Homemade Honey Whole Wheat Bagels

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!  I sure did.  I loved hearing about all of your parents, they sounds like great, funny people!

Even though I talk a lot about Beantown (that would be Boston), my roots are in Jersey, but I think you all knew that anyway.  Once a Jersey girl, always a Jersey girl, right?

When I first moved to Boston, I thought the bagels were the worst thing ever.  They weren’t light and chewy, the outsides were tough, and they were generally disappointing.  See, Jersey has some of the best bagels ever.  They are seriously perfect in every sense of the word.  It’s those teeny tiny mom and pop shops that make the best bagels (kind of like how the best pizza I ever had was in midtown Manhattan in a store where the awning just said “Beer and Pizza”.”  I wish I could find that place again).  Anyway, back to bagels.  In NJ they rock.  Another thing that rocks is bagel nuggets, which are munchkin size pieces of bagels.  I should make those too.

Being the bagel snob I am, I haven’t found any bagels around here that I love.  I figured the best way to remedy that was to just go ahead and make them myself.  I took some inspiration from my dear fried Mark, and went to work.

First I made some dough in the food processor.  I combined:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1.5 cups bread flour
• 2 tsp. yeast
• 2 tbsp.  honey

I pulsed these all together for a few seconds, just to combine them, then poured about 1.5 cups water through the feed tube.  I let this process for about 30 seconds until a ball formed that was a little sticky.  If your dough does not form a ball and is dry, add water 1 tbsp. at a time and process a few seconds after each addition.  If your dough is too wet, do the same thing adding 1 tbsp. flour at a time.

Once the dough is done, I turned it out on my Silpat and kneaded it a few times, then put it in a bowl which I covered with a towel.  This rose for about 2 hours.  I went for a run, took a shower and played with Rufio.  Good times.

After two hours I put the dough back on the (floured) Silpat and deflated it, then let it sit under the towel for another ten minutes.  Next came the fun part.  I divided the dough into 10 balls (I eyeballed it, I would have used a kitchen scale if I had one!)

I rolled each piece into a little bowl, then used my thumbs to put a hole in the center.  I was then able to spread the dough out to make it bagel shaped.

Sure, they are a little lumpy looking, but who cares!  It’s also really important to keep the dough balls and the shaped bagels covered as you work with other ones.

Next, I put my pizza stone in a 400 degree oven and brought a huge pot of water up to a boil.  If you don’t have a pizza stone, check out my OpenSky Shop, I think it’s a MUST HAVE!  I put 5 bagels in at a time, without any problems and let them boil for one minute, before flipping them over and letting them boil for a minute on their other side.  I used a big slotted spoon to remove them and put them on a drying rack.

While these were boiling, I filled a small plate with old fashioned oats and dipped half of the bagels into them.  I love oats on bagels.

Once the bagels were done, I put them on my cake lifter to transfer them to the oven (I don’t have a peel).  This was really a waste of time since I ended up putting them all on the stone by hand.

These bad boys baked for about 25 minutes, until they came out all gloriously browned.

Look how the bottoms came out too…they look like they are from a real NJ bagel shop!

I think that one of the best ways to eat a bagel is as a fried egg sandwich.  Is there anything better than a fried egg?  I think not.  I probably love them so much because my mom had a fried egg sandwich for breakfast almost every morning when she was pregnant with me, but whatever, they rock.

Look how perfect that bagel is!  I feel so proud 🙂

A little Smart Balance and some avocado took this sandwich to a whole new level!

Perfection.  Absolutely wonderful breakfast perfection.  I could cry.

What’s your favorite kind of bagel?  What do you like to eat on your bagels?

Check out my Horizon chocolate milk giveaway!

Vegan 4 A Day

I’m really excited to try this out today.  24 hours of eating vegan.  It took a little bit of planning (because Solomon is joining me!), but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I’m curious to see what I take away from this experience.  I’ve been pescetarian for about 6 months.  This is after dabbling in vegetarianism/pescetarianism for about a year and a half.

I have a tendency to inadvertently eat a lot of vegan meals.  When I first started considering vegetarianism, my go to food for everything was cheese.  A lot of new vegetarians overload on carbs, I overdid it on cheese.  Once I realized this, I cut back dramatically, and now use cheese very liberally.  I use a little on pizza, quesadillas or as a condiment.  I also don’t choose cheesy meals (like grilled cheese) TOO often.  Because I limit my cheese, and don’t eat a ton of yogurt, I find my meals become vegan by default quite often.

This is my first time ever blogging a day of eats.  I don’t think it’s for me, but here goes!

Breakfast

I started off with a delicious cup of pumpkin coffee (how I make this is coming tomorrow!) with some unsweetened almond milk.  I prefer regular milk in my coffee, and don’t use any sweetener for the most part.  This was OK, maybe a little on the thin side.  It’s OK though, because I want to try to learn to drink my coffee black.  Maybe this is a good stepping stone?

By the way, I love duckies!

I also had microwave oats with 1/2 banana, Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola, that Nature’s Path sent me to sample, a little crunchy Barney Butter, and some agave.  This wasn’t too different from a typical breakfast for me.  I usually find my oatmeal combinations are vegan, and this was a yummy one I’m sure to duplicate!  The granola gave a nice crunch (though I wish it had more pumpkin taste!) and the Barney Butter makes everything amazing.  I would have to say I had a great start to my vegan day!

My friend Robin (who lives in Israel and may be starting her own blog soon…hint!) and Solomon joined me for Vegan 4 A Day.  Here are their eats:

Robin: coffee with soy milk, rice cake with avocado

Solomon: oats with raisins, TJ’s organic Superfruit and crack cinnamon raisin swirl

For snack I had an apple.  I didn’t take a picture.  How do you guys remember to do that?  I’m impressed!

Lunch

Our original lunch plan was something I cooked in the slow cooker yesterday.  I had seen it on another blog recently and thought it looked great.  Unfortunately, neither of us liked it :(.  Solomon called me before I had my lunch and said “I don’t want to eat it just to eat it.”  That made me soooo proud of him.  Solomon’s attitude towards food has changed so much lately and he is becoming a much more healthy eater!  He ended up heading up to the student center for a salad.

I was hangry because I had just done an hour and a half of Dave Farmar yoga, so I wanted something fast and filling.  I was hesitant to make anything that would have a lot of leftovers, since I’m trying to use up things in our kitchen, and not have to shop more or have leftovers before we head out for Thanksgiving.  I figured a stir fry is a safe, quick bet!  I made a quick sweet and sour sauce.

I cooked some cubed tofu in a pan with pan and a little garlic, then threw in a ton of frozen veggies.

I let this cook over medium heat while I cooked some whole wheat pasta.  Right before the pasta was done, I threw the sauce on the tofu/veggie mixture, and added some cashews for a little crunch!

I was lazy and put the pasta and stir fry right into the bowl I made the sauce in.  Maybe lazy isn’t the right word.  I was being green!

Fantastic, FILLING lunch!  I would eat this again in a heartbeat!  I really prefer making my own sauces, and I love that it was so easy to make a quick, healthy vegan lunch!

Robin had a red pepper with EVOO and salt and pepper, and my nutty coleslaw!  See, Robs and I are connected even though we are oceans apart!  She’s been making this salad for a few years now, and loves it too 🙂

For afternoon snacks, I had an Arnold Sandwich Thin with hummus and an orange.

Dinner

Robin wasn’t able to do vegan the whole day because she had a Thanksgiving dinner (in Israel!) tonight.  I’ll get her thoughts on it later or tomorrow (it’s the middle of the night there now!)

Solomon and I had a fairly unexciting dinner.  We cooked some Dr. Praeger’s burgers, which we tend to eat a lot of anyway.  I threw on some hummus and schüg (amazing combination) and of course, BANANA PEPPERS!

I also baked some french fries using my mountain of potatoes.  I soak them in water and some salt for about an hour, drain them, then pat them dry, toss some EVOO, paprika, salt and pepper in there and spread them on a baking sheet.  I also like to sprinkle some cayenne and chili powder on top for a kick!  These bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.  Simple.

Final Thoughts

I really commend people who are vegans.  I think maintaining a lifestyle like this would require a lot of discipline.

I understand and appreciate the moral, environmental and ethical reasons for being vegan, but I do think I would miss a lot of things too much.  On the other hand, I haven’t had meat in over 6 months, and I have ZERO desire to have any now.  Perhaps eventually cravings for cheese and other dairy would stop, but right now I don’t plan to become vegan.  I think a lot of my reason would be that I would find it very hard to socialize and eat out, and I would feel like I am putting people out when I am at their homes.  I know being vegan is something people do for themselves, but I can’t shake that feeling.

While it wasn’t difficult to be vegan, it was a little harder than normal.  I had to be really careful to read labels of everything!  I think in the future, I might try to commit to vegan one day a week, just as a lot of people commit to eating meatless one day a week.  Going forward, we’ll see how this works for me!

Don’t forget to enter my Zevia giveaway!  6 winners and 5 ways to enter.  Not too shabby!  Winners will be picked tomorrow night!

 

Pumpkin Oats to the Next Level

I feel like my posts have been sort of lame lately.  Sorry.  Maybe they are.  I’m just so chock full of brilliant ideas in the kitchen, I feel like I need to spread the love with everyone.

I may be going out on a limb here when I say there aren’t too many things better than a nice warm bowl of pumpkin oats.  Breakfast of champions for sure.  I think I just took pumpkin oats, and took it to a whole new level.

I give you…pumpkin oats in a pumpkin butter jar.

I was looking at the little bit left in my pumpkin butter jar (even though I still have the homemade goodness left).  I was feeling all blue because I don’t live close enough to a Trader Joe’s to just go pick up another jar, and I was determined that not a single drop of this deliciousness would go to waste.  Then the lightning bolt hit!  If I can have oats in a jar, I can have oats in any damn jar I please.  Including a pumpkin butter one.

Oh hell yes.  I need more of this stuff now, but I will forever hold onto the amazingness that was this fantastic breakfast.  I wish it could have lasted forever.  I threw oats in the jar (duh), with some pumpkin puree.  Once it was done in the microwave (by the way, I felt so much better microwaving and eating out of a glass jar than a plastic one.  Anyone else?), I added some crack Mighty Maple and a few butterscotch chips (brilliant breakfast addition, thanks Brandi!).

Truly, breakfast perfection.  What a great way to start the day!

It was awful.  I had to force myself to finish.  Really.  Maybe I should just go ahead and get in the car and drive to Pittsburgh so I could just buy another jar at TJ’s (TJ’s are you listening?  Open a store closer to me please.  Thank you.  I believe I could singlehandedly keep you in business).

What’s your favorite way to eat oatmeal?  Ever tried oats in a jar?

Don’t forget about my Zevia giveaway!

On the Road Again

I’m so happy to hear so many of you refuse to “healthify” some of your favorite foods.  Some things are meant to be decadent and full of things that aren’t so good for you!  As long as you find a balance with what you are eating, there’s not reason not to enjoy some treats in moderation! That’s why I really like the idea behind Cookie Friday.

Here’s reason 57,891 why I have the best husband ever: he went to Pittsburgh for work and went to TJ’s for me!  I got so spoiled living near so many TJ’s in Boston, and there are just some things that I feel like I need in my life!  He picked up just the essentials, and thankfully all are shelf stable, since we’ll be gone for almost 3 weeks (more on that later).

Breakfast this morning features a long lost friend.  I have a tendency to overbuy at TJ’s and the grocery store, only to discover things later on that I felt I needed right then, but never ate!  Enter a new hot cereal!

Multigrain cereal is like jacked up oats.  Look what’s in it!

That guy on the end is wheat!  I had a lovely warm breakfast this morning with 1/2 banana (Rufio had the other half), vanilla rice milk, raisins, flax and Barney Butter.  I’m trying to get my Barney Butter fill in now, since I won’t have any for a few weeks!

Now, I’m just trying to finish breakfast, and get ready to hit the road!  I am driving with Rufio down to NJ today (where my parents are).  Maybe I’ll stop at Berkey Creamery and get my dad some ice cream, since he loves all things sweet.  On Friday my parents and I are flying down to Atlanta for a wedding.  I have been so crazed trying to pack for everything, but the best part about being in the bridal party is not worrying about what I am going to wear!  Because the couple lives in Israel, there is a lot this weekend.  We have the bridal shower/bachelorette, rehearsal dinner, and wedding.  Solomon is going to fly down Saturday for the wedding.  On Monday Solomon will fly to New England for work for 2 weeks, and I’m going to NJ with my parents.  I’ll be there until October 14th, when my mom and I are going to drive my grandmother’s car down to Florida.  She’s a snowbird, and won’t ship the car b/c she doesn’t want to fly with her dog, just in case the flight is delayed.  She’s just a tad bit obsessed with her dog, and doesn’t want anything to happen.  So my mom and I are driving with the dog.  We are going to try to make a fun road trip out of it, and hope to stop at Paula Deen’s restaurant on the way.  We’ll fly back to NJ on the 17th b/c we have plans that night, and Solomon will be there (he’s driving down the night before and hanging out with my dad).  Then it’s back to M’Ville.  Craziness!

We are almost ready to go, Rufio is getting ready for his car seat and a long trip ahead!

Thank you for all of your opinions on the white capris…I’m gonna wear them!  Black and white is classic, and I feel good in them!

Anywhere we should stop on our road trip from NJ to Florida?  Where should we stay a night (we plan only one night on the road)?  Any restaurants or coffee shops we can’t miss?

My First Breakfast Cookie

Alright, I took the dive and went for it.  I made my first breakfast cookie. 

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1 tbsp. almond butter
• 1/2 banana
• a few splashes rice milk
• a few shakes of cinnamon
• raisins

Here’s the lovely before.  Solomon saw this in the fridge and freaked a little bit.  I explained it, but I’m pretty sure he still thinks I’m nuts

VERDICT?

I don’t know.  I made it the night before, because I had swim practice to get to bright and early.  I guess I thought it would be more like a cookie, that I could just grab and go.  I ended up putting it all in a tupperware, and eating it with a spoon.  I’ve never had cold oats before, so I guess this is what it would taste like?  I liked the flavor combination though!  Here’s the after (photo taken before a cup of coffee, pre tupperware, running out the door):

I want to try a breakfast cookie again.  What did I do wrong here?
What’s your favorite breakfast cookie recipe?  Does it ever come out like a cookie, or is that just a fun name?