Saturday Breakfast!

Pancakes?  or Waffles?  Quite frequently that is the Saturday morning question in this household!  D loves waffles and I love pancakes... Big decisions on a Saturday!  Sometimes they are plain, sometimes blueberry or chocolate or walnut.  BUT this morning... it was a different kind of morning...

This was the morning of the ULTIMATE breakfast... perhaps you know where I'm going...

BACON PANCAKES!!

Yes, you are right... this has been done before.  But never by us!  So it was a pretty big deal.  

It's simple... fry the bacon until they are done to your liking (we went crispy!).  Then wiggle them around on the skillet some with the spatula to make all those separate puddles of bacon grease... meld into ONE BIG PUDDLE of bacon grease.  Then pour on your batter and cook as you normally would a pancake.  We used Arrowhead Mills Whole Wheat.... ya know, so it's healthy!!  ;)

Don't forget the maple syrup!

It's a BreakSnack!

So, what happened was... I was STARVING.  (...ah, gonna be a good story, haha!)

But really, I was so hungry.  Thankfully I had been to the grocery just yesterday so I had lots of yumminess in the house, whew!  I believe that this would be correctly called a tostada.  However, I'm calling it a BreakSnack!  Beeecause you could have it for breakfast!  Or for a SNACK!  Also, it's good for you so it's a HealthyBreakSnack... but lets not get to technical!

It went down like this:

2 corn tortillas

2 eggs (or whites + a yolk)

1/2 avocado

salsa

shredded monterey jack/mild cheddar

salt&pepper

Scramble your eggs with salt and pepper to your liking.  Warm the tortillas through either on a skillet or in the microwave.  They do not take long to heat so sprinkle the cheese on pretty quickly so you don't burn the tortillas.  (heating directions come on the package) Then assemble!  Eggs, slice the avocado, and pour some salsa on top!  Roll up and devour!  (remember... I was so hungry)

And of course you could do all kinds of variations on this.  I just like the avocado for the Omega 3's & 6's and the egg for protein!  This thing will keep you feeling full for hours. 

Muffin Maker!

This evening we will be heading to Tennessee to see some family.  My brother and sister are in from Seattle and my Grandparents and Aunt and her fiance are up from Georgia.  There will be twelve people in the house for four days!  ...Somehow no one is sleeping on the floor surprisingly, my Mom has done a lot of planning!  

I am chipping in a bit to feed people.  All day yesterday I was baking, which was awesome, of course!!  I made three different types of muffins and a sweet&salty brownie dessert!  Then today I made a chicken pot pie and got us all packed!! Somehow, I am ALL done!  R is taking his afternoon nap and I'm getting a post in... incredible!  

I'm going to post links to the muffin recipes I used.  These are great because they lean a bit toward the healthier side of muffins!  I also substituted spelt flour for the AP flour in each recipe to add a little more fiber!

Top Left: Triple Chocolate Chunk

Bottom Left: Blueberry Maple

Right Side: Spiced Apple Cider

Grandma's Jam

This year for my 26th birthday... it landed on Father's Day.  Extra special because this was David's first Father's Day AND my Dad and Mom were in town!  It was a very fun weekend for everyone!  But mostly me... the birthday girl. :)

One thing Mom and I got into over the weekend was making my Grandma Henninger's strawberry freezer jam! She made it every year that I can remember, our home growing up was never in want of delicious jelly spread for some yummy homemade bread my Mom would make!

Mom and Dad brought Scott's Strawberries from where they live in East Tennessee.  The cool thing about these strawberries are they are picked fresh each morning from the local farm and then sold on the side of the road! They were beautifully bright red and oh so delicious!!  Mom got to work cleaning them and taking off the tops. R helped keep the process interesting with his many talents such as: flipping around the ladybug mirror, making the bumble bee wiggle, and rolling the ball really fast!!

The recipe we use comes inside the Sure-Jel box.  Oh but wait, our's didn't!  For some reason the boxes meant to have the recipe found inside ended up being the boxes with the "recipe found inside".  Good thing for the internet!

We are all decked out in our strawberriest attire and working oh so hard. ;)  I would measure and mash the berries while Mom cooked up the sugar and Sure-Jel mixture.

 Its so rewarding filling up cute little jars of bright red yumminess!

Fifteen 8 ounce jars ready for the freezer after they completely cool over the next 24 hours!  Freezer Jam is so great because 1) delicious! 2) you don't have to actually can them and deal with boiling/sealing the jars since they go in the freezer!  Also, jam is a great thing to have on hand to give to friends!  .... so they will stay your friends forever and EVER!!

One could also forgo the whole jam making and just slice those strawberries up on some vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce!!

I'm so happy that R has a Grandma Henninger to keep this family tradition going for his generation, too! Thanks Mom!

Artisan Bread!

One of my neighborhood friends got me in to baking artisan bread.  It is so simple and fun to make!  I started just making white bread but have now started making whole wheat.  Sometimes I throw in herbs from the garden to mix things up a bit!

The recipe has only 5 ingredients!  No eggs, oil, or sugar.  I feel like this bread is as healthy as I am willing to go at this point, and it tastes so good!  I use King Arthur's White Whole Wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat so that it knocks off a bit of that wheaty taste.  White whole wheat is still as healthy as whole wheat it is just made with a white grain instead of the red version.  

After the flour, salt, yeast, wheat gluten, and water are combined.

Peaking in after an hour of rising.

After the full two hour rise!

The fully baked fancy looking loaf!  These pictures are from my first try when I used white flour.  Here is the recipe I use!  I hope y'all give it a try and enjoy this delicious bread!!

Herbalicious!

Just wanted to share the first herb harvest this year!  Here you see basil, dill, purple basil, oregano, and lavender.  I'm pretty impressed with this lavender plant because we transplanted it from the front flower bed into the back yard raised garden this year.  The past two years in the front it hasn't grown much and hardly had any blooms.  Since the transplant, it has tripled in size and, as you see, bloomed like crazy!  I have never harvested lavender before and so these are actually a little *too* bloomed, but they still look pretty!  I tied little bunches of them together and put them in different rooms around the house!

The rest of the herbs were divided up for freezing and drying.  I love freezing fresh herbs so that in winter, when its time for a big bowl of pasta, there is fresh basil at hand!

The really dark looking cubes are coffee.  D likes to make iced coffee in summer and likes to use coffee cubes like at his favorite coffee shop! ...please, ignore the awkward foot.

In the Kitchen - Healthier Oatmeal Cookies!

I have been on a sweet tooth high ever since the holidays ended.  I don't know if I can solely attribute it to being 35 weeks along now.... or that I just love eating sweets!!  And that fact is nothing new!  Either way I have been inspired by a few recipes I have run into that put a healthy twist on regular desserts.  

Tonight is our second child birthing class and I volunteered to bring a snack.  I wanted to bring something that would both satisfy a sweet tooth and provide some nutritional benefits as well.  I decided to go for the Oatmeal Cookie, but change it up a bit!  So here goes... I hope you enjoy!  This recipe is derived from the one found in the lid of any Quaker Oats product.

Blue-Cranberry Oatmeal Bites with Walnuts

7 Tbsp softened butter
6 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp ground Chia seeds + 1/4 c water (or 1 egg)
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 c spelt flour (or All-Purpose)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 rounded tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c oats (old fashioned or quick)
1/2 c blue-craisins (I am not a fan of raisins!)
1/4 c walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter, brown sugar, and honey together until creamy.  Add vanilla and chia seed mixture, mix well.  Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Add oats, blue-craisins, and walnuts.  Using a small cookie scoop, drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet and flatten them slightly with your fingertips.  Cook for 10 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.  Yields approximately 24 one and a half inch cookies.  Allow to cool 2 minutes on sheet and then transfer to cooling rack... or directly into mouth!!  Mmm, and grab a milk!!

For some information on the nutrition of Chia this is a helpful article.  I found that grinding the seeds in a coffee grinder is nice because it only takes a about 5 minutes for the liquid to become gelatinous and you want this to happen before you combine it with the other ingredients.  Also, grinding the seeds makes them invisible in the cookie... leaving them whole they tend to get stuck in your teeth!  After combining the chia seeds and vanilla it will look a little funky:

Beware the dough is delicious!!  And no raw eggs.... sooo... go to town?!

This is only my second time baking with spelt flour instead of all-purpose and I can not even taste a difference!  Here you can read more about spelt if you'd like!

Slightly smooshed with the fingertips.  Please, just ignore my dirty oven!  Guess that's my next project...

2 minutes and counting... gah, this is always the worst part! ... probably should cope with eating some dough.

Little bites of yumminess ready to go to birthing class!

Happy New Year!

January 1!  This year is going to start off with a lot of changes for D and I!  We are expecting little R in February!  I am so blessed to have had this wonderful time with friends and family.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone while being pregnant!  Also, I felt great through the holidays... not too big yet so traveling was still pretty comfortable!  Now that the holidays are over though, I need to buckle down and get things ready for his arrival!  

D and I celebrated the New Year pretty low key... as usual!  He had to work early the next morning and so we just relaxed on the couch, talking and watching the fireplace flicker... on DVD!  It was nice just spending time together.  I made us each a celebratory cupcake just to make things a little special!  

I also spent a good bit of the evening fiddling around with our new camera!  Hopefully this year will not consist of so many iPhone pictures on the blog!  Ha!  

I used this recipe here. for two cupcakes!  Instead of the vanilla I used almond extract.  I love almond flavoring!!  And for the icing I just mixed together cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and more almond extract until it was the consistency and tasted I wanted!  Happy New Year everyone! 

Christmas Baking Extravaganza...Complete!

Day 3/3

The final Christmas baking day has arrived!  Whew!  Two pies to do today and then one tomorrow once I have arrived at my Mom's house!  Its an Eggnog pie so I thought it would be better to wait that way the pie only has to survive one long cooler ride instead of two.

Multi-Fruit Pie

I only used half the amount of pineapple and added in some fresh strawberries.  Also, since I'm not a huge fan of cherry I opted for the blueberry pie filling instead!

A little carried away with the Christmas trees??.... I think NOT!

The finished pies... the crusts are out of The Joy of Cooking.  Just the basic sweetened pie crust.  It is flaky and delicious!!  You can find the Pumpkin Pie recipe here.  I can't wait to dive into these in a couple of days!

Christmas Baking Extravaganza Take Two!

Day 2/3

Today I had so much fun rolling dough, cutting shapes, and decorating cookies!  I had prepped the dough for two of the cookies yesterday which made today a lot easier!  Click on the cookie name to check out the recipe!

Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints 

Little army ready to hit the oven!

Drizzled with Almond Glaze

These cookies are buttery and have just a hint of almond contrasted with tangy raspberry.  YUM!

Peppermint Pinwheels

How cute are these guys??

And this last recipe is from a childhood Christmas craft book that I've had since I was about 8 years old. 

Shortbread Cookies

1 1/4 c flour

1/2 c butter

1/2 c powder sugar

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Combine flour and butter until dough resembles coarse crumbles. Add remaining ingredients. Chill for 2 hours. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into fun Christmas shapes!  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Ready for some icing and sprinkles!

That's the end of baking day two!  

Christmas Baking Extravaganza

Day 1/3

Tis the Season!... for lots and lots of yummies!  I will be heading to my Grandparent's home in southern Georgia later this week and this year will be contributing to the massive sweets pile that appears there every Christmas.  I love going to my grandparent's home.  Its my mom's side of the family and there are a bunch of us! :)  So, of course, we require ungodly amounts of delicious foods, both sweet and savory.  There are many wonderful cooks in the family, with each contributing in their own way, we always end up with a delicious array of delicacies!

Today involved deciphering between what *ahem* everything I WANT to take and what I SHOULD take.  I have filled my Pinterest with so many holiday treats that I was a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out what the best combination would be.  

Eventually I settled on three cookies: Peppermint Pinwheels, Raspberry Almond Thumbprints, and Shortbread Cutouts. The three pies will be: Pumpkin, Eggnog, and a Multi-Fruit Pie (need to decide which fruits!)  I stilll need to bake some biscotti to finish up a couple of people's gifts.  I settled on Peppermint Biscotti since it looks so Christmasy!

Here are a few pictures of the Peppermint Biscotti I found on this sweet blog.  Please, bare with me.  I am in the beginning stages of playing around with my new camera! :)

Ready to pop in the oven!

I added 1/2 tsp. of Peppermint extract into the dough for a little extra kick!

After the first bake, resting, and ready to be sliced!

Deliciousness!

I have only made biscotti once before and they turned out waaaay to hard.  I was nervous this time around and I actually could have let them bake a little longer!  Either way, they turned out so yummy!

Thanksgiving Pies

This year D and I will be making the 12 hour drive to Nashville, Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with his family.  Since this is one of the first times we will NOT be flying, I offered to bring something to help out.  Fortunately, I got to bake the pies, oh happy day!!  

The day before we left it was time to hunker down and get two pies and one cheesecake made!  I just love getting all the ingredients together in a happy little display before diving in and making a mess!!

It was about this time that I was baking the two crusts for the Pecan and Pumpkin pies.  I had selected a fancy recipe off of Food Network and it was baking away.  Well, when I checked on it... the crusts had completely fallen to the bottom of the pans!  I had never had this happen before.  I checked into all the different reasons for having crusts fall flat and was trying to come up with a new plan to try again.  And then it hit me... in times like this... I need to call my Grandma!  I phoned my 90 year old Grandma and relayed my situation.  She gave me some sage advice about pie crusts and even her recipe that she has used her whole life... for every pie she's ever made, she said!  I took her advice... and recipe and they turned out flaky and delicious!  Sometimes, old school is the right school, what can I say??  

The completed pies and cheesecake!  I don't know what I was thinking making a pumpkin cheesecake... and having to transport it 12 hours in the car!  Can't make things too easy, huh?  I have to say that it ended up surviving perfectly and got lots of rave reviews at Thanksgiving dinner!  

Here are the recipes I used:

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Pie

And for the two pie crusts I used my Grandma's recipe instead of the one included in the links.  Also, I did not bake the crusts before filling them.  

Grandma's Every Pie Crust  (one 9 inch pie crust)

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup cold shortening

1/2 cup cold water

Combine flour and salt.  Cut in chilled shortening until dough looks like crumbles the size of peas.  Sprinkle in cold water and mix with fork until just combined.  Chill for 30 minutes before rolling out and placing in pie dish.  Best to chill again for 30 minutes before baking.  Fill crust with pie filling and bake according to pie recipe directions.