Gingerbread Waffles

This is why I love to cook--so I can eat yummy food like this! I got this recipe from a friend, Katie.


Ingredients:
4 eggs
1/3 c. sugar
1 c. molasses
1 c. buttermilk
3 c. flour
2 tsp. ginger
1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. butter--melted

Directions:
Beat the eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, molasses, and buttermilk and mix til blended. Sift together flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until smooth. Stir in the butter. Refrigerate overnight or cook immediately in a waffle iron. Makes 14 waffles.


I think we ended up making 16 waffles. Ryan and I ate the first two so we could try them, and that's why there are only 14 waffles in the first picture. They are delicious! These would be a great after-Thanksgiving breakfast so that you can use any whipped cream left over from pies. They also taste good with maple syrup, and I'm sure they'd be delicious with fruit! This would make a wonderful breakfast for Christmas morning...or any morning! I think I'll be making these again soon! :)

Oatmeal Pancakes

Another good recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe! You can find the recipe here.


I love pancakes! I posted this recipe for pancakes about three years ago. It's a good recipe, but these oatmeal pancakes are healthier, especially if you use all whole wheat flour. :)

Believe it or not, in the picture below, that is a bowl of oats!--oats that have been put in the blender and turned into a flour. I've never blended oats to make flour before, so it was fun!


Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups rolled (quick) oats
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour (OR 5 cups total whole wheat flour)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup vegetable or canola oil

Directions:
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixer with a paddle (or by hand). If desired, grind the oats in a blender or food processor before adding to the other dry ingredients for a smoother mix. With mixer on slow speed (or gently by hand), drizzle the vegetable oil into the bowl slowly while the mixer is running. When all the oil has been added, stop the mixer and squeeze a clump of mix in your hand. If it stays together, it is just right. If it is still crumbly, add another tablespoon of oil at a time until the consistency is correct (I’ve never had to add additional oil). Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks at room temperature or indefinitely in the refrigerator or freezer.

Below is a picture of the finished pancake mix. I love that you can make a bunch of it and keep it in the fridge, then pull it out and use some to quickly make a batch of pancakes. It's so quick and easy!


To make the pancakes: whisk together 1 cup of mix, 1 cup buttermilk (a combination of half plain yogurt and half milk will also work), and 1 egg. The mixture may seem thin at first but the oats will soak up the milk as it stands while the griddle preheats. Heat a griddle and drop the batter onto it. When the edges look dry and bubbles come to the surface and don’t break, turn the pancake over to finish cooking on the second side. As a sidenote, buttermilk can be frozen indefinitely for future batches of pancakes, so it’s worth keeping it around!

I actually used a little more than 1 cup of the mix since the directions said it would be thin. I love thicker pancakes (but not too thick), so adding a little more than 1 cup of mix was perfect! (Maybe about 1 1/3 or 1 1/2 cups of the mix.) Also, if you don't have buttermilk, the solution is simple! ... that's if you happen to have vinegar or lemon juice on hand. To make a substitute for buttermilk, put 1 Tbsp. of either vinegar or lemon juice in a cup, then fill the cup up with regular milk. Mix it together and let it sit for 5 minutes. I didn't have vinegar, but I did have lemon juice! It worked perfectly! My favorite way to eat these pancakes is with maple syrup and fresh strawberries on top. It's delicious!

ENJOY!

Baked Oatmeal

This. was. SO. good! Seriously! I love baked oatmeal! Never again will I buy those packets of instant oatmeal. This was so much better! I found melskitchencafe.com when I was browsing something about homemade bread, so then I looked around and found some recipes to try. The first thing that I wanted to try was this baked oatmeal. I LOVE breakfast foods and this recipe seemed easy enough. I actually used the recipe that someone posted in a comment (comment #24 by Kristy) since the recipe in the post calls for oil. I didn't want to add oil to it, so that's why I tried the other recipe. :) I love what Mel said in the beginning of the post: "More like an oatmeal “cake,” this breakfast dish is wholesome (yes, I consider large amounts of brown sugar wholesome)..." Haha! She mentioned that her favorite way to eat it is with fresh strawberries and milk. I would have to agree!


Ingredients:
2 cups oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp. butter

Directions:
Combine ingredients and bake in an 8×8 pan at 350 for 20 minutes.

Here are the rest of the directions that were posted in the comment: I’ve also had great success substituting the applesauce for the same amount of mashed banana. It just gives variety to the flavor. I usually sprinkle a little cinnamon on top, too.


As you can see from the pictures, I put cinnamon on top. I also doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9x13 casserole dish. Just add milk and strawberries and you have a delicious breakfast! And just as Mel said in her post, "You can add fruit to the batter before baking or lay it on after, you can douse your portion of baked oatmeal in milk and slurp it up with a spoon, or you can skip the milk and eat it with a fork. Any way you try it, it is sure to please." :)

I highly recommend it!

Homemade pancakes

This is an easy recipe that Ryan found online one day when we wanted pancakes but didn't have any pancake mix. We haven't bought any pancake mix from the store since! These pancakes are so good, and they are really easy to make!


Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 1/2 milk (the recipe said buttermilk, but we use regular milk and it works just fine)
3 Tbsp. cooking oil
cinnamon (optional)
chocolate chips (optional)

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, use a fork to combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir till moistened. Add cinnamon or chocolate chips or whatever if you want to. Then make the pancakes and enjoy! Yum, yum! (This recipe makes around 10-15 pancakes, depending on how big or small you make them.)

Breakfast Burritos

We don't make these very often, but it's so good! Since we had the day off work today (it being New Year's Day), we decided to make a good breakfast. Yum!


What you will need:
hashbrowns
eggs
canadian bacon
shredded cheese
salt & pepper
flour tortillas
salsa (optional)
ketchup (optional)

Cook hashbrowns in a skillet with a little bit of oil. In a separate pan, cook and scramble the eggs. Add canadian bacon to the hashbrowns. Add the egg to the hashbrown mixture after it's cooked. You can also add salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you like to the mixture (Ryan added a little bit of seasoned salt to it). Sprinkle shredded cheese on top and let it melt (or you can mix in the cheese if you like). Put some of the mixture on a flour tortilla, wrap it up, and ENJOY!!! (You can use any amount of eggs and everything else depending on how many people will be eating.)

The finished product.... It was delicious!