The Most Awesome Massaged Kale Salad.

A few months after getting on the "I love kale" band-wagon, I discovered just how great massaged kale salads taste. Also, they are incredibly easy to make. The massaging process only takes a few minutes, but is sufficient to break down the cellulose and other fibers in the kale, making the leaves more digestible and less chewy when eating. This version is super simple, and very customizable. I like to add parmesan cheese for a salty kick and an off-set to the slight bitterness of the kale leaf. But if dairy isn't your thing, feel free to leave it out.

The Most Awesome Massaged Kale Salad.
    serves 4-6 depending on your kale-love-level

    2 heads dino kale, stems removed, and cut into 1/4”-1/2” ribbons
    1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
    2 Tbsp tahini
    juice of one lemon
    1 Tbsp olive oil / drizzle of olive oil
    3 dashes nutmeg
    2 dashes cayenne pepper
    1 dash smoked hot paprika
    1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
    salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
  1)  Place kale in large bowl, add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Massage with bare hands for 3-5 minutes, until kale decreases in size by half and is soft and looks dark green.
  2)  Add parmesan, tahini, and spices. Mix thoroughly.
  3)  EAT and enjoy! This is even better the second or third day, but I doubt it will last you that long!

Feel free to add more heads of kale if you want to make a bigger portion, but you may have to adjust the amount of cheese and tahini; however, I've made this with 3 heads of kale and didn't add any more ingredients. It's that forgiving! The photos here are of the salad made with regular green kale, but I much prefer the dino kale, but both work and are equally delicious.

Possibly vegan, gluten-free, nutrient rich and delicious. Share it with all your family and friends. They’ll gobble it up! My family, friends and I surely did.

Xoxo,

Spinach Artichoke Dip with Cheddar.

Spinach artichoke dip has been on my list to make since who knows when!  I bought a few cans of whole artichokes from Whole Foods a while back in anticipation of one day making it.  And now I have :)

Right now, I am wondering why did I wait so long??  Spinach artichoke dip is delicious!!  (I admit I was skeptical.)  Before making this recipe I consulted a few other food blogs and food websites to see what they were doing in their artichoke dips.  After some internet searching, I decided to go for it and do what seemed intuitive to me.  My first attempt could not have been more delicious.  One thing that is unique about my dip is that it has some protein because I decided to incorporate some chicken and tuna.  Not only would it help with the texture, but it would also make this dip a little bit more wholesome.  And ooh my goodness, this dip is good.  The smoked paprika and cheddar cheese along with a splash of hot sauce really help the depth of flavor in this dish.

 

Spinach Artichoke Dip with Cheddar.
    makes one large dish, must be at least 9x13

    1 large bag spinach
    2 cans whole artichokes, chopped
    1 cup  dill havarti cheese, grated
    1/2 cup  smoked cheddar cheese, grated
    2-3 cups  extra sharp cheddar cheese (I used Cabot)
    8 oz  sour cream
    ~1/4 tsp  smoked mild paprika
    1/2 tsp  pepper
    1/2 tsp  unrefined sea salt
    3 dashes Franks Red Hot sauce
    1 small can  tongol tuna (I used Trader Joes)
    1 large can  white meat chicken (I used Trader Joes)

To make your dip:
  1.  In a 3qt sautee pan, cover the bottom of the pan with 1/2 inch of water.  Stuff as much spinach as you can in the pan.  Close the lid.  Cook over high heat until wilted.  Drain, and gently squeeze out excess water.
  2.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix with your hands - it's easier!
  3.  Pour dip into a large casserole dish or any sort of oven safe baker.  Sprinkle top with more cheese.
  4.  Bake at 400 degrees until bubbly.  Then broil for a minute or two until the top is golden brown and the cheese is melted.
  5.  Let cool.  Spoon out a section and dip baby carrots, red pepper slices and cucumber slices.  Enjoy!

I think this is quickly becoming one of my favorite recipes!  Try this delicious dip in your home for a satiating lunch!  It's great for a summer lunch, and also in the winter time when you want something warm and toasty.  Feel free to refrigerate for about a week as you eat it, but I would not freeze this or keep it over 10 days.

This yummy dip makes getting your veggies easy.  Kids might even love the warm cheesy goodness.  It would also be perfect for taking to parties.  People won't know it's so good for them, and you'll actually enjoy taking leftovers home!

Grain-free Dinner Snapshots

Lamb-bone cabbage fennel soup with grass-fed
beef liver pate on lettuce with pickles

Sweet potato and carrot "fries," broiled bacon, vadalia onion
over fresh baby spinach, fried egg and broccoli sprouts.
Served with ketchup :) 

Baked chicken w/ bone and skin, sauteed broccoli and onions,
grain-free cauliflower, pumpkin and butternut squash "rice"

Grass-fed beef and bison burgers on the grill, with grilled
veggies, served with bib lettuce "bun" and grass-fed raw cheddar

Sometimes I am really good about taking photos of the dinner I make, but often times I'll be half way done with the meal and realize "oops I forgot to take a picture!" Here are some photos of plates that I haven't missed :) Don't forget the ketchup!

Grain-free Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Coming back to NH and the frigid winter temperatures for Winter Break is fun to a point, but it's also freezing! I find myself turning away from salads to warmer dishes. Incorporating protein, vegetables and fats is top priority in each dish, to ensure that it is nourishing and satisfying. Having something warm and easy to make to come home to is wonderful. Driving in the car home after a day at work is freezing! Whipping this up for dinner and sipping some green tea or raw hot cacaolate does the trick for me. I know that this dish will warm your insides too :)

This recipe was inspired by this recipe and this recipe. My version is probably more like the first than the second. It was delicious - thank you ladies for the great idea! This is one of the first dishes in a long time that I couldn't wait to eat the leftovers. The next day I warmed up a piece gently in the toaster oven in a glass baking dish and dinner is served, as delicious and flavorful as the first time!

Melted and gooey mozzarella

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

    serves 6, no leftovers, serves 3 with nice amount of leftovers :) Tastes just like lasagna!!

1 large spaghetti squash

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dry italian herbs

1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

2 egg whites

garlic powder - as needed

3 cups leftover spaghetti meat sauce (spaghetti sauce with ground beef)

1/2 one small zucchini, diced

1/4 one large vadalia onion, diced

1/2 cup frozen chopped green beans

2 Tbsp fresh chopped green scallions

1 1/3 cup fresh grated raw parmesan cheese

1 fresh whole milk mozzarella ball, sliced thinly into circles

To make your casserole:

1. To cook spaghetti squash, chop open with a knife into two halves the long way. Place on a sheet pan with a Silpat with the cut side down, or spray with olive oil and place in a glass baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until it is easy to pierce through the squash skin.

2. Remove the squash from the oven and while holding in an oven mitt, shred out the squash with a fork. Place it into a olive oil sprayed glass casserole dish and push down, going up a little on the sides like you would a pie.

3. While the squash is cooking, on the stove-top sautee zucchini, both onions, and green beans in half of the herbed olive oil until tender. Add the spaghetti sauce (with meat) and bring to a simmer. Sprinkle garlic powder on top and stir.

4. Mix the ricotta with the other half of the herbed olive oil and egg whites. Spread on top of the bottom layer of spaghetti squash, avoiding the taller sides of the dish. Sprinkle garlic powder on top and add parmesan cheese on top of this.

5. Gently spoon spaghetti-veggie sauce on top of the ricotta layer. Spread evenly. Sprinkle lightly with more parmesan. Place sliced mozzarella on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then finish with the remaining parmesan cheese.

6. Bake in the oven until bubbly and slightly browned on top about half an hour. Remove from oven and let cool/set on counter before serving. Yum!

I had so much fun eating and making this dish. This is going in the "make more often - I love love love this dish - put into normal rotation" recipe pile. My parents agreed. Give it a try and I know you will too!

Enjoy :D and stay warm. I believe my thermometer says 1 degrees Farenheit outside.... Eek!

Satisfying Real Food at Home

Since I've been back home I've had the pleasure of being able to cook again. It has been so nice just to putter around in the kitchen and create simple dishes from scratch. My mother loves it when I come home, too. We have a special arrangement. When I am home, I cook, and she does the dishes. For me, a girl who doesn't particularly care for doing dishes, this works out perfectly. And Mom agrees.

I've also been busy adjusting to my new schedule at the bakery. Re-teaching my body to an earlier than early wake up schedule has not been easy. 4:30 AM comes really quick, no matter if you take a hour and a half nap the day before and go to bed at 8:30 PM. It's getting easier though, and things are looking up.

I thought I would share with you two meals that I recently made which were quite delicious, full of nourishing real food, and satisfying. Meals are simply aren't worth it if they are not satisfying. This is something I've been discovering lately. And most importantly of all, real food is satisfying. Eat something nutritious, loaded with proteins, fat, vitamins and minerals. Listen to your body. Our bodies are very smart, and will tell you what they need.

Simple Baked Eggs

1 ramekin

olive oil

1 large handful spinach

1 real egg

s + p

manchego and parmesan cheese

To make your simple baked egg:

1. Brush the sides of the ramekin lightly with olive oil.

2. Take the spinach and squish into the ramekin, making a hole in the middle for the egg.

3. Crack the egg inside the space and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. Grate cheeses on top.

5. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes, and then turn the broiler on and bake for about 5 minutes or until egg white is cooked and tops are bubbling and golden brown with cheese.

I ate my egg with some guacamole and ketchup on the side, along with roasted carrots and asparagus, while my mom ate hers with cauliflower mash (her favorite) and roasted carrots and asparagus. It was so satisfying!

When making gluten free pizza, I simply use Namaste pizza crust mix (it's so easy) and top with a variety of toppings. The pizza always has two halves (the girl side for me and Mom, and the boy side, for Dad and my brother G if he is home). This particular pizza showcased several lovely toppings. Our half had: baby spinach, vadalia onion, brussel sprouts, pineapple chunks, feta, parmesan, mozzarella and raw cheddar cheese, while Dad's half had: mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan and a little bit of feta cheese, bacon, grassfed ground beef, and pineapple chunks.

I hope you enjoy these real food ideas!

-Update 2/23/10-

I almost forgot to share the fish tacos I made! See the photo at the top. These are made with organic sprouted corn tortillas filled with baked wild Chilean seabass (soo buttery), peppers, onions and feta cheese, with guacamole and fresh cut pineapple on the side. It was a wonderful California mexican lunch!

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken

What a long title! This yummy and nourishing meal is full of good fats and protein, it's sure to become a family favorite!

A few months ago I discovered an ingredient I believe everyone should have in their pantries - smoked paprika. Yes, smoked. I'll admit, it sounds scary at first, but in the hands of a good recipe, it is a bombshell of flavor. It will make you want to replace paprika with smoked paprika in all your recipes! Use restraint with this spice, however, because unlike some dried spices, a little goes a long way. The marinade/rub for this chicken is great and it makes enough for leftovers, which I now have in my fridge. It's perfect for when you need a quick homemade sauce quick, so don't be shy - make the whole batch. I actually halved the recipe from the original amount.

I made this recipe for dinner tonight. G was coming home from work and I wanted something extra special he would just love. We are all on different schedules, and he had not had a "real" homecooked dinner (besides homecooked leftovers from the fridge) for a while. He loves all protein and anything involving bacon in his world = good. I actually have to agree with him! Bacon is quite tasty. Up until a few months ago we never had bacon in the house. It was too "unhealthy" - full of saturated pork fat. But now that my mom and I have been learning about real food, we have bacon again. G and my Dad are very happy! Now we buy two types of bacon, a pork bacon for G, and a turkey bacon for me and mom because we would rather not eat pork. I used two bacons for this chicken - I wrapped mine in turkey bacon and G's in pork bacon, so feel free to use whatever bacon you fancy. They both work extremely well!

Smoked Paprika Roasted Chicken wrapped in Bacon (and stuffed with Cheese)

with spices from Elise

4 chicken thighs with bones and skin, or boneless chicken breasts with skin

1 package turkey bacon or pork bacon

1 Tbsp smoked paprika

1 Tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice from organic meyer lemons

1 1/2 tsp Tbsp softed real grassfed butter

1/2 tsp sea salt - I used himalayan

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp pepper

cheese of choice, I used aged cheddar cheese - I was all out of raw cheddar!

To make your smoked paprika chicken:

1. Take your chicken and turn them over so the skin is down.

2. If you have chicken breasts, make a slit in one side and stuff in two thick pieces of cheese. If you have chicken thighs like I did, make two slits along the bone and stuff in two chunks of cheese as much as you can. Carefully bring both sides of the chicken together and turn the chicken over.

3. Wrap the chicken with 1 to 3 pieces of bacon, however much is desired, making sure the ends stay tucked under the chicken.

4. In a small bowl, combine spice ingredients. Fold together with a spatula and spread a small dollop on top of each bacon wrapped piece of chicken. Get messy - using your hands (you could use a pastry brush as well) rub the marinade all over the chicken making sure to cover all possible spots on the chicken, not only the top.

5. Place chicken in a large glass casserole dish and roast covered with tin foil at 350 degrees for about an hour. Take chicken out and baste with juices. Then for 15 minutes increase to 375. Finally, take off the foil and roast at 400 degrees for a final 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the bacon is lightly browned. Remove from the oven and baste with juices before serving. Serve warm with roasted brown sugar and buttered carrots and oven roasted yukon gold potato fries.

6. Enjoy!

G so enjoyed this recipe, as did I. I will definitely be making this again but will use chicken breasts so I can add bacon inside and more cheese. The cheese in my chicken melted and added to the chickens flavor and moisture, and also the outside juices - but it did not stay cheesy in the chicken. It was still good though!

In the photos - the double wrapped is pork bacon, the single wrapped is turkey bacon. Also, that is Annies organic ketchup (which beats Heinz in any taste test, I've done it with my friends and family, you'll be surprised with the results!) and Guldens dijon mustard with some goat and sheep feta from Whole Foods. Not in the picture, there was some local kimchi on the side! Such a tasty meal! It surely will become a staple in the family food rotation!

Three Bean Chili

Fall is just around the corner. Well, actually I think it has officially begun. This comes as kind of a shock, since Southern California has virtually no fall, or at least a fall season that could appreciably be called "Fall." Coming from New England, I have come to enjoy and love my falls. Autumn is easily my most favorite time of year besides summer and Christmas. The colors on the leaves, the pumpkin, the apple cider, the warmth of spices and the cold rush of an October breeze, the crunch of the leaves under your feet and the fields upon fields of apples and pumpkins just waiting to be picked...

Ahh, I reminisce. I miss my New England falls. But I cannot complain, because now in this new "world" I get nearly 365 days worth of sunshine. And you know how I love my sunshine.

The presence of fall has brought to light another thing that is missing. Soup. Once the leaves turn color and start to tumble down, and the weather begins to turn colder and colder, my family has always turned to soup. When fall arrives, on goes the stove, and on goes the crockpot. The crockpot has always been one of my mom's most beloved kitchen tools. Can you believe that only three years ago we bought her a new crockpot after using hers faithfully for 26 years, since my parents have first been married?! It was a feat to keep a much loved crockpot for so long, but now with the old one laid to rest, we can make bigger soup batches because the new one is so much bigger! I wish they would make appliances today that would last just as long!

I have digressed, however, because the making of this soup has nothing to do with fall, or the colors on the trees or my mothers crockpot. I created this soup this summer, and it is so good I can't believe I haven't raved about it before. But I've been busy, way busy.. so finally, consider it done.

This soup is warm, spicy and has a good mixture of both vegetables and "substance" - ie, meat and potatoes. I made it as an experiment, paired it with cornbread (see my earlier posts) and my mom and I managed to ate the whole batch in a week. So good. Try this soup out on a cold fall or winter day and it's kick of spice will be sure to delight your senses and wake you up!

Meagan's Three Bean Chili

1 lb browned beef chuck

1 small vidalia onion, diced

1 orange bell pepper, seeded and diced

2 T buter

3 - 15 oz cans of 3 beans (aduki, chickpea and white), drained and rinsed

1 - 15 oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes

4 cups organic free-range chicken stock**

1 heaping 1/4 tsp of smoked paprika - You can sub normal paprika, but you will lose the main taste profile of the soup.

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

dash of black and red pepper flakes

2 cups water

2 T olive oil

2 cups fresh corn off the cobb

2 small golden potatoes, cubed***

1 large pot

To make "THE soup" (as my mom fondly calls it):

1. On medium heat, brown the beef in the pot, and remove (do not drain the fat).

2. Add the vidalia, orange pepper and butter and saute lightly.

3. Add corn and potatoes.

4. Add beans, chicken stock, and tomatoes (do not drain these).

5. Add water.

6. Cover, bring to a boil and then simmer on low until potatoes are almost cooked...

7. Then add olive oil and spices, and return beef to the pot.

8. Simmer on low until potatoes are fully cooked, and their starch is slightly breaking down.

9. EAT and enjoy delicious soup, served with homemade cornbread and shredded raw milk cheddar cheese.

*In the picture, that delicious blob of white goodness you see on top of the hot soup is partially melted FRESH grated raw milk aged sharp cheddar cheese.

**The kind I used is Imagine or Pacific. I did not use low sodium, or reduced salt, so if you are using this kind you might want to add more salt to the soup. I find that sometimes the reduced sodium soups have other additives like MSG. Imagine and Pacific are a good brand, and use sea salt, so I know the salt I am eating my body can use, unlike the weak table salt. And of course - if you have HOMEMADE chicken stock, use it!!

***Add more if you wish, but I am a protein type, and do not do well on lots of carbohydrates, so I generally do not add as much potato as I would, say, meat.

If you bring this tangy chili to winter potluck parties everyone is sure to love you, but don't forget the cornbread!

Red Pepper, Spinach, Feta and Aspargus Pizza

One thing that struck me today was the fact that I have not yet stated my pizza allegiance. For those of you in the gluten free food blogging realm you know EXACTLY what that means. Dun, dun, dun..

The giant question is: Bob's Red Mill or Namaste? And of course, a homemade crust, but that's for another time.

Chances are that if you are a gluten free blogger, you've been around the block when it comes to trying out products, and pizza crusts are no different. For years, as gluten free products slowly began trickling into existence, there was no pizza crust product on the shelves. Then Namaste foods was born and they introduced all their mixes and more notably, their pizza crust mix.

Namaste's crust was around for a while and received mixed reviews from gluten free people around the country. Some people hate it, some people love it. I am of the latter.

It strikes me as funny that I've never mentioned how much I love Namaste's pizza crust. My family and I tried it out way at the beginning of our gluten free lives and we've never looked back. It just worked. I've never thought to mention it until just now. Namaste, consider yourself mentioned.

I am the "pizza queen" in my house and in my house, I don't think I've ever made a pizza the same way twice. This version is by far the best pizza I have ever made. Basically, any pizza with feta, spinach, and asparagus on it, in any combination, is wicked, WICKED good.

Red Pepper Spinach Feta and Asparagus Pizza

For the crust:

cornmeal - for dusting

olive oil MISTO - for spraying

1 1/2 cups Namaste pizza mix

1/2 cup warm water

2 tsp olive oil

For the rest:

sauce of choice - I like Bove's Organic Marinara sauce

baby spinach

spices:

garlic powder

onion powder

cayenne powder

sea salt

pepper

red pepper flakes

cheese (best if you can get them raw):

mozzarella

feta - a GOOD one, not Fage

parmesan

toppings:

asparagus chopped into 1-2 inch pieces

red pepper - diced

half vadalia/sweet onion - diced

meat of choice - I used browned ground beef

To make your pizza:

1. Prepare the Namaste crust. I put all the ingredients into my food processor with the dough blade and whiz into a ball.

2. Roll on to a pizza crisper - these are essential for a good GF pizza crust, dusted with cornmeal and sprayed with Misto. Don't worry, even with the holes on the bottom of the pan there won't be a mess on your counter top. Dough will be 1/4" - 1/8" thick.

3. Bake at 425 for about 8 minutes or until the pizza crust edges start to pull away from the pan and are slightly firm to touch. Remove from the oven and place on pot holder.

4. Spray crust LIGHTLY with Misto and rub in spices into the crust.

5. Spoon out desired amount of sauce and distribute evenly around the crust with the back of a large spoon. I have found that with GF crusts it is better to use less because of the wetness factor.

6. Layer spinach on top of the sauce.

7. Lightly sprinkle mozzarella cheese.

8. Crumble feta on top.

9. Sprinkle toppings evenly over the cheese, adding smaller vegetables first and meat last.

10. Sprinkle with black pepper, lightly with red pepper flakes, and lastly the parmesan cheese - don't be shy here.

11. Pop into the oven for the last time and cook until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Do not over cook or the cheese will begin to burn and gradually turn browner and browner..

12. Remove from oven, slice into 8th's and EAT!

We always do this as a family on friday nights. Mom and I make pizza, the boys anxiously wait, we pop in a Netflix movie and have movie night enjoying yummy pizza and popcorn. Sometimes we have ice cream later. We love love ice cream. Probably more than we do pizza. But pizza is so so good :)

My brother, who is still a wheat eater even loves this pizza. However, if you are looking for a yeasty, bready, pizza crust this is not for you. This pizza has a thin and crispy gluten free pizza crust. I will be experimenting to get a bready gluten free pizza crust in the future.. But for now Namaste is the order of the day.

Easter and my first GF Bread

Happy Easter!

The plan? Have the family over for a full on GLUTEN free, SOY free, safe, Easter meal prepared by my mom and I, and celebration of Jesus' resurrection together as a family.

Not in the plan? Me getting sick, yes sick, on Saturday. I never get sick, but this 24-hour bug just happened to catch me while I was down. School has been really stressful and busy lately, top that off with a 6+ hour plane flight home, +3 hour time change and the "post-stress let-down effect" and bingo, it got me. I haven't been this sick in ages, and it was not fun. Interestingly (sorry to gross you all out) throwing up was the best part, as it made me feel so much better (even if it only lasted about 15-20 minutes). Anyways, we heard from the family that a 24-hour thing had been going around, we assumed that's what I got, and today I am better. So it was definitely a 24-hour thing. I am still recovering (think barely any food and only juice/sprite while I was sick), and I hope to be 100% soon. Needless to say, it was a VERY different Easter than what I expected. Oh, and I forgot. The family stayed away. Wise decision!

The Easter meal, however (yay, I can eat real food again), was anything but a letdown. Mom made the pot-roast like she always does (family tradition, we have it at nearly every major holiday except Thanksgiving). Then we did a potato dish, steamed green beans, green peas (I couldn't really stomach the thought of grean beans on my recovering stomach), and bread.

Bread? Yes, bread. In my childhood days Mom used to always have a fresh loaf of bread for dinner straight out of the bread machine. It was homemade bread heaven every night. Needless to say we started learning about nutrition and that practice was thrown out the window. And now that I am gluten free, I remain especially nostalgic about the bread she used to make. Her bread machine oatmeal bread was by far, my favorite. Close behind was the apple-walnut, and cinnamon raisin, but the oatmeal bread "took the cake" - pun intended.

I have been searching for a good bread recipe for a while, and have had a few in my bookmarks on my computer, but haven't quite dug in and tried one. Finally, I found one that I had all the ingredients for, wasn't going to bake my back (in the complication factor) to make it, had GOOD reviews, and wasn't overly time consuming. Too good to be true? Only slightly.

Amazing Gluten-Free "Oatmeal" Bread

from Recipezaar.com ^^

(my substitutions listed here)

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup white sorghum flour

1/4 cup millet flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour

1/4 cup arrowroot starch

1/4 cup ground golden flaxseed meal

3 tsp xanthan gum 

2 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt (I used normal table salt, not sea salt)

2 eggs + 2 egg whites (use 4 large brown AA organic yada yada eggs)

1 cup room temperature water

2 tbsp honey

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 200F degrees.

2. Mix wet ingredients in your stand mixer, and mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

3. While the mixer is running, pour the dry into the wet and mix well on low/medium speed for about 2 minutes. There should be no lumps.

4. Turn into a olive oil sprayed (I always use my Misto) 9x5 loaf pan.

5. Turn off the oven and put the bread inside.

6. Let rise for about 90 minutes or until the top of the bread is noticeable (as viewed from the side) over the edge of the pan or until it just meets the top.

7. Then turn the oven on to 350F (try not to open the oven during the rise and during the transition to 350) and bake for about 40 minutes. The crust will be golden brown, cover with tin foil as needed to prevent over-browning.

8. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes then turn out onto the rack and cool until no longer warm. Slice when just a touch warm or totally cooled.

I say only slightly because as you can see, the bread collasped after it's journey from the oven. I had kind of expected this to happen (some reviewers mentioned this problem) but just prayed it wouldn't happen to me; after all, not everyone encountered this phenomena. But it did. It didn't lack in the flavor or texture department. In fact it tasted exactly like my childhood oatmeal bread, even better! I am going to have to tweak the recipe so it DOESN'T fall in, but this recipe is certainly destined for greatness. It left my mom, my dad and I smacking our lips in pleasure. WE LOVED IT. Oops that was in capitals- wait, I meant to do that, hehe! It was soo good. We will definitely be making this again, and again and again. I might actually put it into muffin tins and do a "dinner roll" type. In fact, it was so good we demolished a WHOLE half loaf! And easily could have eaten the whole thing. I can't take credit though- this wasn't my recipe. Click the link and enjoy. Lots of different substitutions work well, so play around with it. I will update you will my new recipe as I bake more versions. Trial and error will get it right eventually.

Easter tasted so good! I only wish it could have been spent with family.