Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes

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We eat alot of pancakes, I often will make a big batch that the kids can reheat for an easy and fast breakfast. If you are not a blueberry fan, then these pancakes are also nice with sliced banana's and syrup as well.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes

3 cups Whole wheat flour
2 tbsp Baking powder
2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt

3 cups Milk (or 2 cup milk and 1 cup yogurt)
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tbsp Vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. Mix milk, eggs, vanilla and oil with a whisk or hand mixer, pour over dry ingredients and mix well.

Let your batter sit for 3 - 5 minutes and then you are ready to go.

With a laddle, pour pancake mix onto medium-hot, non-stick frying pans, sprinkle over blueberries.


Small bubbles will start to appear, flip when the pancake is golden (you can tell by how many bubbles you can see - the pancake above still needs a minute or so).

Flip over and cook for another minute or so.

Pile your pancakes high! Enjoy with blueberry syrup or regular syrup!

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For more recipe ideas check out Mouthwatering Mondays, Temp my Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday and Tuesdays At the Table!

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For More Breakfast Ideas:

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Spicy Carrot Bran Muffins

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No-Roll Biscuits and Oatmeal Muffins

Christine

No-Roll Biscuits and Oatmeal Muffins

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I do a lot of baking to help cut down costs – and who doesn’t love fresh biscuits? But often they seem like just a bit too much work. Here are two easy recipes that do not require any rolling and you can have them mixed and in the oven in 5 minutes flat! Since these are just biscuits and not loaves, cooking time is around 1/3 of the time, which means that you are not heating up your house for long during these hotter summer months (I say hotter with a hint of sadness, as we have had below temperature weather, with no really “hot” weather yet :( )

No-Roll Biscuits

3 cups Flour
2 tbsp Sugar
5 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
½ cup Margarine

1 Egg
1 cup Milk

In your food processor mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add margarine.

Mix until crumbly.

Pour into a large bowl (repeat if making a double batch) and make a well in the middle (hole in the middle).

In a medium bowl mix together milk and egg(s) and pour into well. Stir lightly to mix, the batter will be sticky, if you are feeling like it is too dry, add a bit of milk, but do not kneed. Drop dough onto a cookie sheet in large clumps.

Bake at 450 F. Cooking time will vary depending on the size you made your biscuits, check at 10 minutes, but can take up to 18 minutes. You can tell they are done when the tops are golden brown.

No-Roll Cheese Biscuits

2 cups Flour
4 tsp Baking powder
¾ tsp Salt
1 cup Grated cheddar cheese

¾ cup Milk
1/3 cup Vegetable oil

Combine four, baking powder and cheese in a large bowl and stir to mix. Add milk and vegetable oil and stir to incorporate.

Drop dough onto a cookie sheet in large clumps.

Bake at 400 F for 35 – 40 minutes.

I grew up with a love of oatmeal (my mom has some Scottish roots) and although my mom never did a lot of baking, she did make oatmeal muffins. Sometimes she would leave them plain, or other times she would add raisins or chocolate chips (which of course was my sisters and my favorite). My kids have also grown up eating oatmeal muffins, and eating them takes me back to fun times when I was a kid.

Oatmeal Muffins

2 ½ cups Flour
2 cups Oats
½ cup Brown sugar
2 tbsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon

2 Eggs
2 tbsp Molasses
½ cup Vegetable oil
2 cups Milk (or 1 cup milk and 1 cup yogurt)
2 tsp Vanilla

1 ½ cups of raisins, nuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Mix together dry ingredients and make a well in the center.
Beat eggs till frothy, add remaining wet ingredients and mix well. Pour into well and stir only to moisten, batter will still be lumpy, which is fine.

Pour into greased muffin tins.

Bake at 400 F for 16 – 20 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.

I always freeze muffins so that my kids can have easy food to grab when they are in need of an easy and fast breakfast or a snack. Just place in the microwave for 20 seconds on a medium heat.

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

This is a great variation of the above muffins, good if you have to use up some applesauce.

2 ½ cups Flour
2 cups Oats
½ cup Brown sugar
2 tbsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon

2 Eggs
1 cup Applesauce
1 tbsp Molasses
½ cup Vegetable oil
1 cup Milk (or ½ cup milk and ½ cup yogurt)
2 tsp Vanilla or Maple

Topping: 1 tbsp EACH cinnamon and sugar

Mix together muffins as stated in the above recipe, just sprinkle the topping over the muffins before putting them into the oven.


For more recipes and ideas check out Mouthwatering Monday, Tightwad Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tasty Tuesday, Temp my Tummy Tuesday .

Christine

Homemade Yogurt with Berries and Granola

I have recently started making homemade yogurt and have LOVED IT! My kids are loving it too - my husband and I have yogurt, fresh fruit and granola most mornings, and the kids are enjoying lots of breakfast smoothies with hot oatmeal or fresh muffins. I make lots of yogurt pops too, so that when they ask for ice cream, I can offer a yogurt pop instead. My friend Tyler even posted a great real fruit pop recipe yesterday that I am going to try for the kids.

Making your own yogurt is very frugal and you can use the ingredients that YOU want to use. You control the milk, the starter, the sweetener (if you even want any), and you can add fresh fruit instead of having those little pieces of something that is suppose to be fruit (very questionable).

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Every week or two I make some more granola to add to my yogurt. I love that I can add whatever I want to to it, that I control the sweetener and fats, and that it saves me tons of money for very little work!

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Homemade Granola:

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4 cups Large oats

1 cup Coconut

2 cups Nuts (any nut or seed you like will do- I use almonds or pecans, which are our favorites)

2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 cup Coconut oil or Vegetable oil

1/2 cup Honey

2 cups Dried fruit (optional, sometimes I will add, but not always)

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine oil and honey and pour over dry ingredients. Mix well, making sure that the oil and honey is well distributed.

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Bake on a large baking tray at 350 F for 10 minutes, stir gently. Bake for an additional 10 - 15 minutes (cooking time will depend on your baking tray), checking every 5 minutes to stir, remove when I light brown. You will want to watch it closely for the last 10 - 15 as dark brown granola does not taste as good.

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Let it sit on the counter to cool for 20 minutes then put in an airtight container.

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Even if you are not totally health conscious all of the time (me), it is nice to have some options for food that is healthy, nourishing, easy and frugal. For more tips and recipe ideas see The Nourishing Gourmet and Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

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Related posts:

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50 Money Saving Tips!
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Healthy and Nutritious Eggs

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Blessings,

Christine

Spicy Carrot Bran Muffins

Muffins can always be found in my kitchen at least once a week. I tend to make large batches and freeze them so that the kids can grab them in the morning, for an afternoon snack (or a midnight snack for the teenagers!) or for their lunch.

I make alot of different types, but a few seem to be the favorites - carrot being one of them.

Hope you enjoy - let me know how they turn out for you!

Spicy Carrot Bran Muffins

1 ½ cup Flour
1 ½ cup Natural bran
¼ cup Wheat germ
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Nutmeg

2 Eggs
¼ cup Molasses
¼ cup Honey
¼ cup Vegetable oil (any type of shortening will do)
1 ½ cup Sour milk or Buttermilk
1 cup Carrot, grated
½ cup each raisins and/or walnuts (optional)

Combing dry ingredients and make a well in the center.

Mix wet ingredients and pour into well. Stir just to combine. Pour into muffin tins and bake at 400 for 12 – 14 minutes.

Enjoy with a big cup of coffee for breakfast!

Christine

Healthy Living

I am sure that, just like me, the health and nutrition of your family is important. In my family health, nutrition and active living is something that I am constantly striving to teach my children daily. Encouraging them in picking healthy choices whenever possible, such as whole wheat bread over white, or keeping the fridge stocked with lots of fruits and veggies for them to munch on and to grab when they are on the go, preparing foods ourselves instead of buying pre-packaged and take-out whenever possible, setting an example in maintaining an active lifestyle daily are just a few things I try to do.

Another thing that I try and do is take our favorite foods, the ones that are not necessarily very good for us, and try to alter the recipe to come up with “healthy alternatives”. Some of my recipes are flops (but often my kids are too kind to say so), but some are really great (and easy). For example, whenever I make meatloaf, meatballs, or hamburgers I use oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs. I will also throw in a handful of lentils or natural bran flakes, uping the fibre content significantly. My kids and husband can’t even tell the difference!

Breakfast is a big challenge in my home. None of us really like cold cereal, and none of us really want anything to heavy either. One of our favorite breakfast foods is pancakes. I have to admit I am the biggest culprit – pancakes are one of my all-time favorite foods! So in hopes of making this breakfast food pack a bit more of a healthy punch I made up an oatmeal bran pancake recipe (see recipe below), and instead of having a ton of syrup on them we use applesauce, bananas and homemade fruit sauce. If we need a bit of added sweetness, a touch of maple syrup or honey goes a long way.

If you have any tips, tricks or great recipes for healthy living I would love to hear them!


Oatmeal Bran Pancakes

1 cup Oatmeal
2 tbsp Natural Bran
1 cup Milk

2 cups Whole wheat flour
2 tbsp Sugar
2 tbsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt

2 Eggs
2 tbsp Vegetable oil
2 cups Milk

The key to this pancake is to soak the oatmeal and bran in the milk for at least 10 minutes. While it is soaking, combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix the eggs, oil and milk well, then add the oatmeal/bran mixture. Mix in the dry ingredients until well incorporated.

Drop batter by the spoonful onto a non-stick, hot pan. When bubbles appear and edges begin to dry, turn to brown other side.

Christine