Pumpkin Pancakes and Buttermilk Vanilla Syrup

Tom's family makes these delicious pancakes and he brought the recipe with him to school. I'm so glad he shared, and you will be too when you try them!

Pancakes:
1 C. Pumpkin mix
1.5 C. pancake mix
1 t. vanilla
.5 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
.5 C water - you can add more to get the consistency of batter you want

Serves about 4/5 people.

Top it with this delicious syrup!

Buttermilk Vanilla syrup
1 C. butter
2 C. sugar
2 T Karo syrup
.5 C buttermilk
1 t. vanilla
.5 t baking soda

1. Dissolve butter, sugar, Karo syrup, and buttermilk on medium
2. Bring to a boil for 2-4 minutes
3. Remove from heat
4. Immediately add vanilla and baking soda

For those who have never made a buttermilk syrup, it's kind of a fun thing to let your kids watch or even help pour in the baking soda; it reacts with the ingredients and bubbles up. Kind of a neat little edible science experiment!

Bon appetite!

Mom's Maple Syrup

I'm posting twice this week since I was MIA last week. This morning we had Steph's cinnamon pancakes for breakfast topped with Mom's classic homemade maple syrup. I decided I needed to post the syrup recipe; not because it's a very unique recipe but because most people don't even think of making syrup. It's easy and quick and while it has a lot of sugar at least you're avoiding all the high fructose corn syrup found in the store bought stuff.

MAPLE SYRUP

1 c. water
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. mapleine
 *For Cinnamon syrup, substitute the mapleine for 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.

Combine sugar and water in small pan, bring to boil and boil until sugar's dissolved. Remove from heat and add vanilla and mapleine.
You can refrigerate the left overs and reheat another day! Or serve cold but I like it warm. The cinnamon syrup is not as good left over. It gets a "boogery" texture as my husband so appetizingly likes to call it. :)

Someone correct me if I'm misquoting Mom's recipe!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I have a dream. In my dream I am organized, and I own a deep freezer. In that deep chest freezer it is stocked full of pre-made meals, muffins, breads, and cookie dough, all ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice. But alas, I do not own a deep freezer, and I don't have things nicely made ahead of time. But these would be some good muffins to have in your freezer--ready for your husband to grab a bag on his way to work, or if your children need a mid-morning snack. This morning, they went nicely with our oatmeal and OJ.

A word about this recipe...I have no idea where it came from. I think I copied it down out of my mom's big box of 3x5 recipe cards before I left for college. But it seems kind of weird to me, so feel free to play around with it if you know what you're doing in the kitchen.

1 c. margarine or butter

2 c. sugar (what?! I only used one cup)

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

16 oz. applesauce

3 1/2 c. flour

2 tsp. soda

3 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. all spice

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Cook at 350 for 15-20 minutes

*I took it easy on the spices, but you shouldn't. And surely there's gotta be a better way than a whole cup of butter right?

These are dense muffins. They don't rise a whole lot so fill up those muffin cups. Makes 24

Cinnamon Pancakes

This is not a pancake. This is my husband the veteran. He saves the world every day.

I was going to post something else today. A veggie pot pie, in fact.

But this morning, in honor of Memorial Day (since my husband is a veteran twice over, patriotic holidays are a big deal around here!), I decided to make pancakes. And as my family devoured every last scrap of said pancakes, I knew the potpie would have to wait. These are simply too delicious to keep to myself. So good that I don't even have a picture - they were gone before I even thought about it.

They are delicious, possibly my favorite pancakes ever. And since they're vegan, all you egg-eaters can keep this in your arsenal for those mornings when you are out of eggs, or just feel like having a cholesterol-free breakfast food. It doesn't hurt that they're amazing!

Cinnamon Pancakes

adapted slightly from Skinny B#$%*'s recipe
Makes 8 pancakes, so you'll probably want to double the recipe!

1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 c. almond milk (or milk of your choice)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. canola oil

In medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In separate bowl, whisk together milk, vanilla, and oil.

Combine milk mixture and flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Spray preheated griddle with nonstick cooking spray. Pour batter, 1/4 c. at a time, on griddle and cook until golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately with pure maple syrup.

French Toast at a new level

I'm serious. This french toast is to die for. When we went to Steph's house for her son's baby blessing almost two years ago she served this for breakfast. I decided we should make it a blessing breakfast tradition so we had it this past Sunday morning before Eliza's blessing. We had some family in town and everyone LOVED it. I heard "mmm"s and "WOW"s and "can I have this recipe?" and there was even a "I can barely come up for air" comment (Cami!! :)). Yes we like food in our family! Use store bought french bread for best results. This recipe ironically comes from another great sisters cooking blog found here. (that was my first hyperlink ever. I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring it out!)

IHOP French Toast

2 eggs
½ c. milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 T. flour


Beat eggs then add the other ingredients. Use hand mixer or whisk. It'll be a little lumpy.
I doubled it for a whole loaf of french bread and it was just right.

Serve with coconut syrup and fresh berries!

Coconut Syrup

7-8 T. butter
¾ c. buttermilk
1 c. sugar
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp coconut extract

Combine butter, buttermilk and sugar in a pot. Bring to a boil on medium heat (stirring pretty consistently) and boil one minute. Remove from heat and add soda and flavoring.

If you don't have buttermilk like I didn't just use the 'ol lemon juice and milk trick. Put 3/4 tsp. lemon juice in a 3/4 c. measuring cup (works for whatever amount a recipe calls for, just always use the 1 tsp. to 1 c. ratio). Fill the rest of the cup up with milk and let sit about 10 minutes.

You can use this syrup for pancakes, waffles, crepes, etc. My friend even told me she drizzled it over popcorn one time and it was delicious!!

This obviously isn't the healthiest breakfast but believe me it's worth it, and plus that's why we save it for special occasions!

Yogurt Parfaits

Okay so I'm a little bit of a slacker, and I don't have pictures for this, and I definitely stole it from Kerri. She and I decided that since she'll be a part of our sister group soon, we can combine on our day.

Kerri made these for us for breakfast and they were delicious, fast, and nutritious - 3 of my favorite things!

Ingredients:
Plain yogurt (to taste)
1 crunchy granola bar (we used Nature Valley)
1 chewy granola bar (I now use the Great value chewy bar)
Assorted berries (as desired)

All you need to do is crunch/crush up the granola bars, and add all the ingredients. That's it! It's the perfect breakfast for a college student on the go, or for you Mom's who don't always have time to whip up a culinary masterpiece first thing in the morning.

Bon appetite!

GRANOLA

I got this recipe at a ward recipe exchange. Lately it's a favorite snack of mine and I'll tell you why. Lately I feel like I'm constantly eating and yet since giving birth 6 1/2 weeks ago I think there's only been one time that I wasn't hungry and it lasted all of about 20 minutes! I guess that's what happens when you're nursing every two hours on the dot! This granola is filling, somewhat healthy, and SO good.

Lynette's Granola

3 1/2 c. oats
1 1/2 c. coconut
1/2 c. wheat germ
1 1/4 c. nuts (slivered almonds preferred)
Mix together in large bowl.
In separate bowl mix:
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Mix and pour over oats mixture.
Bake at 325F for 10 min. Flip and cook til all brown (about 20 min. for me).
Scrape off pan immediately into bowl and add 1 c. craisins.

I'm sure this would be great with other typical granola ingredients (sunflower seeds, etc) but I haven't experimented yet. It's great by itself or with milk or yogurt.
Although the nuts are kinda pricy, this is still way cheaper than buying granola or than buying other cereals/snacks. Especially if you buy the oats in a 50 lb. bag like I do. And of course the sweet milk isn't the healthiest but I figure I'm still getting lots of good protein and fiber from the other ingredients. Just a warning, this may not be the last granola recipe I post. Enjoy!!

Picture to come later...