I just love the flavor SO much and enjoy anything and everything with Oats in it... from our Steel Cut Oats for breakfast, cooked oatmeal, baked oatmeal, oatmeal cookies, cake and bread, Apple Crisp, Granola Bars, Dutch Apple Pie... you name it...It's all good
I have two more great recipes that have Rolled Oats as one of the ingredients. Granola Bars and Dutch Apple Pie. These two recipes have become keepers for me and something that will be made often at my house!
GRANOLA BARS
I made this recipe when I was dating Tracy (which he just loved), however, haven't made it since...that is until I needed to make Granola bars for our yearly backpacking trip. I found a different recipe and made it up and it was really sticky, very sweet and didn't fare well when Tracy and I took them on our hike into Darby Caves. SO, I came back to my original recipe and did a little tweaking and they were absolutely delicious... not too sweet, a great texture, basic recipe that can be customized to your liking and a BIGGIE...they used ingredients that I have in my food storage.
Chewy Granola Bars 1 cube butter 1/2 cup peanut butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup honey Mix the above ingredients together in a large sauce pan on LOW heat until blended.
Then add in: 1/4 cup wheat germ 1/2 cup sunflower seeds 1/4 cup chopped nuts (peanuts or almonds are the best) 2/3 cup raisins(or other dried fruit) 3 cups rolled oats Mix all together and bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (stirring twice).
Take out and add in: 1/2 cup chopped Peanut M&M's, OR, 1/2 cup chocolate chips Stir well and put into 9x13 pan and let cool for at least 4 hours.
Cut and individually wrap bars in plastic wrap and store in air tight container in the fridge. Great for lunches, afternoon kid snacks, OR, energy bars for hiking,
Enjoy!
DUTCH APPLE PIE
Tracy and I enjoy a good homemade pie and hardly splurge on getting pie to eat when we occasionally eat out because homemade tastes SO much better than anything you can get at a restaurant. However, I have never been able to replicate the "Caramel Apple Pie" you can get a Perkins Restaurant, which is one of Tracy's favorite pies!
First off, I LOVE apple pie made with FRESH apples straight off the tree. There is nothing yummier to me!!
I have always struggled with bottled apple pie filling because the apples seems really soft and they're sometimes too strong with too many spices and until last year I have never bottled up any apple pie filling.
I came across this recipe last year from one of my Blog friends Mel. It sounded delicious and so I decided to use her recipe because she gave a great recipe for using the filling to make Dutch Apple Pie and I wanted to try and make a yummy pie for Tracy that made us feel like we had gone and had dessert at Perkins.
This recipe definitely DELIVERS, tastes better than anything you can get at a restaurant and best of all, it was a perfect hit with both my hubby and kids.
Dutch Apple Pie
2 cups unbleached flour 2/3 cup packed brown sugar 3/4 cup rolled oats 1 cube melted butter 1 jar bottled Apple Pie Filling
In large bowl mix flour, brown sugar, rolled oats and melted butter. Mix until well combined. Save aside one cup for topping.
Press remaining mixture into a large pie plate (going up the sides). Pour bottled Apple Pie Filling onto crust and then top with reserved crumb topping.
Bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes until golden brown. Let sit 15 minutes before cutting.
Delicious topped with ice cream and drizzled with Caramel Ice Cream topping.
"When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness".~~~Bob Hope
Summer time is such a wonderful time! It's a time in our lives where the weather is just right and so many times we find ourselves, packing up our dinner and heading to the mountains, the desert, a park...you name it.
We have to eat,so why stay home and be boring...
why not load your car with dinner fixins' and head to enjoy some gorgeous scenery and family fun!
All this requires is a few dollars of gas in your car and a little preparation and you have priceless memories that your kids will cherish forever.
Sometimes we take our Dutch Oven and cook up dinner, or roast hot dogs and make Smore's... Sometimes we fill a cooler with sandwich fixin's and fresh fruit, or a salad...
Other times we just fill our thermos with hot soup and take it with us.
(one time we put our taco filling in a thermos and filled the cooler with containers of lettuce, chopped tomatoes and grated cheese and went an enjoyed tacos sitting on the sand at the Rigby Lake)
Whatever we do, the kids justlove these out of the ordinary moments AND I love them too.
Sunday after church
we packed the cooler with containers of diced potatoes, beaten eggs, grated cheese and sausage, threw in a jug of iced water, grabbed our picnic bag and Dutch Oven and headed to the hills. Besides enjoying dinner in the mountains, we were on a fact finding mission to see how the Huckleberries were doing this year.
Tracy got the coals all ready and we made
"Breakfast in one" in the Dutch Oven.
Our folding picnic table with our plates, sporks and mugs all ready to be filled and enjoyed!
Talk about FAMILY FUN!!
The recipe:
1/2 pound sausage 3 baked potatoes peeled and diced 8 eggs well beaten with 1/4 cup milk grated cheese (salt and pepper to taste)
Brown sausage in Dutch Oven until browned. Remove sausage and most of the grease Add in potatoes and cook until browned Then pile on cooked sausage beaten eggs and top with grated cheese. Cook for 15-20 minutes until eggs are cooked with 12 coals on the bottom AND top of Dutch Oven.
Enjoy!
(would also be yummy if you sauteed onions and bell peppers when you cook the sausage...
also yummy served with Salsa on the top)
Good thing we didn't listen to people when we first got to our picnic spot. They said they had looked all around and only found 5 Huckleberries... we hiked up the mountain a little bit and low and behold came across MANY berries. Lots of green berries which we'll make sure we can come back in a week and get and MANY ripe berries.
We set an hour limit for picking since it was getting late in the afternoon.
(Tracy is always laughing that I take self portraits, but since I'm the main photographer of our outings, I have to at least take a photo of me showing that I WAS HERE enjoying this fun as well)
After one hour of picking we ended up
with 3 cups of Huckleberries.
Very much looking forward to making homemade ice cream tonight and making Huckleberry Floats for our Family Home Enjoyment this evening.
I absolutely agree that it truly is the little out of the ordinary moments that make life so big and memorable.
When I reflect back on all of the happy, memorable moments in my life I can honestly say that is truly is the "simplest things" that give the greatest glow of happiness!
Feeling blessed to have a hubby that always takes time to make life so much FUN for our family and feeling blessed to have kids that appreciate all of these little moments as well!
"Open your arms
and welcome the joy of today"!
HOT!!! That is how the last week of July was.
Here in Southeast Idaho, we usually get one week in July that is SO hot, it is really hard to keep cool.
Thank goodness for having a box full of Otter Pops in our food storage that I was able to throw in the freezer so we could keep cool on those extremely hot days.
This day was a hectic day and so the quickest thing to fix the kids for lunch when I got home from work was Cornmeal pancakes and a big bowl of grapes.
What kid doesn't LOVE breakfast for lunch or dinner.
After lunch I pulled a snack sized bag of ham out of the freezer and threw it in a pot with split peas and made up a yummy pot of Split Pea Soup for dinner.
Ethan would love it
if we made Cornbread every day.
Jade begged for Double Chocolate cookies,
only I didn't realize that he had been sneaking the chocolate chips and there was barely a handful left.
SO, I took my recipe and added in a large spoonful of peanut butter in place of the chocolate chips and they turned out quite tasty.
I think that will definitely be something we will be making up again, especially when I find myself low on chocolate chips.
YAY!! Tracy got to enjoy our Friday smoothie with us. He is never home for lunch during the week and so what a joy it was to eat lunch with him on a Friday afternoon.
This was so refreshing to cool off from the hot summer heat.
Tracy promised Ethan we would
roast up Hot Dogs for dinner. (I am NOT a Hot Dot person, but will eat an ALL Beef Hot Dog...my body can't handle the cheap ones).
We had bought some of these last fall and had them in our freezer. SO, I decided to venture out and make Hot Dog Buns.
I took my French Bread recipe (click here)
and divided it into ten pieces and formed into small loaves.
They were perfect and would make perfect Hoagie Buns for a yummy sandwich.
Since our buns were so big compared to the Hot Dogs, we cut the Hot Dogs length wise and put 3 pieces on the bun, along with a large spoonful of sauteed onions and they were amazing!
(and that says alot coming from someone who is not a fan of hot dogs).
Homemade buns make ANY Hot Dog taste yummy!!
July 25th to 31st Sunday Bananas
Burritos
Monday Steel Cut Oats
Cornmeal pancakes, Bananas, apples, grapes
Split Pea Soup and corn bread
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Tuesday Steel Cut Oats
Leftover corn bread, Split Pea Soup and apples
Chow Mein, (made with Roast Beef I pulled from my freezer), Lime Drink
Orange Rolls
Thursday Steel Cut Oats
Banana, potato salad, whole wheat toast, sliced apples
Went and enjoyed Blizzards at DQ
Tracy heated up a can of Dinty Moore Stew over his new backpacking stove he made
(YUCK…it didn’t sound good to me, but Ethan just loved it!)
Lime Drink
Friday Smoothie, Garlic/cheese toast
Bananas
ALL BEEF hot dogs on homemade buns with sautéed onions
Lime Drink
Saturday Steel Cut Oats
Grapes, garlic cheese bread
Finished off the ALL BEEF hot dogs on our homemade buns topped with more sautéed
WEEK 12
(After a hectic week of getting our yard ready to leave and getting us all packed...Kimmie was able to have peace and solitude in the mountains.
This is overlooking Sunset Lake!)
We decided to take our
Sunday afternoon dinner to the desert. I got the Dutch Oven all filled with ingredients for Chicken and Rice and filled our cooler while Tracy and the boys loaded the car with our portable table and briquettes and everything for the Dutch Oven.
We went out to the Civil Defense Caves and Tracy got the coals all ready and placed them below and on top of the Dutch Oven and we got dinner cooking while we went through one of the entrances to the cave.
We came back and ate dinner and then went through the second entrance.
Our kids had SO much fun!!
It's amazing how you can do something a little out of the ordinary and the kids just LOVE it!!
Moments like these are priceless memories!
I cleaned out the fridge and we had enough purple and green grapes to make a smoothie.
YUMMY!!
We inherited some chickens and one of them ended up being a rooster and so we spent an afternoon butchering our rooster...
which we the simmered on the stove all night...
it made such delicious broth and we had the BEST Chicken Noodle Soup I think I've ever eaten.
This was my Monday afternoon... as soon as I got a smoothie made for the kids, I made a batch of egg noodles and cut them out, let them dry and added them to our Chicken Noodle Soup later that afternoon.
My sweet neighbor gave me a big bowl of tart cherries and so I made these into a yummy pie.
We put ingredients in our ice cream maker and made a batch of yummy homemade ice cream.
These treats were enjoyed as we played a game of CLUE together as a family.
I feel like a pro with making Tortillas now.
I have found that the key to helping them to stay round is to lightly loosen all of the edges and gently pick them up when you put them on the griddle.
Homemade tortillas taste SO much better than store bought.
My other neighbor brought down
a big bag of Chili Peppers. I have never done anything with these types of peppers before.
SO, I ventured out and roasted them in our oven until they were blistered,
put them in a plastic bag to let them sweat
and then pulled the skins off them and pulled out the seeds.
I made up a batch of Chili Rellenos (my brother in law's recipe) and wrapped them in the tortillas and covered them in salsa and sour cream.
I had kids and hubby begging for more!
After trying many Granola Bar recipes,
these was by far the yummiest and held together the best while being thrown around in a backpack.
(AND they use food storage ingredients, so I could throw together a batch anytime of the year and always have everything that they call for).
(here for recipe)
We spent 3 wonderful days in the High Country
as a family backpacking together.
Each morning my sweetie could be found lighting his stove and making up a big pot of ZOOM cereal.
Kimmie and Ethan enjoying some warm breakfast to get jump started for our day of hiking.
All of our backpacker meals use Freeze dried Corn and Peas (this particular meal we had found some wild onions along the way that we chopped and added to our soup).
To the hot water, and corn and peas we then added in a package of Ramen and also potato flakes and it is such a quick and easy backpacking meal that is filling and quite inexpensive.
I don't think there is a more treasured time than being in the high country enjoying eating lunch together
as a family...enjoying such pristine beauty!
I never tire of being in the wilderness with my family!
(August 1st to August 7th) Sunday Dutch Oven Chicken and Rice and Lime Drink
Monday Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Boiled Eggs, Apple, Gumdrop bread, Grapes
(kids) Smoothie, Gumdrop Bread
Chicken soup with homemade egg noodles
(broth made from our rooster)
Tuesday Steel Cut Oats
(kids) Smoothie, Tuna on Crackers
(tracy)Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup, apple, Gumdrop Bread
Chili Rellenos made with green chilies we roasted that our neighbors gave to us
(served in homemade tortillas we made as well)
Homemade Cherry Pie with Homemade Ice Cream
Wednesday Steel Cut Oats
Apples
Leftover Chili Rellenos wrapped in homemade tortillas
Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup
Huckleberry floats made with the rest of our homemade ice cream
(enjoyed this while we played CLUE)
Thursday Steel Cut Oats
Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup, apples, bananas
(dinner)Ethan finished the rest of our Chicken Soup
(rest of us) pulled Hamburger Gravy out of the freezer and served over cooked up Cauliflower
Friday Steel Cut Oats
Yearly backpacking trip
(We ate a combination of our trail food we brought along...string cheese, apples, Homemade granola bars, tuna and crackers, Ramen, chips, licorice, Odwalla Bars)
(I just pulled out whatever snacks from our food storage that would work, since I wanted to be diligent of not going to the store...albeit, we splurged on a package of string cheese so we would have plenty of protein)
Saturday ZOOM with brown sugar, powdered milk and raisins
Lunch: Goulash made with wild onions we found on our hike, Ramen, Freeze dried corn and peas and Instant Potatoes)
Dinner: Mountain House Meals that we pulled from our food storage
Life is Wonderful...Life is Good... doing my best to live this quote:
"May you live every day of your life"!!
“Memories are the way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”
I can't believe that Summer is nearing an end. In Jade's words... "Time just goes by s'dang fast"!!
I have so much to share about all of the memories we've created together as a family this summer.
Memorial Day in Salt Lake City,Utah...
Yellowstone camping trip...
Lower Palisades Lake hiking adventure... Darby Canyon Caves and hike...
Sunday afternoon at the Civil Defense Caves...
And right now, we're packing our backpacks and getting ready to head out on our yearly backpacking trip. SO excited to hopefully have all four of us at the top of Hurricane Pass once again (weather permitting). The last time we were all here together was August 2006
"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." ~~Charles R. Swindoll
I'm SO grateful to have a hubby whose biggest priority in life is making sure our kids memories banks are FULL and he truly lives this quote to the fullest.
As much as I'm savoring creating the wonderful summer-time memories with my family, I'm looking forward to life slowing down a little bit, getting into a routine and not having to spend my every moment that we aren't having family FUN...watering, weeding and taking care of my yard. I can't wait to be able to create and scrapbook "blog style" our wonderful summer of 2010 AND I'm so excited to once again catch up with all of YOUmy friends and family that I enjoy so much!! Talk to all of you soon... Have a wonderful and enjoyable week!
I very much enjoy primitive skills! They're like therapy, providing a sense of challenge and accomplishment--inconsequential as it may be, it's so rewarding and such a joy to stand back and say "Yes...I did that"!!
I remember being at Rick's College in a Sociology class with my favorite Professor Hal Hunter. He had such a zest for life and also a yearning to "Get Back to Basics". He commented time and time again about how "We Need to Maintain our Primitive Skills".
He and his wife Marilyn, took "maintaining primitive skills" to a whole new level. He had taken apart the log cabin he was born in and moved it log by log and reassembled it on his property. The two of them would take one week each summer and live in their cabin. Their cabin had no power, no plumbing and no running water and they had a wood burning stove. They would cook all week over a fire and in their stove, use lanterns or candles for lights and even used an outhouse.
I still remember the enthusiasm he had for this one week out of the year that they experienced this to "keep up on their primitive skills". This enthusiasm carried over into giving me the desire and excitement to Maintain my Primitive Skills as well.
I have had many people comment to me that "I can't bake bread because I don't have a Bosch, or a Kitchen Aid or a Bread Machine". I made bread by hand for over 12 years. I didn't let having a tiny apartment with little counter space and not having fancy machines keep me from baking healthy bread for my family.
HELPFUL TIP about Wheat Flour... when I was first married, I didn't have a grinder and so I would buy 5 pound bags of wheat flour, HOWEVER, my loaves were really heavy and almost tasted a little rancid. We were in a Preparedness Store looking at wheat grinders and the lady told us that wheat flour needs to be ground up fresh in order to make the best bread and if you do grind up extra it will keep for a few months in a sealed container in the freezer.
SO, I always grind up plenty of flour, bake a batch of bread with the fresh flour and put the remaining flour in the freezer (double Zip-loc bagged in gallon freezer bags) and use it up within the month. Grinding up fresh flour and not using store bought wheat flour has made my bread light and absolutely delicious.
10 years ago we bought 250 pounds of Hard Red Wheat (in preparation for Y2K...LOL) the bread I made from this was really quite dense and so we were talking with family and friends about wheat and they told us about Hard White Wheat and how wonderfully this grinds up. So we decided to buy 100 pounds of Hard White Wheat to try out. I grind up half Hard Red and half Hard White each time I grind up wheat and this seems to be the perfect blend to make perfect loaves of bread.
Every few months I like to have a "Primitive Bread Making Day" to keep up on my skills of making bread the good Old Fashioned way...mixing and kneading it all by hand. SO, here is how I do that and as you can see it is SO easy!
Kimberly’s Homemade Bread (our family’s staple)
In a large metal bowl mix together the following: 3 cups HOT tap water 1/3 cup honey 2 tsp. Salt Stir above ingredients until dissolved.
Add: 1 ½ Tbsp. SAF yeast (from years of experience this is by far the best yeast you can get...I have yet to not have anything made with this yeast turn out perfect!) and 3 cups WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR
Let sit until bubbly. (about ½ hour)
Then add 1 more cup WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR and 2-3 cups unbleached white flour (or enough to make a nice soft dough). This recipe can also be made with ALL whole wheat flour—if you have “High Protein” wheat. If your wheat is low in protein you will need to use the “unbleached white flour” to make the loaves rise and not be so dense.
(you may also substitute 1 cup fresh ground oat flour for 1 of the cups of flour—this is exceptionally tasty)
Roll dough in oil in another bowl. Let rise until double. Shape into 2 or 3 loaves and let rise. Bake at 350* for 42 minutes.
This bread FREEZES well and is GREAT for toast, French toast and sandwiches.
It's very fulfilling baking bread for my family and I enjoy it so much! Mixing, Kneading, Rolling, Shaping and Baking
...it's therapy to me. (kimmie)
Feeling SO grateful to have the knowledge and skills to be able to take care of my family and for having such wonderful examples in my life that planted seeds when I was a young college student of the FUN it is to "maintain my primitive skills"!
Especially "Pink Cookies with Sprinkles" (click on photo for recipe)
"Find Joy in the Journey"...every single day!
Hello! I'm Kimmie, who has an uncanny, positive outlook on life! Who is a lover of outdoor adventures with my family, a lover of capturing life with photography! Who is passionate about frugality, healthy eating, cooking from scratch and staying fit! Whose greatest passion of all is my marriage to my husband and being a mom to my wonderful sons!
GRANOLA BARS
Chewy Granola Bars
DUTCH APPLE PIE
I came across this recipe last year from one of my Blog friends Mel.
Dutch Apple Pie
