Baked oatmeal treats look fantastic! Thanks for sharing the recipe/idea.

I use a modified version of a meatloaf recipe my mom a few times I think she got off a box of goldfish crackers (it uses cheese flavored crackers instead of breadcrumbs) by subbing in lentils, flax eggs etc... It's a fairly 'traditional' recipe and not overly health conscious like the linked one. I always use freshly cooked red lentils for mine. Just a "trick" I've learned over the years- a potato masher is an ideal tool for mixing most meat substitutes with, including lentils. It combines the other ingredients with the protein base in the recipe better, be it beans, grains, TVP, vital wheat gluten etc... If your making an especially large batch of a meat substitute and have a Omega juicer, try running the mix through the juicer using 4 hole pasta extruder nozzle. The result will be similar to ground meat and easier to form, though the hassle of cleaning the juicer may not be worth it for smaller batches.

Midwesterner- I thought I replied to your comment, but I must not have. Oops! Those are great suggestions. I like the idea of sorting them out once complete and never thought of turning to some of my cookbooks to see how they're laid out. I also have an extensive 10 year collection of old Vegetarian Times magazines. At a loss for what to do about me wanting to be a vegetarian, my parents got me a subscription so I could learn what/how to cook for myself and kept it going for a long time. One thing about my magazine collection is turning to it to find seasonable recipes easily. I wonder how I could carry that theme (seasons) over into sorting all my recipes? I do like to meal plan around seasonable produce that costs less or is on sale. Also nice to have warm meals in the fall/winter and more raw meals in the spring/summer!

I was a little unclear on that point. I'm only 29 and don't have kids yet, it's just been a topic of discussion recently with my husband. Streamlining my meal planning right now in preparation for a family has been on my mind. Currently though, I don't have anyone to hand anything down to or even to share with and probably wouldn't for a very long time. Everyone I know hates cooking or doesn't know how to cook/bake from scratch. The main point of this project is to find a system that helps *me* have an easier time meal planning and cooking. I have a lot of recipes saved digitally already and hate it. It doesn't work at all for me and I end up overlooking/forgetting about good recipes and I get distracted by other things on the computer. Not to mention a laptop takes up a lot more room than a index card box when you have a very small condo sized kitchen. I think a traditional box would work better for me. The thought of handing something down is more a secondary benefit to doing this, something I wish I had from either of my grandmothers, but it's not the primary purpose. Perhaps in the future if theres someone who actually wants them but hates the thought of the hand written ones, I can digitize them or at least desired ones at that time for that person.

It is far and few between I find a recipe I don't have to tweak something minor on. Differences in your specific cook/bakeware, oven, heat sources (gas, induction, electric, convection) etc... can all affect how a recipe turns out. You may need different times, temps even more or less of certain ingredients to work in your kitchen. I get a different result, for example, baking the exact same brownie recipe in side by side 8x8 pans when I use an old pyrex glass pan for one and my triply clad All Clad brownie pan for the other batch. I prefer to use my half sized commercial countertop oven for virtually all my baking needs, but the times for most recipes tried and tested in a standard oven need the heat lowered and bake time extended to come out right in my small oven. I've cooked on gas, induction and electric (coil and glass top) and in all cases, slight tweaks needed to be made to accommodate for the different heat sources. Switching from enamelware to triply pans there was alterations that needed to be made...

Point is, you're need to tweak the recipes likely results from the differences between your kitchen and the kitchen the recipe came out of. Or are you more talking you think more cinnamon or less onion would simply taste better?

I've had mine for several years and no issue with the water holding portion being totally contained. I do only use distilled water in the boiler part to prevent mineral buildup inside. I use tap water to mix with whatever I'm making in the pot though. After I wash it, I open the cover for where you pour in the water and drain as much as possible into the sink. Then I stick it, *cover open*, back on the burner on *very low* heat and let the water evaporate out for a couple minutes. Similar to drying out a cast iron pan after rinsing. Keep your eye on it though since it's a disk bottom. I also always leave the cover open when storing in case some moisture remained. It does require one to be careful when washing not to get the contents of the pot into the water holding part, as that could get rather unsanitary. I don't use a dishwasher for anything personally, but this guy would definitely be inadvisable to put through the dishwasher FYI.

It is a bit of a PITA, but I only use a double boiler maybe once or twice a month and it really does work very very well.

I'm not sure if legally they have to be, but common sense says the handles should definitely support the pot filled to maximum capacity! That's terrifying to think about a large pot breaking at the handle while it has extremely hot food in it. How are the handles attached to the pot? Tack welded (2 tiny dots where the handle is connected to the pot) or securely riveted (big, obvious rivets holding the handles to the pot)? I've never trusted tack welded handles on cookware/ovenware. I've broken the tack welded handles on other kitchen stuff (strainers, skimmers, tea tongs used only to gently squeeze tea bags...), I don't trust it on anything that'll hold enough hot food to put me in the hospital if the weld doesn't hold...

Good to know, thanks. He was looking at the smaller model, which does come with a manual milk frother. I'm hoping to find it on sale since it's the holidays. Our espresso machine is solidly built, but very basic, manual and LOUD (one of the old Starbucks barista machines I bought cheap and replaced all the gaskets in/cleaned up). Is the NINJA pretty, uh, 'user friendly'? Like put in grounds, press button, receive coffee kind of user friendly?

Is yours pretty quiet in most operations? Obviously they all make some noise, but that espresso maker is as loud as the big ones in coffee shops and especially loud if you want to froth milk with the steam wand! I know he would prefer something much quieter, especially early in the morning.

Thanks.

I guess I didn't indicate budget. $200 or under.

I asked my husband and he expressed an interest in the Ninja coffee bars. I guess he likes the idea of being able to have a pot of coffee or the specialty drinks. I haven't had any issues creating specialty drinks with the espresso machine, but he really dislikes using it.

I see mixed reviews about these Ninja machines. Seems like mainly complaints that the carafe doesn't stay hot for hours, but we never leave a pot of coffee sitting for hours anyways. Anyone else have any good/bad about this brand? Probably the setup with the stainless carafe.