Recipe: Pomegranate White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I made these up last year when pomegranates first appeared in my Bountiful Basket, and they disappeared almost immediately! As soon as I saw the poms again I knew I needed a repeat - it just took me a while to get to them. Fortunately, pomegranates keep pretty well just out on the kitchen counter (and make a pretty decoration in the meantime!)

First up is getting the seeds out. Now, before you send me the link, yes, I have seen the video of the attractive young man playing whack-a-mole with the pomegranate halves to get the seeds out. I've tried it, and I usually end up playing whack-a-thumb. This method works just as easily for me - slice off the very top, just so you can see where the sections are:

slice down each section:

separate:

and rub your thumbs over the seeds to get them out. Easy-peasy.

This is seven pomegranates-worth of seeds, and I only used a cup for the cookies - they freeze really well if you end up with more - or, just eat them while you bake!

For now, set them aside and mix:

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening

Sift in and mix:

1 1/2 cups flour*
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Add:

3 cups rolled oats

Stir in just until mixed:

1 bag white chocolate chips

1 cup (or more) pomegranate seeds

Drop spoonfuls on cookie sheets and bake at 350 until golden brown on the bottom. These stay pretty soft and chewy, and can stick to the pan, so removing them quickly is important but tricky. If a few crumble, don't sweat it - you now have a bag of yummy granola to keep in your car! Those that make it off in one piece -

- may not be especially attractive, but boy do they taste good! A little bit sweet, a little bit tart, and a whole lot of yum. The red makes these a festive addition to your Christmas platters, or you can convince yourself the pomegranate seeds make them healthy, and just eat them year-round.

*I am at an extremely high altitude, so I actually use 2 cups of flour

Bountiful Baskets Start to Finish, Part 4 - More Cooking!



First up today: the giant mushrooms we got in a previous basket. I had used a few, but still had a dozen or so. I looked at several different recipes for stuffed mushrooms, and cobbled together the parts I liked.

 

First stop: bacon! If I put bacon on cat food, people in my house would eat it. It's kind of like adding sequins to any craft project at the library - instant hit. I like to cut it up before I fry it, rather than crumbling afterward.

 

 

I cooked 2 pounds, but some went into turnip greens, Daddy ate some, a handful was saved for lunch, Daddy ate some, the kids had a few pieces, and Daddy ate some. So...maybe half a pound went into this.

 

Next I pulled the stems from the mushrooms and chopped them, then sautéed with minced garlic, and finely chopped onion.

 

Then I forgot to take a picture until I had already tossed it all in the blender, along with the bacon.

 

I toasted a piece of sourdough bread and shredded it, and added a package of cream cheese and one of crumbled blue cheese.

 

I just needed everything chopped up, which was good, because the cream cheese kept sticking to the sides and kept everything from mixing. I would suggest blending everything else together, then mixing in the cream cheese.

 

I finally took the blades out and stirred it up with a spoon.

 

Next just stuff the mushroom caps to overflowing. They don't have to look pretty - they're mushrooms! Mushrooms are ugly! Embrace it!

 

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Inhale deeply and try to fend off drooling family members.

When do I get some?

 I moved Baby S.'s high chair into the kitchen, and he supervised the cooking today.

Next up were apple muffins with the apples that were getting to be past their prime. Except I couldn't find my tried-and-true apple muffin recipe. So, I faked it, and ended up with something completely different anyway.

Start with any basic fruit muffin recipe you can find on line. Change the white sugar to brown.

 

Because brown sugar is yummy.

 

Toss in a handful of zucchini, because you still have some left over from the bread in yesterday's post.

 

Peel and chop your apples.

 

Chop up some strawberries, because you suddenly have a ton.

 

If you are assigned to compost duty, make sure you wear appropriate attire, such as your best dress.

 

Fold fruit in gently, and pour into muffin papers left over from you Hello Kitty birthday party. Top with cinnamon sugar, and one blackberry each.

 

Bake for as long as it takes for the baby to finish nursing, and you to remember that you have muffins in the oven.

 

And for your daughter to decide to use her hand lotion as hair gel.

 

Exactly the right amount of time!

 

These three won't fit in the muffin carrier, so you will have to eat them.

 

Supper consisted of turnip greens with the aforementioned bacon, the mushrooms, and a salad with lots of BB veggies. Here, S. of the lotioned hair is discovering sugar snap peas.

That pretty much says it all! The kids weren't sure about the mushrooms, although L. scooped out all his filling and ate it. Daddy made up for their ambivalence - there were no leftovers.

Bountiful Baskets Start to Finish, Part 3 - Let's Get Cooking!

Yesterday, I made a loose meal plan for the week after looking over our basket haul. I say "loosely", because, let's face it, life happens! This is what the menu for the week looks like at the moment:

 

Sunday - Lunch - mini pizzas (leftover English muffins and pepperoni)

Supper - salad with chicken chunks (baked with roasted tomato slices from last month's BB), blue cheese stuffed mushrooms (last month's BB), turnip greens with bacon and garlic

 

Monday - S. has gymnastics, so we'll be eating out!

 

Tuesday - Turkey and Sausage Apple Stuffing (leftover from Thanksgiving...2012...but still yummy! Stuffing is from The Pioneer Woman's recipe.)

 

Wednesday - Autumn Pork Roast, Pinto Beans, Cucumber and Tomato Salad

 

Thursday - My late night to work. Leftovers all around.

 

Friday - Lunch - Cheesy Broccoli Soup

Supper - Meatloaf, Roasted Leeks

 

Saturday - Cheese Enchiladas, veggies and dip

 

Sunday (our Valentine's Day because of work schedules) - steak (it's good to have friends who raise cattle!), asparagus, mushrooms (sautéed or breaded and fried, I haven't decided)

 

The main dishes were already made and in the freezer, and the sides I will make fresh, so Sunday was baked goods day. I started with the cut up tortillas that came in the hostess pack. The instructions said to brush with oil, salt, and bake...but I already have bags of plain corn tortilla chips. I made about half of these into cinnamon sugar chips, instead. Just spread the tortilla pieces on a cookie sheet:

 

 

fighting the OCD urge to make them fit perfectly (it will just get messed up when you flip them!) Brush with oil or use cooking spray. Laziness won out over health, and I used the spray. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, then flip and repeat.

 

 

Bake in oven preheated to 400 degrees.

I have no idea why I felt the need to photograph that, but there it is.

 

Watch carefully! I burned several before I finally stopped trying to do too many things at once. If you are rotating four trays, by the time you finish getting two trays prepared, the other two in the oven will be ready to come out.

 

Let cool on the cookie sheet, then transfer to plastic container or baggie.

 

I also tried cocoa and sugar, seasoned salt, garlic salt, and paprika and lime as toppings. Several ended up too salty - I can be a bit heavy-handed with toppings - but all were sampled heavily by the crew!

 

Next up, something for breakfasts. I saw a recipe for Blueberry Zucchini Bread on allrecipes.com, and thought I would try it with blackberries. Zucchini bread is pretty much the only way Daddy will eat the things! 

 

Quick breads give me a fit at this altitude, but I've found it helps to sift the dry ingredients, whether it calls for that or not,

 

 

and either reduce the liquids, or add flour. I added 1/4 cup flour, because I replaced the only liquid (oil) with a half pint of apple butter.

 

 

Pour into four mini loaf pans, or two regular. I sprinkled a few more berries on top of each. I baked as prescribed in the recipe, then when the outside looked done, turned the oven off and left them in. That helps the middle finish cooking, without burning the outside.

 

 

Perfect! Chewy crust, soft inside.

 

 

Hey! That was supposed to be for breakfast, you guys!

 

Next post: loaded fruit muffins, and blue cheese stuffed mushrooms. Do not mix the two recipes.

 

 



 

Bountiful Baskets Start to Finish, Part 2 - Basket Day!

Basket mornings are a little like contribution mornings. I hit the main BB Facebook page after breakfast, and keep refreshing as people in other states add pictures of their baskets. Items definitely vary from state to state, but you can get a pretty good idea this way, and plan some possible trades. I love zucchini, but Daddy is not a huge fan, so I post an offer to trade (if we get some) on our local page.

 

I highly recommend volunteering (which you are supposed to do every couple months, anyway). For most sites, you just show up an hour early, find your site coordinator, and they will put you to work! Basically, the truck pulls in, and a couple volunteers jump in to help hand things down. Other volunteers grab the boxes and bags and stack them where the site coordinator points. The whole shebang is unloaded and neatly organized in minutes.

 

Next (here at least), the coordinator will tell you to find a partner, and assign you a fruit or vegetable. You'll move down the line of baskets with one of you holding the box of, say, bell peppers, and the other putting the prescribed number into each basket. It moves very quickly, almost like a dance, and soon you have 95 full baskets ready to go. Volunteers will then get to pick one extra item from the odds and ends that didn't divide out evenly, and anything else is divided again among the baskets. Add-ons are stacked neatly at another table nearby. I have seen volunteers with babies on their backs, and have volunteered myself while hugely pregnant, so you don't have to be able to heft a 25 lb box of tomatoes to help!

 

If you are not volunteering, just show up a few minutes before your appointed time, with your receipt printed out (or pulled up on your phone). No confirmation number = no baskets! We actually have two sites at the same business, because 95 baskets were never enough. Participants are always cautioned to make sure they gave the right line - nothing like getting to the front and finding your
name is not on the list!

One line - mine - is going to the covered area, the other is going into a nearby warehouse. I was running late, so my line was almost through, and most of the baskets are gone.

The wait usually isn't long, though, and you inevitably see old friends and make new ones. One of my older girls came with me once, and remarked, "Everyone is pregnant!" I told her that's because moms are cheap. When weather is nice, and kids are running around playing, it's almost like a party atmosphere - one of my favorite parts of the whole thing, really!

C. commandeered the new cart.

 

 

When it's your turn, you'll show your number, and get your basket(s). Every site does things a little differently - here, the person checking numbers will call out how many you have

My hero! Super organized, super friendly, super patient - Super Woman!

 (followed by, "Really? Three again, Ami? And, where's the baby?") and a volunteer (or volunteers) will plop them all on a table.

Here's where it helps to have another person with you - of course, when the baskets were put together, heavy things were placed on the bottom. Now you have to transfer them to your own container(s), and you don't want to just dump them. I like to bring C to carry the lighter stuff in a bag, then I can dump the heavier things into my container.

C. is putting Romaine, strawberries and blackberries in his bag.

Next you'll pick up any add-ons you contributed for. You'll have to show your number again. The main basket items are usually inspected as they are distributed, but you'll want to check the add-ons yourself (they come prepackaged, so no one at your site will have looked inside). In almost a year of doing this, I only once found mold on some strawberries, and it was just a couple. I accepted the case anyway, tossed the moldy ones, and made jam first thing the next morning. If something is not in acceptable condition, you can refuse it and get a credit on your account. It happens, especially in summer! An entire truckload of fruits and vegetables travelling all day is bound to have an occasional bad spot.

No problems here!

C. taste tested just to make sure.

 

 

Now you have to fit it all in your car. No, you are not allowed to leave children behind so that you can fill their car seats with apples. Make any trades (of food, not children) if warranted. Reward your helper with a stop at Sonic on the way home.

 

When I get home, I like to spread everything out in nice little piles.

The kids like to help with this part, and we have a mini botany lesson as they ask what each thing is, and what part of a plant it comes from.

They both kept kissing things!

By the time we finished, one pack of strawberries was noticeably emptier than the others. Can you really complain when your kids are sneaking fresh fruit?

This week, I decided to weigh everything, and compare prices with the local grocery chain. In three baskets, we had:
7.62 lbs. bananas
3.82 lbs. zucchini
3.9 lbs. cucumber
4.37 lbs. oranges
3 lbs. strawberries
18 oz. blackberries (HUGE ones!)
2.98 lbs. asparagus
3 heads Romaine
3 bundles leeks
8 lbs. Granny Smith apples
3.52 lbs. broccoli
5 grapefruit

This cost $45, as opposed to $75.03 at grocery store prices - a savings of 40%. The quality is much better, too - the heads of Romaine are bigger than the store's, the strawberries fresher, asparagus much better-looking, etc.

The hostess pack was harder to compare, because the local store didn't have jicama, sugar snap peas, or cherry tomatoes (seriously?!). What they did have would have cost $21, so that was probably a decent savings as well.

I got the bread pack because I love the English muffin bread.

I decided to serve the garlic rosemary baguette with supper tonight (mock chicken marbala), and omigosh! I am not a huge fan of rosemary, but this bread is fantastic! Most of the baguette disappeared by the end of supper, and the rest became a bedtime snack. One loaf of English muffin was saved out for breakfasts, and the rest went into the freezer.

Once my mother had placed her order and I had that bagged up, I started planning. Nothing looked like it was on the verge of overripe, but I had some apples from the store getting soft, and some huge mushrooms that need to be used soon. So, salad with baked chicken and blue cheese stuffed mushrooms for supper tomorrow. Apple muffins for breakfasts this week. I made similar plans for the next two weeks, balancing freezer meals with fresh sides, and a few baked goods for breakfasts. Decided which items I want to make tomorrow, and set appropriate ingredients with printed recipes on the kitchen counter. Everything else was wedged into the refrigerator or placed in bowls on my very full buffet. (NOTE: many BB participants rinse everything in a vinegar-water solution and dry before storing. I didn't do that this go-round, but it does seem to help things keep longer.)

Tomorrow: let's get cooking!

 

Bountiful Baskets Start to Finish - Part One

I have shared several posts involving items I got through Bountiful Baskets, and always get questions (usually private messaged) about the whole process. Here I'm going to share this week's experience, start to finish, and hopefully answer a bunch of those questions at once.

 

First, you'll want to go to bountifulbaskets.org and look around. The Locations tab will tell you if there is a site near you, and the New Participant Instructions will give you the basics. Please read it! Sooooooooo many people on the main Facebook page ask the same questions over and over, or complain they didn't know something that is clearly spelled out.

 

In a nutshell, BB is a Co-op that shares fruits and vegetables, occasionally items like breads and granola, coconut oil, etc. The main basket comes for a $15 contribution. It is not delivered, you go and pick it up, usually on the Saturday after you make your contribution (some sites are Fridays). It is not organic (but you can pay extra for that), and it is not locally grown. It is, however, really good quality, for a very low price. You don't know what you are getting in the main basket until it arrives, which makes Saturdays a little like Christmas! We often get things we wouldn't have tried otherwise, or things we can't even get here.

 

There are also add-ons, which you can contribute for if you want. Recently it was bulk tomatoes, carrots, and blackberries, different types of bread and granolas (we LOVE the granolas!), and a Superbowl hostess pack.

 

If you want to try it out, set up an account (My Account tab). Contributions open on Mondays at noon, so you won't see your site until then - but, if you are in the western part of the country, you can start clicking on the Participate Now tab at 8 or 9AM, and take a peek at what other states are getting - it's almost always exactly the same! This is when a lot of wheeling and dealing happens - people in an area messaging each other with, "who wants to split a nectarine add-on?" By noon, you should know what you want, and be ready to place your order. Some sites, like ours, sell out very quickly! Certain items will also sell out before others. All contributions close on Tuesday evening.

 

I forgot to get a screen shot of this week's offerings, but here is what I contributed for (with my contribution number blacked out):

 

Dear *****,

Thank you for making your contribution to participate in Bountiful Baskets this cycle.

This is your Contribution Confirmation.

Please bring a printed copy or electronic copy of this document with you to the site below on the day of your pickup. This is mandatory to pickup your items.

Your Contribution Number is *****

You have made contributions for the following items:

Product Name	Qty	Price	Total
Conventional Baskets	3	$15.00	$45.00
Valentine Hostess Pack	1	$25.00	$25.00
Blackberry - 12 - 6 oz clamshells	2	$14.25	$28.50
5 loaves - 1 garlic rosemary baguette, 2 savory 9 grain, 2 English muffin bread	1	$10.00	$10.00

---

Handling Fee:

$2.50

Total Price:

$111.00

Item Name: Conventional Baskets

Description: Roughly 50% fruit, 50% vegetables, and 100% healthy, fun and delicious!

Description: Valentine Hostess Pack - Hoping for 3 lb chips, a dozen Valentine day Butter Cookies, Veggies to dip; grape tomatoes, baby carrots, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, jicama. Fruit to dip; pineapple & strawberries 2 lb. Cookie Ingredients: Flour (cake and pastry), butter, sugar, whole eggs, salt, baking powder, vanilla. Corn Tortilla Chip pack - Pre-cut for frying or baking. 3 Lbs Must be refrigerated. No preservatives. Ingredients: Corn, water, lime Cooking Instructions: To bake: heat the oven to 400 degrees and arrange the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Place the chips in a single layer on a cutting board. Brush them with a light coating of vegetable oil and sprinkle with salt. Flip the tortillas and repeat. Transfer single layer on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and arrange on additional baking sheets. Bake til crisp and golden. To fry: heat 1-inch of Canola Oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium-high heat to 350 degrees. Fry a few chips at a time, turning occasionally, for 45 seconds-1 minute, or until crisp and lightly browned. Place in serving bowl, and sprinkle salt to taste. You must open & quality inspect your case before you leave. Once you have signed for the case and left we can not give you a credit for quality issues.

Description: Blackberry - 12 - 6 oz clamshells - product of Mexico You must open & quality inspect your packs before you leave. Once you have signed for the pack and left we can not give you a credit for quality issues.

Description: 5 Loaves - 1 Garlic Rosemary Baguette, 2 Savory 9 Grain, and 2 English Muffin Bread Garlic Rosemary Baguette Ingredients: enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, cultured wheat flour, yeast, honey, salt, extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, vinegar, garlic, enzyme. Garlic Rosemary Nutritionals: *Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on 2,000-calorie diet. Serv Size 2-in slice (53g) %DV* Serv. per container about 7 Calories 130 Calories from fat 10 Total Fat 1.5g 2% Sat. Fat 0 0 Trans Fat 0g 0% Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 270mg 11% Total Carb 27g 9% Dietary Fiber 1g 4% Sugars 1g Protein 4g Vitamin A0% - Vitamin C 0%, Calcium 2% - Iron 10%

---

All this is followed by pick-up time and directions. I always get 3 regular baskets - two for us and one for my mother. The Valentine pack sounded like fun, and the English muffin bread is to die for! I will freeze most of the bread, keeping one loaf at a time out. Mom and another lady wanted to split blackberries, so half of those will be theirs.

 

Once you have ordered, start collecting recipes for the add-ons you ordered. Bountiful Baskets has a great blog, and a Pinterest page with recipes organized by main ingredient. Clean your canning supplies and organize your freezer. Fridays are leftover nights all across the country, as participants make room for their haul! Our house was no exception, and I used the 'extra' time to clean out the back of the van and throw in my new wheeled cart, and some cloth bags. I also made sure I had my receipt printed out and in the car, although those of you with those new-fangled phone thingies can just show your receipt that way.

 

Tomorrow - basket day! (Well, actually, today - Saturday - is basket day, but I'm BUSY, so you can read about it tomorrow!)



Bountiful Baskets Haul - End of October

Feeding my cheap produce addiction this week:

 

Two regular baskets and four root pack add-ons. Check out those mammoth sweet potatoes!

 

We could hollow them out and sit in them!

 

I also got 75 pounds of Roma tomatoes (at approximately 57 cents a pound). They came in very underripe, thank goodness, so I didn't have to process them immediately. The kids helped me sort them by color:

(and, for some reason, my pictures have disappeared completely...I am leaving the boxes in case they spontaneously reappear...if not...imagine!)
 

 

and, after I put together a basket to share with Grandma, I tackled the potatoes. Full disclosure: this didn't all happen in one day!

 

I decided to just wash, cube, and can most of the brown potatoes, and ended up with 13 quarts. I boiled them briefly first just to get some of the starch out.

 

 

Any cloudiness you see here is on the outside, because I forgot to put vinegar in the canning water.

 

I saved a few out to eat now, and decided to try one of those recipes that is all over Facebook. You just slice a potato most of the way through,

 

 

sprinkle with oil and seasonings, and bake.

 

 

I have to say, I wasn't terribly impressed. They took FOREVER to cook, and ended with the skins being very tough. The kids were especially unhappy with the chewiness. We finally chopped them up and added baked potato toppings, and ate them that way.

 

I used one of the pears to freshen up a mix I made from the last basket's fruit - kiwis and persimmons - and layered it with Greek yogurt for parfaits. I topped it with BB granola, which is DIVINE, and told the kids we were having dessert for lunch.

 

 

While all the chopping and canning was going on, I was also roasting the Halloween pumpkins we had just decorated, along with the seeds:

 

 

I like the seeds best when they have soaked in a mix of lime juice and chili powder, and are roasted just shy of burning. The pumpkin I just roasted, cubed, and froze for now. I have enough food saved up for the first part of maternity leave, now I want raw ingredients so I can cook when I'm up and around!

After a few days of waiting, I had about 25 pounds of ripe tomatoes. These I peeled, chunked, and canned with a little garlic and oregano. To peel your tomatoes easily, dunk them in boiling water for about a minute, then ice water. The skins should slide right off. If they stick, you can toss them back in the hot water for another 30 seconds. Don't you wish everything peeled that easily?!

Another few days, another 25 pounds ready. I made 14 quarts of a spaghetti sauce that made my house smell like Heaven!

 

Your basic tomato sauce recipe with tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, garlic, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and spices. I also threw in some of the parsley pesto I had made and frozen after an earlier basket.

 

Then I started experimenting, and ended up with what I am calling "Sweet and Sour Chunky Salsa". This is roughly the recipe (there was little to no measuring going on):

About 15 pounds of tomatoes in varied stages of ripeness, diced (I like chunky salsa). The greener they were, the smaller I diced them.

 

Diced tomatoes - three small purple, and one large yellow.

 

Three cans of diced jalapenos that someone gave me, and which are too mushy to use in anything else, but hey, they were free.

 

Garlic!!

 

2 cups of cider vinegar. This turned out to be way too much. I was going by proportions based on another recipe (7 lbs tomatoes to 1 cup vinegar), and I didn't want to skimp since I was water bath canning, but - sour! So, I had to add more sugar - about 3/4 cup in all - now both sweet and sour! Oops.

Salt, cumin, pepper, oregano, cilantro.

 

Five Anaheim peppers I froze from an earlier Bountiful Basket pack, sliced and diced. I had cut the tops off and partly deseeded, but these aren't hot peppers, so you don't really need to.

 

Bring to a boil and then simmer about 20 minutes.

 

Hot pack into prepared pint jars (there were 14 in all) and water bath for 25 minutes.

 

There was a LOT of liquid left, and I can't throw anything away, so I funneled it into an empty bottle to save!

 

I was eating through leftovers in the fridge as I cooked, and spooned some of the salsa in with some corn. Yummy! Any other suggestions for using a salsa (pico de gallo, really) that is a bit on the tart side?

 

The remaining tomatoes have been ripening slowly, and I have been peeling, dicing, and freezing them every couple days. This is what I have left of the original 75 pounds, 2 weeks later:

 

 

There are several was to encourage your tomatoes to ripen faster, but I have been happy with letting them get ready in stages. I really need to win the lottery so I can just stay home and cook all day! Well, and maybe do a few other things. I suppose that means buying a ticket first, though...