Monday Motivation (breakfast mealplan)

  Let's do another week of breakfast.  Breakfast meal plans are super easy for me.  I usually have all the ingredients for multiple meals, it's one meal that is appreciated by everyone in the house and I like the start of a new day.


Monday: pancakes
https://pocketchangegourmet.com/old-fashioned-homemade-pancakes/

Tuesday: eggs and toast
No recipe necessary! Just keeping it simple. I would even make an omelet but, the little people won't eat that.

Wednesday: muffins
https://www.craftsy.com/cake-decorating/article/carrot-cake-muffins/

Thursday: coffee cake 
This recipe is from my recipe box and doesn't use the Bisquick mix I have seen posted.  It used flour.

Friday: donuts
https://www.lovefromtheoven.com/valentines-day-donuts/


 There you go! That's what will be starting our mornings with! What is your morning plan?

It's OK (by me)

It's that time again. A time to reflect on what we did a little less then perfect but, who cares!  Shake it off! It's ok! I'm going to play along with airingmylaundry today as I tell you what items/events/activities are OK by me.

Check out her latest post here.

 It's OK that I watched all the episodes of Celebrity Big Brothers.  I was team Ross but, I didn't lose sleep over it.

 It's OK that I guess I have started in on a new reality show because I watched the new Survivor last night.

  It's OK I made some really good breakfast meals (muffins, crepes, oatmeal) this week and my son has eaten cereal everyday.  

  It's OK that I'm excited to see the unseen Roseanne episodes.  I liked watching those episodes and am looking forward to the laughs!

  Its OK that I have taken tonight off because the kids get daddy time.  

  What are you OK with this week?  Do you watch reality shows?  What was you favorite show growing up?

Monday Motivation (Breakfast Mealplan)

  Breakfast is my motivation again this week.

Monday: We had donuts.  Not homemade. The store bought kind.  Of course there were no complaints only fights over how many each of them could eat.

Tuesday: Oatmeal
https://www.marthastewart.com/315903/strawberry-oatmeal-breakfast

Wednesday: Muffins
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6865/to-die-for-blueberry-muffins/

Thursday: Crepes
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16383/basic-crepes/

Friday:  Fruit Smoothie and breakfast cookie
https://www.shelikesfood.com/healthy-baked-oatmeal-breakfast-cups-6-ways

  There we have it breakfast is the most important meal of the day!   I will have some happy people this week!

  Have a great week and don't forget to eat your breakfast!  What's your favorite breakfast?

Monday Motivation (Breakfast menu)

  They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day!  Who am I to question that?  So I will just eat it and go on with my day.

  I have found that we can stretch milk by adding hot meals to our week.  The kids don't complain about cereal everyday but a little variety is nice. Thankfully most breakfast items are eagerly accepted.

  This is our breakfast meal plan for the week!

Monday: Waffles
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/waffles/f4760054-72a9-4316-9377-f636dd58bc8e

Tuesday:
Egg and cheese quesadilla

Wednesday:
French Toast

Thursday: Muffins
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/basic-banana-muffins

Friday:Yogurt

  Planning breakfast doesn't have to be hard.  I think it's way easier then dinner plans but, that's not the point.  The point is planning makes life so much easier, offers variety and challenges me with new recipes sometimes.

  A lot of people have a busy morning.  On a slow, easy going morning what do you make for breakfast?  What's your favorite breakfast?

5 Reasons to Meal Plan

  There are multiple reasons to meal plan.  It does require some organization but your in charge of that.  Whether you want to have a specific theme every Tuesday (Taco Tuesday) or every week you will have a meatless meal.

  Your plan is catered to your needs.  First look at the week ahead.  Do you have any late appointments and if so planning for something quick those nights will help. Frozen pizza or breakfast for dinner work just fine.

1.  It will save you money.  If you have that willpower to drive past that fast food restaurant at 530.

2.  It's healthier for you.   I can agree with this partially because it depends on what you make.  To me a Chipotle salad rates pretty high in the healthy department. Brown Sugar Pork Chops not so much.

3.  You have time.  It doesn't take hours if you don't want it too.  You can cook what you know and what you always do.  I like to torture myself with new recipes.

4.  You feel lifted as the stress of "What's for dinner?", is taken care of. When you get up to start your day you already have a plan for dinner time in the evening.  All day you can relax because you already know what dinner is going to be.  You have the food organized, defrosting or cooking in the crockpot.  You are as good as done with dinner.

5.  Learning is fun!  The more cooking you do; the more home cooking you do you learn different recipes, styles and techniques.  I have learned new chopping features on my food processor.  Tried Gnocchi (and love it)!  I have even almost perfected my roux skills!

  These are only a few reasons.  I am sure there are more reasons of why to meal plan but let's stick with the basics.  What intimidates you about meal plans?

Meal plan 10/24-10/28

  As I go into another week I can't help but be excited as to all the food that I have cooked at home, the successful new recipes, and that my month is almost over and it's time to go shopping!

  Last week we did eat out for dinner so I picked which meal I was keeping and moved one meal to this week.  It works out as I had two pasta nights and that move made one pasta night for each week.

10/24 chicken
 http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/2014/04/fiesta-ranch-chicken-pasta-bake.html?m=1

10/25 meatless
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/vegetables/black-bean-chipotle-burgerx/

10/26 Breakfast
http://damndelicious.net/2013/06/12/breakfast

10/27
http://goldilockskitchen.com/2016/08/corned-beef-hash-huevos-rancheros.html?pp=0

10/29 Leftovers

There you have it! Atleast 2 of these meals are new to us so we shall see how that goes too!  That's what we are eating in my house; what's for dinner in yours?

Chocolate and Strawberries in a Muffin

  It is with great pleasure that I can introduce to you recipe number 13! Chocolate covered strawberries in muffin form.

  Of course I am focusing on the red berry part of the deal but chocolate is a nice compliment to the berry so why not make a recipe with both of them.

  I had made a few things from Sallys Baking Addiction so she's got my seal of approval to try another recipe!

  Tonight with the help of the teen is Chocolate Covered Strawberry Muffins.  I followed the recipe except exchanged the sour cream for two flavors of yogurt. I wasn't instructed to flour the strawberries for the muffins either, yeah!  One less step in the way of snacking.

All ingredients are mixed together in one bowl for the most part.  All ingredients are items you should already have on hand anyways (except I didn't have sour cream because we have been eating a lot of Mexican theme food this week and it seems to make a great condiment for these dishes).

  These muffins were delicious.  The chocolate chips and strawberries are visible and in every bite.  They were moist and it was fun to drizzle the chocolate on top.  The teen was very amused at her muffins tonight!

Here's to my 13th strawberry item on my strawberry monthly challenge!

Check out the recipe here: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2012/07/29/chocolate-covered-strawberry-muffins/

Strawberry Skillet Corn Cake

  Let's keep this strawberry challenge going. I made a breakfast/brunch type item today.  It had a nice complexity to it with its instructions of using a few bowls to mix my ingredients.

  I also utilized that good old skillet.

  Despite the dishes I utilized for this recipe, It was very complicated to make.  You do have to flour up your strawberries but that's the height of anything too fancy for this dish.

  I thought it was a little too sweet.  I didn't have the called for sugar so I used less of the regular sugar but may have to reduce it again next time.  The cake itself held nicely.  You could see as well as taste the cornmeal in it.  It also contained that cornmeal texture.

I can say I  have never eaten as many strawberries as I have in the last 11 days nor made as many new recipes with them.  That in itself is exciting!

Cheers to another strawberry recipe tomorrow!

Check out the recipe here: http://www.yummyhealthyeasy.com/2016/05/strawberry-skillet-corn-cake.html

Pancakes with strawberries

  It's not a good morning unless you start your morning off right!

  Strawberry is the word of the month so let's just get that out of the way!  This morning we are once again starting out with strawberries.  I might add that they do make breakfast a much better experience!  Today we used them in our pancakes!

  I have made this recipe before so since I'm using and sharing it again take that as a promotion.  I think the last time I made it was for a child's birthday.  It was a hit then and was today.

  Its a nice simple recipe.  You can whip it up in no time on any morning.  You should have all the ingredients on hand and even if you didn't have strawberries we did add chocolate chips to one so anything goes!

  We made some with strawberries and sprinkles,

some with then chocolate chips and plain.

I think with enough strawberries you have enough flavor you don't even need to add syrup.

You will find the recipe here:
http://betterbakingbible.com/

Strawberry Muffins

  I am a morning person.  No matter when I go to bed it may be a slow start to get up but I do get it going quickly thereafter.  So I have no problem making, baking, cooking breakfast.  I like to cook but dinnertime is so late in the day it's more of a nuisance.

  Breakfast with strawberries.  If your following me you know I do not make my own recipes.  Maybe one day but not yet.  Instead I search that world, wide Internet until I find one that sounds good but, not necessarily easy.

 Todays recipe comes from Sugar and Soul.  A delicious muffin filled with strawberries and topped with a crumb topping.  A delicious, sweet, moist muffin.  Did I say delicious?

 This recipe was easy with a little bit of some flare.  The crumb makes it look sophisticated and puts the appearance of your already delicious muffin on a whole new level.

 I like when a recipe challenges me.  This one allowed me to make the buttermilk.  Not a real challenge as I know the ratio by heart but it allows me as a home cook to feel a little better about how far my kitchen skills have come.

  Always make you buttermilk first and set it aside.  There are a few ways to make it; find which one fits you and set it to memory.  Why buy it when you can make it?

Mix your ingredients, chop your strawberries

and make your topping!

That's all.  If your quick enough you can do all of this by the time the oven is heated to the right temp.  Lol, although that's not me in this instance.

  Fill your muffin tray (love my silicone cups) with the muffin batter,top them with strawberries

and cover with crumb!

Bake and be hold the beauty of an easy home cooked, sophisticated muffin!

Good to the last crumb!

Find the recipe here to make your own:http://www.sugarandsoul.co/2014/07/strawberry-coffee-cake-muffins.html

Breakfast with Strawberries Day 2

  This is my favorite oatmeal.   I was looking for a strawberry and cream oatmeal similar to the packets but one I can make from scratch and came across this.

You mix milk and water together so I believe that helps the oatmeal to be creamy.  As just water mixed with oatmeal does not enhance the flavor at all.

The topping for this oatmeal is simple and also adds another tasty and creaminess to the oatmeal.

 A dollop of sour cream or yogurt and a handful of strawberries top this bowl of oatmeal making it a nice sweet, flavorful bowl of warm delicious breakfast.

Good Morning Elf (Day 18)

 
  Elf tried to play a game with the little miss this morning.  She had to read the clues to figure out what was being requested.

He had substituted a chef hat in place of his regular elf hat.  He had a frying pan a slice of cake and a card.

The card held a recipe but the child cannot fully read so she had to figure out what Elf was trying to tell her with the other two items.

  Eventually when frying pan cake didn't make sense she tried her luck with pancake.  Bingo!

She was in charge of the cooking of breakfast this morning!

She did a great job mixing up her pancake batter and I am sure after she makes these a few more times she will commit the recipe to heart.  

Momma made the pancakes and I stepped up my game! Check out a couple of my masterpieces!

Thank you Elf for the funniest breakfast we have ever had!

Elf Delivered Custom Doughnuts (day 17)

  Woke up this morning to a creative tasty breakfast.  Elf had used his skills to create some snowmen for us.  I like to add us as if I'm receiving part of the deal.

He sat patiently on the table waiting to be noticed and hoping it would still be breakfast time instead of lunch.

I love catching their first impression.  I don't always get it suprisingly enough.  I may be in the other room or upstairs waiting for them to discover it.

The thoughts that go through their mind I may never know but I think they are having a great time and enjoying the surprise attention they are receiving.

Elf will practice his snowman skills for next year and lighten the frosting application one snowman looks a little spooky.