Puppy Chow Oatmeal

A few weeks ago I stumbled across an interview with Kath from Katheats.com about her interest in oats. The interview was interesting and I've been eating oats almost every day since I tuned in. Kath creates delicious and sometimes unusual recipes with oats, fruit, nuts and nut butter. She's inspired me to get creative using a variety of ingredients. My most recent concoction is below. I'm somewhat jokingly calling it "Puppy Chow Oatmeal." Maybe if I give it a cute name my kids will eat it, right? Anyway... I had the idea to create a chocolate, peanut butter bowl of oats for night time when I'm craving something sweet but don't have the energy to whip up a homemade gluten and dairy free dessert. I found a  recipe on Pinterest and tried  it, but decided it wasn't quite what I was looking for. So I tweaked it and came up with something that suits my taste buds. You can almost halve this recipe for a night time snack portion or you can eat the whole recipe as a sizeable afternoon snack. Here it goes.

1/2 cup gluten free oats
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 TBSP cocoa powder
1 TBSP light brown sugar
1-2 teaspoons peanut butter
1-2 teaspoons chocolate chips

I like Kath's method of cooking the oats, but I don't use the cut up bananas in this particular recipe.So, put oats and milk in a pan at the same time. Let it reach a boil and stir it a few times. Lower heat and let it simmer until desired texture. Stir in cocoa powder and brown sugar. I like to pour the oats into a big bowl, set the spoon with peanut butter in the bowl and cover it with the lid from the pot. I let it sit for a few minutes to allow the peanut butter to melt. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and enjoy!! Savor. Mmmm..So yummy on a cool afternoon or evening.

Over the last few weeks we've had a bundle of apples to eat, so I made a "Caramel apple" oatmeal using chopped apples, brown sugar, a tiny squirt of caramel sauce, a drop of peanut butter in the middle and about three walnuts broken into pieces on top for crunch. Mmmm. So good! The fruit and oat recipes are so warm and comforting in the morning and keep me full until lunch without needing a snack.

GFDF Lasagna (pasta bake)

I found this recipe on Pinterest for a gluten free, dairy free lasagna. It looked very tasty and somewhat easy to follow, so I tried it. When I got to the store to buy the lasagna noodles I realized just how much more expensive they were than the macaroni shaped gluten free noodles, so I opted for the macaroni noodles instead. That is where this isn't exactly lasagna, but more of a pasta bake. The original recipe is here. You can see that I simplified it by using a jar of sauce rather than making the sauce and I didn't use quite as many veggies as certain family members do not care for onions or red peppers. So, here it goes....

1 pkg sliced mushrooms (chopped)

3 cloves garlic (pushed through garlic press)

1 pkg turkey Italian sausage links (removed from casings)

1  26  oz jar spaghetti sauce

1 bag gluten free macaroni noodles (*)

1 cup cashews (soaked 30 min or as long as six hours)

3/4 cup water

1 egg 

1 handful fresh parsley

Pinches of salt, garlic salt

Turn on pot of water for noodles.

Saute mushroom and garlic in olive oil.

Add Italian sausage to skillet.

Once sausage is cooked through, add the jar of spaghetti sauce. Simmer for twenty minutes.

Cook pasta while red sauce simmers.

Cashew sauce...After cashews have soaked, drain them. Place in blender with 3/4 cup water. Blend until nice and smooth. Add egg, parsley, salt and garlic salt. Blend just until mixed, but not too long as the parsley will turn the sauce green. 

Layer in 8x8 dish as follows (below).Cover dish with foil. Cook in oven at 350 for thirty minutes. Remove foil, turn heat up to 375 and cook for additional 10 to 15 minutes, until bubbly.

Red sauce in bottom of pan

Top red sauce with cashew sauce.

Noodle layer

Cashew sauce on top of noodles.

Red sauce.

Noodles

Cashew sauce

Red Sauce (end with red sauce on top)

*  I ended up using about 3/4 of the bag of noodles in the "lasagna" and saved the rest for lunch the next day. 

**I did this recipe in steps. I made the red sauce and cooked the pasta during L's nap time and stored them in the fridge. I made the cashew sauce right before I was ready to assemble the dish and cook it at dinner time.