Christmas Loaf

I have been trying to add more treats to my Christmas repertoire and I chanced upon a cake that used sugar beet and I thought to myself - why not try to make some bread or cake using it. Since red is one of the colors of Christmas then it's great to use Beet to give a vibrant red color to a cake or bread. After all sugar beet is an all natural food coloring. And, it's naturally sweet, too.

Spiced Molasses Cookies

I used to be not a fan at all of spiced cookies. It's not because I think they have a funny taste or anything like that but because of sheer unfamiliarity. I guess Filipino cuisine, though it has its sweet side, does not have many cookies perfumed or flavored with sweet spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. But since this is a quintessential winter and/or holiday cookie, I thought I ought to give it another try. I don't like a cookie though that's super heavy on ginger taste (though I love ginger and often use it in cooking - for savory food mostly though!). Just not my cup of tea. But when I saw that this cookie has pretty much an even distribution of spices, I thought why not?

Festive Quinoa

I am truly Quinoa's number 1 fan nowadays! I love cooking it and enjoy it as my new found rice replacement. I thought it would be great to make it for the holidays. I experimented cooking it with some spices and see if it would work. I also added dried cranberries and raisins, pomegranate seeds and cilantro to the mix. I was truly happy with the result.  The raisins and cranberries added sweetness to the quinoa and you taste just a little hint of the spices. The pomegranate seeds gave extra crunch and the lovely cilantro added some lemony-mint flavor too! It was truly wonderful! The flavors just worked together so well. You can serve this warm, room temp or cold - whichever you prefer. I think it's great as a side dish for Roasted Turkey or Chicken. Needless to say - it's colorful and festive enough for the holidays! So, without further ado - here's our latest Quinoa creation.

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked Quinoa (I used a blend of the white and colored quinoa)

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups water

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

Procedure

First, rinse the quinoa. Place the 1 cup uncooked quinoa in a fine sieve or strainer. Using cold running water, rinse it for about a couple of minutes. Drain really well.

Place the drained quinoa into the rice cooker or a sauce pan (big enough to accomodate about 3 cups of liquid). Stir in the cranberries, raisins, the spices and salt. Mix everything.

Pour in the 2 cups of water. Give it a gentle stir.

If using a rice cooker - how easy! - Cover then push the cook button and then leave it to cook. It will automatically turn to warm mode when it's done. Turn the cooker off and let the quinoa sit for about 10-15 minutes.

If using the stove top - first, bring to a rolling boil using medium heat. Once it begins to boil hard  (watch out 'cause you don't want liquid spilling all over) turn the heat to low. Cover then continue to simmer until the liquid has evaporated and the quinoa is tender approximately 15-18 minutes. A timer would be handy so you don't forget. Turn off the heat. Remove pan from heat and let it sit covered for about 10-15 minutes.

Fluff the quinoa gently with a fork to separate the seeds. You can transfer the quinoa to a bigger bowl to make mixing the rest of the ingredients easier. Mix in the cilantro and half the pomegranate seeds.  You can serve it as is or if you wish, you can form the quinoa mix into a mound - see photo below. Sprinkle the rest of the pomegranate seeds (and perhaps some extra dried cranberries and raisins)  around the mound. You can sprinkle a few more chopped cilantro on top to even the colors. Serve with your main dish. Yummilicious!

If you wish to print the recipe, there's a print-friendly icon below the post. Click on the "remove images" box for easy and convenient printing.

If you like what you see and would like to receive new recipe updates, feel free to subscribe to our posts, join our site or like us on Facebook. Happy browsing!

Chocolate Oatmeal with Cranberries and Granola

It's Christmas soon and I have been inspired to make dishes with either some holiday theme or that which uses holiday flavors and colors. Of course, when Christmas is just around the corner - the prominent fruit you'll always see are red cranberries so I thought I ought to use some cranberries for a breakfast dish.

Of course, there are dried cranberries in store-bought granolas but that's cheating 'cause it's already made for you. The only effort you expend is opening the cereal box and pouring some milk on a bowl. I want to do something a bit more challenging than that. Make a breakfast that's easy to whip up for when I am in a hurry (especially with the holiday rush and all) and yet something that tastes great too (despite exerting less effort - though a little more than opening a cereal box!).

Then I remembered one of our friends from Facebook mentioning that she puts some cocoa powder on her oatmeal to give it that yummy choco taste. And of course, there's my chocolate rice porridge - if I can use cocoa powder to flavor my rice - why not oatmeal? After all, oatmeal soaks up flavor so well and definitely cooks faster than rice (especially the quick cooking variety). But, I didn't want a baked oatmeal this time though (I want something quicker and been there, done that) - so it has to be something that can be done on the stove top but will still achieve great flavor as if it was baked!

So using pretty much the same ingredients as my baked oatmeal (milk, vanilla extract, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg except butter and eggs), plus some cocoa powder, I tried cooking the oatmeal with all the other ingredients on the stove top. It took literally just minutes and yet I came out with a beautiful chocolate flavored oatmeal which almost rival the champorado (chocolate rice porridge). I then added some dried cranberries to the cooked porridge (oh yum!) and it was heavenly already. To make it over the top delish - I included some granola to the mix (the store bought kind!) to add more texture and flavor. And voila!  The result is a delicious, I'd dare say - even fancy - breakfast treat that looks like you fussed over it but actually did not! Try it and am pretty sure you'll love it. My hubby (the taster) love it even without the granola but as usual I like it with the granola so follow your instincts (and palate too)! Have a great breakfast!

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons, vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons, unsweetened Cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 cups oats (quick cooking or old-fashioned)
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/2 cup granola or muesli (homemade or store-bought - optional)

Procedure

In a saucepan (big enough to accomodate about 4 cups of liquid) over medium heat, combine milk, vanilla extract, cocoa, the spices and brown sugar. Blend the ingredients by using a whisk. Bring to a simmer. Add the oats and cook, stirring constantly until tender (slightly mushy). Quick cooking oats will probably just need about 2-3 minutes while the old-fashioned ones will take a few minutes longer. It all depends on the kind of consistestency you want the oats to have.

When the oatmeal is cooked, stir in the cranberries or raisins and the granola/muesli until well-mixed.
Pour in more milk as needed.

Serve immediately in individual bowls. Serves between 4-6 people.



Enjoy!

If you like what you see and would like to receive new recipe updates, we'd love you to subscribe to our posts or join our site. Needless to say, we'd love you to like us on Facebook too where you can get more recipes and updates. Thanks and happy browsing!

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...so the song goes and that's why I was inspired to finally make some holiday cookies! Without much further ado - here's a cookie that's chewy, sweet with a hint of cinnamon and with the refreshing taste of fresh cranberries all rolled into one delicious Cranberry Choco Chip Cookies! Perfect for the holidays and as a lovely gift for family and friends!

If you're making this over the summer, you can replace the cranberries with fresh or dried cherries.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 tsp salt
3 cups rolled oats (I used quick cooking oats)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened or room temp (1 1/2 sticks) - (if using salted butter lessen the salt to 1/2 tsp)
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped (Yes, the fresh ones are better.)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Prepare two cookie sheets. Grease or line them with parchment paper.

Sift into a big bowl  or whisk together  the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add the oats to the flour mixture and mix well.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract just until combined. My butter was already melted when I combined it with the other ingredients that's why it looks like this - more liquidy (I was in a hurry and had to melt them instead). However, if you have the luxury of time - room temp butter (softened) is so much better because the cookies would be more chewy and moist. If the butter is just softened it will only melt while at the oven hence the cookies retain more moisture. The taste will be the same either way though.



Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix well until all the ingredients are moist.



Fold well into the batter the  chopped cranberries and chocolate chips. Drop the mixture by rounded tablespoons onto the greased cookie sheets. An ice cream scooper is so helpful for this. I used a large one. Do not flatten the cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes (depending on how big your cookies are, mine were big so I cooked for about 12 minutes but if you use a tablespoon as measurement then 10 minutes is perfect!) or until lightly browned. Do not overcook.

Let stand for 5 minutes before you transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. They will be quite soft so you need to let them sit a bit. Makes between 50-55 cookies if you are using a rounded tablespoon. I used a large ice cream scoop the first time so I only managed to make about 2 dozen but the cookies were huge.



Perfect Christmas cookies in my opinion. Chewy, moist and delicious! If you wish to print the recipe, there is a print icon below the post. Click on "remove images" box for easy and convenient printing. Happy Baking!



If you like what you see and would like to receive new recipe updates, we'd love you to join our site or like us on Facebook. Happy Browsing!