A hearty breakfast

This picture may not look like much, but I assure you it is awesome!

Leftover beans and rice with two over easy eggs and a dollop of homemade (canned) salsa.

Ah.maz.ing.

Alphabet buckwheat pancakes

During this time of being gluten free, I have been so much better than last time at making things on the fly and much more laid back about the whole thing.  Last week I made some pancakes for breakfast.  They were buckwheat pancakes-- I actually had some sprouted dehydrated buckwheat in my cabinet already, so making sprouted flour was bonus! 

This may seem terrible, but I honestly can't remember if I looked up a 'real' recipe or if I just adapted my recipe for gluten free/ buckwheat. It sounds more like me to do the second.  I know I got xanthan gum right around the time we made these, and I suspect I wanted to try it out and see if it worked like it said it would. 

As it turns out, this batter ended up being more like crepes than pancakes, which makes me think I actually looked up a buckwheat pancake recipe, or maybe I just ran out of flour and didn't care to make more?  That's also my style.  Whatever the case, we ended up having a great time making the pancakes. The batter was really thin, and I let Ben make a few that he put decorative holes in by drizzling the batter all over the pan.  That, (of course) turned into alphabet pancakes, at which point we ran out of batter.  Luckily, all children got one with their first initial... Ah, it is all coming back now. :-) (this is what happens when you upload pictures to your blog from your phone and then forget about them and then come back to try to write the post more than a week later.... it's like stream of conscience blogging or something.) 

I made everyone their own letter pancake, but Sam waltzed into the kitchen, picked up his "S" without even noticing what it was, and ate half of it before I could even say, "stop! Look at the cool pancake I made for you!"  Only after he had eaten most of his did he notice Ellie with an E and Ben with a B and ask where was his S?  To which I replied, "You just ate it" To which he replied by wailing... <sigh>

It was then that we got out the kitchen scissors, and the creativity continued on the pancakes I had made into boring old fashioned circles-- Ben and I shaped them into some cool creations. (mostly letters)

We may have also dipped them in the leftover glaze from the glazed bananas I made for dessert the night before.  The glaze may have made some already delicious, slightly sweet nutty pancakes into pure awesomeness. 

Adding Gluten to Gluten Free Flours

Two things, "right off the bat"--
--this post is inspired by my lovely friend Ashley who is ironically both gluten and peanut free
--this post was supposed to be a 'morning musing' but that was days ago and now it is 9:45pm

The other day, I was making pancakes for breakfast.  My children officially eat so much that I have to make a triple batch to keep up with them.  It was already getting kind of late-- 7:45ish and we were just whipping up the batter.  I poured the milk and eggs and maple syrup and peanut butter (we were being creative that morning) and everything else to make my usual triple batch of pancakes into the bowl.  And then, I opened the bucket of flour. I immediately started improvising, because there was only just over two cups of flour and I needed a full three.  I could tell just by looking we were going to be short. I opened my cabinet to see what I was going to do.

I did not want to have to grind flour. I have been pretty good about sprouting it recently, but the thing is, I let the last batch go too long and then the little tails are too long to just grind up happily in my grinder-- first I have to put them in the food processor!   I did NOT want to have to go through three extra steps for less than a cup of flour.  Ok, well, I can use the rest of the corn meal.  That was about 1/3 cup. I needed at least another 1/3 cup to make these pancakes work.  Then I spied the millet flour I had made for Baby John.  Yes, it was perfect.  Just the right amount. I mixed up the batter and poured the first round.

Right away, I could tell these were not going to be my fluffy regular happy pancakes.  They needed some rise. This always happens when I substitute whacky flours in my pancakes.  What could I do? Then I thought of a conversation I had with my friend Ashely-- only days before.

"What does xanthan gum DO in gluten free baking, anyway?"
"It adds the rise so your cookies don't turn out all gross."
"huh."
(well, that was close to how it went down, anyway)

I thought, I used some gluten free flours, but I don't have any xanthan gum.... what can I do? add more flour? I wonder .... can I add gluten?!?

I added about 2 TBS gluten to my pancakes.  It mostly worked.  They were not so dense and wet after I added gluten as before I added it.

My conclusion?  Adding gluten to gluten free flours to help it rise works in a pinch.  For pancakes.  I have not tried this with other baking. So don't yell at me if you try it and it doesn't work.

My second conclusion? Must obtain xanthan gum for emergencies or gluten free friends.

Morning Musings

Good Morning!

I was sitting eating my oatmeal thinking about how long it had been since I posted.

We had one of my most favorite breakfasts.  It's not so glamorous in that it's 'just oatmeal;' oatmeal is served frequently in this house!

But today was different. Blueberry oatmeal with real, heavy whipping cream and almonds. Oh my.  The richness of the cream in the oatmeal is decadent.  It is one of my most favorite things.

...

Some other things to ponder this morning.

• John really likes oatmeal, especially if you let him eat it himself.
• Sam has been eating double or triple what he usually eats.  Last night he had THIRDS. This coming from the kid we used to have to wait an hour or more for him to eat even two tablespoons of food. 
• It's 8:25am and Sam is still asleep! 
• It's snowing.  :-) 

...

Have a great snowy day! 

Coconut Flour Pancakes

I whipped up these coconut flour pancakes the other morning for breakfast for John.  I was making pancakes for everyone else, and I felt badly for John because he did not have any finger food for breakfast.  He likes to eat with his own cute little chubby fingers these days.  :-)

The batch I made was very small, because I didn't want to use many eggs and also I knew I was just going to make a bunch a of cute small pancakes anyway.

I think they turned out really nice-- they didn't have that gritty texture that coconut flour can have if you don't use it right. I haven't been successful before 'flying by the seat of my pants' with coconut flour, so I was quite pleased with how these turned out.

John liked them a whole lot too, because he got to eat them with his own cute chubby little fingers. :-)

Coconut Flour Pancakes

2 TBS coconut flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp powder
sprinkle salt
sprinkle cinnamon
dash vanilla
1/4 cup water
2 TBS applesauce
1 tsp maple syrup

Mix all ingredients together. This batter is really thick. That is okay. I spooned one TBS into little pancakes and cooked them til they were quite browned on each side.

Pumpkin Loaf

I made this pumpkin loaf for breakfast last weekend.  It was so good.  I just love fall and baking with fall ingredients, namely, apples and pumpkin.

I get crookneck squash from our CSA almost every week in the fall.  They are big and meaty, and I use them like I would pumpkin.

Then I was reading Laura's post over at granolalola.com, and this bread caught my eye stomach.  I simply had to make it.

Since I made it in the morning, and as Laura pointed out, this was a bit of an involved recipe, I poured the batter into an 8x8, hoping it would cook faster.  It cooked in about 40 minutes instead of the 55-60 for the loaf. The cake was still nice and thick and delicious.  Moist. Yum.  If you wanted to stretch this recipe into even more pieces, I bet you could put it in a 9x13.  That would cut the cooking time even more!

I made only a few (inconsequential) changes to the recipe-- I used 6 TBS butter instead of butter + apple butter (none on hand).  I also had to make up my own pumpkin pie spice, since I had none.  I just kind of threw in cinnamon and nutmeg with a little allspice and some cloves.

Finally, I just want to mention, the sweetness in this recipe is perfect.  Usually I cut the sugar in every recipe in half, right from the beginning.  This time, I put in the prescribed amount, maybe a little less (sometimes, if it calls for 1/2 cup but I have my 1/3 cup out, I'll do a heaping one and call it a day...) and it was great.

Looking forward to baking another squash and making recipe again soon!

ps. please go look at Laura's photos and excuse my ugly phone pic... :-)

Baked Oatmeal

I know awhile ago I posted my baked oatmeal recipe that I was using.

Recently, I have switched to this one, found at allrecipes.com.

I change it up a bit; I put 1/4 cup sugar in it this morning, and Chris and I both agreed it was a bit too sweet.  I would go with 2-3 TBS next time.

Plus, I always have different add-ins.  The recipe calls for dried cranberries. This morning I put in one cut up apple and one cut up pear, no cranberries.  I have put in apple and blueberries, just blueberries, apple and raisins or currants, or actually cranberries, as the recipe states.

We eat a lot of oatmeal in our house, and baked oatmeal is a special way I dress it up every once in awhile.  :-)

Other recipes I have posted using oatmeal:
oatmeal soother
using up leftover oatmeal
banana pudding with oatmeal

Goose Eggs!

Just before John was born, we bought a quarter of beef.  (What does that have to do with goose eggs, seriously!)

Well, the people who sold us the beef also sold us about ten pounds of liver.  We have been eating a lot more liver recently.  It has lots of iron and other things that are great for you.  Plus it's fun that our kids like liver.  Ben even declared that, "liver is the best meat because it's not tough like beef, or chicken, or lamb..." I wouldn't say it's the best meat, but I do like it fried with onions and gravy! (Really, WHERE are you going with this!?)

Four white goose eggs and one brown chicken egg

Also, the people who sold us the beef and the liver have geese.  (Finally, we get to the geese!)  So, we bought some goose eggs.  They were big.  We scrambled them up for breakfast one Saturday morning.  They tasted just like chicken!.... eggs. :-)

Chicken yolk with goose yolk

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies

As some of you may already know, I have quite a history with oatmeal and breakfast. :-)

Well, it happened again that I had two separate days of leftover oatmeal in my fridge-- totaling about three cups of cooked oatmeal.  I wanted to serve the leftover oatmeal and make it a little more exciting for the kids.  (Also, Sam requested cookies for breakfast.)

It wasn't perfect, but the cookies turned out well. I will give the recipe that I would use again in the future if I choose to make oatmeal cookies for breakfast again. Which, I can say that I will probably do.  Who doesn't like cookies?  Even Ellie woke up asking about the cookies we were promised for breakfast.

Only two left from the first 17 that came out of the oven...

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies
3 cups leftover oatmeal (mine had all the fixin's and sugar in that I usually apply to oatmeal)
1 1/2 cups flour (mine was sprouted wheat)
1/4 cup sugar (more if your oatmeal isn't pre-sweetened like mine)
1 egg
6 TBS butter or coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla (I used Laura's homemade vanilla that someone made me for Christmas!)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
other things like raisins, coconut, chocolate chips, hemp seeds,... (use your imagination!)

melt the butter and mix with the sugar.  add everything else and stir until combined.  drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie trays.  bake until golden brown at peaks, 10-15 minutes.

Oatmeal Pudding

For the last two weeks or so I have been craving warm vanilla soother.  I made this recipe from Heavenly Homemakers last year and it was so delicious and warm and comforting.  mmm.

However, the recipe calls for quite a bit of milk and eggs and I know my kids will just drink it down in two seconds and then want more.  Or something else. Or both.  Oiy.  So, I wanted to bulk it up a bit, that it might hold their tummies for at least a little while.

I made the warm vanilla soother recipe, (but only with three egg yolks because that's all we had), and I added one cup of oatmeal to it while it was cooking.  It ended up like warm vanilla soother oatmeal pudding.  Yum.  It was delicious.  :-)

Check out that yummie food!

But still, I did not want to make it very often because it really used up so much of my milk and eggs and also, even with the oatmeal added, the kids ate the whole thing and were still asking for more.  How can I tweak this recipe so that it is still yummie and creamy like pudding but still uses less eggs and milk?  Here is what I came up with:

Watch how I can eat it!

Oatmeal Pudding
3 cups water or milk
1 or 2 TBS yogurt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
2 ripe mashed bananas
2 TBS ground flax (or you could add two eggs, or one egg and one TBS flax)
honey to taste (i think i added about 1/3 cup)
vanilla to taste (about 1 tsp)
cinnamon to taste (1/4 to 1/2 tsp)

the night before, put the water/milk, yogurt and oatmeal in a pan and stir it up.  cover it and leave it to soak overnight. in the morning, mash the bananas, and add the bananas, flax, honey, cinnamon and vanilla to the pan. cook over medium heat until it is nice and creamy.  stir frequently if you used eggs to make sure they don't scramble in your oatmeal-- gross! add more milk if you want it more creamy.  (i added 1/2 cup milk while cooking)

Yum, yum. :-)

Okay, so what would I do differently the next time I made this?  I would probably use one egg and 1 TBS flax and soak the oatmeal using at least 1 cup milk for added creaminess. And that's it.  I will definitely be making this creamy oatmeal pudding for breakfast again, and often. :-)

Breakfast

Pumpkin pancakes made with leftover pumpkin. Saving eggs for later, so we made a vegan version. 

Coffee leftover from last night.

Not pictured: smoothie made with 1/2 carrot, 1 handful spinach, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1 banana, 4 dates and 1 scoop of enriching greens.  

Still have the rest of that pumpkin to bake and cook into something delicious!

Donuts. MMM.

Luckily, before my wheat was completely gone, Chris and I decided to make donuts.  Although we had to half the recipe because we didn't have enough flour...

I'd say it was all worth it!  These donuts from Heavenlyhomemakers.com were super delicious. Not too sweet, but with the confectioners sugar on top you couldn't even tell.  Ben even said (while we were eating them), "Mom, these donuts are REALLY sugary!" (Ha! I've got him fooled.... )

:-P

Also, we fried them in lard.  (Yep, you read that right!)  They were really nice-- not greasy or oily as they have been when we have fried things in oil.  I do have to say, I have not tried frying donuts in palm shortening.  I wonder if that would have the same effect... hmm, I'll have to experiment!  After I go to Miller's, of course!

A Juicer

I am so thankful to day for our recently acquired JUICER!  I know it's not tuesday anymore, but I just had to write this post! 

We got our awesome new-to-us juicer from a sweet sweet friend!  She got a new one and just GAVE it to us!  The last three mornings, we have been experimenting with delicious, healthful juice. 

Monday it was kale apple pear carrot juice.  Very sweet and delicious!

Tuesday we had kale apple carrot.

And this morning we had kale apple carrot zucchini! 

This morning it was much less sugary than the last two mornings.  I really liked it, though!  I am excited that this is a new way for us to get lots of vitamins and minerals from fresh veggies that we wouldn't necessarily eat. I mean, I will eat kale.  But every day?  Not really.  Plus, you should see the kale plants in our garden-- they are huge!  So not only are we eating fruits and veggies, but they are fresh picked from our garden!  Yay! 

Since I am a little wary of only drinking juice and not eating the fiber of the food with the juice, I will not juice every day, or at least I will make juice that is low in or has no sugar.  But even this morning when the juice was not that sweet, two out of three kids drank everything I gave them.  :-) Regardless, I am still excited about this new avenue to explore! 

Thanks so much for my juicer! 

Zucchini... Series, Part I

what do you do with it all!??!

So, here are some things that I have done with my zucchini in the last few weeks.  I was going to make a mini-series about it, but with my blogging history, I better just put it all in one post and then you'll actually get to read about it!  :-P (While I was typing this post and it was getting longer and longer, I decided to split these recipes up!  Stay tuned all week as I share them with you!) 

Zucchini Oatmeal Coffee Cake -- made it this morning for breakfast.  I used 1/2 cup sugar for cake and topping, instead of the called-for amounts. Plus, I probably added 3 cups zucchini.

Zucchini Pancakes -- use a basic pancake recipe and add a cup of shredded zucchini.  Or however much you like.  I always add a lot.  OOOh, and add some raisins.  I forgot when I made mine, but that would be so good!  Like zucchini bread but in little round cakes on your plate for breakfast!
--Here's my basic pancake recipe.  Taken from Betty Crocker, but off the top of my head, so it might not be perfect. :-)
1 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 TBS baking powder
1 TBS- 1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. milk or water
2 TBS oil or melted butter
1 egg
--mix everything together and add whatever you want that sounds delicious.  be creative.

Yummie Quiche!

On Friday, I was so blessed to have Chris at home! 

First, I woke up with terrible spasm in my neck and shoulders so I could barely turn my head!  So I was able to get some heat on it right away while my lovely husband made some breakfast. :-)

We would have never been able to run all the errands we ran on Friday, either, since I couldn't drive in my condition. 

Then, I was able to lie down all afternoon with heat on my neck and even sleep!

Finally, Chris woke me up and already had dinner planned out! He wanted to have quiche.  I had made quiche a week or two before and it turned out delicious!  We started making this with a couple of ingredients in mind, and the more we got out, the more we decided to throw in! 

I am sooooo thankful that I had Chris around on Friday for so many reasons!  :-)

Pie Crust:
1 1/4 cup fresh ground whole wheat flour
1/2 cup shortening or butter
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup water

Mix the flour and the salt.  Cut in the butter or shortening.  Add water until it comes to a nice dough.  Chill for at least 30 minutes. Roll out.

Quiche with leftovers!
4 eggs
1 cup milk (or cream, if you want it really rich!!)
1/4 tsp salt
pepper
2-3 oz. mushrooms
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 red pepper
leftover BBQ chicken
1/2 cup leftover potatoes (small cubes-- hashbrown style)
a big handful of spinach, chopped
one cup of shredded cheese

Beat eggs and milk and salt and pepper. Saute mushrooms, onions, garlic, and pepper.  Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix together.  Pour into prepared pie crust.  Bake at 350* for 30-45 minutes or until the middle is set.

I really love quiche, and one thing that has always held me back from making it was the misconception that it used up so many eggs and you HAD to have cream.  It only takes FOUR eggs-- half the amount we go through on a Saturday morning!  And, you definitely don't need cream-- We even substituted water for almost half the milk and it still turned out fine. 

Do you love quiche?  Would you make it for dinner? 

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Green Trail Mix Pancakes

Yes, that is actually the name of one recipe.  How exactly did I marry Green, Trail Mix and Pancakes?  Why exactly would I do that? 

Yesterday when I asked Ben what he wanted for breakfast (he was the only one up at the time), I expected a 'normal' answer-- oatmeal, Ben's cereal, pancakes, french toast.... you know, normal breakfast food. 

Ben said, "What we had yesterday for lunch: almond butter and jelly, strawberries, peppers and chips."  I started to say, "That's lunch food!  We can have that for lunch-- what do you want for breakfast?"  But instead, I decided it didn't really matter.  Who cares if you have a sandwich for lunch or breakfast? We had the same thing again today for breakfast, too.  :-)

So, today for lunch, I decided to have breakfast.  But, I wanted it to be healthy and packed with delicious things.  So I came up with Green Trail Mix Pancakes! I used my basic pancake recipe and just added a bunch of stuff to it. :-)

Green Trail Mix Pancakes
1 cup flour
3/4 milk or water
2 TBS oil or butter
1 egg (or 2 TBS flax meal)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 TBS honey or sugar or maple syrup (I don't always put sugar in but today I wanted to go syrup-less, so I added a bit of sweetness to the batter)
1/4 cup oats
1 cup blanched, pureed spinach
2 TBS raisins
2 TBS chocolate chips
2 TBS sunflower seeds
1 TBS hemp seeds
1/4 fresh blueberries

I blanched the spinach and then put it in the blender with the water and the egg.  Then I transferred it into a bowl and added all the other ingredients and mixed well.  Finally I cooked them in my cast iron skillet.  Delicious!

Think of the possibilities!  You can add anything to pancakes!  And it could be a meal!  What would you add?

My Baked Oatmeal

I finally made a perfect (in my opinion) baked oatmeal for breakfast the other day.  I am not really great at looking up recipes all the time, especially at wee hours of the morning.

1 stick of butter
1/3 cup sugar (I use sucanat)
2 TBS flax seeds
3 cups oats
vanilla
cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp powder
1 1/2 cups milk

cream butter and sugar.  add flax seeds, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and powder.  add oats.  add milk.  pour into 8x8. bake at 350* for 30 mins.  or until you start to smell it because you have forgotten you put it in the oven in the first place.

I usually go by the smell rule.  :-)

This recipe is the best I've made, in my opinion.  Now, this recipe isn't super sweet.  I've seen comparable recipes that call for 2 CUPS of sugar.  That is gross-sweet if you ask me.  But, try it and find out what works for your family.

I also love baked oatmeal with fruit.  Sometimes I put frozen blueberries in, or cut up apples. You can even use applesauce or frozen strawberries, or peaches or ANYTHING that sounds good to you!  Try it.  This week we had fresh strawberries, and I drizzled almond milk on it too.  Yum.

:-)

ps.  check out my other oatmeal ideas here and here.  Oh, and this is a good one too!

Mommy's Leftover Surprise.... For Breakfast?

Okay, well, you know how my kids love oatmeal.  :-)

Recently, I have been making TOO MUCH oatmeal in the morning!  I don't know if they just had a growth spurt and it is slowing down, or if the change in weather has affected them... but we have had leftover oatmeal in our fridge! So this evening, while doing the dishes, I came up with the brilliant plan to make "Mommy's Leftover Surprise" Breakfast casserole.

Aaaaannnnd, you're about to see how and why my recipes don't always turn out so great at first.  :-)  I would usually test them a bunch of times before sharing them with you, but since this is a special occasion-- I've never made leftover breakfast casserole before-- I thought I would just share it and tell you the results tomorrow! (Or, maybe sometime next week-- I'm going to the women's retreat at my church this weekend! Yay!)

I started out with:

• 1.5 cups cooked peach oatmeal
• 3/4 cup soaked raw oats

I added:

• 1/2 cup rye flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sugar (I use sucanat)
• vanilla
• salt
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 2-3 TBS yogurt
• 1-2 TBS chia seeds (I have been adding these to everything lately!)
•  cinnamon
• enough water to make it 'batter-like'
• frozen peaches on top
• cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top

I stirred everything together, adding the water last (a little bit at a time, until it was 'batter-like'....) Then I put it in an 8x8 and baked it for 40 minutes. It still looks jiggly in the center. So, I will have to report back about how this all turns out! I thought it might be like a coffee cake, but now it seems that we might just have to pour milk over it and eat it like oatmeal!  I guess next time, I'll have to add more flour!  But the true results will not be known until tomorrow!

Will this be as brilliant as I had hoped?  A giant FAIL? Should I just use the oatmeal to make pancakes? .....

You'll just have to keep wondering!  :-) Have a great weekend!