HomeMade Pancakes! YUM!

Nick is the master pancake-maker in our house. I stick to waffles. So these are actually his masterpiece. He likes to add a little cinnamon and Nutmeg to the batter as well- It gives it a little Umpf and kicks it up a notch!

Buttermilk Pancakes/ Waffles

1 egg

1 C buttermilk (1 C milk +1 T vinegar)

1 Tbsp Sugar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 C flour

Makes about 10 pancakes / 5 waffles

For the strawberry topping I just mix about 3 Tbls Sugar with 1Tbls Cornstarch, pour it over a bowl of Frozen berries (a quart bag or so) and Microwave them until thickened. (about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally)

I also do Blueberry topping almost the same way. I just substitute Flour in place or Cornstarch. It seems to thicken the blueberries better.

Hershey's Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Saturday was just one of those days for me so I made myself a chocolate cake. Well, I guess I made it for Ryan too. This is so yummy and easy to make! You can't see how ooey gooey the fudge is in this picture because it wasn't very hot anymore when I took it. I meant to take a picture of my first piece but it all just happened so fast . . . Remember when Alex asked us whether we would rather give up sex or good food? Well, those of you who answered food obviously have never tasted this cake!

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa, divided

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 1/4 cups hot water

whipped topping

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Stir together 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla; beat until smooth. Pour batter into ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and remaining 1/4 cup of cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot water over top. Do not stir.

3. Bake 34-40 minutes or until center is almost set. Let stand 15 minutes; spoon into dessert dishes, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top. Garnish with whipped topping. This is best served warm.

Makes about 8 servings.

No nutritional information because sometimes it's just better not to know. You can go look it up if you want, just don't tell me about it!

Veggie Rice Casserole

Here is my first post!

Okay, I know this doesn't look like much, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with how yummy it is. This is a SODIUM FREE meal so it's completely healthy.

Ingredients:

8oz white mushrooms, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup broccoli florets
2 1/2 cups of broth (no sodium added)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup uncooked rice

Instructions:

1. Saute mushrooms and onions in skillet over medium heat until onions are soft and translucent.
2. Stir in broth and heat to boil. Remove from heat.
3. In a large baking dish, spread potatoes, rice and broccoli evenly. Sprinkle black pepper over ingredients.
3. Pour broth mixture evenly over rice, broccoli and potatoes. Cover well with foil.
5. Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 325.

Not only is this a great dish, but it's an easy way to get your carbs and veggies all at once. It's perfect next to fish, chicken or beef. I peronally loved it with some grilled chicken (seasoned with pepper and paprika).

Some variations you could do is substitute sweet potatoes for russet potatoes and cauliflower for broccoli. You could also make it pot roast-like and use carrots for the broccoli and serve it with beef, of course.

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

My mom gave me this recipe, along with fresh rosemary from her garden. You can use dried rosemary too. This is a great recipe if you are trying to hold onto the last moments of summer (although it may be a bit too late for that). Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs to cook with!

Mix into a large Ziploc bag:

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 T olive oil

1-2 T chopped rosemary

salt and pepper

2 t minced garlic, if desired (I didn't)

Put about 2 lbs of chicken tenders into bag.

Marinate 2 hours in the refrigerator OR 15 minutes at room temp.

Grill until cooked through ( just made a little foil pouch and put the chicken and marinade into it, then sealed it and put it in a baking dish in the oven- too cold for grilling!)

Apple strudel Muffins

So I've been looking for a really good Apple Strudel muffin recipe Lately. I've tried a few and this one is pretty good. I think I'm gonna do some tweeking and then I'll post it again. But if you're looking for a quick yummy breakfast, this is Delish!

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups chopped apples

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.

4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.

5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

Lisa's Almost Famous Dinner Rolls

2 ½ C warm water

4tsp yeast

2 tsp salt

¼ C brown sugar

1 stick butter

1 egg

5-6 C flour

*leave dough soft but not sticky.

You can let it raise before molding into rolls or a loaf . Or, if you're in a hurry and make the rolls and then let them raise for about half hour.

Bake @ 350* for about 20 mins or until Golden brown.

You can easily make these whole or Half wheat- Just split your flour.

These are really Yummy and Fast rolls BUT if you want something a bit Yummier and Fancier Use this Crescent roll Recipe! It really is to Die for! (Next time I make them I'll add pics)

Butter Crescents

yield: (12-16 medium crescent rolls)

½ cup milk

1 stick butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp. salt

1 package active dry yeast or 2 ½ tsp. yeast

½ cup warm water

1 large egg, lightly beaten

3 ½ -4 cups flour

*The trick to this recipe is to be very gentle while kneading and handling dough, and to mix dough at very low speeds.

1. In saucepan, heat milk until bubbles appear around edges of pan. Combine butter, sugar, and salt. Add hot milk, and stir well. Cool to lukewarm.
2. In a small bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Add a bit of sugar as well. Let stand until foamy, 5-10 minutes.
3. Beat yeast mixture and egg into milk mixture at low speed. Beat in 2 cups of flour at low speed until smooth. Continue beating until thick. Mix in enough remaining flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.
4. On a floured surface, knead dough very gently until smooth and elastic, 2-3 minutes. Place in a large, greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover loosely with a damp cloth; let rise in a warm place until doubled; about 1 hour.
5. Punch down dough. On a floured surface, divide dough in half. Cover with a damp cloth; let rest for 10 minutes.
6. Grease 2 baking sheets. Using a floured rolling pin, roll 1 dough half into a 12 inch circle. Cut circle into 6 wedges. Starting at side opposite point, roll up each wedge. Place on a prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.
7. Cover loosely with a damp cloth; let rise in warm place until doubled; about ½ hour.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake until golden brown, or about 15 minutes.

Italian Sausage Soup

This is a very exciting soup...

Ingredients
1 pound Italian sausage (I used a pound and a half and then doubled the rest of the recipe)
2 clove garlic, minced
3 cups beef broth
1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
1 sliced carrot
1 (14.5 ounce) can great Northern beans, undrained
2 small zucchini, cubed
2 cups spinach - packed, rinsed and torn
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, brown sausage with garlic. Stir in broth, tomatoes and carrots, and season with salt and pepper. Simmer about 15 minutes

Stir in beans with liquid and zucchini. Simmer another 15 minutes, or until zucchini is tender.

Remove from heat, and add spinach. Cover, allowing the heat from the soup to cook the spinach leaves. Soup is ready to serve after 5 minutes.

I really enjoyed this soup. If you eat it alone, I'd say you'd only get 4 servings out of it. There are 425 calories per serving. There's a lot of fat in it, but you could reduce that if you used turkey Italian sausage. You get lots of yummy vegetables. 1 serving contains almost a third of your vitamin C and iron needs for the day and about half of your folate (a great thing if you're in a "delicate" condition, ahem). And 20 grams of protein per serving!

Delicious! Definitely my favorite soup I've made so far. It's going to be a good week!

Now all we need is Lisa's roll recipe...

Added October 7: This soup doesn't store really great. After a about 3 days the zucchini started getting really mushy and I picked it all out.

Refried Beans

Speaking of beans, we always have dried beans on hand because of WIC so I like to get a bag of pinto beans and make homemade "refried" beans. This is so easy in the crock pot and you can freeze them for a long time. Just add a little water every time you reheat so that they don't get dry. I never add nearly as much salt as this calls for and they are still GOOD! This is a great, high protein, low fat food to have around for snacks or meals.

"Refried" Beans

INGREDIENTS

· 1 onion, peeled and halved

· 3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed

· 1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

· 2 tablespoons minced garlic

· 5 teaspoons salt

· 1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

· 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin, optional

· 9 cups water

Directions

1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed. Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.

2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

Nutritional Information

Servings Per Recipe: 15

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 139

Total Fat: 0.5g

• Cholesterol: 0mg
• Sodium: 785mg
• Total Carbs: 25.4g
• Dietary Fiber: 6.2g
• Protein: 8.5g

Taco Soup

Disclaimer: No one in my house liked this soup very much at first. It was a little bland all by itself. Then we added tortilla chips, sour cream, and cheese and magically we all loved it. So, if anyone has a taco soup recipe that's good without all the fat, please post it because I'm still on the lookout (and also let me know if you think of other vegetables I could add to it.) But even with the chips and cheese it's within an acceptable calorie limit and it's a super, super filling lunch.

Ingredients:

1 lb. dried pinto beans

20 oz browned ground turkey

3 diced tomatoes

1 can of corn

About 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 packet of taco seasoning (I think I will use 2 packets next time)

Salt and pepper to taste

I made this in the crockpot. I usually shy away from dried beans, but I've been trying to use them more lately because they're so much cheaper. And I figured that if I'm making something in the crockpot, I'm obviously in no hurry. So, I rinsed the beans, then put them in the crockpot with water. I covered the crockpot (left it off) and let them soak there for about 8 hours. Then I dumped them back in the strainer, gave them a quick rinse and put them back in the crockpot. Pretty painless.

I threw everything in the crockpot with about 6 cups of water and cooked on low for 7 hours.

Like I said, it wasn't amazing straight out of the pot. We had to add extra salt, which we hardly ever do. But, if you do eat it by itself, it's a very healthy dish.

Per serving you get:

184 calories,

5.1 grams of fat, only 1.3 of those being saturated fat,

20.7 grams carbohydrate

5.6 grams of fiber

14.6 grams of protein.

This made a massive amount. We got 12 bowls out of it, (I'm not sure how many cups per bowl. I'm guessing about 1 and a half) so you may want to half the recipe. I froze half of what I made.

If you want to be good, this is a nice, high protien, low-calorie soup. But, if you want it to be delicous, add a small amount of cheddar (about 1/8 cup), 3 or 4 tortilla chips, and a couple tablespoons of low fat sour cream (I added 4 to mine...I love sour cream). All the extras added a little more than 200 calories to it (yikes!), but for me it was worth it for a delicous 400 calorie lunch that left me absolutely stuffed.

This soup has already had a few bites taken out of it. When I realized it tasted good I yelled at Devan to stop eating.