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Grandpa’s Pancakes

It has been a HOT MINUTE since I posted a recipe! I promise I still cook. Most of the time.

This recipe is one that I have wanted to share but I AM HAVING THE HARDEST TIME. The recipe itself it a simple one, but it brings back SO MANY wonderful memories.

Ever since I can remember, my dad has been up before 8 on Saturday mornings making pancakes. Usually, these pancakes are made from flour that was freshly ground in the grinder that had just woken me up, but did I mind? Not that I remember! That grinder is the sound of Saturday mornings!

While I have no idea how this tradition started (maybe my grandpa started it)? It has continued on!

After the oldest flew the coop, Saturday morning pancakes was the time they would come back. One time, my brother drove through the night from Missouri to Utah to surprise us just in time for pancakes. Friends and extended family are invited. It can sometimes be a huge ordeal!

When I left for college, I also made sure that my own trips home included pancakes.

You just don’t miss them.

Why are they so good? Perhaps because they are usually made with freshly ground flour. Or because my dad has perfected the art of pouring, and flipping them. It could also be because they are served at 8 am on the dot. Most likely though, it because they are always shared with excellent conversation with people we love. ❤️

Without any further ado, here it is folks!

Grandpa’s Pancakes

Perfect, traditional, breakfast pancakes! 🥞 These are best served with butter, maple syrup, and milk.
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Course Breakfast
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups Flour whole wheat is good, but my fav has whole and white 👌
  • 2 tbsp Sugar
  • 2 tbsp Baking Powder
  • 2 cups Milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cups oil

Instructions
 

  • Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl first. Then create an indention in the middle and add the wet. Mix the wet together and then incorporate the dry. It is ok if it's a little lumpy.

If you need a griddle, check this one out in my shop. I LOVE THIS GRIDDLE! And I rarely have strong opinions about kitchen appliances. It cooks evenly, fits 8 pancakes at once (if you’re a good flipper like me 😏), and doesn’t take up a ton of room. Mind you, the one Grandpa uses is much larger, fitting 12 pancakes. You can find that one here.

And lastly, it is important to note that Grandpa’s Pancakes are NEVER served with store bought syrup. Stay tuned for the maple syrup we use!

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Choose Your Own Adventure- salad edition

After a few days of eating crappy, my body could not handle any more!
So I decided to go low calorie tonight, while making it fun!

I started by cutting and washing a head of green lettuce.
While that dried ( I DO NOT like dripping lettuce, it is kind of a pet peeve of mine), I cut up vegetables in rainbow order, because it’s pretty.

The I put lettuce in the bowls, the chopped veggies on the cutting board, and all the dressing options. The kids then decided WHAT to put in, which makes them WANT to eat it more!

Knowing full well that a salad would never really fill us up, I also made a fruit and protein smoothie that I think was a hit. 🙌

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Chicken Spaghetti

Alright y’all. This one is definitely one of my top 5 favorite meals, both to make and to eat. It’s easy, delicious, tastes like home, FAST. Seriously, one of the best meals to know how to make.

As per usual, feel free to have some give and take with these ingredients! I have listed what I did the last time I made it.

Ingredients

  • Pasta (1/2 lb.)
  • Chicken (1 breast)
  • Onions (1/2 yellow or white)
  • Celery (2-5 stalks, depending on how many veggies you still need to get your servings for the day 😜)
  • Olives (1/2 can chopped, or sliced)
  • Cream of Chicken Soup (1 can)
  • Shredded Cheese (1/2 cup)
They love to help cut the olives!

Instructions

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and cook in a frying pan.

Sauté the onions and celery and start the pasta.

Put the chicken and veggies together in the pan as well as one can of cream of chicken soup, including most of the can of water. *I add it a little at a time until it has reached the consistency I want which is often based on what pasta I use.

When the soup is all warm, add the olives and a handful of shredded cheese.

Once the pasta is done, I like to add it to my soup mixture.

It is a wonderful and easy meal! I hope you enjoy!

While I usually use spaghetti, egg noodles were fun.
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Tin Foil Dinners

One of my favorite things about camping is tin foil dinners cooked in the fire. The combination of flavors mixed with the cool mountain air and sounds of a river are a happy place for me.

I love making them to cook over a fire or on a grill, but they can also be made in your oven.

I am sure there are a million different ways to make them, but here’s what we do!

Ingredients
  • Ground Beef
  • Cream of Mushroom soup
  • Onions
  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Garlic Salt
  • Onion Powder
  • Pepper
Instructions
  • First I cut the carrots, potatoes, and onions into bite sized pieces *if you want it to cook quicker, slice the carrots and potatoes thinner
  • Lay out the tin foil that has been cut about 18″ long.
  • Lay a spoonful of the soup in the center of the foil
  • Place a ground beef patty on top and season
  • Add another spoonful of soup on top of that
  • Put the veggies on top of the soup
  • Roll up the foil and flatten a little bit to help it cook evenly.

When they are all rolled and ready to go, place them in the fire or grill. Depending on how hot your fire is, they can take anywhere from 20-40 minutes. I usually determine that mine is done by checking the meat pinkness and carrot tenderness.

If you are cooking yours at home, cook them on a sheet in an oven that was preheated to 375 degrees for 45 minutes, flipping them at 25 minutes.

They were so fun and delicious! Hope you enjoy!

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Baked Oatmeal

At our house, we LOVE breakfast. And oats, and cinnamon. This simple, yummy oatmeal combines all three, plus even more goodness. I first tried this while living in Uruguay, and have since made modifications until I feel like it is just right. This has been a family favorite for some time, and I hope you enjoy this new twist on an often boring breakfast food.

  • 3 c oats
  • ½ c brown sugar
  • 2 t baking powder
  • ½ t salt
  • 2 t cinnamon 
  • ½ t nutmeg
  • 1 c milk
  • 2 t vanilla
  • ¼ c melted butter

Prepare your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all dry ingredients. I love to add two HEAPING teaspoons of cinnamon. If you want sweeter oatmeal, add more sugar.

To melt the butter, pour your milk in a microwave safe liquid measuring cup, like this one. Put your butter in the milk, and microwave both on high for about 2 minutes, checking/stirring every 30 seconds. Add the vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then dump the bowl into your 9×13 baking dish and push  around until relatively flat.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Best served with warm milk. Enjoy!

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Protein Waffles

Waffle Wednesday was a thing in our household for quite sometime. I didn’t make a whole ton of waffles until last year when I was working with a personal trainer who sent me this FANTASTIC recipe! It is SOOO yummy. And I can honestly say I like them more than regular waffles.
The origin of the recipe is hard to find, but I got it on heidipowell.net. I always double it for our big Belgian waffle maker, so these are the things I do:

1 cup Cottage Cheese
1 cup Water
4 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
4 teaspoon Olive Oil
2 2/3 cup Oats (quick or traditional)

The best part about this: THROW IT ALL IN A BLENDER! It mixes quickly and is all ready to pour.

Also, my husband and children just love to dip their waffles. Less dishes to do! Healthy meal, and OH SO YUMMY!

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Sweet Potato Hash

I am one of those people who cooks the same 5 things on repeat. This recipe is one of my family FAVORITES! And I made it at least once a week for half of 2019. Of course, no two times were exactly the same (I have problems with consistency) but every way I have made it has been a hit. Once again I will list some amounts, but you can change up the proportions until it looks good.

Sometimes we eat this with rice, however if you are trying to limit carbs, this can stand on its own too.

Shopping List:
-Chicken Breast (1 or 2 for our family of 4)
-Sweet potatoes 4ish
-Apple (gala) 1/2-1
-Onion 1/2-1
-Garlic Salt
-Olive Oil
-Poultry seasoning

Start by cutting the sweet potatoes apples and onions into bite sized sizes. Coat them in a little bit of olive oil and season with garlic salt and parsley. Mix it ALL (yes, the apples too) on a sheet pan and bake in a preheated oven at 415 degrees fahrenheit for 20-ish minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender.

While those are in the oven, cut the chicken into cubes and cook in a fry pan in some olive oil and season with poultry seasoning. When they are all done, mix the chicken with the sweet potatoes, onions and apples.

Voila! Delicious sweet potato hash.

Tips:
Like I said earlier, I have done it many times, different ways. To date, these are my favorites:
-Red onions are the BEST when you have apples
-I usually use about half a gala apple to 4 sweet potatoes HOWEVER apples are really optional
-Soy sauce is not a bad addition

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German Pancakes

If your house is like ours, there are never enough edges to go around when German pancakes are for breakfast! But several years ago, probably because I didn’t have a clean cake pan and didn’t want to do dishes, I stumbled upon a simple solution: use a cupcake pan!

We make the recipe just the same, divide the butter between the cupcake tins and fill them 1/2 full.

Now everyone gets edges! And they are fun to dip.

The recipe we use:

• 6T butter
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• pinch of salt
• larger pinch of sugar (optional)

While preheating oven time 400 degrees Fahrenheit, place the butter in 24 individual cupcake tins (quarter tablespoon each) OR two 9” cake pans OR in a 9×13 pan. Put in the oven while you mix the rest of the ingredients.

Pull the melted butter out and fill the pans or cupcake tins 1/2 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until peaks turn brown.

Tips:
-I let my butter get a little browned because I LOVE BROWNED BUTTER

-I like to put my ingredients in a blender, while that doesn’t make it “poof” any better, it makes the pancake as a whole more fluffy.

-Sometimes I don’t do a full 6 Tablespoons of butter in the 9×13 pan.

– If you want more peaks, pour the batter into different parts of the pan, the peaks will come up where you pour!

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Buttah buttah

Want a great activity for you kids that takes time, burns energy, and ends up with something useful?

Have I got the activity for you!

HOMEMADE BUTTER.

That’s right! You can do this at home, with stuff you probably have. I remembered doing this at some point during elementary school and thought it was fairly simple. When I looked it up last week, my memory was correct! This could not be any easier.

Instructions:

  • Add 1/4 teaspoon salt to 2 cups heavy cream.
  • Shake, mix, churn, dance, etc. until it becomes butter!
  • Pour off the liquid whey and
  • Enjoy!!

I decided to try a ziplock bag but then thought that a ziplock bag might not be able to hold under the strength of a 2 year old boy, so I put his back in the carton for mixing.

It was so much fun! It took up quite a bit of time, and the kids loved tasting it at the end.