Sunday Morning Oatmeal

This is my usual weekday breakfast.  I substitute steel-cut oatmeal and sometimes add walnuts.

Barefoot Contessa at Home

Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookies

I’m usually kind of disappointed when I’m offered an oatmeal raisin cookie.  I mean, I’m not going to turn down a cookie, but why eat dried fruit when you can eat chocolate, you know?  It’s like a working vacation, or a boring field trip.  You’re glad to be out of the office, but you’d rather be sitting on the beach than listening to a potential client dither on.  This cookie, however, changed my tune.  I don’t know if it was the nuts, or possibly the dark brown sugar, but these were perfect, and not disappointing in the least.

The original recipe (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics) called for pecans, but I prefer walnuts (and had them on hand), so that’s what I used.  So, not only do these provide a healthy dose of oatmeal and raisins, but the walnuts added a little antioxidant punch.  They’re practically health food.  Just be sure not to overbake them.  I overbaked one pan, and they were sadly inedibly dry the next day.

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

This recipe (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics) is the type of recipe that made me want to start this project.  It’s simple, it’s healthy, and it contains ingredients that we like.  But before this project, I would have admired the picture, taken note of the ingredients, thought, “I should really make that sometime,” and then the time would never come.  It’s not that we don’t eat salad, it’s just that I get into the routine of making the same kind of salad every time, so we get into ruts.  The challenge I’ve had lately is to really focus on these great winter vegetables without over-doing any one thing until we get tired of it.  Butternut squash, for example, plays a large role on the pages of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks.  We love it, but if we eat it more than once or twice a week, we’ll turn orange, and we’ll never want to see another squash again.  So, spacing things out has been key, while still putting a heavy emphasis on seasonal vegetables.  Because really, it would be kind of silly to be roasting a butternut squash in July.  I used apple juice instead of apple cider in the dressing (a substitution suggested in the recipe itself).  The parmesan was nice, but not necessary – there were enough other flavors going on without it.