White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and finally got the chance to make them today.  They are as good as I thought they'd be.  I especially love the tartness of the cranberries against the sweetness of the rest of the cookies.

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from two twenty one

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 cups quick oats
• 3/4 cups dried cranberries
• 1-1/4 cups white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugars; mix in egg and vanilla.
3. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together and stir in.
4. Fold in oats, cranberries, white chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans.
5. Roll into 1" balls and place on cookie sheet.  Flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass or measuring cup dipped in sugar.
6. Bake 12-14 minutes or until cookies are set and starting to brown.  Cool on a wire rack.

I mixed these up by hand, but the original recipe called for using an electric mixer. Either way works.  Just be sure your butter is really soft if you're mixing by hand.  When it's time to add the cranberries and white chocolate chips, etc., you'll want to mix those in by hand.

I added the coconut and pecans to the recipe, because they just sounded good with all the other ingredients.  I also flattened the cookies slightly before baking them because I just rolled the first pan I baked, and they didn't really spread out.  Even flattened, they don't spread out much, but that's OK - they're good!  I'll definitely make these again.

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Cranberry Apple Pie Oatmeal (a la Mode)

I love oatmeal in the morning.  I usually cook my oatmeal with dried apples, dried cranberries, and cinnamon - and that's pretty much the perfect oatmeal, but I saw this recipe for Apple Pie Oatmeal on Pinterest, and it looked so good, I just had to try it.  Reading the recipe now, I see that I did not actually follow the recipe.  How could I miss the part about cooking the apple with nuts, butter, brown sugar and spices?  I will have to try it again, I guess.

Here's how I made my oatmeal, and it turned out quite good, too.  Maybe it doesn't actually qualify as an Apple Pie Oatmeal, but I'll call it what I want!

Cranberry Apple Pie Oatmeal (a la Mode)

• Bring to boiling 1 cup water with a dash of salt
• While water boils, cut half an apple into small pieces
• Reduce heat to medium and stir in 1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
• Add some cinnamon, the chopped apples, some dried cranberries and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally
• Turn burner off or remove from heat; cover and let sit for a few minutes

To serve: top with a little brown sugar and vanilla yogurt  (I used Yoplait Honey Vanilla Greek yogurt - that's the a la Mode part!)

Next time I'm going to try cooking the apples, cranberries, and probably some walnuts with butter, brown sugar, and spices and then cooking the oatmeal with that - like the other recipe - and see if that makes a difference.  If there's a huge difference, I'll be sure to update this recipe.

I'll also go back to using plain yogurt, because the vanilla was a bit too sweet to me.  I love plain yogurt on my oatmeal.

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The Perfect Oatmeal

I've been making this oatmeal practically every day for the past 2 weeks, and I'm loving it.

The Perfect Oatmeal

• Bring to boiling 1 cup water with a dash of salt
• Reduce heat to medium and stir in 1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
• Add some cinnamon, dried apples, and dried cranberries and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened

• Turn burner off or remove from heat; cover and let sit for a few minutes

To serve: top with a little brown sugar and plain yogurt

Yum!

Oatmeal Apple Muffins

I made these Monday, and I love them!  Oatmeal, apples, cranberries, what's not to love?  They've also got whole wheat flour, walnuts, and cinnamon so they're good for you, too.  Seriously - so many good-for-you ingredients in one muffin!
 

Oatmeal Apple Muffins 
 
Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup oil
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 medium apple, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries (or raisins)
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a bowl, beat together egg, milk, oil and sugar.
2. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients.
3. Fold egg mixture into dry mixture, just to moisten.
4. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full.
5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 450°

Good with or without butter!

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• Brown Sugar-Cranberry Oat Muffins
• Good Morning Muffins

• Recipe: Upside-Down Caramel-Apple Muffins (nytimes.com)

Craisins Breakfast Bars

I was looking up the juice I used in our smoothies this morning - the Ocean Spray Fruit & Veggie Tropical Citrus Blend - try it, it's amazing!  Anyway, while on the Ocean Spray web page, I saw this recipe, which I had to grab so I won't forget to make these.  They look amazing.

CRAISINS® BREAKFAST BARS

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup round toasted oat cereal
• 2/3 cup Ocean Spray® Craisins® Blueberry or Pomegranate Juice Infused Dried Cranberries
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup sunflower kernels
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 8-inch square baking pan with foil; spray foil with cooking spray.

Whisk together oil, orange juice, orange zest and egg in small bowl.

Combine remaining ingredients in large bowl; mix well. Pour in oil mixture; stir until all ingredients are moistened. Pour mixture evenly into prepared pan; press firmly. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until deep golden brown and set. Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan by lifting foil; remove foil. Cut into bars while still warm. Serve warm or cool completely.

Makes 8 bars.

TIP: This mixture is a little sticky. To easily press into pan, spray bottom of metal measuring cup with cooking spray and press mixture with measuring cup.

• Print this recipe (at Ocean Spray)

Apple Cranberry Crisp

Apple crisp is good. Add cranberries, and it's even better! at least in my world...

Apple Cranberry Crisp

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped apples, unpeeled
• 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1-1/2 cups old fashioned or quick cooking oats
  (or a combination of the 2)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1. Combine apples, cranberries, sugar and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly and place in a 2-quart casserole dish. Set aside.
2. Combine oats, brown sugar, flour, pecans, and butter. Mix until crumbly and spread evenly over fruit.
3. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until fruit is fork tender.
4. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
   

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Crockpot Oatmeal

I combined a couple recipes I found online to get this. The recipe is currently written on the back of a library receipt, so I thought I better get it posted before I lose it.

Crockpot Oatmeal

Image via Wikipedia

• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. melted butter
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup apple (peeled and chopped)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low overnight.
The next morning, stir in:

• 1 cup sliced bananas
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Serve with milk.

This makes a lot, so I make it on the weekend and then have oatmeal for several breakfasts the following week. Jeffrey eats it, even though he doesn't like raisins. I'm thinking of substituting dried apricots next time to see how that turns out.

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Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Image by Muffet via Flickr While I was typing the caramel corn recipe in my last post, Zemanta suggested this:

• Chewy Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I'm not sure exactly how it's related, besides being a recipe, but it got my attention. Anything with cranberry in the title usually gets my attention!

These cookies sound great. Maybe next time I make cookies I will have to try these.

Baked Oatmeal

I've been eating oatmeal practically every morning for breakfast. I usually add raisins and sometimes bananas. While my parents like to eat their oats uncooked, and I really like them that way too, there's just something about a warm bowl of oatmeal on a cold winter's morning.

My kids like a good bowl of oatmeal, too, but when I tried this recipe, everyone fell in love with it. It's hard to believe, but when I first started making this I noted in the cookbook to just make 1/2 the recipe. Nowadays they beg me to double it!

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients: 1/2 cup oil 2 eggs, beaten 1 cup sugar, part brown 1 cup milk

3 cups oatmeal 2 t. baking powder 1 t. salt

Directions:

1. Combine oil, eggs and sugar. Add milk. Stir in oatmeal, baking powder, and salt.
2. Pour into greased 13x9 and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes. Serve with milk.

Source: The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals (best cookbook ever!)

I think we'll be having this for breakfast tomorrow.

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