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Food Ventures

Cheers to Health in the New Year

By Ann Hattes
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There are warming oats for cold weather like baked apple-blueberry pancakes and pumpkin coffee cake oatmeal, soups and stews, a mushroom tomato steel-cut oat risotto, oats-bury steak, cauliflower oat pizza crust, plus drinks and desserts. Use cooked rolled oats as a stand-in for rice in stir fried veggies.

Oats are a surprisingly versatile grain, and most people only think of them for breakfast or a snack. Eating oats daily can help lower bad cholesterol, help control high blood pressure and maintain your blood glucose level, plus make you feel fuller for longer – all with one of the cheapest foods on the grocer’s shelf.

Oatrageous Oatmeals (Page Street Publishing), a new cookbook from blogger and cookbook author Kathy Hester, takes oats to a whole new level, discarding bland mix-ins and creating stimulating and healthy meals that will create new oatmeal fans. There are warming oats for cold weather like baked apple-blueberry pancakes and pumpkin coffee cake oatmeal, soups and stews, a mushroom tomato steel-cut oat risotto, oats-bury steak, cauliflower oat pizza crust, plus drinks and desserts. Use cooked rolled oats as a stand-in for rice in stir fried veggies. Every recipe is vegan, and many are soy- and gluten-free as well. As Kathy wants to bring oats to everyone, all the recipes are dairy-free and egg-free with no-added oil options for most of the recipes.

Beyond the dining room there are recipes like soothing lavender oat bath soak and oatmeal cookie scrub.

The types of oats, i.e. groats, steel-cut (Irish), stone ground (Scottish), rolled oats, quick-cook or instant are described with stove-top cooking times given.

Tannat is the world’s healthiest red wine grape according to scientists in Europe and Uruguay who have studied the Tannat genome. “A wine made with Tannat has twice the tannins of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Pinot Noir,” said Francisco Carrau, a vintner and chemistry professor at the United Nations University. Tannat, the national grape of Uruguay, has the largest concentration of tannins, an anti-oxidant that combats cell aging; with an average resveratrol concentration of 4.2%, it helps to lower blood pressure and cut cholesterol.

More than one third of the grapes grown in Uruguay are Tannat which originated from the Madiran region of southwestern France. Brought to Uruguay in the 1870s, Tannat here is softer and more velvety than its French counterpart.

Uruguay is a country of predominantly small-scale, family-owned wineries. Strict vineyard protocol is practiced and harvesting is done by hand. In Canelones, the premier wine growing region, ocean breezes keep the vines well-ventilated and the combination of well-drained soils and 220 days of intense sunshine produces growing conditions similar to France’s Bordeaux region and wines of well-balanced levels of alcohol and acidity. Uruguay, one of the most green and environmentally sustainable countries in the world, ranks third after Norway and Finland on the 2007 Environmental Sustainability Index. Its water is the purest on the continent.


 

Fat-Free Pumpkin Raisin Granola

“Recipe from OATRAGEOUS OATMEALS by Kathy Hester Page Street Publishing/September 2014”

Pumpkin is good for replacing fat when making cookies, cakes and granola bars. Makes about 2 & ½ cups.

2 cups rolled oats

½ cup pumpkin puree

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar, or more to suit your taste

¼ cup agave nectar or ½ teaspoon stevia

1 tablespoon chia or flaxseeds

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon allspice

Pinch of cloves

Salt to taste

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Spread on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Cook for 25 to 35 minutes, but keep an eye on it and stir every 10 minutes because in the oven granola can go from not ready to overdone very quickly! Let the granola cool on the cookie sheet and store it in an airtight container.

 

 

Scottish-Inspired Mushroom Lentil Stew

“Recipe from OATRAGEOUS OATMEALS by Kathy Hester Page Street Publishing/September 2014”

Makes 6 servings.

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup minced onions

2 cups chopped mushrooms (any type that you like)

2 bay leaves

4 cups water

2 bouillon cubes

1 cup peeled and diced turnip

½ cup diced carrot

½ cup dried lentils

½ cup steel-cut oats

2 teaspoons thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

 

In a Dutch oven or soup pot heat the oil over medium heat. Once warm, sauté the onion until translucent, then add the mushrooms and bay leaves. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the water, bouillon cubes, turnip, carrot, lentils, oats and thyme. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Then lower heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 45 to 60 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

Add salt and pepper to taste before serving.

 

 

Sunflower Seed and Bean Oat-Loaf

“Recipe from OATRAGEOUS OATMEALS by Kathy Hester Page Street Publishing/September 2014”   

Makes 8 servings. Don’t let the long list of ingredients fool you because this is a snap to make.

1 & ½ cups rolled oats

1 cup roasted sunflower seeds

2 cans (15 oz) cannellini beans

4 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with 8 tablespoons warm water

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 & ½ teaspoons basil

1 teaspoon marjoram

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon rubbed sage

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground rosemary

Topping Ingredients

½ cup ketchup

1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and oil a loaf pan.

Mix the oats and sunflower seeds in a mixing bowl and set aside.

In a food processor combine the cannellini beans, flaxseed mixture, tomato paste, garlic, nutritional yeast, basil, marjoram, thyme, vegan Worcestershire sauce, rubbed sage, ground black pepper, salt and ground rosemary. Process until smooth, then scrape out into the dry mixture of oats and sunflower seeds.

Mix until well combined, and put the mixture into the oiled loaf pan.

In a small bowl, mix the topping ingredients and spread over the top of the loaf. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Take off the foil and bake for 15 minutes more.

 

Ann Hattes has over 25 years experience writing about both travel and food for publications both in the US and internationally. A senior living in Wisconsin, she’s a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the Midwest Travel Writers Association.

Meet Ann