Breakfast Time - Pancakes

Next to oatmeal I think pancakes are my favourite breakfast. In fact, when my husband takes me out for breakfast I always order pancakes. Some times I think, "Today I will get something different." But when the waitress comes I always end up getting the pancakes. What can I say? I love pancakes - buttered and dripping in syrup.

 

As we had more children and they got older and started eating more I started doubling and then tripling a pancake recipe. I finally developed the recipe I'm sharing today. It makes 30-36 pancakes. I usually use the time while the pancakes are on the griddle to fold laundry, wash dishes, nurse a baby, do a French braid. It takes about an hour from the time I start mixing the recipe until I have it on the table. We usually have some form of eggs to go along with it. I like a tea, but the rest of my family love their coffee (well, the little ones love coffee, but they're not allowed to have it yet ☺).

 

I usually stack the pancakes on a cookie sheet as I make them and then put them in a warm oven. Sometimes I transfer them to a fancy serving platter. Most times I just bring them to the table on the cookie sheet. They're generally gone in about fifteen minutes. If there are any left, the children eat them cold with peanut butter for a snack later in the day. (I say later. This does not mean what you think it does. It can actually be only a half an hour since we finished breakfast.) Leftover pancakes do not usually make it to lunch time.

One of my sisters likes peanut butter and syrup on her pancakes. Pancakes are easy to do add-ons. You can add banana slices or blueberries or chocolate chips. I've made different kinds of syrup. They are just so easy to personalize which is one thing that I think makes them fun.

 

Pancakes

 

6 eggs

3 tbsp. honey

1/2 cup applesauce or oil

2 cups water

2 cups yogurt (or substitute 4 cups buttermilk for the water and yogurt)

1-2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

7 cups whole wheat flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

 

Whisk the eggs and then add the honey, applesauce, water and yogurt. Mix the dry ingredients and add them to the wet ingredients. Mix well. Use 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake on a medium-high griddle. When bubbles break on the surface and the bottom is golden brown, flip. Cook for another couple of minutes. Serve warm with butter and syrup.



 

ready to be flipped

 

ready to go into the oven to stay warm

soon to be an empty plate

Here is some more about pancakes from another Laura Ingalls Wilder book - The Long Winter.

"Almanzo and Royal were eating supper. Almanzo had stacked the pancakes with brown sugar and he had made plenty of them. Royal had eaten halfway down his stack, Almanzo was nearing the bottom of his, and one tall stack of two dozen pancakes, dripping melted brown sugar, was standing untouched when Pa knocked at the door. Royal opened it.

"'Come in, Mr. Ingalls! Sit up and have some pancakes with us!' Royal invited him...

"After some talk about it, Almanzo charged a quarter and Pa paid it. Then he did sit down, as they urged him, and lifting the blanket cake on the untouched pile, he slipped from under it a section of the stack of hot, syrupy pancakes. Royal forked a brown slice of ham from the frying pan onto Pa's plate and Almanzo filled his coffee cup.

"'You boys certainly live in the lap of luxury,' Pa remarked. The pancakes were no ordinary pancakes. Almanzo followed his mother's pancake rule and the cakes were light as foam, soaked through with melted brown sugar. The ham was sugar-cured and hickorysmoked, from the Wilder farm in Minnesota. 'I don't know when I've eaten a tastier meal,' said Pa."

How do you like your pancakes?

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French Toast

French toast is something I don't often make which is kind of funny because I loved this as a child and teenager. I still like French toast, but we eat bread pretty much every day for lunch so I don't much feel like having it at breakfast too.

 

I've put together a list of links for various French toast recipes. Hopefully there will be something that will tickle your fancy.





 

Apple and Brie Stuffed French Toast - This looks like a little bit of extra work, but, oh, does it look good. I think I just may have to try this one day.

 

Baked French Toast Muffins - This one looks good too and can be made the night before - just get up in the morning and pop them in the oven - no mess, no clean-up.

 

Baked Strawberry French Toast - Another one to get ready the night before.

 

Pumpkin French Toast - I'm not crazy about pumpkin, but I know some people love it so maybe this will excite you.

 

French Toast Waffles - An interesting idea. Use you waffle iron to cook your French toast.

 

French Toast Kabobs - A fun idea that the children would love.

 

Banana Bread French Toast - I'm not sure I could get banana bread to last long enough around here to make French toast with it, but it sounds yummy.

 

Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast Casserole - This looks so decadent and wonderful, and I love the syrup recipe.

 

Nutella French Toast Rolls - Another fun one for the children - Who am I kidding? If it has Nutella, I'll eat it.

 

Peach French Toast - I love peaches. These sandwiches would be so good.

 

Now it's your turn. Do you have a favourite way of preparing French Toast?

Have you entered the giveaway?

To see all the posts in this series go here.

 

Breakfast Time - Muffins

I had something else planned for this post about muffins, but it fell through. I'll have to work on getting it put together at a later date. In the meantime, I searched the internet and came up with a list of muffin recipe and ideas plus added my favourite muffin recipe at the end.

 

Did you know you can freeze muffin batter? Laura at Heavenly Homemakers explains how to do it. Just think you could have a freezer full of muffins to bake just when you needed them. Fresh and hot muffins with no mess - how great is that? This is something I definitely want to do with my middle daughter who loves to bake. We don't usually have muffins for breakfast, but we eat them a lot for snacks.

Chocolate Overload Muffins - If it has chocolate I'm all over that. ☺

 

 

Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins - Strawberry and cream cheese a beautiful combination.

 

 

 

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins - My children would like these.

 

Oatmeal Flax Blueberry Muffins - These look delicious AND healthy.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - Lemon is my favourite flavour after chocolate. These look fantastic.

 

And here is one of my favourite muffins to make when I need a filling muffin for my hungry tribe. I found this recipe in a newspaper and used it numerous times ever since. I had been on the search for a good raisin bran muffin recipe, and this is it. These muffins are a generous size. They are tasty and filling. Sometimes we have them with peanut butter on top for a little extra protein.

 

Raisin Bran Muffins

 

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 large egg

1/2 cup butter - melted and cooled

1/3 cup molasses

1 1/2 cup raisins

 

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or grease well.

Stir wheat bran and buttermilk together and let sit for 10 minutes (or not - I don't always ~wink~)

Mix dry ingredients. Add eggs, butter and molasses to the buttermilk mixture.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and scatter raisins on top. Mix gently just until dry ingredients are incorporated.

Fill muffin cups (they will be full). Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins. 

What is your favourite muffin flavour?

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To see all the posts in this series go here.

Breakfast in Literature

Quite often food is mentioned in literature. We relate to people when they eat because it's one way we relate to each other in life as well.

 

One book in particular comes to mind - Farmer Boy - by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The meals Almanzo and his family eat are often described dish after delicious dish. Just to whet your appetite for the book here is an example of one breakfast.

"When Almanzo trudged into the kitchen next morning with two brimming milk-pails, Mother was making stacked pancakes because this was Sunday.

The big blue platter on the stove's hearth was full of plump sausage cakes; Eliza Jane was cutting apple pies and Alice was dishing up oatmeal, as usual. But the little blue platter stood hot on the back of the stove, and ten stacks of pancakes rose in tall towers on it.

Ten pancakes cooked on the smoking griddle, and as fast as they were done Mother added another cake to each stack and buttered it lavishly and covered it with maple sugar. Butter and sugar melted together and soaked the fluffy pancakes and dripped all down their crisp edges.

That was stacked pancakes. Almanzo liked them better than any other kind of pancakes.

Mother kept on frying them till the others had eaten their oatmeal. She could never make too many stacked pancakes. They all ate pile after pile of them..."

Now compare that with Jane Eyre's first breakfast at Lockwood.

"The refectory was a great, low-ceiled, gloomy room; on two long tables smoked basins of something hot, which, however, to my dismay, sent forth an odour far from inviting. I saw a universal manifestation of discontent when the fumes of the repast met the nostrils of those destined to swallow it; from the van of the procession, the tall girls of the first class, rose the whispered words -

'Disgusting! The porridge is burnt again!'  

'Silence!' ejaculated a voice; ... A long grace was said and a hymn sung; then a servant brought in some tea for the teachers, and the meal began.

Ravenous, and now very faint, I devoured a spoonful or two of my portion without thinking of its taste; but the first edge of hunger blunted, I perceived I had got in hand a nauseous mess; burnt porridge is almost as bad as rotten potatoes; famine itself soon sickens over it. The spoons were moved slowly: I saw each girl taste her food and try to swallow it; but in most cases the effort was soon relinquished. Breakfast was over, and none had breakfasted. Thanks being returned for what we had not got, and a second hymn chanted, the refectory was evacuated for the schoolroom. I was one of the last to go out, and in passing the tables, I saw one teacher take a basin of the porridge and taste it; she looked at the others; all their countenances expressed displeasure, and one of them, the stout one, whispered -

'Abominable stuff! How shameful!'"

I would imagine your breakfast falls somewhere in between these two. ~smile~

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Breakfast Time - Oatmeal

Oatmeal - I love it. For me it is absolutely the best breakfast. We like to have steel cut oats. They're less processed than rolled oats and therefore more nutritious. Right now our supplier is out so we are enjoying rolled oats instead.

 

I have found that a ratio of two to one works for any kind of oatmeal - two parts of liquid to one part of oatmeal. Steel cut oats take longer to cook unless you soak them overnight. That's not a problem for us because we also make eggs to go with our breakfast so we have something to do while waiting. Not that we're ever at a lack of things to do around here. ☺

 

Oatmeal is so versatile. You can add almost anything you want to it. Sometimes we have a buffet. We pull every topping imaginable out of the cupboards and fridge - brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, nuts, jam, dried fruit, cream, milk, etc. Then the children can have what they want.

Sometimes I need a faster option for oatmeal. I found this recipe on http://heavenlyhomemakers.com for making instant oatmeal like the kind you pay big bucks for at the grocery store. I ate a lot of those packets growing up, and I have to say that this homemade version tastes like the store-bought only better. Better because I know exactly what's in it. And that would be TWO ingredients. This is so simple to make and my children love having it for a bedtime snack. It's so easy that even my eight-year-old daughter can make up a bowl to feed her baby brother.

You need ten cups of rolled oats and two cups of brown sugar. Dump seven cups of the oats into a large bowl. Take the other three cups and blend them up. This helps the oatmeal to thicken when you "cook" it. I love my little coffee mill. I have never used it for coffee, but I do use it for grinding up oatmeal, coconut, almonds, etc.

 So here are the rolled oats. Seconds later oat flour.

Add the oat flour to the oats and two cups of brown sugar. Mix it well and transfer it to a jar. Some people put it in small, portion-size Ziploc bags. I prefer a jar. Often I give my toddler and baby just half of a portion.

This jar would have been a lot fuller, but four of my children wanted a bowl of oatmeal since I had just made the mix. I put the ratio of mix and boiling water on the lid. I have to admit though, that I have found you don't need quite the amount of water recommended. It's a bit soupy. Experiment to get the proportion you want. Also, after adding the boiling water let it sit for a couple of minutes. We always put a plate on top to help hold the heat in.

 

 

This is a picture of the oatmeal with some cream mixed in. Sometimes we add raisins and/or almonds. Again, the possibilities are endless. You could leave out the sugar and just add maple syrup or honey every time you make it. A new taste every time if you want.

The baby enjoys this at night for a bedtime snack.

We also enjoy other hot cereals like Cream of Wheat, Cream of Brown Rice, and a cereal that is apparently unique to Canada - Red River Cereal (a mix of wheat, rye and flax). Virtually any grain can be turned into a hot cereal. Our favourite though will always be oatmeal.

How about you? Do you like hot cereals?

Don't forget to enter our giveaway.

Breakfast Time - Giveaway

So what can make getting breakfast ready more fun? Not a cup of coffee - that just makes it doable. An apron! and as a bonus a matching potholder.

 

And here's the apron you can win this week. Don't these colours make you happy? Who wouldn't like to make breakfast while wearing this apron?

 

 

 

 

So - the details - how can you win?

• Leave a comment on any "Breakfast Time" post - one chance for every comment
• Share this giveaway on Facebook - leave a comment when you have shared
• Follow me on Pinterest - leave a comment when you follow

I will pick a winner Sunday night, May 11th.

 

Breakfast Time - The "Ideal" Breakfast

At the side of the post you will see that I've put a poll up for us to design the "ideal" breakfast. This is just something  I thought would be fun to do. Every day I will update the poll with the results from the previous day. So please vote, and let's see what we come up with. ☺

Breakfast Time - Introduction

My favourite meal of the day is breakfast, and my favourite breakfast if oatmeal. I could eat oatmeal every day and not tire of it. I've been known to have it for breakfast and for a bedtime snack. However, my children  are not quite as enthusiastic as I am about oatmeal. So every once in a while we take a break from oatmeal (sigh) and do something different. I thought it would be fun to do a series featuring all different kinds of breakfast foods.  If nothing else, my children will have some variety in their breakfasts for a while as we try out other kinds of breakfast meals.

 

We'll have posts on cereals - hot and cold, pancakes, muffins, coffee cakes, eggs, etc. We'll also have a voting tournament to come up with an "ideal" breakfast, and one day we'll have a guest posting. It's going to be a lot of fun including a giveaway. So get ready for a few days of yummy breakfast ideas.

While you're waiting for these posts, you can check out Wikipedia's article on the "History of Breakfast" - very interesting. Breakfast has gone up and down in popularity. I totally agree with the current thinking that breakfast is a meal not to be skipped. I don't function well until I have mine. Of course, some of that may have to do with the fact that I still have a baby who nurses several times a night so I generally wake up hungry. ☺

You could also check out my Pinterest board "Food - Breakfast" for more ideas on what to make for breakfast including some you can make the night before or put in the freezer for busy mornings.

What's your favourite breakfast?
 

linked to: Made By You Monday and The Homestead Hop