Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Take a Break: Celebrate National Oatmeal Month

You can’t make this stuff up. January is National Oatmeal Month as well as Hot Tea Month. It’s the perfect excuse to make fabulous oatmeal cookies, sit by the fire and sip a cup of tea while munching fresh baked cookies.

Since gluten free food is a requirement at my house-my husband is allergic to wheat and one of my kids has Celica’s-I’m on good terms with gluten free oatmeal. Yes, you will need to purchase the gluten free variety for those who are most particularly sensitive. I make a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie that many have asked for the recipe, so I’m including it below. In addition, I’m including links to other oatmeal treats.

Margo’s Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
I make this in my food processor since it does such a good job of mixing the nuts and oatmeal.

Cream together: a cup of butter and scant 1 1/2 cup of raw sugar

Add: Two eggs and a t of gluten free vanilla

Add: Two cups of gluten free oats, nuts (almonds, walnuts and pecans) in the amounts you like, plus 1 t each of salt and baking powder

Add: Dark chocolate chips. If you add these to the food processor, they will be finally chopped up, providing a bit of chocolate in every bite. You can use a lot less chips that way. However, my youngest likes the whole chip so I’ll add some to the food processor and hit pulse and then stir some in after I remove the bowl from the food processor.

Drop by T onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake about 10 minutes at 365.

Some other oatmeal recipes to try:

No Bake Energy Bites

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Smitten Kitchen

Baked Oatmeal

And if you don’t like the taste of oatmeal there are other things you can do with it.

Oatmeal Clay

12 Things You’ve Never Thought to Do with Oatmeal: Who knew that you can put it in your refrigerator to neutralize odors.

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