Havin' It My Way

So apparently I'm not the only one realizing the awesomeness that is oatmeal. Burger King is the latest place to put it onto their breakfast menu. But I find it easier just to avoid fast food altogether, unless there's something really special that I crave. For example, a strawberry slushie from Sonic, or a chocolate Frostie from Wendy's (with fries for dipping!).

But oatmeal is something that I can rock out on my own, no drive-thru required. I've had it three times already this week for dinner. I use the term dinner loosely here, since one of those oatmeals was a Salted Caramel Cocoa Oatmeal:

Yum! It's adapted from Hungry Girl's recipe here. In this case, adapted mostly means no chips, more caramel. Didn't have the first one, had the second stashed in the fridge thanks to Super Target clearance. Because really, present me with something tasty, lower calorie, and on sale, and there is simply no way I can resist.

The second oatmeal was so good I made it twice: Barbecue Brisket Oatmeal. Again, I must confess the convenience factor which lead to this concoction. My uncle is in town visiting, and along with fajitas, barbecue is a required culinary part of his trip. We went to Rudy's on Monday, and while he and my dad ate their extra moist brisket and sausage, I carefully weighed out four ounces each of smoked turkey and extra lean brisket. And I ended up with leftovers to take home with me.

So that leftover beef was chopped/shredded into a savory oatmeal (cooked in half water, half chicken broth) along with some onions, which just happened to be leftover from the fajitas we made. Once that was bubbling and delicious, I drizzled on the elixir of life, otherwise known as Salt Lick sauce. Is it wrong to mix the meat and sauce from different Qs? Perhaps. Do I care? Nope. It's tasty!

(This would be where a picture would go if I hadn't been so hungry after my workout last night that I gobbled it up before remembering to document my dinner.)

And tonight it's back to the sweet oatmeal with an ooey-gooey S'Mores Oatmeal:

Again, inspired by scavenging. Someone at the office had extra marshmallows left over from their weekend, and they were so ridiculously huge I had to grab one and bring it home. What can I say? I can't resist free. Or marshmallows.

It's the same as the Salted Caramel Cocoa Oatmeal, except instead of caramel, I added the marshmallow, chopped up a bit, then sprinkled Fiber One Honey Squares as the graham cracker element. I also used a tablespoon of actual cocoa instead of hot cocoa mix for extra chocolate-y goodness.

There's almost nothing that can't be brought home in a doggy bag from a restaurant or found to be in overabundance in the fridge that I can't whip into an oatmeal. And aside from tasting awesome, you get that added sense of righteousness from not only frugally using every food source, but getting lots of fiber and other trendy health benefits at the same time.

Cupcake...Leftovers? Are Those Even Possible?

Well, my friends, it's true. Even I, with my great love of all things cup and cake, can find myself with too many on hand to feasibly eat fresh. It's those darned Groupons and their deals on a dozen. I'm too selfish to share them with others, but too calorically limited to just gobble them all up at once as I would like. So into the freezer they go.

Once they come out, depending on how good I was about putting them in something airtight, and how long they were lost in the black hole that is my freezer, they may or may not be best eaten as is once thawed. Often they'll have lost a little moistness, and while the frosting is still sweet and delicious, it's also not quite soft.

But waste not, want not, and that's a lot of goodness to want. And so, my culinary inventiveness was called upon to rescue deliciousness from the void. Would I respond to the call?

You know it.

Here's what I started with:

A Bavarian Cream cupcake from Lick It, Bite It, Or Both in Austin. Yum.

Here's what I did:

1. Unwrapped it. (duh)
2. Took off the frosting piped on top and set aside for later. It was still cold from a fridge thaw, so it mostly just chipped off.
3. Cut the cake into four flat slices.
4. In a small-ish Tupperware, I mixed: 1/8 cup egg substitute, 1/8 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, a dash of cinnamon, and a splash of Torani sugar-free syrup, chocolate flavored.
   
5. I set the slices of cake into the eggy mixture and swirled it around, spooned it over the top of all the slices, just generally made sure that it was going to absorb it all as much as possible.
6. With a lid on the Tupperware, I put it back in the fridge to absorb for a few hours.
7. When it was time to feast, I sprayed a frying pan, turned the flame on medium-high, and carefully spatula-ed the slices into the pan.
   
   
8. After they seemed to be sizzling, I flipped them over. This is really a judgement call, and I'm sure I'll get my skills fine-tuned, but those experienced in french toast would know better than I what to look for.
   
   
9. And then it was just a little more waiting before I had cupcake french toast ready to enjoy.

And enjoy I did. That frosting that I set aside? Totally forgot about it, but I just ate it later when I saw it in the fridge.

So, yeah. I took a cupcake and made it into french toast. I didn't eat it for breakfast, if that makes it any less horrific for any of you. And I'm not really sorry if it doesn't, 'cause it was good.