crisps, baked in the oven, were fantastic and enjoyed by my entire apartment. Most of them were mysteriously gone in a matter of a few hours.... The few that are left will make an incredible breakfast for me tomorrow.