Scrambled Eggs with Homemade Refried Beans and Jalepeno Yogurt Dip

My new favorite breakfast is scrambled eggs with my homemade "refried" beans. I put the refried in quotations because they are actually cooked in a crockpot or pressure cooker. You can find the recipe, here. You can leave the bacon out of the recipe, and it is still dynamite! Serve just those two items with sliced tomatoes or salsa, and you'll love it. However, my new favorite Costco item is Skotidakis Mild Jalapeno Greek Yogurt Dip. And no, I didn't get compensated to say that (I wish!). Two tablespoons of dip are 50 calories, and it is the perfect addition to this breakfast. I use it as a vegetable dip as well.

Homemade Refried Bean and Jalapeno Greek Yogurt Dip

I use one whole egg and two whites for the eggs for 100 calories, the beans are approximately 150 calories for a 1/2 c. and 2 tablespoons of yogurt dip is 50 calories. Tomato slices aren't worth counting. For just 300 calories, you are filled up until well past lunch time. Add an orange or other fruit to boost the vitamin level. If I had fresh sprouts that were ready, I would add those for negligible calories too. I've chopped up romaine lettuce and added that to the plate in the past.

Best Granola Recipe

I've had this recipe for granola for years. I've seen people make it on YouTube since I've had the recipe, but I'm not sure where I got the recipe. I think it has probably been around for years. It is the best recipe I've tried for granola!

First, I had a picture of some of the ingredients that you'll need; unsweetened coconut, ribbon coconut, chopped raw almonds (I sprouted mine), wheat germ, raw sunflower seeds and sesame seeds are pictured below.

Here is the recipe. All you need to do is measure out your ingredients, mix it all together, and pop it in the oven. Easy, relatively healthy and delicious. What's not to like about that?! Not much :)

Best Granola

6 c. rolled oats
1/2  to 1 c. wheat germ
1 c. unsweetened coconut
1 c. nuts (I love sprouted, dehydrated chopped almonds)
1/2 c. ribbon coconut
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/2c. canola oil
1 c. honey (you can use agave if you prefer)
1 c. raisins (or other dried fruit)
1 tsp almond extract (optional)
2 TBSP vanilla

Mix grains, nuts, seeds and coconut together thoroughly. Pour oil and honey over mixture and stir well. Spread on 2 lightly oiled cookie sheets (or one large roasting pan). Bake at 300* for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Stir occasionally while baking. When the mixture is golden brown, take out and mix in the raisins and any other dried fruit., vanilla and almond extract. Put back into the oven and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Try not to eat it all once you take it out of the oven!

Above is a picture of all of the ingredients, except the oil and honey mixed together. And, below, once it is in the roasting pan to bake.

If you like a crunchy granola, then spread it out onto 2 cookie sheets.

Above, crunchy granola after baking. Below, served with Greek yogurt and banana slices.

 A close up.....

In a mason jar to use later!

Whole Grain Cereal cooked in Crockpot

Last night I decided to cook some whole grains for today's breakfast. Slow cooked whole grain cereal may have been the breakfast of champions before processed, boxed cereal came on the scene. That was many years ago though, and now, many people think that hot cereal consists of just oatmeal or cream of wheat.

There are a few ways of going about cooking hot cereal with whole grains.

I decided to cook my cereal in a crock pot. If your crock pot doesn't run hot, you can probably just put the pot on low, and your cereal will be cooked in the morning. Mine runs hot, even on low, so after 3-4 hours, my cereal was finished. I just put it into glass storage containers and into the fridge once it cooled. The picture below is after it had been refrigerated overnight and I had scooped a portion out. I ended up with about 8 cups of cooked cereal.

This morning, I added a little water to 2/3 cup cooked cereal and microwaved mine to heat it up for about 1 minute. Perfect!

Another method is to cook the cereal in a covered casserole in your oven overnight. It can bake at about 150* to 200* overnight. Don't sleep in though, or you may have overcooked (hard) cereal!

From the old LDS Cannery Cookbook, there is a recipe for using 1 cup of whole wheat (or other grain), and adding 2 cups of boiling water to it in a thermos (with a little salt), and storing it overnight. I am sure this would be a bit on the chewy side!

Here is the recipe I used last night:

1/2 c. quinoa (Bob's Red Mill-prewashed)
1/2 c. hard red winter wheat
1/2 c. oat groats
1/2 c. pearl barley

quinoa top left, wheat top right, oat groats bottom left, pearl barley bottom right

I combined all of the grains in the crock pot with 4 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 tsp salt. I added another cup of water after about 3 1/2 hours of cooking on low.  I think that erring on the side of extra water won't hurt at all. I unplugged the crock pot after about 4 1/2 hours, and it was perfectly cooked. You can use any combination of whole or cracked grains with this recipe, and even cut it in half if you have a smaller crock pot. The ratio is 1/2 c. grain to 1- 1 1/2 c. water.

I served my cereal with Greek yogurt and blueberries for breakfast. Delish!

Here is a close-up of the cooked cereal:

Weight Watcher Fruit and Honey Bars

Here is a fantastic recipe for a homemade granola bar of sorts. I found the recipe in Weight Watchers magazine. Normally, I wouldn't be tempted to try this kind of recipe, because they never taste very good. I'm glad I did try this, because not only does it taste good, but it is low in WW point and calories. Not only that, but I have all of the ingredients in my food storage!

Fruit and Honey Bars

Prep 20 minutes, Bake 20 minutes, Serves 20

1/3 c. honey

2 large eggs (you can use powdered)

1/2 tsp salt

1 c. old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 c. instant nonfat dry milk

1/2 c. each: shelled unsalted pumpkin seeds

unsweetened shredded coconut

ground flax seed

dried apricots, chopped

dried cherries

1/4 c. whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Line a 9" square baking pan with nonstick foil. Beat honey, eggs and salt with a fork in a small bowl until blended. Put the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and pulse until mixture is slightly moistened. Press dough into baking pan until in is uniformly even. Bake until center is set, and edges are lightly browned. Let cool 10 minutes. Using foil, transfer the bar from pan to cutting board. Cut into 20 1 1/2" bars. Let cool completely, peel off foil.

1 bar is: 118 calories, 5 gm total fat, 2 gm sat fat, 16 gm total carb, 10 gm total sugar, 2 gm fiber, 4 gm protein My notes: I did not use the foil, but lightly greased the pan with butter. I did not use a food processor, but just chopped the dried apricots with a knife. I used raisins because I didn't have any dried cherries. I stirred everything together with a spoon. I preheated the oven, and the baking time was 20 minutes.

I really love this bar. I will have a couple with some yogurt for breakfast. Yummy! Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Banana Nut Oats from Biggest Loser

Here is a picture of my breakfast yesterday. I decided to try a recipe from the Biggest Loser Weight Loss Planner by Prevention magazine. They are on the magazine racks near the checkout in your local market. This issue had what looked like some great recipes, so I bought it. This is a nice way to eat your daily oatmeal! I enjoyed it, and it is nutritious.

Banana Nut Oats

1 very ripe banana, mashed
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. fat free milk
1 pinch salt
1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1 TBSP chopped walnuts

Mash banana with vanilla. Set aside. Combine milk and salt in medium saucepan; heat until almost boiling. Add oats and cook, stirring until creamy, 1-2 minutes. Stir in banana mixture. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with walnuts before serving. Makes 4 servings, 180 calories each.

Baked Blueberry Oatmeal Recipe

I wanted to show you how this turned out....Baked Blueberry Oatmeal. First of all, I used an 8x8" pan, so I had to bake it for another 15 minutes to get the center cooked. Next time I will use a jelly roll pan and watch it determine baking time. This is really very good, and very filling. What is not to like about oatmeal, blueberries and cinnamon? I served it hot with milk....mmmmmmm. I still have some, so it will be another morning's breakfast. Thanks to my blogging friend, Trish, for sharing the recipe. It is posted at recipezaar here. Let me know how you like it by posting a comment.

Breakfast and Lunch using Food Storage

Using your food storage for meals really shouldn't stress you out. I know that a common complaint from people about using food storage is that they don't know how to use what they store. I thought I'd take you through my day today and show you what our meals have been and what came from "storage". I regularly use items from both my 3 month and 1 year food storage.

Below is breakfast. We happen to love oatmeal. I store oat groats instead of oatmeal. As detailed in a previous post, I have a Marga flaker, and I use this to roll out my groats into flakes. I roll enough for the week, then store it in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator. Oat groats take up half of the space as oatmeal. This is important for me now that I am in a smaller home without a basement. I made oatmeal on the stove, added a few raisins and milk before serving. I also used the hot cocoa mix from the cannery and served hot cocoa. Throw in a banana, and you have a breakfast of about 450 calories. This is nice on a cold morning.

For lunch, I made wraps. I had tortillas in the freezer. I had purchased them on sale and they are the kind you "cook" before using. By the way, I love my cast iron griddle, it belonged to my now deceased grandmother. I think of her every time I use it. It is so well seasoned from years of use.

After cooking the tortilla, I added a little shredded cheese, canned chicken that I heated with bbq sauce. I then topped this with sunflower sprouts.

Next, put a healthy amount (I use about 3/4 c. per serving) of lettuces...I used iceberg and green leaf lettuce. You can use a little ranch dressing to hold the lettuce in.

Here you have a very delicious taco/wrap/whatever you want to call it! My sons love these. They are filling without being fattening.

Food storage items used so far today:

• oat groats


• raisins (3 month storage)


• hot cocoa mix


• canned chicken (3 month storage)


• tortillas from freezer (3 month storage)

See, wasn't that painless! I will post dinner's meal after I make it tonight. If I had sprouted my own sprouts, I would have considered that a part of my storage also.