I've been waiting to post this one because some kid came over and erased the dry-erase board where I'd written the recipe, and I just recently found the original scrap of paper where I'd written my little experiment.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 t. garlic powder
1 c. + 1 t. flour
2 t. wheat germ
2 1/2 T. cheese powder
7 T. milk
1/4 t. baking soda
1 1/4 t. baking powder

I baked these at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. It made 12 fairly large biscuits.

We love oatmeal in the mornings, and fortunately we have the oats available to make it often. Hot oatmeal cereal, hot millet cereal, hot oatmeal and millet, and the occasional box of Rice Cric (some foreign brand of Rice Krispies) from a nearby town comprise our breakfast menu.

The other day we purchased 2 boxes of what we thought was cold cereal (judging by the appearance of the box, the presence of the word "crisp" in the title, and the appearance of the stuff on the spoon in the picture). Upon excitedly opening them at dinner time, we discovered they were, but again, packets of flaky and powdery stuff meant to be made into hot cereal. Here are the deceptive little boxes:

Feeling deceived, tricked, and a little stupid that I'd fallen for the picture on the front cover and not thoroughly inspected the box, I thought, "There must be a way to make our own cereal with stuff we can find around town." So after my last afternoon class, I hopped on my little blue bike and rode my way to the local supermarket.

At the supermarket, I taste-tested a few grains from the large scooping bins. Unsure of exactly what I was buying or what I'd do with it, I picked up some little circles made of corn, some non-instant oats, two mystery bags which I later discovered were crushed/pressed oats, one dark, one light (they look like oats that someone ran over with a truck so they're kind of fractured and more flat), and some "malnut meats" (code for walnuts). Then I pedaled back home, cuddled with my language notebook, and waited for inspiration to hit.

I'm not sure how inspired this was, but it did turn out surprisingly well. I decided to make kind of a mixed-grains cold cereal with some sweet clusters to make our taste buds dance.

Ingredients:
1 cup corn pieces/discs/flakes
4 1/2 cups oats
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 T. water
1/3 c. honey
3 T. crushed walnut pieces
2 T. wheat germ

Well, the corn pieces were stale and really hard to bite into, so first, I toasted them and measured out one cup to be thrown into the cereal.

Then I measured one cup of each of the kinds of oats (Three cups of regular oats would do just fine.) I dissolved 1/4 cup powdered sugar in 3 T. of water and slowly added it to the oats, stirring constantly to make sure the sweet liquid coated them evenly rather than soaking into any one part. Then I toasted them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until dry and a bit crispy. I had to stir them frequently to make sure they didn't burn.

I mixed the honey, walnuts, wheat germ, and 1 1/2 cups of oats together and baked that for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Once cooked, it made a super-tasty bunch of oat clusters to be mixed with the other cereal parts.

Potatoes... a good, solid food.  I have a good friend Kelli who says, "I'm a meat and potatoes kind of girl." I'd have to say I'm right along with her.

We've been making our own french fries here for over a year now and have tried to make them at least a little on the healthy side.

Ingredients:
about 3 large potatoes per baking tray
2-3 T. oil (We use sunflower oil)
salt

Just chop the potatoes. We like fat slices, but the fatter they are, the longer it takes to cook. Then we put them into a disposable plastic bag, pour in a bit of oil, shake, and remove the potato wedges, leaving the majority of the oil in the bag. Once the potato wedges are evenly spread on the baking sheet, we bake for about 50-65 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

And somewhere between 50 and 65 minutes later... Perfection in a pan.

Millet. One of my new favorite foods, and an incredibly fun word to say.

I used a recipe I came up with for corn muffins, but substituted the cornmeal with millet. These were delightful, not notably moist or flavorful in and of themselves, but a great, healthy side to serve with soup or stew.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup millet
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 t. salt
2 Tablespoons oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk

I combined the ingredients and put this into a greased muffin pan.

These baked at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. It made 6 nicely-sized muffins, perfect to supplement our dinner and give us something to eat for breakfast the next day, too!

Cereal, cereal, cereal. It's on the top 5 list of things I miss from my former life.

Granola isn't exactly the same as a nice, big bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats or Honey Nut Cheerios, but it is a step closer to my favorite breakfast food.

This is orange sesame granola.

Ingredients:
5 1/2 cups of oats
1/2 c. sesame seeds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. lemon juice
1/2 c. orange juice

I combined the last 5 ingredients in a saucepan and heated them over medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly until the sugar was dissolved and everything had blended together.

Then I poured the mixture over the oats and sesame seeds and stirred together, finally pouring all of it onto a cookie sheet. I baked this for 20-30 minutes (I can't remember exactly) at around 400 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring it every 5-10 minutes to prevent burning. After I pulled it out of the oven, I returned to stir it every 3-4 minutes as it cooled so it wouldn't harden into one large sheet on the cookie sheet.

Austin made this sauce to go with the meatballs, and I thought it was worth writing about.

Ingredients:
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/6 cup apple cider vinegar
1/6 cup brown sugar
1/2 T. onion powder
1/2 T. garlic powder
1 t. tobasco sauce

Simmer for 20 minutes & enjoy!

We love meat. Love it.

Since being here, we've tried several different meatball recipes. We made this one the other day and really liked the way it turned out.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb. beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg
1 T. Italian spices
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 1/2 c. breadcrumbs
3/4 c. lukewarm water (added slowly, might not use it all)
1 c. shredded carrot

Just mix it together, and broil (or bake on the top rack at the highest temperature) for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, flip them and broil 8-12 more minutes until browned and cooked in the center.

I remember going to Grammy's home as a little girl. She made some great meals. One meal, however, of which I was not such a fan, was 16 bean soup. Not exactly my cup of tea.

Some 15 years later, however, I hit the bean section of the supermarket to buy the ingredients for some bean soup of my own. (And to think I never believed my mom when she claimed that my taste buds would change and grow as I did!)

I bought 4 types of beans, shown below, and set them in water to soak overnight. The next morning, I rinsed the beans and used them to fill the majority of our crock pot. I didn't measure, but there were probably 6-8 cups of beans once they'd soaked.

Ingredients:
beans (6-8 cups of your desired variety)
6-10 slices ham, chopped
1-2 cups chopped veggies
water
1/2 t. salt
1/2 T. garlic powder
1/2 T. chili powder
3 Tablespoons chicken flavoring granules

I took this opportunity to clear out the random odds and ends of veggies I had in the refrigerator, which consisted of half a large carrot, 4 stalks of celery, and a potato. Chop, chop, chop, into the crock pot you go.

I stirred it up, added 6 slices of chopped ham lunch meat, 3 1/2 cups water, 3 Tablespoons chicken flavoring granules, 1/2 Tablespoon garlic powder, and 1/2 Tablespoon chili powder. Later I added 1/2 teaspoon salt and some more water to make up for what steamed off during cooking. I cooked it for about 6 hours. (Cooking on low would be ideal. I was concerned about the beans getting soft enough, so I cooked them on high at first, but then had to reduce the heat and finally turn the crock pot off altogether to prevent mushiness.)

Project Casserole continues.

First, I got some pumpkin cubes boiling. (We don't really have canned veggies of any sort over here, but a can of pumpkin puree would be a grand alternative.)

The pumpkin took about 10-12 minutes to boil and soften so I could easily mash it. Meanwhile, I prepared a 9 x 13 pan of bread cubes.

I based this off of a recipe from a vegan website. Vegan I am not, and neither was this recipe by the time I finished with it. But I loved the recipe. It was fun, easy, freedom-giving, and delicious!

Ingredients:
bread (I used a loaf of unsliced bread, broken into large cubes. Stale bread would probably be best, but mine was fresh, so I just toasted it a bit first to dry it out.)
1 c. mashed pumpkin/ pumpkin puree (could also use applesauce, banana, etc.)
1 c. milk
2 T. cornstarch
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ginger
3 T. brown sugar

Glaze:
2  egg whites
a little honey

So I mixed all of the wet ingredients together and then poured them over the bread. The pan looked a bit dry after I stirred it, so I splashed in a little more milk.

I stirred the mixture and let it sit for about 10 minutes while I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I stirred again and let it sit for another 10 minutes.

I put it in the oven for about 15 minutes and then took it out to brush it with the egg-white and honey glaze. (To this point, there was not egg in the recipe, so I could have cooked it as long or as short as I wanted, longer for a less moist casserole.) After brushing the top, I put it back in the oven and baked it for about 10 more minutes. The glaze gave it a bit of hard/ crunchy sweetness on the outside of the top, which we really liked; it tasted a bit like monkey bread. The honey in the glaze also gave it a nice touch of sweetness so we didn't need to douse it in syrup. This tasted fantastic, and we'll definitely be making it again.

Pumpkin. Totally an autumn-esque food, but I just love it and can't keep myself from cooking with it year-round. I decided to try my hand at some pumpkin-spice scones. There are a bunch of recipes out there that look amazing, but unfortunately they all use loads of butter, which (a) we don't have here, and (b) just isn't going to be healthy at all. So, at the risk of having bunch of true scone connoisseurs stick up their noses at my baking, here's how I made mine. I adapted it from a recipe I found at this site.

Ingredients:
3 c. all-purpose flour
2 T. baking powder
2 T. white sugar (I reduced the white sugar and supplemented with brown sugar)
2 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. cinnamon (I used cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg since I didn't have pumpkin pie spice)
1/8 t. ginger
1/8 t. nutmeg
2 T. oil (reduced from 1/3 c. oil)
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree/ mashed pumpkin
1 t. apple cider vinegar
raisins

I just combined all of the ingredients. (Raisins were my own addition, and I'm so glad I decided to throw them in. They added a great touch of flavor.) It took a while to incorporate all of the ingredients; at points it looked like there was too much flour, but in the end, it turned out great.

I formed the batter into 10 discs and baked them for about 14 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

When they were golden brown, I removed them from the oven. We drizzled a cinnamon & powdered sugar glaze over them before eating them for breakfast.