Fruit Sauce

A confession: This is so ridiculously easy it's almost embarassing to call it a recipe.

It came about as an accident. One of our frequent Saturday morning breakfasts is wheat-free, egg-free pancakes, usually using one of the recipes from Cybele Pascal's first book. One of our favorites is Peach Pancakes. The easy way is to use drained, canned diced peaches. Only we didn't have diced peaches this particular morning, only peach slices. Daniel was also pulling on my leg and making it very clearly known that he was hungry and he wanted his pancakes NOW! Rather than take the time to chop up the peach slices, I decided to try chopping them in my Magic Bullet.

Now, I love my Magic Bullet, and I use it quite frequently. It makes decent oat flour in a pinch, and really mixes my homemade hot chocolate mix very well. It does not, however, chop canned peach slices very well. It puréed them very quickly.

Being a thrifty allergy-free mama, I didn't really want to pitch it, so I decided to make the best of it and turn it into a warm fruit sauce for the pancakes. The older boys loved it. (Daniel, not being adept with a spoon yet, did not get any, so I cannot report what a toddler would make of it.)

Fruit Sauce

Ingredients:
1 can fruit (I used peaches, but I think just about any fruit would work)
Sugar to taste
Spices, optional

Drain fruit, reserving juice. Purée fruit. As I said earlier, the Magic Bullet works very well for this, but any blender would work. Pour fruit purée into a saucepan, add the reserved juice, sugar to taste and any spices you think would go well with it. Heat through and serve over pancakes, waffles, or even ice cream.

Fruit/Spice Suggestions: Peach/ginger, peach/cinnamon, pear/ginger, pear/nutmeg, pear/cardamom, apple/cinnamon

Chocolate-Banana Oatmeal

Breakfast in our house is usually a grab-and-go affair. The two older boys get breakfast at school, and the baby gets breakfast at daycare. That leaves me to fend for my breakfast self. Mornings are crazy anyway, what with getting three kids around and out the door on time. I rarely have time to sit down and eat a leisurely breakfast. Most of the time, I end up taking it with me. It would be easy to subsist on Pop-Tarts and granola bars, but those don't actually fill me up, not to mention the fact that they're nutrition nightmares. The most common alternative for me is oatmeal.

Now, I don't go for those little bitty packets. Again, not enough there, loaded with sugar, and, well, not a wide variety of flavors. Homemade oatmeal, on the other hand, is only limited by what is in the pantry. Usually I go for some sort of dried fruit, maybe some nuts for protein, and a little brown sugar for sweetening.

Recently I came across an article in one of my magazines with brief recipes from their latest diet plan, including several breakfast recipes. One of them was for Pear-Ginger-Chocolate Smoothie (which was yummy, BTW). That got me thinking. If I could have chocolate in a breakfast smoothie, why not chocolate in my oatmeal?

Chocolate for breakfast? Sure, why not! By using dark chocolate, it actually gives you a dose of anti-oxidants. Add in banana, and it's like a banana split in oatmeal form!

A note on oats: oats are not necessarily gluten-free. Some gluten-sensitive people react to oats, some do not. If you are gluten-free due to celiac, you might want to steer clear of oatmeal, especially regular grocery-store oatmeal. If you are gluten-free due to a wheat allergy, you might want to take into account that regular grocery-store oatmeal may be cross-contaminated with wheat. I feel comfortable using regular oats, as I am the one eating them, rather than my wheat-allergic son. Bob's Red Mill does make gluten-free oats, but I have heard of people reacting to that as well.

Chocolate-Banana Oatmeal

Ingredients:
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup water
1 very ripe banana, broken into chunks
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (this could be made vegan if you use dairy-free chocolate chips)

Put all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Allow plenty of room for the water to boil up during cooking. I use a 1-quart Corel casserole, one of the deep, square ones. Otherwise, you might end up cleaning your microwave. Microwave on High for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Stir and enjoy. No need for extra sugar or sweetener. Makes 1 serving.