Oatmeal and Maple Biscuits

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Growing up, I was not a breakfast person; I would rarely eat anything before rushing out the door to school (I know, I know, shame on me). The weekends were the same story, unless grits were involved in which case that'd be about the extent of my breakfast. Now that I'm a parent, alhamdulillah, I take breakfast more seriously. No, I still don't eat it regularly but I do make sure my children do. I'm also not a fan of cold-breakfasts (see above: grits) and try to get something warm and filling in those growing bellies each morning.

 

 

 

 

Now before you go and get visions of a niqaabi June Cleaver let me tell you we have plenty of mornings of cold cereal around here, because that's just life. Mornings just always seem to be a bit chaotic and though I want something hearty and hot to serve my family, it needs to be easy and quick. All that and still yummy, too.

And that's exactly why these biscuits* are the new family favorite: they come together quickly, the kids love them and I don't have to worry about speculatively halal ingredients as is often the case with canned biscuits. But please don't even began to try and compare these to anything that pops out of a can. Thanks to the oatmeal these are hearty, thick and crumbly yet don't feel like a hockey puck sitting in your tummy. They have a slightly sweet crumb thanks to the syrup (DO NOT try and substitute any mrs-aunts-butter-jemima-junk for pure maple syrup!) but are still subtle enough to be slathered with your cheesecake leftovers. Wait...cheesecake? Huh?

Yes, you heard me right. Strawberry cheesecake for breakfast, just without the chesecake part. That strawberry topping is perfect atop these biscuits straight out of the oven. You can easily swap for any other fruit, fresh or frozen. Refrigerate the sauce over night for best consistency. You can keep it for a few days in the fridge, though it didn't even last one day in our house, but anything beyond that may not be the best thing since this faux-jam is pectin and preservative free. Warm maple biscuits with homemade strawberry jam, now that's a breakfast I can get used to.
 

 (*the original recipe calls these scones but seeing as I'm all unrefined and can't tell the difference between a scone and a biscuit, plus my kids ended up calling this is a biscuit, I just went with the more American-y sounding of the two. Either way, it's delicious)


Oat and Maple Biscuits
Breakfast Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery
Yield: about 8 - 10, depending on your biscuit cutter size

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting surface
1/2 cup  whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (I used quick-cooking)
1 very heaped tablespoon baking powder
1 very heaped tablespoon  granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Scant 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
1 egg, beaten (for glaze)

Directions
1.Preheat your oven to 400°F  and butter a baking tray

2. Whisk the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. With a pastry blender or your fingertips, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. In a small dish, combine the milk and syrup, then add these liquid ingredients to the butter-flour mixture. By hand or with a rubber spatula, bring everything together to form a softish dough. If it feels too dry, add a little more milk but not enough that the dough is sticky. I usually end up adding another 1/4 cup milk but whatever you do, add in small amounts until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky.

4. On a lightly floured surface, pat or roll the dough out until it is 1 1/4 inches tall. Using a 2-inch cutter, cut the dough into rounds and place them on the prepared tray so that they almost touch. Glaze the tops with beaten egg and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the scones are lightly golden. The scones will stick together, so pull them gently apart when they’ve cooled a bit.

5. Serve warm plain, drizzled with honey or slathered with jam.

Strawberry Jam
1 cup strawberry, mashed
1 cup sugar 
3 tablespoons cornstarch 
1/3 cup water

1. Blend sugar and cornstarch together in a small saucepan.

2.Stir in water and strawberries.

3.Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils.

4. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Cool thoroughly before storing in a container and refrigerating. Keep in fridge overnight for best results.

Cheese Crackers

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

(warning: all pictures in this post are downright horrible; my camera was out of commission and I had to resort to my grubby camera phone. I'm hoping to make this recipe again in the near future and promise to get better pictures insha'allah, until then, these will just have to do!)

I was never so much into those little yellow gold fish crackers...they just didn't taste cheesy enough for my liking (and its no secret how much I like cheese), and I've never understood how kids seem to be addicted to them either.. Cheez-its were a bit more up my alley but its not like I was crazy about them or anything.

But now I have kids of my own and though they don't each goldfish crackers(too much doubt about it being halal) they do love crunchy little snacks. So when I first saw this recipe, I thought of them. When I first tasted it, I thought of only myself eating the whole bowl. Only kidding (sort of)!

Don't get intimidated by the idea of making crackers from scratch, they come together so easily and have so few ingredients you'll really be amazed. I suggest rolling them slightly thinner than the recipe calls for to decrease any major puffing. Skewering holes into the pre-baked crackers also keeps puffing to a minimum, you can see I went a little crazy with my holes; one or two per cracker would be just fine, too.

 

I originally made these for a play date but I gotta say, the adults seemed to enjoy them just as much as the kiddos. They kept well for a couple days in a sealed container but remember, they're homemade meaning no preservatives or chemicals so don't expect them to stay crisp and fresh for so many days. Happy crackering!

Whole Wheat Crackers


6 ounces (1 1/2 cups coarsely grated) sharp cheddar
4 tablespoons  softened butter
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used an entire 3/4 cup of white whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon onion powder (I didn't have any and used garlic powder instead)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon table salt (your cheese will be plenty salty on its own so only add a pinch)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, running the machine until the dough forms a ball, about two minutes.

If the dough feels warm or worrisome-ly soft, wrap it in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes. This also makes it easier to transfer shapes once they are rolled out.

On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out 1/8-inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time to ensure a clean cut. Gently transfer crackers to an ungreased cookie sheet with a 1/2 inch between them. Bake the crackers on the middle rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and set the cookie sheet on a rack to cool.

Kid Friendly Fish Sticks

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

I make an effort to give my kids the same food that the adults are eating. This way, they're exposed to new flavors and foods and I don't have to end up making 5 types of food for one meal just to make everyone happy. But every now and then, some meals are a bit too spicy for them, so I'll make the occasional modification or two.

On the night of the spicy fish, I reserved fillet for the kids and kept it spice-free. When it came time to cook them up I remembered how my children HATE fish. I mean, hate. I've tried mashing, mixing and flavoring it but to no avail, they can always detect it from before that first bite. But what if it was hidden under a crunch, flavorful coating? We've tried those horrible boxed, frozen fish sticks before but I know how different (better!) the home made versions of things can be, so I took a stab at it.

Success! The kids ate them, with the help of a little dab of ketchup but who cares, they got a huge serving of Omega 3's and didn't even realize it, alhamdulillah! This recipe can be modified so many ways: different types of fish, rolling in different sauce before the crumb coating, different herbs mixed into the crumbs, etc. Just remember to go easy on the oil when frying; you can still get a golden outer crust in a shallow fry while avoiding the extra fat of a deep fry.

Speaking of fish, my recipe was featured over here where some amazing stuff happens. Take a looksie at all the other cool things the sisters over there are doing, masha'allah!

Home Made Fish Sticks

1 Swai fillet (or any firm fish)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (fresh herbs would be much better)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten

1. Cut the fish crosswise, into "sticks". Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. Mix the breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt in a seperate bowl.

3. Dip fish into egg and then roll to coat in breadcrumbs.

4. Shallow fry on medium heat for about 2 - 3 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve warm.

Toddler Trail Mix

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Snack food doesn't have to equal junk food, and that's true at any age. Sure, you can buy a box of high fructose corn syrup covered with artificial flavors pressed into some unnatural shape of the latest cartoon fad. Or you can pull from naturally (as in, from nature) sweetened flavors and whole grain foods that leave you feeling satisfied - and you don't have to be a tree hugger to enjoy it (no offense to said tree huggers)!

If you ever have the chance to stock up on those little sample boxes of cereal (the unsweetened kinds, preferably) then those are perfect for this. If not, a handful of a few different types from your cupboard will do just as well. Mix them together with some dried fruits and for older kids, nuts and you're done! Proportion into individual bags and you have a healthy and sweet snack ready to go for you or your child. Who said you can't have a convenient and healthy snack in one?

Sneaky Food

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem



There's a lot of controversy in the food world about sneaking nutritious food into your kids' favorite meals. One camp says children should learn to love vegetables in their true natural form while the other says get those vitamins and minerals into those kids any way you can! Having some very picky eaters myself, I lean more towards the second camp but wish I had it easy enough to be in the first. So that led me to hunting down Jessica Seinfeld's (yes, that Seinfeld and am I the only one who thinks they look creepily alike?) book, "Deceptively Delicious". We had success with sweet potato pancakes and sweet potato pasta sauce but it was todays lunch that won me over. Even the adults enjoyed it and I'll definitely be planning on making this again insha'Allah.



Mozzarella Sticks (with Cauliflower!)
(my additions are in red)

1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tbsp flaxseed meal
1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup cauliflower puree (steamed and blended cauliflower)
1 tbsp corn starch
non-stick cooking spray
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp italian seasoning 1 beaten egg


1. In a bowl, toss the breadcrumbs with the flaxseed, sesame seeds and italian seasong.

2. In a second bowl, stir together mozzarella, cauliflower and cornstarch . Shape into 8 logs (2 x 1/2" ). Gently dip into beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs. Wrap in foil and freeze for at least 20 minutes.

3. Coat non-stick skillet with cooking spray over med-high heat. When pan is hot, add oil. Arrange sticks in single layer and cook 3 - 4 minutes, turning occasionally, until crumb coating is brown. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

On The Subject of Apples..

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Remember h0w I mentioned I don't like apples? Well with my kids, it's a different story. They love any type of apple, tart or sour. In any form, raw or baked. But their hands down favorite is apple sauce referred to in our house, simple, as Sauce. This is one dessert that I as a mom don't feel bad giving seconds (thirds?) of to the hungry kiddos.


Homemade Apple Sauce

1. Peel and core any variety of apples you have on hand or are in season (this is a great way to use up the last of the bunch that may be getting a bit bruised and old).

2. Slice and chop into 1" cubes.

3. Place in a deep, heavy bottomed pot (so it won't scorch) on medium-low heat. Add just enough water to come half-way up the apples. Keep a pitcher of water by the stove, you will constantly be adding water as the apples cook down.

4 . At this point you can add some flavorings if you like. I'm a fan of the natural stuff, but a cinnamon stick, a sprinkling of brown sugar or a handful of frozen berries is great too.



5. Place a tight lid and let apples cook. Check on them ever5 15 minutes to make sure there is still some water left. The apples will start to break down and get softer, slowly getting darker in color also. When it looks like the water is almost gone, add the same amount as before.


6. Depending on the amount of apples you have, this will take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. A slow constant method is better than dumping a whole bunch of water and letting it simmer to ensure the most flavorful and smooth apple sauce. Make sure to continue cooking until there are no more lumps. Be patient!


7. When all the apples have broken down, remove the cinnamon stick and pour into bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature before dividing into individual portions. This freezes well also!