When Andy's grandmother passed away last summer, I was invited to go through her little apartment and pick out anything that I wanted. I didn't see anything I really needed but I did pick out a coffee grinder to take home with me.
Since neither of us drink coffee and I am the practical, don't-keep-it-if-you-don't need-it sort, Andy was quite surprised when he saw me carrying an "unnecessary" coffee grinder out of there.
Well, I had read on at least one blog about how a coffee grinder could be used for chopping nuts, herbs, even grinding wheat berries(although I haven't tried that out), not just for coffee beans.
I convinced my husband what a wonderful tool this would be and took it home. And set it on the counter in the laundry room. And left it there. Until about 3 weeks ago.
I was just about to get rid of it since obviously, I hadn't used it!
Then one day 3 weeks ago, I was making meatballs. My recipe calls for oatmeal for stretching the meat. I only had old-fashioned oats which I think are too big to blend in to the meat mixture.
I thought, "Hmmm...wonder if I can grind them up?" Immediately my mind went to the coffee grinder. I pulled it out and plugged it in. I then proceeded to grind the oats to a finer consistency. Smaller than quick oats but not flour.
It worked great!
Since then, I've used it to grind dried rosemary and chop nuts. It works awesome and clean-up is really simple! Plus, it's small and doesn't take up a lot of space in the cabinet.
So if you have a coffee grinder, consider all its handy uses!
**Thanks to Tammy for hosting Kitchen Tip Tuesdays!
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3 comments:
I love mine. I don't use it for coffee either, but I do grind up nuts and flax seed. It is so quick and easy. I use it every single day. You can put a couple of raw eggs in it and it will make them real fluffy for cooking. It is also good for grinding up things to put in soup like celery and onion that picky eaters don't want.
I just used my coffee grinder this morning! (and discovered the lid was cracked, not good)
But I had soaked and sprouted some wheat, dried it= bulghur and this morning, I ground it in the coffee grinder and made cream of wheat cereal for my crew! They loved it!
I use it all the time, especially for grinding flax! Flax is a great food and once it is ground, you can sneak it into all kinds of places, including meatloaf! ;-) I sub 1/4 of a cup of it for flour often in muffins. (extra fiber along with other good for you things!)
But you are right, it is great for making 'oat flour' too!
hmmm...before I put it up maybe I could whirl some oats and try 'cream of oatmeal' tomorrow!
:-)
Great tip!
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