blueberry pancakes (one bowl, healthy)

Andy learned how to cook last year- how to make dinner for himself – and breakfast – and well he is pretty good!  Being home however, brings out the little boy in him – pleading (well truly just asking now that he is 21) for me to make him waffles.  At the start of the pandemic with all the kids home I was eager and excited to cook for them.  As time passed, the morning waffles became a bit tiring especially because Andy knows how to make them – and dinners are a handful because of Greg’s dietary needs and Andy eating a ton and everyone wanting leftovers!  Recently though he asked me to please make him blueberry pancakes (he has moved on from chocolate chip).  I have many old recipes in the blog – but I’m always searching for the next best recipe.  Be it brownies, chocolate chip cookies or pancakes – it is a never ending endeavor.  I succeeded I think – I found this recipe from the blog Amy’s Healthy Baking (I fiddled with it a bit) and I have to report that they might be the best to date.  Oh and don’t skip the vinegar.  I know it seems weird but I promise you cannot taste it.  And please don’t compare these to buttery, white flour, decadent pancakes.

For measuring flour it is best to use a small digital scale.  Jamie from My Baking Addiction gives a really thorough tutorial on how to measure flour with a measuring cup – and how that this specific measurement can make or break your cookies (in this case pancakes!) 

Sylvie said “delicious, truly good mom” and Sarah (Greg’s girlfriend) said “I’m really full but I wan’t more – these are REALLY good!”  And Andy said “They are fire”.  So there you have it.  Bake and enjoy – 

Oh, I usually double the recipe – esp if I have a crowd.

20 small pancakes

Prep time: 5 minutes

Easy

ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted 
  • 1 large egg
  • 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup (60 g) plain nonfat greek yogurt 
  • 2 tablespoons milk (I used 1 percent)
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (135 grams) white whole wheat flour (or half whole wheat and half white) 
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

Melt the butter.  And in a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, vanilla, maple syrup, and salt.

Stir in the Greek yogurt and mix until there are no lumps.  Stir in the vinegar and then the milk and water. 

Pour the flour evenly over the patter and sprinkle the baking soda and baking powder on top.  Stir until just incorporated and fold in the blueberries.

I use my griddle to cook these – and they work fine with or without butter.  You can also use a non stick pan.  You really can make any size you want so have some fun!

If you look at Amy’s Healthy Blog blueberry pancake post  she gives a lot of advice regarding substitutions for special diets.  So check that out too.

ground turkey taco meat

Andy made this turkey taco meat last week (above – the two pics on the right) and several times last fall.  It’s versatile and easy and oh so good.  I made it last week for me and Rob – and it was good!  I had it in iceberg lettuce and a salad the next day. 

 The taco meat also tastes great on top of rice, in a taco salad bowl, as a topping on baked potato, as well as for tacos.  Any which way you can add guacamole, salsa, chopped cucumbers, chopped pineapple, red peppers, sour cream or greek yogurt…and more!  

He and I often add veggies to the dish – we might cook them separately and double the spices and liquid – mushrooms are great in there – or a bunch of frozen peas at the end.  Andy is partial to carrots as you can see.

This recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat but Andy usually doubles it while at school so he has a ton of leftovers.  When everyone was home I made 5 pounds.  It lasted 2.5 days!  Oh, and you can sub ground chicken or beef.  

Enjoy – 

Serves: a lot

Prep time: 10 m

Cook time: when it's done! But about 20 m

Easy

Spices

  • 4 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 4 teaspoons paprika
  • 4 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less depending on your taste)

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds ground turkey meat
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • serve with chopped cucumbers, guacamole, salsa, greek yogurt (or sour cream) and chopped pineapple for some excitement.  

Directions

Mix all the spices together and set aside.

  • Cook the meat in a large skillet – use a little oil (2 teaspoons) if you are using a stainless pan. No oil necessary if you are using a non stick pan.
  • Cook turkey in a large skillet over medium heat – stirring to break up clumps. When the turkey is cooked (no more pink spots), stir in the spice mix and water. Reduce the heat and simmer stirring here and there until most of the liquid has been absorbed – maybe 10 minutes.
  • Stir in cider vinegar and brown sugar – simmer to let the flavors merge –
    If using beef then you may want to strain the beef of fat before you add the spices.
  • serve with guacamole 

Chocolate Dipped Fresh Fruit

Chocolate Dipped Fruit

I’ve dipped a multitude of goodies in chocolate.  My favorite is fresh fruit.  Not just strawberries, but blueberries and raspberries and especially pomegranates.  I might be alone here since whenever I make them I seem to be the only one standing over that platter insisting that “you need to try these!!”   That feeling of the pomegranates popping while the chocolate snaps and then melts, well, it is a symphony in my mouth.

Eat these the day you make them and place in the refrigerator until you serve.  They are mediocre the next day as the fruit begins to break down and gets a little funky.IMG_0286

Read here to remind you about tempering chocolate.  And here about other valentine treats.

banana bread (gluten-free and DELICIOUS)

This banana bread is really very good.  Seriously good.  For real.  Andy was home from school today, studying in his room and started texting me…What are you making! Smells so good!  I informed him that I made the banana bread again, but in muffin form.  Down he came and quickly gobbled up two and oh, BTW, he isn’t even gluten-free (and is a harsh critic).  You will not miss the gluten in this recipe.  Full of banana flavor, a delicious rich tasting crumb – and some extra chocolate chips, well, good good good!  Found myself muttering the good, good good as I tasted and sampled over and over again.

This recipe is from the book Purely Elizabeth and I just LOVE it.  I really do.  Elizabeth promised that you wouldn’t miss your old banana bread, and she is correct.  You do need to get a few special items from your grocery store or from Amazon.  If you are gluten free, I assume you have most of this in the house.  And even if you are not – I urge you to try.

Also – the first time I made this I baked in a loaf pan and it was really delicious – but I felt I needed more control on how cooked the middle was and so tried in muffin tins.  I liked both.  Next time though, I think I would pour most of the batter into the loaf pan, but hold a little back and bake the remaining in a mini loaf tin or make a few muffin shapes on the side.  Cooking time will be affected with all of the different shapes.

Oh, you want to wait for your bananas to be overripe – with dark spots on the skin.

banana bread (from Purely Elizabeth by Elizabeth Stein):

cinnamon sugar (2 T of coconut sugar for every 1 tsp of cinnamon)
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup coconut oil (just melt this if in solid form)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup walnuts (I didn’t add because my family doesn’t love)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I added a cup!  I did, but do what you want)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Use and oil spray or coconut oil to grease the loaf pan.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar to coat the bottom and sides and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the coconut sugar, almond flour, millet flour, brown rice flour, cinnamon, and baking soda.  In a separate bowl (or in electric mixer) beat together the bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla until smooth.

Pour the wet into the dry (or if using your mixer you can put the dry into the wet) and stir until combined.  Add the chocolate and walnuts (if using).  Pour into pans – loaf, muffin, mini…and bake until done.  If you put all the batter into a loaf pan, Elizabeth says 45-50 minutes.  If you make the loaf pan less full as I mentioned above, baking time will be lower.  And muffin tins, much lower.  You want the top to spring back gently when touched.

Yum.  Enjoy –

 

 

new banana pancakes

Delicious.  Banana.  Chocolate.  Fluffy.  Yeah, ok, I made a new kind of pancake AGAIN.  What’s wrong with me?  I’m not sure but I seem to be obsessed with pancakes, brownies and chocolate chip cookies and my dog.  Oh well, there are worse things.  We all love these.  Andy and Sylvie of course as they are somewhat easy to please, although both would protest and exclaim that these truly are the best banana pancakes to date.  Greg though – big fan which is a bit more exciting.  And Rob and I tend to eat the leftovers every morning after our own breakfast.  Instead of buttermilk, this recipe calls for milk and white vinegar which is nice because I always have these ingredients in the house.  I used my new griddle to make these and I love the ease and non burn and easy flip factor.  My first griddle which is exciting too!  Enjoy another breakfast from me!

banana pancakes (slightly adapted from Little B Cooks):

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar (not white wine!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose, or half wheat, half white)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 small mashed bananas

optional

chocolate chips
blueberries
maple syrup (the original recipe says to heat and add a dash of nutmeg! I’d add a dash of sea salt too)

Add the vinegar to the milk and let sit for 5 minutes.  Heat your griddle (if you are using).

Mix together the dry ingredients.

Mix together the milk/vinegar, vanilla, egg, butter and bananas.

Gently fold into dry ingredients.  Add more milk if seems too thick.

Stir in chocolate chips if desired 0r sliced bananas, or blueberries.  Heat syrup with nutmeg and salt.  We tend to eat these plain but when splurging add the syrup.

Yum.

 

pumpkin pancakes again

Andy is slowly tiring of pancakes and I’m actually excited about it because it is much easier to make a fried egg sandwich in the early AM.  However the other day – he not only asked for pancakes, but pumpkin pancakes.  Because I have many new whole grain books, I decided to try a new recipe just for fun- and it worked out great.  Andy and Sylvie really liked these – and I did too.  Rob as well!  They are not too pumpkiny – but have a glimmer of that flavor and just taste very holiday like with the nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.  Yum.  Once cooked, you sprinkle a little bit of seasoned sugar on top and it makes the (pan) cake!  Try while you have family home if you feel like it.  This recipe calls for kamut flour which I didn’t have originally so I just used white whole wheat.  It worked.  And the next time I used the kamut flour which was delicious as well.

 pumpkin pancakes adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce):

dry-

1 cup kamut flour (or white whole wheat)
1 cup all purpose flour (or white whole wheat)
or..
use 1 cup white and one cup whole wheat
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice

wet-

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted – cooled slightly
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons honey
2 eggs

spiced sugar-

1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg (or prepped already)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Mix all the wet ingredients together.  (First melt butter.)

Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Gently fold the wet into the dry using a light and gentle touch (for fluffier pancakes)

Heat pan and place some butter in it – you can use a little or more for a crisp, buttery edge.

Oh, and add chocolate chips if you have someone like Andy in your life.

Cook on medium until bubbles form, then flip over and cook the other side until dark golden.

Sprinkle a small amount of the spiced sugar on top of the pancakes – and serve with the extra on the table.

Enjoy-

 

 

 

how to cut, peel and core apples

IMG_4874Apples are soooo good – especially now.  And I know when you see that the ingredients read – 8 apples roughly chopped, your heart might sink a bit with the prep work.  So, here is the plan of attack.  First, put on some really good music.

Cut the top and bottoms off of the apples.  All of them.  Then peel each apple with a sharp paring knife (I do this) but try not to take too much of the flesh off.  If you are lousy at this – use a peeler.  Peel them all.

Slice the apples in half.  All of them.

IMG_4877Taker your apple corer (you should get one) and scoop out the center core by gently pushing the scooper in and twisting.  Then use the scooper to take the little extra rough bits around the core.

Core them all.

Take each apple half and slice.  Now you have slices.

Turn apple, slice again – now you have roughly chopped apples.

 

IMG_4880 IMG_4888IMG_4886

steel cut oats (the very best) don’t skip

Never ever ate any kind of hot cereal as a child, wanted to like it in my 30’s, enjoyed it in my 40’s but wow…at 47 I have found the exact hot cereal (n my case steel cut oats) that I craved (and didn’t even know I was craving it!)   I didn’t know that oats could be so nuanced with delicious flavors and so toothsome!  Seriously.  These oats are unlike the oats I’ve made for myself (every week) for the past year or so.  I recently bought the book Whole-grain Mornings and Megan Gordon (the author) really opened my eyes.  I looked forward to my morning bowl, but now, I can’t wait.  Please don’t beoats turned off by the tad of butter and the extra step of toasting your oats because it is WELL WORTH IT.  Really.  The result is super scrumptious.  My breakfast feels decadent.  This IMG_7184recipe is enough for 6 days.  Each morning I cut a serving, add a little water and heat – I then add my fruits, nuts or raisins and top it off with a sweetener and then add some cold home-made almond milk (you don’t have to use almond milk) and wow…feels like hmmm….happiness.  A great way to start every day!  My mom loved it too while visiting and I think I may have finally turned her into a breakfast eater.

steel cut oats (from Whole-grain Mornings by Megan Gordon):

1 cup steel cut oats
1-3 teaspoons unsalted butter (I use 2)
3 1/4 cups water
1 cup low fat milk (the recipes calls for whole milk which I bet is delicious, 2% might be a good alternative)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1-3 teaspoons sugar (optional) (I use a sweetener at the time I eat it)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
cinnamon (optional)
brown sugar, honey, syrup, heavy cream, almond milk, milk, raisins, fruits (optional all for serving)
I use almond milk, monk fruit sugar, and sliced bananas and nectarines or berries (in winter diced apples and cinnamon)

In a heavy bottomed skillet, melt the butter over medium high heat.  Add the oats and stir and gently toss in the pan until fragrant and darken in color.  See above photo.  This will take 5-6 minutes.

While toasting, bring the water, milk, sugar and salt to a low simmer over medium heat.  Add the oats (be a little careful here since the ingredients all seem to puff up).  Bring to a slow boil, partially cover – and decrease heat to low and cook until it has thickened (25-30m) and the oats have softened.  Stir occasionally while cooking – but especially towards the end so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

The porridge will look loose at the this point – but it will continue to soak up additional liquid so don’t worry.

Add vanilla.  If using raisins – stir in and cover.  Let sit (covered for 5 m).

At this point you can scoop into bowls and serve with all of the above optional ingredients or some of the above.

IMG_7222Since I am the only person eating this in my house, I pour the oatmeal into a container.  Each day I take some (it is kind of a solid mass at this point once refrigerated overnight) and place in a bowl with a little bit of water (to loosen it up).  I heat at a medium power for 3 m in the microwave – and end with a 30 sec full blast heat.  (I like it really really hot).  I add my cut up fruits – lately nectarines and banana, then my monk fruit sugar (a sweetener) and top it off with my cold almond milk and yum.  Seriously yum!!  Yum!  Enjoy –

 

 

 

NOEMA chocolate

This chocolate is made without peanut, tree nuts, dairy, egg, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish, as well as sesame.  NOEMA stands for None Of the Eight Major Allergens.  You can be worry free if you or your family suffers with allergies.  The equipment is brand new and has never touched any of the ingredients above.

Check out their website here!

banana pancakes (healthier)

Andy has been eating these for the past month or so and just LOVING them.  True love.  But what used to be a cute and adorable desire for pancakes and waffles in the early AM (and my desire to find awesome healthy recipes) has slowly turned into a demand (on his part) and fatigue and irritation (on my part).  Somehow Andy and his cute face had me cooking them fresh every morning.  Why I did this for a few weeks I don’t know – maybe because his school commute is harder than Greg and Sylvie, or because he has dyslexia, or because I make Greg and Sylvie lunch every day.  But enough was enough.  Put my foot down and now make them and freeze or refrigerate like the old days.  And Sylvie is now in on the action – the two of them fighting for them in the morning.  Sylvie ate these up the other day saying “I can’t say that these are my favorite pancakes because I’ve had so many but they are definitely way up there on the very top!”  So, make and enjoy –

Oh, I use my Guittard Super chips in these and the kids love them.  I do too.  And I recently found them at Chocosphere in bulk.  If you go to Chocosphere – look at the white chocolate too while you are browsing.  Guittard, Valrhona, Callibaut and many more.  (I get nothing when you buy there – just giving you the info!)

I found these at Sally’s Baking Addiction (a blog) and I think Sally explains the directions very well – and with alternative ingredients.  I used white whole wheat flour, and a whole egg (not just the white).  In fact I added an extra egg to a batch just to boost the protein and they were just as good.  And of course we added the chocolate chips I mention above, but fresh blueberries would be great.

For the recipe and directions click on link and enjoy!

Sally’s Baking Addiction –>click