Buttermilk Pancakes

From: Katie Gilchrist Schaeffer, on Facebook

Ingredients:

2c Flour
2t Baking Powder
2t Baking Soda
2T Sugar
2 Eggs
2c Buttermilk
2T Butter, melted
1T Vanilla
Pinch of Salt
~1c Milk Chocolate Chips, if desired.

Directions:

Beat eggs in bowl.  Add buttermilk and mix slightly.  Add all ingredients except flour.  Mix until just blended.  Add flour.  Do not overmix.  Mix in chocolate chips.  

Hot Mama Notes:  This is a very meaty pancake recipe.  It's more dense/heavy than it is light and fluffy.  It is a big hit with our family, and we make it often.  :)  YUM!

Hot Mama Grade: A 

Cake Mix Pancakes - Red Velvet or Other!!!

http://www.purewow.com/entry_detail/recipe/9070/It-doesnt-get-sexier-than-red-velvet-pancakes.htm

Ingredients

Red Velvet Pancakes

2 cups red velvet cake mix

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 egg

1 cup whole milk

Nonstick spray, for cooking

Cream Cheese Icing

6 tablespoons whipped cream cheese

4 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

4 tablespoons heavy cream

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make the pancakes: In a large bowl, whisk the cake mix with the butter, egg and milk to combine. Work out any lumps with the whisk to make sure the batter is smooth.

2. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, spritz it with nonstick spray and reduce the heat to low (to prevent the pancakes from becoming too dark).

3. Working in batches, ladle the batter into the skillet and cook until bubbles begin to rise from the center of the pancakes, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the pancakes and continue cooking 1 to 2 minutes more. Remove the pancakes to a plate and cover with a towel to keep warm.

4. Make the icing: Using a whisk or hand mixer, combine the cream cheese with the sugar, cream and vanilla.

5. To serve, pile the pancakes onto plates and top generously with icing.

Breakfast Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup (1 small jar) strained carrot baby food
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup bran cereal flakes
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup walnut

Directions

Place rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Combine butter, oil and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high speed, scraping down sides if necessary, until sugars have dissolved and mixture is light in color, about 1 minute. Add egg, carrot puree and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add flour mixture and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add oats, flakes, raisins and walnuts and mix over low speed just until incorporated. Dough will be slightly sticky and less cohesive than traditional cookie dough. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using between 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter, form a ball and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining batter, leaving about 3 inches between cookies. Wet hands and use palm of hand to flatten cookies until about 1/4-inch thick. Bake for 12 minutes, until cookies are fragrant but still soft. Let cookies cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hot Mama Grade: A-

Hot Mama Notes: These cookies are fantastic for healthy cookies.  They are very tasty and great for breakfast.  That being said, don't expect them to replace your favorite dessert cookie.  They are not sweet like that.  Nonetheless, my family loves them, and we continue to make them again and again.  I substitute grated carrot for the carrot baby food.  My sister in law uses apple sauce.  I might try that next time; maybe that will make them more moist.  I use regular whole wheat flour and light brown sugar (unless I happen to have dark brown).  I substitute milk chocolate chips for raisins and omit the nuts.

Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Original Recipe at: http://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/best-buttermilk-pancake-recipe?sub=2029032_891199

Picture is from above link.

Recipe from Martha Stewart Living, January 2001
(http://www.marthastewart.com/318689/best-buttermilk-pancakes)

MAKES 9 SIX-INCH PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle

PREPARATION:

Heat griddle, not too high. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk or stir with a fork. In a separate bowl, whisk together the beaten eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons of the melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and very gently fold them together. Do not overmix; the batter should have small to medium lumps.

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If water bounces and spatters off griddle, it is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush remaining 1/2 teaspoon of butter onto griddle. Wipe off excess.

For each pancake, pour about 1/2 cup of batter. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip them over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.

Keep the finished pancakes on a heatproof plate in oven.

Hot Mama Notes: These pancakes are very good.  One of the best "from scratch" buttermilk pancake recipes I have ever tried, in fact.  That is saying something!  They have just the right amount of sweetness and creaminess.  I did add chocolate chips to all but one pancake (so I could tell house just the pancake alone tasted!!).  Sadly, I am not sure that I like them better than good ol' Bisquick.  :(  These pancakes do have good loft, too, which is good.  I like light and fluffy pancakes.  We will definitely make them again!  Grade: A

Spinach Asparagus Quiche

Original Recipe: http://rotnerramblings.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html

• 1/2 Tbls. olive oil
• 8 asparagus spears, ends removed and cut into 1 inch pieces (I used skinny aspargus, approx. 1 cup, diced)
• 4 cups fresh baby spinach, I cut it up into small pieces
• 5 large eggs
• 1 c. milk
• 3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 green onions, chopped - I omitted
• 1- 9 inch unbaked pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Line a 9 inch pie plate with dough and stick in freezer while you prepare the other quiche ingredients.

3. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the asparagus and spinach. Cook until asparagus is tender and spinach is wilted. 

4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk together. Stir in both cheeses. Add salt and pepper, to taste. 

5. Remove pie crust from the freezer. Place asparagus, spinach and onions on the bottom of the crust. Pour egg and cheese mixture over the vegetables. The chunks of cheese will be at the bottom of the bowl, don't forget those morsels...

6. Bake for 45 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.


Hot Mama Notes: I used the homemade savory crust listed in the post a few before this.  I did not put in the freezer (no room), but I did leave it in the fridge while I got the filling ready.  I also needed to cook my quiche an additional 20 minutes over the listed 45 minutes.  It simply was not cooked when I checked at 45 minutes.  It is cooling now.  I haven't had a chance to taste it yet, but it looks delicious!!!

Broccoli Quiche

Original Recipe is at: http://rotnerramblings.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbls. butter
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 tsp. garlic, minced
• 2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
• 1- 9 inch unbaked pie crust
• 1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Over medium heat, melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions, garlic and broccoli. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft. 

3.  Spoon vegetables into crust and sprinkle with cheese.

4. Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until center has set. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Hot Mama Notes: This quiche was delicious.  :)  I used a little over 2 cups of broccoli.  Closer to 2.5 cups.  However, I didn't feel like I had a problem with the filling overspilling the pie crust, thankfully!  I used about 3 cloves of garlic.  I think next time I would mix all the filling items together before putting them into the pie crust, so that the resulting filling mixture is more homogenous.  I followed the directions exactly, and while the broccoli and the milk/egg mixture was fine, I did not like how all the cheese was sort of glommed on top.  Also, I am not sure if this is why the quiche was a bit watery, but I might try draining the broccoli mixture before adding it to the pie crust (or mixing it with the remaining filling items).  

We will definitely make this again some time!  Grade: A-

Aunt Kim's Chocolate Chip Scones

Original Recipe is at: http://rotnerramblings.blogspot.com/2013/03/chocolate-chip-scones-and-big-panties.html

Ingredients:

• 2 c. flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 1/4 c. heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 c. mini chocolate chips
• 1 T. butter, melted

Instructions:

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. 

Add cream and chocolate chips (don't even think about the regular sized morsels, mini is the way to go). 

Combine with a fork then knead by hand. 

Roll out on a floured surface in a 10 inch circle. Cut into wedges. 

Melt butter and brush on scones, sprinkle lightly with sugar. 

Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes.

Hot Mama Notes: I went shopping for this recipe and for some reason, I was thinking it called for buttermilk instead of whipping cream... Oops.  So, I ended up using this substitution for heavy whipping cream:

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/makeyourowningredients/r/Heavy_Cream_Sub.htm

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter

Preparation:

1. Melt the butter.

2. Pour it into the milk, and stir.

3. Use in place of one cup of heavy cream.

There were lots of different choices for whipping cream substitutions, but this was the easiest by far, and it made a lot of sense given what this person said:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080511202432AAIA4l9

If you have BUTTER (not margarine, but regular non-salted butter), add 1/3 cup butter per every cup of whole milk. Heavy cream must, by law, contain no less than 36% butterfat, and the addition of the butter to whole milk (4% butterfat) will give you the desired fat content. A side benefit: if you're making butterscotch, the addition of the butter will help develop the flavor of the recipe.

Source(s):

Lived on a dairy farm, had to know our products... :)

About how by law whipping cream must have 36% fat to be labeled as such.  Anyway, it's kind of funny that I started out right off the bat with not the correct ingredients!! :P   This being said, the scones turned out *wonderfully*!

I ended up using a scant cup of whole milk together with a full 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 full stick) to equal the 1.25 cups of heavy whipping cream called for in the recipe.  I melted the butter in the microwave, and whisked it together with the milk before adding it to the dry ingredients.

Maybe because I changed the recipe with respect to the whipping cream substitution, but I also needed to add a bit more flour to get the dough to be less sticky.  It wasn't more than a 1/4 cup more, though, so not too much.

I had to bake my scones a good 15 minutes more than the 9-11 minutes listed, as the center was still gooey (and not in a good way) when I sampled a piece.  I did use a baking stone, though, and they say for short baking times that oftentimes you need to add time since it takes a little while for the stone to heat up.  Still, I have made scones before and they turned out so nicely baking on the stone that I wanted to use it again.

This time I used turbinado sugar to sprinkle on the scones after brushing them with melted butter.  I think next time I would use regular sugar with a little bit of turbinado for texture.  ;)

My grade: A

We will definitely make these again, and I am curious as to see how they differ with the heavy whipping cream! :)

Healthy Pancakes with Oats & Cottage Cheese

Ingredients:
6  egg whites
1c Cottage Cheese
1c Oats

Optional:
1t  Vanilla
Maple Syrup
1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
Chocolate Chips
Cinnamon

Directions:
Put all required ingredients and any optional ingredients into the blender and mix well.  Cook on griddle as you would any pancake.

HotMama Notes: I used my Blendtec blender with the "batter" cycle.  For options, I chose to use 1t vanilla, 1T maple syrup and 1/2 scoop of vanilla protein powder (Jay Robb brand).  I added some chocolate chips after the first round of four cooked.  I wanted to see what they tasted like plain.  They were good, and the kids liked them, but they do not have the loft that you would normally get from a flour/egg/baking soda or powder pancake recipe.  Grade: B+

Bisquick Buttermilk Pancakes

Recipe originally from: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,186,158183-231198,00.html

2 eggs
2 tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 c. Bisquick
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda

[+1 c flour or Bisquick]

Mix all together except the Bisquick. Add Bisquick at the end to get the batter consistency desired.

Hot Mama Notes:

I wanted to make buttermilk pancakes, but I wanted to make them with Bisquick, because while normally I like to make everything from scratch, I tend to love Bisquick pancakes better than those we have made from scratch (maybe I just don't have a good recipe! ;O).

I googled Bisquick Buttermilk Pancakes, and the link above is what I decided to go with.  I made the pancakes, but they were ridiculously runny.  I tossed the first four pancakes in the trash, added one cup of flour, and tried again.  This time they turned out well.  This being said, I think next time I will just forget the buttermilk and make regular ol' Bisquick Pancakes...  They weren't *that* much better for the effort.  My grade: B+

Oatmeal "Muffins" - Personal-sized oatmeal in cups

Original Recipe at: http://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/personal-sized-baked-oatmeal-with-individual-toppings-gluten-free-diabetic-friendly/

All information below is from the above website.  The picture below is my own.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups applesauce, unsweetened
• 1 banana, mashed
• 6 packets of Sweetleaf Stevia or 1 1/2 teaspoons stevia powder or use 1/2 cup honey
• 5 cups, Old Fashioned rolled oats { I used Bob’s Red Mill}
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal*
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups milk (I used 1%)
• Optional toppings: raisins, walnuts, chocolate chips

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce, banana and Stevia together in a bowl.
3. Add in oats, flax, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and mix well with wet ingredients.
4. Finally pour in milk and combine.
5. Spray a 12 and 6 capacity muffin tin with cooking spray or use cupcake liners.
   Pour mixture evenly into muffin tin cups.
6. If using toppings add them onto the tops of muffins now. If using fresh or frozen fruit, drop it right into the batter.
7. Bake 30 minutes until a toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool and enjoy or freeze them in gallon freezer bags.

Additional Notes:

• Use a half cup to one cup of honey in place of stevia if you don’t have any.
• Nutrition info is without any toppings.
• The batter will look RUNNY, don’t worry!
• Freeze them in an airtight container or Ziploc bag after they have cooled. Thaw overnight in refrigerator for morning you want them.
• Reheat 45-60 seconds.
• Spray the cupcake liners with nonstick cooking spray.
• Adding cream or milk over the top after warmed is very yummy!
• If you are gluten free, make sure you are using certified gluten free oats and baking powder.
• If you don’t have the stevia packets or powder only liquid, here’s the conversion chart.
• I used a 1/4 cup to fill each muffin and the extra batter I had was about a half cup and I “topped” off some that looked smaller.

Nutrition Info (without toppings)

Servings: 18* Calories for one: 143* Fat: 4g* Cholesterol: 25mg* Sodium: 32mg* Fiber: 4g* Sugars: 4g* Carbs: 23g* Protein: 6g*

Using the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder Points+: 3*

HotMama Notes: I used chocolate chips for some "muffins", brown sugar for others, and brown sugar and frozen mango for a few.  By and far, the chocolate chip ones were the favorite.  Note that if you eat the "muffins" while hot that they fall apart.  We had to eat them from the wrappers with spoons since they were not staying together.  However, the next day after refrigeration, the muffins came out of the wrappers nicely and stayed together.