RECIPE: Amazing Waffles

6 days a week, we eat fast, healthy breakfasts. Sometimes I make oatmeal, using the organic oats I buy bulk at Winco mixed with raisins, cinnamon and milk. Or we eat plain yogurt mixed with banana slices, blueberries, strawberries, or whatever fruit we have handy, sprinkled with flax seed, sunflower seeds and natural coconut. Or the kids will eat cereal and I’m very picky about the kinds I buy- only varieties that are low in sugar and high in fiber.

But Saturdays……Oh, how I love Saturdays. Since the kids don’t have school, and nobody has to rush out the door, we’ve made it our tradition to make a delicious, special breakfast on Saturday mornings. I usually have music playing, we enjoy the time together and I’m very intentional about teaching the kids to make whatever we’re having. Now they can both make pancakes pretty much by themselves! With me closely supervising, they pour the batter onto the griddle, and they know the exact moment to flip them! I’m always saying to them, “Someday you can make these for your kids! You’re going to be such a good dad! (mom).”

I’ve already shared my favorite pancake recipe with you, so today I thought I’d share a fabulous waffle recipe. Since I’ve had so much fun with my griddle over the past year, this year when my grandma asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told her that I’d love a waffle iron. She sent me money for it, and I set to work researching the best one. Lo and behold, I ended up with the same brand as my griddle- Presto. It was rated very high on Amazon, and I’ve been so happy with my griddle, that it seemed like a good choice. And was it ever!

The waffles come out thick, hot, and decadent. Sometimes during the week I find myself craving them and I can barely wait until Saturday! And as something fun, Grace and I tried putting cocoa powder and chocolate chips into the remaining batter after making a few plain waffles, and our “Double Chocolate” waffles were delicious! I’m thinking that I want to try them as a dessert for guests sometime- topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream……mmmmmm!

So, here you go!

Classic Waffles

2 C flour

1 Tb sugar

1 Tb baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 C milk

2 eggs

2 Tbs vegetable oil

Brush the iron with vegetable oil. (I do this before each waffle)

Pour 1 cup of the batter onto the iron

Flip the iron and start the timer for 3 minutes.

Top with butter, syrup, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar (this is Harrison’s “secret recipe”- butter and cinnamon sugar), fruit…..whatever your heart desires!

Double Chocolate for Grace and me

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Mocha Ice Cream Punch

After my Clothing Exchange Party, I promised that I would share with you the recipe for the Mocha Ice Cream Punch that I served. So, here it is! If you are a chocolate lover (like yours truly), you will be in heaven drinking this stuff! My New Years Resolution was to drink it with every meal! 🙂

I have found that serving punch in a punch bowl is a really nice added touch. It makes any little birthday party or other event feel like something special.

MOCHA PUNCH

1 1/2 oz. instant coffee granules 1 c. sugar 2 c. hot water 4 qt. milk 1/2 gal. vanilla ice cream 1/2 gal. chocolate ice cream Combine coffee granules, sugar and water; put in saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cool, can be refrigerated until ready to use. When ready to serve, add milk and ice creams, stir to combine. NOTE: I didn’t have instant coffee on hand so I just brewed some regular coffee. I have also seen recipes that tell you to mix Hershy’s Syrup in with the coffee and sugar mixture. I totally would have done this, but we had run out of Hershy’s Syrup. (Disaster!!) Also, the better the ice cream you use, the better the punch will taste! Oh, and I used whole milk to make it extra creamy, yummy and fattening!:)

Extremely Excited Mama!! RECIPE for Butter Bundt Cake

Remember when I mentioned that I’ve been busy planning for a really cool event that I’m hosting tomorrow night? Well, I just wanted to assure that everything is coming together beautifully. Nick and I have spent the evening setting up and I’ve been freaking out at his creativity and brilliant ideas. I’m still going to keep the details a secret, but lets just say that its going to be awesome and I can’t wait to share it with you! I just wish all my girls from MI to VA to CO to NY to Israel could come!

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you the Butter Bundt Cake I made for the party. Seriously, can anything with “Butter” in the title be anything but fabulous? I made this recipe last summer and it was moist, rich, sweet, and well, buttery. Enjoy!!

BUTTER BUNDT CAKE

3 c. flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 c. butter 2 c. sugar 4 eggs 1 c. buttermilk 1 tsp. vanilla   Combine flour, powder, soda and salt and set aside. Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs to creamed mixture, one at a time, beating well after each. Combine buttermilk and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk to creamed mixture, alternately beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Bake at 325 degrees for 60t o 65 minutes. Take out of oven and pierce with a skewer and add the following glaze.   BUTTER BUNDT GLAZE:   1/2 c. butter 1 c. sugar 1/4 c. water 1 tbsp. vanilla   Combine first three ingredients, heat until butter melts. Add vanilla. Pour over cake while still in pan, allow to stand in pan for 15 minutes, invert pan and place cake on a tray. NOTE: I followed these directions and my glaze ended up being on the bottom of the cake. I didn’t like the look of the plain top, so I made a little more of the glaze and drizzled it on top and dusted it with powdered sugar. What I think I did last time and what I would recommend is to take the cake out of the pan first and then poking the holes on top and drizzling the glaze over the cake while it is on your plate.

 

 

 

RECIPE: my favorite salad

While in college, God blessed me with a friend that you would absolutely love. To give you a little picture of what she’s like, at the end of the year our floor voted her as the “most colorful person.” She is fun, hilarious, full of crazy stories, artistic, creative and so full of life.

She is also a wonderful cook, and throughout college she often would make me salad, and I now use her recipe almost every single day. I seriously crave it and the thought of it makes my mouth water. So no matter what we’re having for dinner, this salad almost always accompanies it. Here’s my rendition of my colorful friend’s salad:

*Wash baby spinach and put it in a bowl. (I always make separate small bowls for each person, as I don’t like left over salad.) (And I like baby spinach better than the regular stuff.)

*Add any vegetables to it that you want. I often use tomatoes and cucumber, but sometimes I only have the spinach so I just use that. But you could use anything you like- peppers, onion, etc. You could also use strawberries, dried cranberries, pear slices, etc.

*Drizzle olive oil over the top. (lately I’ve been using grapeseed oil instead.)

*Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar on top.

* (I think she taught me to add salt and pepper at this point, but I rarely do.)

*Mix it up well with 2 forks.

*Put a generous spoonful of feta cheese on top

enjoy!!!

Valentines Day Eats

I have always loved food. Therefore, if I’m going to celebrate ANYTHING, it is almost always going to include food in some way or another. Since it is almost Valentines Day, I wanted to share with you 2 fun ways that I made the day special for my family last year. And of course, they both revolve around food.

Last year for Christmas I received this awesome Presto griddle and we have gotten tremendous use out of it- quesadillas, grilled cheese, pancakes, french toast, etc. It is huge, so I can make a lot at once, and it works great. So for Valentines Day, we utilized my griddle to make these pink heart-shaped pancakes. They don’t look too impressive, but maybe you can take the idea and make better looking ones.

After I got the griddle, I tried a lot of different pancake recipes, and this is the best one I found, which I’ve used countless times since. We’re kind of addicted.

1 1/2 C flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 TB sugar

1 1/4 C milk

1 egg

3 TB melted butter

I first mix all of the dry ingredients together. I then pour in the milk and beaten eggs. When everything is stirred together, I stir in the melted butter. Everything I have read about making pancakes says to stir the batter the least amount possible.

Use 1/4 C of batter for each pancake and flip when covered with bubbles. I usually have my griddle set between 300-350 degrees.

Just hearts for breakfast wasn’t enough, so I tried to think of a heart-y dinner as well. The year before I had made a heart shaped pizza, but last year I wanted to try something different, so I thought of the delicious chicken pot pie our friends had served us a few months before. I used her recipe and made it inside of this heart shaped baking dish we received as a wedding gift. It turned out fabulously, and the entire family loved it!

Sarah’s Chicken Pot Pie

(Not only is Sarah an amazing cook and baker, but she also is a talented musician! If you need a transposer/composer/accompanist, check out  www.glorianotes.com)

Pot pie crust:

1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. sugar
5 T. butter
3/4 c. buttermilk (or just milk is fine)
2 c. flour

1) Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture looks like fine crumbs.
2) Add milk and stir, gather dough into a ball.
3) on floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
4) Drape dough over pan of pot pie mixture.

5) Bake about 30 minutes, or until top is slightly browned.

Pot pie filling:

1) Heat 3-4 T. butter in a skillet.
2) Add lots of chopped veggies of your choice (onions, celery, carrots, red pepper, mushrooms etc.)
3) Once they are soft, add 2 T. flour & mix in with veggies. Add some salt, pepper & thyme too.
4) Then add 1 1/2 or 2 cups of chicken broth & slowly mix in until no lumps. Cook until it starts to boil.
5) Simmer for a while, until it starts to thicken.
6) Add about 1 cup milk (or half & half is even better!) and bring to a boil, then simmer for a while, until it is thick.

7) At this point taste it and see if it needs more salt, it usually does. Pour the mixture into your heart pan! Then drape with the dough.

What are ways that you make Valentines Day special for your family?

My 3 Valentine gifts from Nick last year-dark chocolate, beautiful flowers, and the sweetest baby boy. I don’t know how he could possibly top that this year!

RECIPE: White Chicken Chili

Do you have a “go-to” recipe that you make ALL the time? For guests/ potlucks/ bringing meals to people, etc? Well, this is mine. Drum roll please! Presenting……Colorful Mama’s White Chicken Chili! And how convenient that it already has a color in the title! I love to make this dish because a)I don’t need to look at a recipe b) people normally love it and often ask for the recipe c) I can make it the night before and pop it into the crockpot a few hours before I need it- no rushing or stressing- the food is ready! d) It is nutritious! e) My kids are crazy about it!

*1 lb cooked chicken (I normally bake a 2.5 bag of breast tenderloins from Trader Joes at 400 for 30 minutes. I either use it all to make a double recipe or I freeze half of it to use the next time I need chicken.) When it cools off I tear it up with 2 forks.

*4 cans of beans. I like to use different colors and sizes to make it look pretty and to add interest, so I use some sort of combination of chili beans (not rinsed- the sauce adds extra flavor), white kidney beans, white beans, butter beans and red kidney beans. (all rinsed well.)

*1 jar (24 oz) salsa. (I use Cascade Pride from Winco- it has a really short list of “normal” ingredients- just tomatoes, other vegetables and spices. It doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup or any preservative-junk.)

*1 bag of Mexican blend cheese

-My family tends to like it more “soupy,” so I usually fill up one of the empty salsa jars half way with water, shake it well to get the excess salsa, and pour it in. You can add more or less water in it until you see the consistency that you like.

Mix up all ingredients and cook in your greased crockpot on low for 3 hours, stirring a few times. (When I did this in my mom’s crockpot, it wasn’t ready after 3 hours, so you may need to experiment with yours. But in mine, 3 hours is perfect.)

Serve with sour cream and a little cheese sprinkled on top.

Happy Eating!!

 

RECIPE: Golden Corn Chowder

RECIPE

Cozy Comfort Food: Crock Pot Style!          

Since we often don’t get home until 1pm or so on Sundays, I like to have Sunday’s lunch made on Saturday, store it in the fridge overnight and pop it into either the oven or crockpot before we leave for church, so when we get home and we’re all hungry, our food is ready! For a lot of weeks I’ve been alternating between 2 main dishes- one week chicken chili in the crockpot, the next week a roast in the oven, and so on. That was getting really boring, so this week I tried something new and it turned out SO great! I combined things from 3 different recipes plus added an idea I got from one of my favorite Trader Joe’s workers, so I’m gonna name it this :

 

Colorful Mama’s Golden Corn Chowder. Enjoy!!

 

*6 slices of bacon

*1 onion cut up

• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 4 large potatoes cut up in small pieces
• 3 cans of corn
• 4 celery sticks
• 4 big carrots
• 1 8 oz bag of mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup butter
• a little bit of flour
• a little bit of milk
• a little bit of water
• salt and pepper to taste

 

1. Brown the bacon in a frying pan and crumble it up
2. Brown the onion, garlic and potatoes for about 5 minutes over medium heat
3. Make a rue- melt the butter in a sauce pan, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. Once it is melted, slowly add flour a little bit at a time stirring constantly, until the sauce is thick. Add a little bit of milk until it seems like a good consistency.
4. Combine all ingredientsin your greased crock pot.
5. In the morning, put it in the crock pot base and turn it to high for about a half hour. ( The recipe said Low, but I put it on high for a little bit since the dish had been in the fridge all night and the ingredients were starting out cold instead of room temp. I figured it could use a little jump start.) When I left at 9 I turned it down to low and added a little water until it seemed right. It cooked it for about 5 hours on low. I stirred it a few times in there.

 

It turned out really creamy and tasty and the whole family loved it! We ate it with a loaf of Dutch Crust Bread from Raley’s as an added treat.

I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did!