the basics: OATMEAL

 

All of Payton's childhood trauma might be centered on oatmeal...  adding to the trauma, and much to her dismay, "sugar cereal" was only purchased for Christmas stockings and birthdays.

I tried to get inventive (and sneaky) with cooked oatmeal!

- breakfast smoothies

- granola

- steel-cut oats (different texture)

And always reminded Payton that no matter how sick and tired she was of it - she still had it better than ME who grew up with FOOD STORAGE oatmeal (and no added sweetner), which is historically the saddest oatmeal of them all.

NEVER have sad oatmeal!  (Truly, it is your choice if you do...)

Add some fun and creative toppings, including:

Nutella

maple suryup

fresh fruit 

coconut 

toasted coconut

chia seed

nuts

toasted nuts

Crasins

rasins

cinnamon

pumpkin pie spice

vanilla

protein powder

dark brown sugar

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Steel Cut Oats //  OR  // Old Fashioned Oats

Great for a meal-prep idea as:

breakfast-on-the-go

breakfast smoothie

Gather up:

steel cut oats or old fashioned oats

medium sauce pan

filtered water

pink salt

your favorite wooden spoon

4 cups filtered water

2 cups of your oat choice, evenly measured 

1 teaspoon pink salt

Bring everything to a simmer and turn your heat down to low.

Stir constantly (do not start doing laundry or something else...)

for the simmer time.

Steel Cut Oats simmer for 15-20 minutes and you may need to add an extra 1/2-1 cup water.

Old Fashioned Oats simmer for 5-8 minutes.

Turn off the heat.

Serve up and eat immediately, or if it was for a meal prep wait for it to cool and then separate out into portions for fridge storage.

Reminder:  Suggested fun toppings near top of blog post.

Note:  If this is too much of an amount, use 1/2 portions and a small saucepan.

Enjoy!  And maybe make some for Payton.  :0)

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the basics: NACHO CHICKEN

  

Schroeder House - Twin Falls Idaho
- 2023 Summer Road Trip -
Taking Payton Olivia to live in Oregon

Amazon will deliver this item!!
Just remember, actually GOING to Trader Joe's
is way more fun and you can grab a
box of dark chocolate peanut butter cups...
(Just sayin'.)

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Gather up:

Costco rotisserie chicken pieces: 

cut or pieced into nacho-bite-size pieces

olive oil

"Everything But The Elote" seasoning: Trader Joe's brand

chicken broth OR chicken bone broth 

small or medium or large sauce pan with a fitting lid

- sauce pan size depends on how much you want to make...

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Determine how much you want to make.

- choose a pan just large enough to have one or two layers of chicken, but not more than two.

- put the amount of chicken in the pan you have selected.

Drizzle olive oil evenly over the top layer of chicken.

Shake the seasoning over the top layer of rotisserie chicken to evenly and fully coat.

Gently pour enough chicken broth or chicken bone broth over the top layer of rotisserie chicken to just barely have everything submerged. 

Put the lid on your sauce pan.

Turn burner to medium heat and let come to a simmer.

Once at a simmer: take off the lid and let it simmer with the lid off for 2-5 minutes.

Turn off the burner and serve!

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SERVING  IDEAS:

Serve over corn tortilla chips (blue corn are a favorite!) with: black or chili beans

grated pepper jack cheese

salsa

diced tomato

sliced olives

sliced avocado

fresh cilantro

Bitchin' Sauce (a chipotle almond sauce)

a squeeze of lime

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the basics: SUBSTITUTES - TIPS - TRICKS

WHAT  DO  YOU  NEED  ???

...but first some notes and reminders:

not all the SUBSTITUTES - TIPS - TRICKS are meant to be a forever switch-up.  There is one exception to this:  MILK

Here's why:  heavy whipping cream has a month's-long fridge life.  Cereal and breakfast smoothies get almond milk.  Granola gets yogurt.  I do not drink or use straight up milk for anything other than cooking. Nor does anyone else in my households.  I always have the heavy whipping cream as a forever staple for times I need milk in a cooking recipe.

MILK                          

~  make milk using heavy whipping cream and water

~  HOW:   measure out 1/2 of what you need with the heavy whipping cream and then add water for the other 1/2 of the needed measurement

~  EXAMPLE:  you need 2 cups of milk

measure out 1 cup of heavy whipping cream

add 1 cup of water to your heavy whipping cream and stir

BUTTERMILK

~ make buttermilk using milk

~ add 1 teaspoon white vinegar to every measured cup of milk

ROOM  TEMPERATURE  EGGS

~ Place eggs in medium size bowl and run warm/not-too-hot water over eggs.  
~  Let them soak in the warm/not-too-hot water until the water maintains its warm/not-too-hot temperature and doesn't cool down from the fridge-cold eggs.

POWDER  SUGAR

~  make powder sugar using white granulated sugar 

~ using a blender, and doing only 1 cup at a time, run the white granulated sugar through your blender at the highest setting until "powdered"

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the basics: WHITE RICE

 

THE BIRTH OF:

"the basics"

Mama Jo to her Baby Bret:

"You're graduating!!! 

And on your own in a few months...

What adulting do you still need to learn??

Anything you want to learn how to cook?

- What have I missed teaching you, do you think??"

Baby Bret to her Mama Jo:

"Honestly?  

I need the recipes you have in your brain.

You know, the basics. 

Like white rice." 

Mama Jo in her thoughts:

"Hathaway..."   

:0)

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2  cups Jasmine long grain white rice

1  teaspoon Kosher or pink salt 

1  TABLESPOON sugar

4  cups filtered water

Wash // rinse rice until the water is no longer a clouded, milky color.  

Throughly drain.  Set aside.

Put everything in a medium pot OR large frying pan.

Whichever your choice, it MUST have a fitted lid.

Add all ingredients to your cooking pot or pan.

Put to cook on your stove at a medium or medium high cooking setting.

Stir frequently until you get it to a low boil // high simmer state.

Set a timer for 1 minute; and keep stirring the rice mixture at the low boil // simmering state.

Turn heat down to the lowest-low. 

Give it one final stir.  

Put the fitted lid on.

Set a timer for 25 minutes.

DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF WHILE TIMER IS ON.

When timer is done, turn the heat off.

KEEP THE LID ON ANOTHER 5-10 MINUTES.

Fluff rice before serving.

Let the rice cool completely before packing up for leftovers or a meal prep.

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Gavin to his Mama Jo when he was living in Japan:
"Why did we never have a rice-cooker growing up??!"

Mama Jo to her Gavin:
"Because I know HOW to cook rice!"

HOWEVER:  
Gavin was on to something...  I now prefer the incredibly easy, slick, tasty, and perfect-every-time-rice-cooker rice.

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the basics: PAN COOKED CHICKEN TENDERS

USED  FOR:

- meal prep

- chicken pitas with roasted veggies

- chicken cabbage salad

- toasted pecan spinach salad

- chicken and waffles (oatmeal waffles are the BEST!)

- chicken fettuccine 

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2 pounds of chicken tenders

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper

olive oil - for cooking

Combine all in a small or medium bowl and keep in the fridge until ready to cook.

Depending on the size of your cast iron pan or frying pan: 

cook 1/2 or all of the chicken tenders until a toasty golden brown on both sides.  

If the chicken becomes stuck to the pan while cooking, add a little additional oil.

Re-oil pan and cook any remaining portions if needed.  

Keep covered with foil to maintain moisture until ready to eat or until fully cooled enough to store in the fridge.

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Texas Peach 🍑 Crisp

 

June 1, 2026:  TX Urban Garden
Peaches:  Tropic Snow
- white peach, free-stone -

Shoutout to the Handsome Bret Sr!
and resident Master Gardener

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NOTES:  

- recipe named for the location of invention... 

I was NOT in the mood to make a pie

- "free-stone" means that the fruit fully pulls off from the 

peach pit when ripe

- "free-stone" peaches are my favorite and easiest to work with

- use a soft-skin peeler // it will be serrated and not a flat,

straight edged peeler like you'd use for a carrot, potato or 

apple

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6-8 cups ripe peaches, peeled and thickly sliced      

1  TABLESPOON cinnamon

3/4 cup GLUTEN-FREE flour mix

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

3/4 cup lightly packed dark (or light) brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted 

(Dairy-free option: 1/2 cup refined coconut oil, melted)

Put sliced peaches in bottom of a 9X13 pan.  

Sprinkle sliced peaches with the cinnamon and mix gently until all peach pieces have cinnamon on them.  

Mix remaining four ingredients in a medium bowl until a crumbly mixture.

Crumble mixture on top of the peaches.  

Bake at 375 for 45-55 minutes or until topping is dark brown in some spots, and golden brown in general with peach juices bubbling.  

Serve warm simply solo and as is OR with whipped cream OR vanilla ice cream.

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Click Link FOR: the basics: WHIPPED CREAM

Click Link FOR: Gluten-Free Flour Recipe

Click Link FOR: Mama Jo's Recipe Blog TABLE OF CONTENTS

the basics: WHIPPED CREAM

2  cups heavy whipping cream

1/2  cup powdered sugar

1  teaspoon pure vanilla 

(Mexican Vanilla is always preferred)

- Mix with a mixer stand or with a hand mixer until very thick.

- Start either stand or hand mixer on low and slowly bring up to a medium high setting. 

- Make ahead of time and refrigerate until serving.

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the basics: COCONUT RICE

2  cups water

1  15 oz. can coconut milk

2  cups jasmine white rice

1  teaspoon Kosher salt

1  TABLESPOON sugar

In medium pot or large fry pan.

(…must have a matching lid!)

Combine all ingredients in your chosen medium pot or leather frying pan with a lid. 

Stir and bring everything to a simmer on med/high heat.

Continue to simmer and stir for one minute.

Put lid on pot. 

Turn burner to lowest setting and cook for 23-25 minutes. 

Remove from heat and let rest for 5-10 minutes.  

Fluff with a large serving spoon.

Keep the lid on until ready to serve.  

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Typically coconut rice gets paired with:

chicken Marsala 

verde pork taco bowls 

red pork taco bowls 

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MRS. FIELD’S CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

"Why ruin a perfectly good cookie by putting it in the oven?"
- Jerry Man Crozier
during the Twin Falls era: 2005 or so

If you eat it baked or as dough - no judgement here.
If you get a box of dough and eat it before you get home...
a little judgement and a smirk from me.

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This might be the first recipe I ever actually stole.  Y'all.  Sincerely, I cannot even remember.  If I did actually steal it - the theft was likely 29 or 30 years ago... yup.  The math is right and I am that old.

In my defense: the stolen recipe was first stolen by my SISTER from her college roommate.  Back in the 90's the only way you're getting a REALLY good recipe is if you straight up buy it.  (Think really hard and imagine no internet - Just books to buy at a bookstore or borrow at the library.)  Her college roommate was gifted the following recipe as her high school graduation gift from a relative (albeit NOT gluten free - and aren't we all so glad I can figure out the switch up...).

Now that we have the cookie theft confession committed to the blog, I give you the: 

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MRS. FIELD’S CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

(But Gluten-Free if you please... )

(and family portions - not store portions)

In a HUGE bowl, cream together:
1  cup brown sugar, packed
1  cup white sugar
1  cup softened butter (2 cubes)


Beat sugars and eggs on HIGH for 8-10 minutes.

Then add to creamed ingredients:
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (Mexican vanilla preferred)


In a large separate bowl, mix:
2  1/2 cups gluten-free flour
2  1/2 cups oatmeal (old fashioned oats - certified GF)
1  teaspoon baking soda
1  teaspoon baking powder


Add the flour mixture to the creamed ingredients.  


Mix thoroughly and then add:
1 bag (2 cups) of chocolate chips 

TRY:  dark chocolate chips (60-70%) OR milk chocolate OR semi-sweet chocolate OR a mix of any of the chocolate choices - measure 2 cups of your choice(s)

1  8 oz chocolate bar, finely grated (Optional)



Bake at 325 for 20-22 minutes or until just BARELY browned in spots on the top.

Let cool on the cookie sheet 5 minutes before trying to transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes just about 2-3 dozen cookies depending on the size….  

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Click Link FOR: Gluten-Free Flour Recipe

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Spinach and Toasted Pecan Salad

Payton to her Mama Jo:
"I don't think that's enough dressing... "
(We were having 8 people over for Sunday dinner.)
Mama Jo to her Payton:
"We're good.  I promise.  It's plenty -
it's strong and a little goes a long way."
(AND: Dude.  Look at that jar! It's huge!
In a pint jar it would have looked normal...
Austin had all my pint jars at his house apparently.)

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This recipe brings back so many Idaho memories...
I haven't made it as much while we have been in Texas.
Maybe I'm subconsciously keeping myself from thinking about them??  
Nah.
It's got to be something else!  Why would I not want to think about all the places, people, events, meals this lovely little salad got paired with??!  Or even let take center stage as the WHOLE MEAL and put Costco rotisserie chicken on top of it.
It must just be my laziness.
I'll put a red onion in my next Smith's or Kroger pick up and make it this week - and in turn make a new memory with it in the background.  Pinky-promise.

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Spinach and Toasted Pecan Salad

1 cup toasted pecan pieces 
1 medium OR large bag of pre-washed spinach leaves
1/2 cup slivered red onion 
1/3 cup Lemon-Soy Dressing (dressing recipe listed below) 
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup Feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 325. 
Toast the pecans in a baking pan on parchment paper until they begin to get fragrant, about 7-10 minutes. 
Let cool completely. 
WHEN SERVING PORTIONED:
Combine the spinach, and onion in a salad bowl. 
Just before serving, pour on the dressing and toss well. 
Check to see if you need to add more dressing; you don't want to make the spinach too wet. 
Serve on individual salad plates with the pecans, cranberries and the Feta cheese sprinkled on each portion.

NOTES:  
- More often than not, I serve the ingredients individually buffet style, letting each person pick and choose their ingredients and portions for their salad.

- Lemon juice from a bottle OR lemon-lemon juice??  No difference. Whatever you have will work out fine.

- Forgot to buy pecans but you have raw almonds??  It's still nice.

Lemon-Soy Dressing: 
2-3  garlic cloves, minced 
2  Tablespoons lemon juice 
1  Tablespoon red wine vinegar 
1  1/2 teaspoons soy sauce   (Davis house: use Gluten-Free)
1/8  teaspoon salt 
1/2  teaspoon coarse ground pepper 
1/2  cup mild-flavored olive oil
Place all the ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously. 


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