Updates: Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal and Broccoli Soup

This week I'm visiting my sister in the DC area (and I should note here that both my brother and my sister own crock pots, thanks to gifts from me) so I don't have any of my blogging stuff with me to write a full post.  So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to write an update on two of the recipes I posted about earlier, but tried again.

Now, if you remember from my recent Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal post, I said that the oatmeal cooks overnight on low.  However, there is an alternate way to make it and because I had been out at a concert the night before I wanted to make it, I had to try this alternate way earlier this week.  Instead of cooking it on low overnight, I cooked it on high for just two hours (the recipe says 2-3 hours).  As you can see from the image on the left, the oatmeal came out much less mushy than the overnight version.  The apples tasted fresher.  Overall, I liked it this way too.  However, the water that got absorbed in the overnight version was still very liquidy in this version.

Now, because the water wasn't absorbed completely, the oatmeal, when served, was a little bit watery.  It was still tasty, however, and ultimately I'd recommend either way, depending on what texture you want your oatmeal to be.  Ultimately, I think I'm going to stick with the overnight version when I make this in the future.

The other recipe I "tried" again was the Broccoli Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil.  If you recall from that post, I made the soup twice, once with chicken broth and once with vegetable broth.  Because I was going out of town after I made the version with vegetable broth, I ended up freezing some of the soup so it wouldn't go bad... and then I forgot about it until I moved into my new apartment and moved all my frozen food from one freezer to the next.  You may also recall from that post that I said that you could either mash up the soup or use an immersion blender and I commented that I wanted to try it with the immersion blender.  So, one day for lunch I pulled the soup out of the freezer and heated it up, using the immersion blender while reheating it.

Honestly, I liked the soup much better as a pureed soup than just the broccoli chunks in the broth.  So, my recommendation on this one is: buy an immersion blender.  You can get one from Cuisinart on Amazon for under $30 or splurge and get the one with the whisk and chopper attachments, which is the one that we received as a gift.