Grain Free Pancakes!

One more effort in the quest for yummy grain-free foods (that are easy and cheap to make!).

A friend posted a picture on her facebook timeline, one of those that has a picture of food with the short simple recipe text right on it. I volunteered to test it out, because - why not? It looked good, simple, I had the ingredients on hand, and I'm curious!

The picture (sorry, I can't find it right now) had a stack of pancakes, and the words "Two eggs, one banana, mash, fry". Doesn't get much simpler than that when you're talking pancakes!

I expected the pancakes to have the texture of crepes with the high ratio of eggs to the other ingredient, and I figured they'd be kind of goopy and fall apart. I was surprised on both counts- they ARE "eggy", but not to the extent that crepes are. They're quite "pancake-y" as far as texture goes, they even LOOK sort of bread-y with holes and all. (Don't you love all my technical descriptive terms?)

They mixed up in a jiffy, I beat the eggs with a fork for a bit til they were a uniform consistency, then I mashed in a banana and kept mashing til the lumps were pretty much gone. I think that helped a lot,  as bananas get to be a pretty good binder once they're broken down. They fried up just like traditional pancakes, even holding bubbles and looking dry around the edges when they were ready to flip, and they browned beautifully, which is something I haven't been able to pull off in any other dairy free pancake.

The only thing that could be taken negatively about these is that they are SWEET! You will not need syrup! Which isn't really a problem since they're so moist, but if you eat pancakes as something to hold your maple syrup, these aren't going to be what you want. Otherwise they're a definite winner!

If I were going to do a bigger batch (this batch made 7 four-inch pancakes), I'd probably throw the bananas and eggs into a blender or stand mixer, but for one batch like this, a bowl and a fork worked just fine and kept the dirty dishes to a minimum.

So there ya go - one more grain free pancake recipe tried and tested :)

I'm Not Making Breakfast Again For At Least 2 Weeks!

No more daily breakfast making for me! (Don't worry- my children will still be eating [marginally] healthy breakfasts.)

I hadn't been on a hunt exactly, for a better method to handle our Tribe Breakfasts, but I suppose I'm always a bit on the alert for improvements. One thing that constitutes "improvement" (in my book, anyhow) is something that takes less time without any serious depreciation in quality. Also, since I consider one of the job descriptions of a Mama is to work yourself out of a job, anything that promotes my childrens' autonomy is also an improvement. Hence, my quitting daily breakfast making.





I've been on a menu rotation for a while now (oatmeal with peanut butter on Mondays, eggs and toast on Tuesdays, scones and sausage on Wednesdays...) and it served us well. I was able to budget pretty closely because I knew what we would be eating/spending every week, I knew what the children were eating and that I had approved it, and there was no more sleepy-eyed, pre-coffee panic of what to make. But, even though I tried to make things quick and painless so that we could get our day going, it still took time.

Also, even though I planned fairly simple meals and my children are old enough to be cooking, it still worked better for me to be making breakfast while they did all their morning chores. Don't misunderstand - here we teach that teamwork is valuable and necessary for success; but this goes along with the whole autonomy thing. The more autonomy they have, the more time I have to do other fun things with them or things that can (hopefully) make more money for us.




So today we had a big kitchen day and made enough breakfast items that are either shelf stable (premeasured cereal and oatmeal), refrigerator sasfe (individual yogurts on sale, energy balls) or good frozen and reheated (muffins, breakfast burritos, crepes). It worked out conveniently that I had one recipe for each child and that they were pretty age appropriate. The 4 year old measured cereal into baggies, the 5 year old measured oatmeal, brown sugar, and cinnamon into baggies, the 6 year old made granola bars, the 7 year old made energy balls, the 9 year old made muffins and the 11 year old made crepes. I'll be putting together the breakfast burritos tonight.

There is a "menu" stuck to the fridge with magnets with a list of the things we made today and the reminder to choose any two items. On the containers are instructions for the warming up or preparing (for example, that you only add 1/2 cup of milk to your baggie of cereal), and another sheet of instructions posted in the kitchen in case there is confusion. The plan is that each child, upon finishing their morning chores will go ahead and get their own breakfast without having to wait on the others to finish their chores, and that I will have that 45 minutes I used to spend cooking to do something else. (Probably exercising for the first while, I've got 20 lbs I want gone!) Granted, these foods aren't perfect as far as my dietary ideals, but I'm learning to pick my battles. If I start noticing that health is less than optimal, then we'll head back to the drawing board, but for now, I'm excited to give this a try!

Are you interested in giving it a whirl? I got the idea here, and after giving it a try, I"m so impressed with how thorough the instructions are and how easy it actually was to pull off. For only $2.99, I'm convinced it's one of the best things I've bought in the line of meal planning and cookbooks. And it's enough food for a family of 4 to eat for about 3 months! There is a list of everything you'll be making, a shopping list of every little thing you'll need, simple recipes that my children had no trouble following, and directions on how to freeze and reheat things. It also kicked off my own creativity and I've been adding to the list all day of things we could make ahead and freeze like this. Sausage biscuits, cinnamon rolls, green smoothies, stacked pancakes... (that recipe should be showing up here sometime soon!) Once I can get together a plan like the one linked here, I'll share it with you, so then, if you juggle things right, you can have breakfast made up to 6 months in advance!

For now, head on over to the plan I followed and give it a try. Let me know how it goes for you, and what you might like if (when) I make one like it. And enjoy all that morning time!


---disclosure: if you buy the menu and isntructions through this link, I'll get a few cents of the sale. The price isn't any higher for you (and at $2.99 its SO crazy worth it!!), I just get a small cut. Thanks!

Another Last Minute Supper!

Another quick and easy supper to the rescue!

Tonight, for reasons evident in my last post (namely: a whole bottle of bubble juice got spilled on the kitchen floor), supper was rather late in getting started. Once I got ready to actually get things cooking, I needed something quick, simple, healthy and yummy.

Of course I headed right over to my standby favorite site for recipes and cooking tips, and right there on the first post was tonight's delicious hero - Dahl. I definitely recommend the site to anyone looking for quick, simple, healthy and seriously delicious recipes and food ideas. Of course, I modify the recipes, as she's cooking for 2 and I'm cooking for 10. So far though, things have been so protein-heavy I haven't had to do more than double or triple the recipes to fill my tribe.

She usually has a post before the recipe (sometimes related, sometimes not so much), frequently they're educational about the food or about cooking styles. If you don't have time to read all that (did someone spill bubbles at your place too?), here's tonight's recipe, in the quantities I used for our tribe.

Dahl (Stone Soup Style with a Mango Tree Twist)

2 1# bags lentils
1 2# bag carrots
4 Tb curry powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder OR 3 garlic cloves
6 oz fresh baby spinach
3 whole lemons
1 large tub plain yogurt
soy sauce

In a 6 qt kettle, dump the lentils and fill with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat just enough to maintain an active simmer. Scrub and chop carrots into approximately 1/2" slices. Add carrots to simmering lentils. Stir and add curry powder, salt, and garlic. Simmer, covered, approximately 20 minutes, till carrots are fork-tender. While that's simmering, set the table and slice the lemons (halve lengthwise then slice into half-moons). Once the carrots are fork-tender, turn off the heat, stir in the spinach, and you're ready to summon your tribe.

Once I had everyone together, I demonstrated the serving process:
Dish yourself some dahl, squeeze on the juice from a lemon slice, drizzle on a little soy sauce, and plop in a few tablespoons of plain yogurt.

This one was a winner with our family. When we try a new recipe, I always ask them whether I should make it again or throw away the recipe card. This one got a unanimous "make it again" (although in the spirit of full disclosure, one sweetie piped up and said "just without the curry. or the carrots. or the lemons.") And it's good with me because it only took a few distracted minutes of my time to throw together and then I could do a quick tidy-up of the kitchen while it simmered.

Quick! What's For Lunch?

Ever have that moment?

We've been playing and painting and enjoying this reprieve from the cold and all of a sudden I realize it's already past lunchtime and I have NO clue what to fix. And our cupboards are looking a bit Mother Hubbard-ish. Add to that my inexplicable dislike for just having sandwiches again for lunch, and I'm trying not to feel stressed about making good, yummy, healthy, lunch - quickly.

Enter what I call "back pocket standards". Those are the recipes that we almost always have ingredients for on hand, that only take a few minutes to throw together, and that are healthy and tasty.

I don't know what to call it, I never "name" my foods or recipes, I just throw them together and eat them. Chickpeas with garlic and rosemary, bread, applesauce. That's what I pulled out of my back pocket today. (Figuratively, of course)

I heated some oil in a large skillet while I peeled some garlic cloves, and minced them into the oil. After I tossed in some rosemary, I let it all soften and get delish-y smelling while I drained 3 cans of chickpeas. Once the garlic was beginning to brown, I stirred in the chickpeas, and let that cook while I pulled a thrifted loaf of sourdough bread from the freezer. Stirred the skillet again and popped the bread into the oven to thaw.

Got a child to stir the skillet every few minutes while I tidied up the kitchen and dumped the applesauce into a pretty bowl, checked on the bread (nope, not thawed yet. Back in to the oven it goes), called the tribe to wash up and set the table, then pulled it all together and sighed in relief. One more lunch crisis avoided :0)

Hoping maybe I'll inspire another harried mom when that moment hits. I'll share a few more "back pocket standards" soon.

Sunday Morning Breakfast in a Big Family

What do you do for weekend breakfasts?

Saturday is the one time a week we fall back on cold cereal. Not every Saturday, but often enough the children look forward to Saturdays! The Mr. and I sleep in on cereal mornings, and the children help one another to cereal and pre-approved videos. Everybody's happy!

I like Sunday morning to be relaxed, leisurely, easy, no heavy thinking... and I want our breakfast together to be a treat, something yummy that you don't have just everyday.  Oh, and it has to be somewhat inexpensive. My solution?

Overnight French Toast.

It's so easy... toss a few ingredients in a pan sometime Saturday evening before I go to bed, cover it and stick it into the fridge. In the morning, preheat the oven, pop the pan in, wake up little people to dress and snuggle, and then belly up to the table to eat something delish!

The ingredients are basic, and, for a treat, inexpensive. A loaf of bread, a carton of eggs, some flour, sugar and vanilla... the most expensive parts are a box of cream cheese and some frozen fruit.

Sounds like success to me!

The recipe, you ask? Here ya go:

(serves 4-6)
(we double this for our family of 10)

12 slices bread, torn into bite-size pieces
8 oz block cream cheese, in approximately 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup frozen fruit (we use either blueberries or strawberries)
8 eggs, beaten
1/3 c flour
1/2 c sugar (omit if you want to use syrup)
1 tsp vanilla

The night before:
Grease a 9x13 glass casserole. Tear 12 slices of bread into bite size pieces and drop into greased dish. Scatter cubes of cream cheese throughout. Distribute frozen fruit evenly over bread and cream cheese. In a separate bowl, beat 8 eggs, then mix in 1/3 c flour and 1 tsp vanilla. I add 1/2 c sugar because syrup at our table (7 kids ages 10 and under) is NOT "relaxed, leisurely, easy, no heavy thinking..." If you'd like to pour syrup on yours at the table, skip the sugar here. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the bread mixture, cover the pan, and stick it in the fridge.

In the morning:
Preheat the over to 400*F, uncover the pan, and slide it right into the oven. Set a timer for about 22 minutes, and go snuggle someone awake. When your timer goes off, check the middle of the pan: you don't want it all wet and gooey. Bake it until it's dry /set in the middle, pull it out, and serve it up!

Perfectly complimented by hot tea or coffee.

Enjoy!

We're Becoming Very Fond of Scones For Breakfast

2 c flour

2 Tb sugar

1 Tb baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tb melted butter

3/4 - 1 c milk

1/3 c dried or frozen fruit (I used dried cranberries in this picture)

Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter, stir in fruit and milk. Should be a thick, shapeable dough. 

Make a ball, then flatten on a greased cookie sheet. 

Cut in to 8 wedges before baking.
Bake at 425* for 18-20 minutes.

If desired, drizzle with icing made of powdered sugar and milk or, (our favorite) orange juice (excellent with the cranberries!)!

Biscuits!

Biscuits have been my bane.

Always.

Well, ever since 2nd grade, when that word got me out of the school-wide spelling bee. 

I still squirm at that memory. 

I KNEW I'd blown it, as soon as the letters left my mouth. 

I am a speller. That's what I'm good at. 

I don't know WHAT possessed me to allow the letter Q to leave my mouth. 

We never even USED Bisquik! (no offense to the Bisquik people, my mom just made her own.)

Anyway.

They continued to be my bane even after I recovered from the spelling bee trauma.

(mostly by winning another one by spelling a word that downed about 20 people in a row right before me)

I could NOT make them turn out right! 

My mom and granny were more than willing to teach me how, but their biscuits were made in the good ole way of eyeballing the ingredients, and using THAT spoon to measure. 

Didn't work for me.

I make most of my stuff that way, eyeballing & dumping (& driving my husband bonkers), but biscuits just won't cooperate.

SO.

I've found a way to make them that Works For Me, and it is adjustable- I can make any amount off of the one recipe. 

It works by ratio.

Here's what I have written on the oil stained, flour smudged index card in my kitchen. If it doesn't make sense to you, feel free to ask in the comments & I'll see if I can help :0)

Biscuits by Ratio
c flour : tsp salt          1 : 1/2
c flour : tsp baking powder          1 : 2
c flour : c shortening          4 : 1
c flour : c milk          4 : 1

Mix the ingredients in the order and proportions given, mixing dry ingredients, then cutting in shortening, then stirring in milk. Depending on whether you want to make rolled or drop biscuits, you may need to add more milk. (This recipe is for making rolled biscuits.)
Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until done. 

Hope this helps someone! 

This post will be linked up at this week's Works For Me Wednesday party.

Our Go-To Lunch

When we want something quick, and nutritious, that's more than a sandwich, here's what we do:

One can corn
One can diced tomatoes
One can black beans

Drain the corn and beans, dump them in a bowl and dump in the tomatoes with the liquid. Snip in some fresh cilantro, or add a teaspoon or so of dried cilantro, then sprinkle some fajita seasoning over it. Stir and microwave for three minutes, or warm-up in a sauce pan on your stovetop. 

Serve as is, as a dip for tortilla chips, or add things like shredded cheese salsa and sour cream on top of  lettuce for a fuller meal. 

This is yummy, and filling, and easy to make even for my young children. Then they feel so proud and helpful, as they provided lunch for the family!
This is linked up at WFMW (Works For Me Wednedsay) over at We Are That Family

A Little Meal Planning Help (& a Free Meal Calendar For You!)

Ah! One more week of meal planning done! 

I had a system in place, where we had a meal/dish every 4 weeks, all set up in Google calendar. It served me well for a couple of years.

Now, for several reasons, it's time for a revamp. 

#1 We've gotten tired of having the same things over and over, even though I did shake it up once in a while(see reason #2). Everyone else is more tired of the repetition than me (apparently Aspies love repetition/predictability- I thought it was just me!), but at this point even I am ready to change it all up! Wow.

#2 Because I did "shake it up" every so often, the original calendar with its repeats and add-ins is such a mess even I have a hard time navigating it. The original plan (which worked great) was to set meals to repeat every 4 weeks, fill it in so that all days have a meal, include all ingredients needed in the "notes" section of each entry, and make my grocery list for the week according to that. Now it's a headache figuring out which meal listed on each day to have, and to sort out what to buy, since I didn't always add the ingredients when I "shook things up" on the fly.

#3 We are adjusting our diet again, preparing for what I think will be a HUGE shift when we go full-on the GAPS diet in a few months. Right now, I'm working on familiarizing myself with removing grains entirely, then I'll build on that. 

All that to say, I am sharing my new meal plan calendar with you! I repeat breakfasts and lunches weekly, which means we always have the same thing for breakfast and lunch each Monday etc.. Suppers are planned according to main dish/meat; beef on mondays, fish on thursdays, etc..Each Supper includes a recipe for the main dish, with the ingredients listed at the top for shopping lists. I don't always list things I consider as staples, such as flour, salt, EVOO, so if you want to use my calendar, do read thru the recipe before you get started! 

Right now, I only have the next week of meals planned, set to repeat in 6 weeks. Each week I will add another week of suppers until it's all filled in all the way to the first repeat. Then it should be set! 

Feel free to use the calendar all you want- I will try to remember to link to each recipe source in the notes section so that you can springboard from there and find more things to suit your family. 

If you have any questions, requests, or suggestion, leave them here in the comments and I'll do my best! 

**Note: almost all the recipes you will find in this calendar are from The Stone Soup. Some are cited, some I forgot. There are a few of my own, friends' or family's recipes in there too. So if there's one you like and it's not cited, check over at The Stone Soup first- it's likely from there! 

Bathroom Cleaner

I'm definitely a DIYer. Always have been. I've always wondered why people buy things, rather than do / make them. But, I'll admit, there are some things that even my rabid DIY-ness wouldn't mess with.

Well, actually I did. 

But it sent me scurrying back to the old tried-and-true storebought.

Bathroom Cleaner. 

I tried what "everyone" raves about:

Vinegar.

and Vinegar mixed with Lemon Juice.

and Vinegar, Lemon Juice, and Baking Soda. 

Each time, I was frustrated and disgusted, threw away the concoction and cleaned the bathroom again, right. With Scrubbing Bubbles and/or Bleach.

Each time, I decided I'll keep on DIY-ing in other areas, but I'm not messing with bathroom cleaner. 

Then I'd hear someone raving about a new vinegar concoction and I'd try it again. 

Rinse and Repeat.

Sooo....

on this last repeat, I've actually found a DIY mixer-upper that cleans the tub better than my faithful old Scrubbing Bubbles! (I still use store bought stuff on the toilet & floor)

I Need Your Help :0)

Meal planning is always my weakness, and working it around all the food allergies we have makes it even more daunting sometimes. Now I'm adding in *more* limitations!  
It's starting to get pretty warm where we live, and we don't have AC, so I like to avoid heating up the kitchen with cooking. I use the grill a lot, and we have a 2 burner camp stove that I use outside too. I'm about 7 1/2 - 8 months along with this pregnancy ( I never can keep track!) and am often SO hot and tired by evening that cooking just looks totally undesirable. I have a few crock-pot meals that I can make, but they seem more like cold-weather food (like chili and things) and my family doesn't eat hot food all that well when we're all so hot anyway. (savings on the food bill, eh?)
I had the bright idea of serving mostly cold suppers this summer, that will get me out of cooking AND give my family more refreshing food to enjoy. Then my brain went dead  
I personally would be a happy camper with a salad and some yogurt every. single. evening. But the rest of my family likes variety and MEAT!
So, do any of you do cold suppers often? What are some ideas for serving cold suppers, besides salad, pasta salad, and yogurt and fruit? 
Don't worry about thinking of things that aren't allergy issues, I can usually substitute pretty well...
and thanks for any ideas you can share!

Mmm... Truffles

I think we're going to make some truffles tomorrow. 2 batches actually: one following the recipe, and one dairy free for my sweeties that can'[t have dairy. I'm not sure how hard I'll try to not eat the whole batch before the week is over. But I will be freezing some of the dairy free ones to have on hand when we're in a situation that there is a dessert that has dairy and there are no substitutions available for the ones that can't eat it. It sort of makes up for missing out on what everyone else is eating when you have something special like that, that no one else *can* have ('cause Mama said so!).
For whoever is interested, here is the (yummalicious) recipe: