Pinterest Pancake Bites

A few weeks back, Jen posted her Pinterest attempt, now it's my turn.

These cute little pancake bites looked too simple to mess up, so I gave 'em a go.

Pancake mix, some diced strawberries, diced banana, and cinnamon, and into the oven they go! 

They baked up just fine in the 12 minutes recommended. (Side note: the next week I made them again, this time with frozen fruit, and I needed to add 2-3 minutes to the baking time.)

Smash 'em up with a little butter and syrup.....

...and let your children enjoy them with your camera in their pretty faces!

Kids, husband, and I loved these little breakfast puffs and they'll definitely make more appearances in our house!

Beef and Veggie Stir-Fry (or, how you get your kids to eat ALL. THE. VEGETABLES.)

Do you stir-fry? If so, Yay! If not, why not?

It can look complicated, but I assure you, stir-fry is simple and easy and you can use pretty much whatever you have on hand.

For example, the beef and veggie stir-fry I made last week contained the following ingredients:

-One sirloin steak

-Various chopped up veggies (broccoli and carrots)

-Corn starch

-Soy sauce

-Ginger (powdered)

-Asian fish sauce

-Sesame ginger salad dressing

(Basically, if it was in my fridge and looked/sounded/tasted Asian-like, it went in this dinner.)

Also, I have discovered that by cutting carrots into "ribbons" the children will find them to be delightful and will happily eat them up without complaint.

Slice meat thinly and sprinkle with corn starch and ginger (or whatever meat seasoning you like.) Saute the steak and veggies in a hot pan with a little bit of sesame/olive/vegetable/canola oil. You don't even need a wok, although if you have one, great, use it!

Some peeps like stir-fry with noodles, others with rice. Your dinner, your choice. I had a package of rice noodles in the pantry. I boiled them quickly, drained them, and added them to the veggie and meat pan. Then I added a dash or two of each of my Asian sauces and mixed it all around a few times. Sometimes I even add a spoonful of peanut butter. No child will ever refuse vegetable is you tell them they're covered in peanut butter : )

When I have some, I add a sprinkling of crunchy noodles, because everyone likes the crunchy noodles.

Dinner is Served!

Jello Cake

When I was in elementary school, a girl in my class bragged that her mom made the best Jello cakes ever and each kid got to pick their favorite flavor on their birthday. I though this girl was nuts, because who wants Jello on their birthday? In my young mind, Jello cake was just a sheet of plain Jello in a cake pan - nothing special about that. Fast forward years (and years and years) later, and I now know what this girl was talking about. Jello Cake is not just Jello, but a cake with Jello poured over it. Once absorbed, the Jello makes the cake oh-so-very flavorful and moist and becomes a gorgeous color to boot. I discovered this recipe right before St. Patrick's Day when I was looking for green dessert ideas, and later altered it slightly for different flavors and colors.

Ingredients:

-Yellow or White cake mix and everything necessary to follow box directions.

-One large or two small packets of Jello (even the generic kind will work fine)

-One small box pudding

-One 8-ounce tub of whipped topping (Cool Whip)

Directions:

1. Bake cake according to box directions.

2. When done and still warm, poke a bajillion holes in the cake with a knife, or meat skewer like my helper is doing here:

3. Make up Jello according to package directions, using 1/3 less water than called for. 

4. After Jello is mixed well, pour liquid directly onto poked cake, making sure all the little holes get their share of Jello goodness.

5. Wait. Let cake sit (either in fridge or at room temperature) for at least an hour (or, ya know, however long you've got).

6. Mix pudding according to package directions. Eat a spoonful or two and let baby bird-like children do the same. Mix remaining pudding with Cool Whip.

7. Spread on top of cake, like thick, fluffy frosting:

(You can also see here how the color of the cake changes. Remember, it used to be yellow, now it's strawberry-flavored pink)

(The finished product. Looks pretty average and mundane, but wait until you cut it open.)

(Viola! Lovely!)

Have fun playing around with Jello, pudding, and cake combinations. I made a Raspberry Lemonade Jello Cake for an Easter lunch where the hostess was a big fan of lemon and raspberries. (I used lemon cake mix, raspberry Jello, and lemon pudding). I wanted the cake in the picture to be kind of like strawberry shortcake, so I used strawberry Jello and vanilla pudding. Use your imagination, or whatever is in your pantry!

Nailed it!! Pinterest Pancakes

I try not to just cold cereal it everyday for my kids. Which they love pancakes, so it usually isn't a problem. Well the other morning I thought I would give our ordinary pancakes a twist, so I did the logical thing and went to Pinterest and found cinnamon roll pancakes with cream cheese icing (really its frosting, it just sound not so horrible if you call it icing with breakfast). The two older kids were all ready for school and working on homework (that doesn't happen often) and they both needed help and the two younger kids were fighting. So, this seemed like the PERFECT time to try a new recipe.

I followed the recipe from http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/03/01/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/

NAILED IT!!!! Okay, so this is an epic Pinterest fail. "You try, you fail. You try, you fail. The only time you truly fail is when you quiet trying". So, I tried again on the next pancake.

Success!!!

Made a little bit of cream cheese icing.......

and enjoyed breakfast.

These delicious pancakes didn't stop the younger kids fighting or do homework for the older kids, but at least we had a yummy breakfast! 

A word of wisdom when it comes to Pinterest (or anything else for that matter). "Never compare yourself to others. You will always compare your worst self to their best self".

Costa Vida anyone?

I love Costa Vida sweet pulled pork burritos. And I LOVE my crock pot. So why not combine the best of two worlds.Crock pots are awesome for those busy days that you know you are not going to have much time to put dinner together.

Add pork roast, liquid smoke, and garlic salt. I do not add any extra liquid, but my crock pot has a tight seal and doesn't evaporate. Add liquid if you need too.

I can my own salsa (when it is canning season, my big sis and I will put up a few posts about canning). Do not use all 2 liters of soda, 1 - 1 1/2 cups is plenty!!

Mix together and enjoy now or for a better flavor have it for dinner the next day. But it smells so good, you can't help but eat it right then!

ENJOY!!!

Sweet Pork Burritos 

Pork roast - any size will do
Smoke flavoring
Garlic salt
1 jar salsa
1 can soda (any kind of dark soda, cola, rootbeer, dr. pepper, etc. diet soda even works)
1 cup brown sugar

Add pork roast to crock pot, add a drizzle a few teaspoons of smoke flavoring and a few teaspoons of garlic salt to roast. Cover and let cook 8+ hours. The longer the better! Shred pork and add salsa, soda, and brown sugar. Stir and keep warm until ready to serve. This is the VERY BEST if made a day ahead of time and then warmed in crock pot again the next day. The juices really have time to soak into the meat. I hardly ever remember to do it a day ahead of time and my family still loves it!

I serve these with cilantro lime rice (rice with a bunch of lime juice and cilantro mixed in), cheese, sour cream, and lettuce.

And in case anyone is wondering, I have an awesome crock pot. It is a Hamilton Beach Stay-or-Go. My husband got it for me for Christmas a few years ago. He felt silly getting it for me as gift, but I really really really wanted it. I was so excited when he found it and it was under the Christmas tree!!!

Fluffy Jell-O Salad

My 2 year old woke up at 2:30 am this morning and had NO intentions of going back to bed. She had crashed at 5:30 the afternoon before, so she was up ready for the day. Well, when the 2 year old is awake, mom is awake. I tried turning on a cartoon and going back to sleep. Nope, apparently that wasn't going to happen. So, I kept the cartoon on for my daughter and thought I would start to work on what I needed to do for the day. Before I knew it I had lunches ready, breakfast ready, laundry folded, and now I was wide eyed and bushy tailed. Now that it's 4:00 am, why not start on dinner. So, I made the first half of this fluffy jell-o salad.

Boil water, add the gelatin pack and 2 puddings. It will fluff and boil, so watch out for over flow. Stir in slowly.

After jello mixture has cool a few hours add chopped fruit

Mix well

Add jello mixture to whipped cream or cool whip. Fold gently so the cream doesn't go flat

And enjoy at 4:00 am or whenever you make dinner

At least one of us finally fell back to sleep!! (Isn't she adorable, how could I be mad at that for keeping me up all night)

Fluffy Jell-O Salad 

3 cups water 

1 small box of gelatin - any flavor  to match fruit that you will use 

1 - 3 oz box cook and serve vanilla pudding 

1 - 3 oz. Box cook and serve tapioca pudding (I have only ever found this in the Jell-O brand) 

1 pound fruit (strawberries, raspberries, bananas, canned mandarin oranges, anything that sounds good), chopped to bite sized pieces 

1 pint of whipping cream or 1 small tube Cool Whip 

2 T. regular vanilla pudding (only need if you are using whipping cream) 

Boil water in 2 quart sauce pan. Add gelatin, if using sugar free it will foam and boil really high, watch out for that. Stir in well. Add vanilla pudding, stir in well. Add tapioca pudding, mix well. Boil and occasionally stir for 3 minutes. Turn off stove and put jello mixture into fridge. The mixture needs to be cooled all the way, so it will take a few hours. I have put it in an ice bath in the sink to cool it faster and that works well too. If using whipping cream, whip with 2 T regular vanilla pudding (this helps stabilize the pudding). Whipped to stiff peaks. Once  the jello mixture is cooled stir in fruit then fold in whipped cream or cool whip. Refrigerate until ready to eat. The longer it is in the refrigerator the better it tastes. 

Meatloaf

I found the original for this recipe on allrecipes.com, but it has been changed here and there. So, here is the Fugal version.

I use caramelized onions every change I get. I only had red onions in the pantry, but use whatever kind you like or have on hand.

Mix all the spices, dried oatmeal, hamburger, and onions. I just use my hands and give it all a good mix.

I double the recipe because my family really likes this a lot. Except for my pick eater, child #2.

All done! This picture doesn't really make it look very good. But remember, I do have some talents and photography I guess isn't one of them. Maybe I should have my two oldest do my pictures, they are getting really good at photography.

This is a great meal to do during the week. I usually will get it ready ahead of time and then put it in the oven when the kids get home from school. I can still help with homework while this is in the oven.


Meatloaf:
1 /1/2 pounds ground beef
1 egg
1 onion, caramelized or sauteed
1 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs, crushed crackers, or dry oatmeal (whatever you have on hand)
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:
2 T brown sugar
2 T prepared mustard
1/3 cup BBQ or ketchup

Preheat over to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine beef, onions, milk, and bread crumbs (or whatever you have on hand). Season with salt, pepper, . Place in a loaf pan. In a separate bowl combine ingredients for topping. Mix well and pour over the meatloaf. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Slow-Cooker Taco Meat (or, How my Crock-Pot Makes Me a Better Cook than I Actually Am.)

Hi, I'm Shelle. (Waves) I'm Jen's older (not necessarily wiser) sister and I too have some stories about the realities of making dinner. I work outside of the home (WOH) full-time and yet, while I'm away, no magical Dinner Elves swing by my house and spend the day preparing delicious and nutritional meals that my whole family will love. (Side note: If any of you are hoarding these elves, I'm gonna need you let them out every once in a while, okay? Thanks.) I've got a pretty awesome husband who works super hard during the day, then comes home and keeps all the wheels greased and turning here on our little modern-day homestead. Add two little girls to the mix, ages 5 and 16 months, and well, I'm tired just writing it all out.

It really doesn't matter what kid of a day I had before I got home in the evening, this family needs dinner, and they need it in about thirty minutes. End. Of. Discussion.

Enter, Trusty Crock Pot. (I love, LOVE, LOVE! my Crock-Pot. I could write sonnets and epic poems to and about this amazing small appliance. I have two actually, and yes, both get used regularly.) On this particular occasion, I used my Crock-Pot to make shredded taco meat, and it was so easy-peasy.

Cast of Characters:
-Whatever cuts of beef you have available. (Here I used a 1 lb cut of round steak and a 1 lb package of round cubed steak. We raise our own beef, so we often have single steaks or odds and ends that need used up. This recipe is perfect. If prefer your meat from the grocery store, check out the clearance meat section and pick up whatever beef cut is on sale. It will work and be delicious.)
-Jar of Salsa (I made a ship-ton of red and green salsa this past summer. A pint jar is a good amount)
-Taco Seasoning (as much or as little as you and your family prefer.)

Directions:
-Add meat to the slow-cooker. This meat thawed overnight, but frozen can work too if the cuts are thin.
-Dump in salsa and sprinkle in taco seasoning.
-Cook on *low* for 7-10 hours. 7-8 if meat is thawed, 10 if it's frozen.
-Get the kids up, dressed and fed, drink a sip or two of coffee, get yourself dressed, change shirts after the baby smears yogurt on the first one, do your hair, do the children's hair, brush the children's teeth, brush your own teeth, make sure all bags are properly packed and in the car, get sweatshirts on everyone, get shoes on everyone, load and buckle everyone in the car, run back inside because someone forgot something, finally, finally leave the house. Oh, and look at the baby and be marveled, once again, that she really does have the most beautiful eyes.

Later, when you get home, take two forks and shred the meat. Use it however you like to use taco meat. Crunchy tacos, soft tacos, taco salad, as a hearty nacho topping, or like I used it, in a Taco Rice Bowl.

Rice Bowls are usually a hit in our house, mostly because they can be individualized and each family member can take ownership in preparing their own dinner. In addition to the taco meat, I cooked up some long-grain rice, heated a can of corn, chopped some lettuce and spinach, and grated some cheese. (Depending on how busy a certain evening is expected to be, I prep a lot of those items ahead of time.)

My Taco Rice Bowl has a bit of rice, some delicious shredded taco beef, a scoop of corn, a large handful of spinach, and a sprinkling of cheese. I happily ate every bite.

My 5-year old daughter's Taco Rice Bowl has rice, beef, corn, iceberg lettuce, a lot of cheese, and ranch dressing. She happily ate every bite.

The Husband fixed his own and also ate every bite and the baby shoved the meal's components into her mouth until she was full. There was plenty of meat left that got turned into work-day lunches for me and the Husband and I will re-purpose the rest of the meat into enchiladas, or quesadillas next week.

Ya know, the good kind of chicken!! (Chicken tenders)

Every Sunday, I have one of my kids pick what we are having for dinner and then they help me make it. My oldest is actually becoming pretty good at cooking, my second child is learning, my third is always so creative with what he wants to make, and my fourth is still to young to help in the kitchen. This Sunday was child #3's turn. This is the conversation before we started making dinner:

Me: What do you want for dinner?
#3: Chicken.
Me: Okay, sounds good. What kind?
#3: Ya know, the good kind of chicken!!

Well I wasn't too sure what he meant, so I started showing him different recipes. I finally figured out that he wanted fried chicken tenders.  He also wanted, a rainbow fruit and veggie plate, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate milk. So, here we go!!

I missed a picture of the ziploc bag full of flour and chicken pieces. Ooops!

This is bowl #2 with buttermilk. I was out of buttermilk, so I was going to milk 1 tsp lemon juice with 1 cup of milk. Guess what, I was out of lemon juice. Oh man! What to do, what to do? I had milk and sour cream. I mixed a few tablespoon of sour cream to the milk and that seamed to do the trick. If you are missing an ingredient, just roll with it and use what you can find.

Bowl #3, 2 sleeves of crushed saltine crackers, 1 cup flour, onion powder, garlic salt, and paprika. My helper for the day loved getting to mix and get his hands all flourey and goopy.

Fry on each side until inside reached 165 degrees. This will take 4-5 minutes for side depending on how thick your tenders are. My helper was mad because I wouldn't let him be around the hot oil while the tenders were frying. Better safe then sorry.

When the tenders are done, I put them on a cookie sheet with paper towels on the bottom. I also turn the oven on warm and put each batch of fried tenders in so keep them warm until everything is done.

Release the natives!!! The tenders didn't last long, they never do.

I couldn't help it, I had to add a picture of his rainbow fruit and veggie try. Yep, he did that 100% by himself.

I have no idea how long this recipe took. But I do know that I got to spend over 2 hours in the kitchen with my little buddy!! And that is more important than how good the food turned out or how long it took. (Luckily it turned out great!)

And FYI - if you are making chocolate chip cookies and you are out of white sugar, have no fear. I used all brown sugar for both sugars and they turned out awesome. I'm going to start making all my chocolate chip cookies with only brown sugar. Again, you just roll with it and use what you have.

Fried Chicken Tenders

3 lbs chicken breast 

2 sleeves of saltine crackers 

2 cups flour 

1 cup buttermilk 

salt 

pepper 

1/2 teaspoon onion powder 

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 

1/2 teaspoon paprika 

Vegetable oil for frying 

Cut chicken into tender sizes. Fill a mixing bowl half way with water and add several tablespoons of salt. Put tenders into salt water. Let sit as long as you are able to. I put mine in the salt water in the morning and then cooked them later that day. When you are ready to fry your chicken prepare 3 bowls with the following: Bowl (or ziploc bag) #1, 1 cup of flour and salt and pepper to taste. Bowl #2, buttermilk. Bowl #3, 2 sleeves of crushed saltine crackers, 1 cup flour, onion powder, garlic salt, and paprika. This is a good time to get your frying pan and oil hot and ready to fry the chicken. Fill frying pan about 1/2 way with oil. 

Put a few tenders in bowl/ziploc #1 and shack, covering the chicken well in flour. Remove from flour and  shake off excess. Dip in buttermilk bowl. Remove and cover very well in saltine cracker mixture. Add to the fry pan with hot oil, (oil should be around 325 degrees). Fry on each side for 3-5 minutes depending on how thick your chicken tenders are. Chicken must be cooked to 165 degree to be safe to eat. When chicken is done remove from hot oil with tongs and put on a cook sheet that has paper towels on it. Careful, the oil is very hot and can burn you easily!! I use my electric skillet and it takes about 2.5 batches to get all of the chicken cooked.  

Classic White Bread and Mac & Cheese

Making bread has always been my nemesis when it comes to baking. Mine always ended up flat and heavy or raises way too much. After years of trying many many recipes, I finally found one that works. It is not labor intensive and if I am not exact of the time, it still seems to work out just fine.

I use my finger to check how hot the milk is. Don't let the milk boil! The milk should be just hot enough that you can stand to put your finger in it without burning yourself. (Don't worry, I just washed my hands before I did this)

I warm up my mixing bowl so the warm milk doesn't cool again from a cold metal bowl

After 5 minutes, the yeast should be a little puffy and brownish whitish. Mine sat about 12 minutes because there was a bonk on the head I had to kiss better and a child to help feel better. 

And of course, my time can't be spent just on the bread. The kids wanted some lunch!

Add everything except the flour, then mix. I mix my egg in a separate bowl and then add it, you don't want any eggshells. Nothing says delicious homemade bread like crunching on an eggshell! 

Add flour and mix on speed 1 for 5 minutes

While the dough is mixing, its time to help out with the Mac and Cheese.

After about 5 minutes your dough should look like this. Since I was helping mix mac and cheese, I think this is about 7 minutes later.

Finally after 30 minutes I have the dough ready to rise. I know in the directions it says it should only take 10 minutes to get to this point, but with kids and other distractions, 30 minutes is the reality. I turn the oven on warm when the dough is mixing. Before I put the dough and mixing bowl in the oven I make sure the oven is OFF.

The recipe says to raise dough for 45 minutes, but I had some other things that I had to take care of so I got back to the dough after an hour or so.

Punch down the dough and put it into an oil sprayed loaf pan. Spray the top of the dough has as well.

Cover the dough and put it in a warm place. I turn the oven onto 350 degrees and put the pan on the stove next to where the warm air comes out of the over.

Why not take a nap while the bread rises? Seems like a good idea to me. I guess my helper wore herself out.

After 30 minutes of rising. When it comes to the final rise and baking, those you do have to be better about paying attention to the time. If dough rises too much, it will fall or be too soft and fall apart when you cut it. Watch the baking time or the bread will get to hard and crusted.

After 25 minutes, your bread is already. This isn't the prettiest loaf I have made, but it's not a beauty contest. The bread still tastes great!

And after 10 minutes this is what your bread should look like! You won't have much bread left, but instead you will have a very happy family!! (Yes, I know the bread is cut very crooked, I guess that's what happens when you don't cut the bread fast enough and one of your older kids tries to cut their own slice).

Classic White Bread

1 1/4 cups of milk

3 T sugar

2 t Saf-Instant Yeast

1 large egg

1 1/2 t salt

1 1/2 T softened butter

4 cups flour

Warm milk in microwave for 1 minute, stir, warm for 30 seconds, stir. When you touch the milk with your finger you should be able to just stand having your finger in the milk. Put warm milk in your mixing bowl. Add the sugar, mix with whisk. Then mix in the yeast. Let the yeast proof for 5 minutes (just set the bowl down and walk away for 5 minutes, the yeast is just getting soft and "waking up"). After 5 minutes, add the egg, salt, and butter to the milk mixture. Whisk all of those together, making sure the egg is mixed in well. Add the 4 cups of flour. Attach the dough hook. Turn on Kitchen-Aid on speed 1 for 5 minutes. I just set the timer and walk away. The dough should pull off sides of bowl easily. However, once I made it and the dough was slightly sticky and not pull off the sides super easily, and it still worked just fine. Put about 1 T of oil in the bowl and on your hands. Use your hands to move the dough around so the bowl and dough get oiled. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Let raise for 45 minutes in a warm spot. I turn my oven onto warm for 5 minutes then turn it off and then put the bowl in the over, works every time. After 45 minutes the dough will have doubled or more in size. Take out the dough and punch it down. Spray 1 loaf pan. Put dough into pan. Let rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes or  until the dough has risen 1 inch above the pan. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.