All Jazzed Up

I like to keep a lot of cheap, yet flexible, ingredients in my dry goods pantry. What I mean by flexible, is that I can use them in a number of different and yummy ways. Here is a list of my favorites:

• Dried Black Beans
• a Variety of Canned Beans
• A Variety of Canned Tomatoes
  
• Jasmine Rice
• Couscous
• Chicken and Beef Stock
• Bread Crumbs
• Cornmeal
• Rolled Oats (not instant)
  
• Aunt Jemima's Whole Wheat Pancake Mix (name brand is the best)
  

The following 3 recipes take a number of my favorite ingredients and jazz them up in some awfully good ways.

Gingerbread Blueberry Muffins

Here, I used the recipe from my whole wheat pancake mix, substituted a gingerbread pancake mix that I got as a gift from my mom for the whole wheat, added some more spices and blueberries and made muffins instead of pancakes or waffles

Ingredients:

• 1C Pancake Mix
• 1/3 C Brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp baking powder
• handful of cinnamon
• dash of cardamom
• dash of ground ginger
• 1 C milk
• 1/3 C vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 + C of Blueberries

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400
• Line muffin tray with paper muffin cups
• mix the dry ingredients together
• Mix the wet ingredients together
• add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just moist
• Spoon mixture into muffin cups
• Top mixture with a dash of cinnamon and sugar
• Cook for 16-18 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean
  

Oven Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Cornbread

* To make the oven dried tomatoes, take a variety of small cherry tomatoes, slice in half , place on a baking sheet with the cut sides up, sprinkle with olive oil, kosher salt, sage and oregano, and bake at 200-220 overnight

Ingredients:

• 1 C Oven Dried Tomatoes*
• 1 C frozen Corn, thawed
• 1/4 C White wine
  
• 1/4 C Goat Cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 C Flour
• 1 C Corn Meal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 C skim milk
• 1/4 C 1/2 and 1/2
  
• 1/4 C vegetable Oil
• 1 Egg
• 1 Stick of Butter

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Place butter in a 8 or 9 inch baking dish and place in the oven to melt
  
• Saute onion in olive oil until translucent
• Add corn and white wine, cook on medium heat until wine is absorbed
• Transfer onion and corn mixture to a small bowl, add tomatoes and cool
• When tomato mixture has cooled thoroughly, add crumbled goat cheese
• In a large bowl, add dry ingredients together
• Stir in the wet ingredients until just mixed
• Fold in onion/corn/tomato mixture
• Pour into the melted butter in the pan (top with more goat cheese if you a person after my own heart :))
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean
  

Homemade Granola

This recipe can be a bit sweet. If you want to cut down on the sweetness, just reduce the amount of honey added at the end. Because of the butter, I store this in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C Pecans, chopped
  
• 3/4 C Walnuts, chopped
• 3/4 C Sunflower Seeds
• 3/4 C sliced, blanched Almonds
• 1 C Rolled Oats
• 1/2 C Golden Raisins
  
• 1/2 C Standard Raisins
• 1/2 C Breakfast Cereal like Wheaties, SmartStart, Rice Crispies Etc.
• 1/2 Stick Butter
• 1/4 packed Brown Sugar
• 1/2 C Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 1/4 to 1/2 C Honey
  
• Dash of Cinnamon

Directions:

• Mix nuts together. Place in a single layer on a small cookie sheet and broil in oven until slightly toasted.
• Place in a large bowl and add the remaining dry ingredients
• In a small saucepan, melt butter and sugar until the mixture boils. Stirring constantly, boil for 2 more minutes
• Remove from heat and add in peanut butter
• Pour butter mixture over the nuts and oats. Stir thoroughly to incorporate.
• Drizzle honey over the entire mixture.
• Grease a 8 or 9 inch baking pan
• Add granola to baking pan and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until nice and golden brown
• Cool completely
• Break up granola using a spatula or knife and enjoy!