100% Whole Wheat Bread (smaller loaf)

One thing that really gets my goat is recipes that people advertise as "whole wheat" and then you find out that they include a mix of whole wheat flour and white flour. If it has white flour in it, it's just dirty white bread. It's not "whole wheat"! My poor old goat probably would be gotten a lot less if 90% of the recipes I check didn't contain this lie.

I've been making my regular whole wheat bread for quite some time, but there were always problems handling it because it was so huge. It wasn't just that it was hard to cut (especially thin slices), but it was also difficult to find space in my freezer to store such a large amount of bread. It also took ages to eat it all.

I tried to scale back the other recipe, but just cutting things in half doesn't always work properly. This is the recipe which I experimented and came up with for a small loaf. It works quite well and I make it about once a week for both my husband and I.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread (for ABM):

• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 tbsp. Canola oil
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. vital wheat gluten
• 2 cups (regular) whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. yeast

Place the liquid ingredients in your bread machine and then the remaining dry ones (add the yeast last, making sure it doesn't touch any wet ingredients). Set the crust color to light and choose the whole wheat setting on your bread machine. Press start.

whole loaf: 1182 calories
14 slices - 85 calories per slice 

by Shari (Orchid64)


There's an excellent general guideline to bread making here for anyone who is interested.

Chickpea salad (revamped)

This is my old picture. It didn't look much different so, I was lazy. Sue me.

This recipe originally appeared on the Kitchn, as "Chickpea of the Sea".I was generally okay with it the first time I tried it, but it was a bit too sour for me. Here is the latest version, which I was happier with:

Chickpea Salad:

• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbsp. mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp. drained plain (unsweetened) yogurt*
• 1/2 tsp. whole grain mustard
• 1 tsp. seasoned rice vinegar
• 2 slices white onion, cut in half
• garlic powder, salt, and hot pepper flakes (to taste)

Pulse the chickpeas, spices, vinegar, onion and mustard in your food processor until coarsely chopped. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until mixed. Spoon onto a layer of lettuce on your bread of choice. Top with thinly-sliced tomatoes. This made three servings for my appetite.

This was milder than the previous version and I felt that the sour flavors of mustard and vinegar didn't overwhelm the chickpeas as they did last time. I felt that having less vinegar and mustard and more hot pepper flakes (I used a 1/2 tsp.), salt, and garlic worked better - more flavor, less sourness.

I had this as an open-face sandwich and it was quite tasty. One-quarter of the batch was a good serving for me. I did a rough calorie calculation and this is about 175 calories per serving.

*drained yogurt is plain yogurt that has been put in a coffee filter and suspended such that most of the liquid drains off.

by Shari (Orchid64)

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal (Take 2)

Though my husband was satisfied with the previous incarnation of these pumpkin oatmeal bars, I thought they could be better, and they are. In this version, I wanted to increase the moisture by adding applesauce, reduce the oil, and increase the spices both in terms of variety and amount. The change in spices was motivated by a desire to make this more pumpkin pie like in flavor, and I think it worked. That being said, I think that this might be better yet in a third modification. Next time, I'm going to use a full cup of pumpkin puree and omit the milk to see if I can boost the pumpkin flavor without affecting the moisture balance.

This did turn out very well though, and is better than the previous version both in texture and in flavor.

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal (Take 2)

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 granular Splenda (or use white sugar)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree 
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup low-fat milk (or use whole milk)
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/3 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C. Grease and flour a loaf pan. 


Mix all ingredients except the baking powder, flour, and oatmeal together. After all of these ingredients are mixed, add the oats and sprinkle the flour and baking powder over the oatmeal. Stir with a spoon until completely mixed.

Lightly beat the egg in a medium-size bowl. Add the Splenda (or sugar), pumpkin puree, milk, oil, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in the oatmeal, flour and baking powder until evenly mixed. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes until set. I baked mine for 40 minutes and that worked well.


entire loaf: 837 calories
6 servings: 140 calories per bar

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal (sugar-free)

This is the next in my series of baked oatmeal recipes. The previous recipes were:

• pumpkin baked oatmeal
• peanut butter baked oatmeal
• maple baked oatmeal

Of those three, the maple remains the big favorite for both my husband and I, though he's generally pleased with them all. Making this into a blueberry version was slightly tricky for a few reasons. First of all, I wasn't sure about the moisture balance because the blueberries are going to add moisture. Also, since the berries are frozen, I had to consider the baking time. I ended up adding 10 minutes to the usual time (total of 40 minutes) to compensate for the frozen berries. I also wasn't sure whether to go with my standard addition of lemon to blueberries, or to go for vanilla and cinnamon. My husband weighed in on the choice of lemon, so here is what I came up with:

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal

• 1 egg
• 1/2 granular Splenda (or use white sugar)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (I made my own)
• 1/4 cup skim milk (or use whatever milk you want)
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C.

Grease and flour a loaf pan. Whisk the egg, applesauce, milk, Splenda, vegetable oil, salt, and lemon juice together until thoroughly mixed. Add the oats, sprinkle the flour and baking powder on top and mix with a spoon until the flour and baking powder are mixed in and the oats are thoroughly moistened. Stir in the frozen blueberries. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until set (check with a toothpick or tester). Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes, remove from the loaf pan and allow to cool completely before cutting. Cut into 6 servings.


whole loaf: 852 calories
1 serving (1/6):142 calories per serving


I think that this should have cooled a lot longer in the pan as it fell apart when I took it out and put it on a rack. As it disintegrated on the rack, I rapidly put it on a plate for cooling. It was, however, very tasty and had a nice, moist texture. It is very reminiscent of my similar whole wheat blueberry bread, though I'm guessing this is healthier since it mainly uses oatmeal rather than flour.

I don't think that I will alter the recipe though it may be advisable to give it 45 minutes in the oven if you're using a glass dish as I did (it's so moist that it's not likely to dry out), but I do think I'll cool this to nearly room temperature in the dish rather than remove it to a rack for cooling. Due to the heavy concentration of blueberries, I think it needs to firm up more before removing it from the pan. The only thing I would advise is to loosen it in the pan before it fully cools (run a knife around the edges and gently lift a bit) to make sure it comes out smoothly when cooled.

The bottom line is that this is really yummy, and will definitely be repeated again and again.

by Shari (Orchid64)