Pioneer Bread

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this blog, but I'm glad I did. Amy, the blog's author, posted a recipe for oatmeal whole wheat quick bread.

Ben made some last nite and we LOVED it and ate the whole thing - except for our doughy parts (I'll get to that later). Ben and I renamed it "Pioneer Bread" because of its simplicity and wholesomeness. It doesn't use yeast - just baking powder as the leavening agent. So it is super quick to make and bake.

I asked Amy if I could post her recipe here and she very kindly let me. But go check out her blog, too, because she has a lot of neat recipes and ideas there - no refined sugar products. Wholesome goodness is what her blog looks like to me.

Anyways, the recipe:

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
11/2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Grind oatmeal in a food processor or blender. In a large bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, dissolve honey in oil, then stir in the milk. (I mixed the milk, coconut oil, and honey in a one cup glass measure and microwaved it until the coconut oil melted; the cold milk made it into a solid state, so I needed to liquify it). Combine both mixtures and stir until a soft dough is formed. Form the dough into a ball (I had to add a bit more flour) and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.
3. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

E-notes: Ben made this and for some reason he added 2 T. honey (tho I'm sure 1 1/2 T. would be just as great!). We don't have coconut oil and so I am not sure if Ben added olive oil (don't think so) or vegetable oil (think so). Our blender broke weeks ago (but we just bought a new one today!) and so we couldn't blend up the oats. So we used quick oats as they are slightly more blended-up like. Amy mentioned adding some more flour and Ben did as well. But apparently Ben's ball of dough was a little too high and round - ours didn't quite look like Amy's more oblong-round shape. Ours was more round-round shape. And due to that we think it didn't cook as well in the center and so it was a little doughy. But still oh so delicious - just simple goodness!

Thanks, again, Amy for letting me share this recipe. We are trying to come up with another reason to make some more today - but we don't think our pizza-dinner needs this with it tonite dangit.

Grilled Pineapple

1 large ripe pineapple
3 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. freshly-squeezed lemon or lime juice
1/2 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper

Trim, core and peel pineapple. Cut into quarters from top to bottom. Slice out the core from each quarter. Cut each quarter slice into four pieces, once lengthwise and once crosswise. you should have 16 wedges of pineapple about 1 inch by 3 inches.

In small bowl combine honey, lemon or lime juice and black pepper. Brush glaze on each slice of pineapple coating completely.

Preheat grill and spray with a non stick spray. Place wedges on the grill and cook approx. 4 minutes on each side, turning so that grill marks are on all sides, until pineapple becomes fragrant and starts to dry on the surface. Do not overcook or they will by mushy.

Remove and brush with any remaining glaze and enjoy.

Notes: oh my, this is so good I can never get a picture before it disappears. Imagine pineapple wedges with grill marks on them. I have to give credit to the website where I found this recipe but I don't know where it is at this moment. Just know I didn't make it up someone else did and shared it with me which I am now sharing with you. Seriously though, too delicious to describe with words. And don't skip on the pepper, it gives it an extra kick!

Hawaiian Cake

Cake:

1 pkg. golden butter cake mix (white cake mix is fine too)

1 can mandarin oranges with syrup (small can)

4 whole eggs

1/2 C. vegetable oil

Frosting:

1 lg. container Cool Whip

1 lg. pkg. instant vanilla pudding

1 can (15 oz.) pineapple, crushed with syrup

Cake:

Beat all ingredients with beater all at once until mixed well. Pour into prepared greased and floured pans.

Bake at 350 until layers rise, and then cut temp to 325. Bake until layer springs back and inserted toothpick comes out clean. Time will be similar to time on back of cake mix.

Frosting:

Mix all ingredients with spoon only. Frost cooled cake and keep refrigerated.

(The cake pictured above was made with 6 cake mixes, and a triple batch of the frosting. It was HUGE! and oh, so, delicious.)