Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes

We eat the same things for breakfast all the time.  And it gets old.  But so often we need something quick, easy and FILLING.  Cereal just doesn't cut it around here.  The three boys will demolish a box of shredded wheat in one sitting...so I find myself baking for breakfast a lot.  Still many coffee cakes and muffins are really just cake and cupcakes in hiding so I am forever trying to find something that is good for us, fast, and will prevent the need for snacks for at least an hour. :)  This one fits all those requirements.  

recipe from Simply in Season cookbook

Stack of hot pancakes ready to head for the table.  YUM!

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups buttermilk or plain yogurt (I used buttermilk)
Stir together, cover,  and let soak in refrigerator overnight. 

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup oil
In the morning , stir into oat mixture.

1/2 cup flour
2 Tbls sugar
1 teas baking powder
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas ground cinnamon
1/4 teas salt
Mix all together in a small bowl.  then add to oat batter and mix briefly.  Fry in a hot, greased frypan. 


You can also stir in shredded apples or blueberries.

I found this batter to be very sticky and wet.  Almost like it needed more flour.  But I cooked it as written and MAN was it good and filling.  I could only eat 2 smallish ones.  I'm not sure about adding apples or blueberries since the batter is already so wet...but I bet I try it someday.  :) 

With butter and real maple syrup...ready to eat.  YUM!!!

Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins

So, I am apparently obsessed with sandwiches recently.  Last week, it was BLT pasta.  This week it is a sandwich inspired muffin.  Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE BLT sandwiches and I wait for and look forward to them all year long...but will only eat them when tomatoes are in season.  (But if you read my post with the recipe you knew that already).  This muffin was inspired by a sandwich that doesn't even make my top 3.  If I sat down and wrote it out, it might make my top 10...peanut butter and jelly.  And I just spoiled the surprise.  That's ok you don't have to tell your kids and you will earn an "awesome mom" badge, as long as your kids aren't allergic to peanut butter...in which case you can probably skip this and come back tomorrow.

This is a recipe I tweaked (not by much) from a recipe for peanut butter bread in a Gooseberry patch cookbook.*  The bread is great on its own and makes beeyoutiful toast.  But I often am making something like this in the morning and don't have 50 minutes for bread to bake.  My children are HUNGRY in the morning.  So I do this instead.

*Gooseberry Patch cookbooks are some of my favorite cookbooks.  I have 3 of them.  I use the Country Baking one weekly, at least.  This bread recipe can be found in that one. I got all 3 of mine as wedding gifts 10 years ago and think they were a very good choice.  :)  So thank you to whoever bought them.  I don't remember.

Ok, enough rambling....here we go.

Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 t vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup milk
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
your favorite jelly or jam

In a large bowl, blend together sugar, peanut butter and vanilla.  Gradually, pour in milk; mix well.*  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; add to peanut butter mixture.

Option 1:  Bread ( recipe as written in Gooseberry Patch)
Now at this point if you want to make the bread you just spread it in a greased 9X 5 loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

Option 2:  Surprise muffins
grease your muffin tin and fill muffin cups about 1/4 full.  Put a small scoop of your favorite jam, about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, on batter in muffin cup.  Cover with muffin batter.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  When I did this I got 18 muffins.

Option 3.  Plain muffins
Scoop batter into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

All three options are excellent!!

* When you stir in the milk gradually, it gets REALLY watery.  It is not a mistake.  It will slosh around like soup.  But when you add the flour mixture (which I never sift-I just stir it together in a separate bowl) it will all come together nicely...promise!

If you eat them hot from the oven like we did, have your kids break them open and steam...that jelly gets HOT in there!  :)

Breakfast Banana Split!

I am kinda stuck on breakfast these days.  Last week it was oatmeal...this week Banana Splits.  YUM!  This is a fast, YUMMY, and good for you breakfast, despite the name.  Actually, I really like these cause I feel like I am being "bad" when I eat them even though I'm not.  So this is how it goes.  This is for one serving...

You need:
banana (split length-wise as in a banana split)
peanut butter
yogurt (we use Dannon lowfat Vanilla)
grapenuts (opt)
other fresh fruit (opt)

So put your split banana in a bowl (I have to break them in half so they fit).  Smear each banana slice with peanut butter.*  Put your serving of yogurt on top of banana (we use vanilla but you could use any kind you like).  The kids like grape nuts on top for "crunchies" and sometimes we dump on fresh blueberries or sliced strawberries.  That's it.  Hardly a recipe really.  But it doesn't make it any less good. 

*Instead of smearing peanut butter on the banana which is, admittedly, a pain in the neck, you can stick the peanut butter in the microwave for a few seconds (watch it closely) and drizzle the melted peanut butter over the whole thing.  YUM!!!  If you are working on your momma of the year award, add some choc chips to the peanut butter before you melt it...I don't often do that.  At least not in the kids bowls.  :)

Oatmeal for Breakfast -AGAIN!

Breakfast can be rough around here.  We eat it EVERY day (as "they" say you should)...but I'm seriously not trying to suck up to "them"...we are just hungry in the morning.  I like breakfast foods...things like cinnamon rolls, eggs & bacon, pancakes, Belgian waffles (that I only get at a hotel), coffee cake, Pioneer Woman's cinnamon toast (she changed my life with that recipe).  I very very rarely serve boxed cold cereal.  The kids eat a whole box of it in one sitting and are asking for snacks an hour later.  When I do serve it, it is frosted shredded wheat or raisin bran (and they think it is a huge treat- mwahahahaha!)  Occasionally, the King gets Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the 4 of them. yuck

So often I am baking for breakfast...but some mornings that just doesn't work.  Like this morning when we all slept in.  And I can't eat my favorite breakfast foods every day if I don't want to be as wide as I am tall.  So this is where oatmeal comes in.

The kids LOVE oatmeal...I do not.  But since they will eat it for breakfast I make it often.  At least once a week but sometimes twice.  Oatmeal is healthy, easy and fills them up till lunch...when I make enough.  I do not buy those little flavored packets of oatmeal...they are expensive and full of junk they don't need and the Prince would eat three of them for breakfast (and he isn't even a teen yet).  But the kids won't eat plain ole bland oatmeal either.  So this is what we do.  I make regular quick oats (that I buy in bulk for around $.60/pound) with milk in the microwave.  Then we add stuff.  I have tried cooking rolled oats on the stove and doing the same thing.  It really isn't that much more work but for whatever reason the kids don't eat it as well...I still throw them that curve every once in a while.  It is good for them.  :)

This is my list of some of the goodies we add - we switch it up:

brown sugar
jelly/jam...voila fruit flavored oatmeal. 
brown sugar and real maple syrup.
butter, cinnamon & sugar (aka cinnamon roll)
raisins or craisins
bananas
pumpkin (or squash) puree and pumpkin pie spice and some brown sugar (pumpkin pie)
applesauce, cinnamon & sugar & a pinch of nutmeg plus brown sugar (apple pie)
honey
honey w a smidge of peanut butter

These are just some quick combos that we use that come to mind this morning.  The possibilities are ENDLESS!  You could add nuts or seeds for more protein (I just don't often have them in the house).  The end product is oatmeal that is yummy, and you know EXACTLY what is in it.  Plus you can save money and space in your cabinet and have less waste.  It is a win-win-win situation.

Of course, if you are like me...when the kids eat oatmeal you will have to sneak something else to eat (Cinnamon Toast ala Pioneer Woman) or live on your coffee till lunch time.  :)