SalleeB's Kitchen - Amish Ham Casserole

I love any dish that contains potatoes, ham, eggs, and cheese.
When I found this make and bake casserole recipe, I was thrilled to try a new recipe using four ingredients that I LOVE. Of course, I had to give it my own twist - cream cheese. 

Who doesn't like cream cheese? 
The addition of cream cheese makes this an indulgent and hearty version of a crust less breakfast pie that is not low calorie, but is low in carbs. It is perfectly suitable for breakfast or supper. 

I want to repeat what I already said though - This is not a low calorie dish.
However, I am tracking carbs AND staying below 2000 calories a day. I save calories to enable a calorie splurge that satisfies my craving for ham and potatoes surrounded by luscious, cheesy eggs without having them fried in oil, or butter. Baked is better, don't you agree?

An 8"x1" round cake pan yields four wedges of  hammy, cheesy goodness with 10.5 carbs and 387 calories a wedge.

Remember, I said it was low carb and the entire pan only has 42 grams of carbs! 

Two Tips to Use With This Recipe 

1. Have a left over baked potato? Remove the skin, dice the potato, and store it in the refrigerator for a day or two.  Add the diced potato to a soup or casserole.
2. Mix the casserole ingredients up to 24 hours ahead of time. After spooning the ingredients into the pan,  wrap it with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. When you want to bake the casserole, remove the plastic wrap, and pop the cold casserole into the cold oven and let it preheat with the oven. Set your timer for 25 minutes once the oven temperature reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

SalleeB's Kitchen - Amish Ham Casserole  Recipe                              Yield: 2-4 servings

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of cooked ham, diced
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 2 large eggs and 1 egg white, beaten
• 1 baked or microwaved potato, peeled and diced about 1 cup
• 1/3 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup small curd cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup cream cheese, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp. chili powder
• black pepper to taste

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Grease an 8"x1" round pan and set aside.
• Put diced ham, onion, potato, shredded cheeses, and cottage cheese into a medium bowl.
• Stir gently until the mixture is blended well.
• Combine the beaten eggs and egg white with the cream cheese pieces and stir until the cream cheese pieces are well coated with the beaten eggs
• Pour the eggs and cream cheese over the ham mixture
• Add seasonings and stir gently until blended well
• Spoon the mixture into greased 8' round pan and put the pan into the preheated oven
• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the mixture is firm and bubbly.
• Change the oven setting from bake to broil.
• Broil the top of the casserole for 2-3 minutes, or until the top looks like the picture. 
• Take the casserole out of the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before slicing into 4 wedges. 

Enjoy a slice of homemade happiness on a plate!

Oat Flour Sweet Potato Pancakes - A Gluten-Free Recipe

Golden brown and delicious oat flour sweet potato pancakes.
These pancakes are approximately 3.25 inches in diameter.

This morning Bill and I tried out this recipe that I adapted from superhealthykids.com. My changes are the gluten-free oat flour, ground flax seed, and honey. 

The pancake texture is denser than a traditional pancake and reminds me of bread pudding. The cinnamon, sweet potato flavor is only enhanced by the slightly nutty flavor of the ground flax seed. 

Yield and Nutrients
6 pancakes, 3.25 inch diameter
112 calories and 19 carbohydrate grams for each pancake
Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup, cooked sweet potato, mashed with a fork
2. 1 cup 1% milk
3. 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4. 1/2 tsp.  vanilla extract
5. 1 large egg
6. 3/4 cup rolled oats, blended into oat flour
7. 1 Tbsp. raw flax seed, ground in a blender
8. 2 tsp.  baking powder
9. 1/4 tsp. salt
10. 1 Tbsp. honey

Directions Step 1

• Put 3/4 cup rolled oats into a blender. Use the grind setting and pulse into flour.
• Put oat flour in a medium mixing bowl.
• Put 1 Tbsp of flax seed into a blender and pulse with grind setting
• Add the ground flax seed to the oat flour and set the bowl aside.

Directions Step 2

• Put the first five ingredients into a blender.
• Blend on stir setting for about 20-30 seconds
• Add the liquid ingredients into the oat flour mixture and stir until well blended
• Let the batter sit for 2-3 minutes to thicken up.
• Add more milk if needed to thin down the pancake batter.
• Then pour 1/4 cup batter onto a hot griddle for each pancake. Use a lower temperature than a wheat bas
• Flip pancake when it begins to bubble and is browned.

 Note: Sweet potato browns quickly so make sure your griddle isn't too hot. 

Homemade breakfast pancakes  = homemade happiness on a plate!

First Time Putting Spinach in a Smoothie

I made my first ever smoothie with spinach in it!
The taste was mango/strawberry with a hint of another flavor and surprisingly good. The luscious, thick smoothie was GREEN.

Go ahead and laugh, I don't mind.
If you have been hesitating about putting spinach in a smoothie, quit hesitating and go for it! The results will surprise you, I promise.

Recipe   Yield: One 10-12 ounce smoothie

• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1 handful of spinach I didn't grab a fistful, just reached into the bag and picked up spinach leaves between my fingers and thumb.
• half of a diced mango
• 3 fresh strawberries, stemmed and sliced. 

Directions
Put all the ingredients into a blender, or processor and blend until smooth and thick.
Pour into a 10-12 ounce glass and enjoy your smoothie!

Never tried using a mango and don't know how to cut it up? 
Watch the video below and you will be ready to slice and dice a mango.

#spinachsmoothie #eathealthy 

Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats

My pantry style Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats are great and do not contain expensive ingredients.

My new favorite breakfast-lunch is overnight oats.

Not familiar with overnight oats? Basically, you mix equal parts rolled oats, milk, and/or yogurt with spices, fruit, plus a sweetener in a jar and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

I kept seeing recipes for overnight oats with (to me) fairly exotic or expensive ingredients like chia seeds that I don't keep in my pantry.

However, I do like rolled oats so I decided to try making overnight oats with my regular pantry ingredients. That's right, pantry style overnight oats with rolled oats, milk, fruit, and a tablespoon of sweetener.

I LOVE them. 
In fact, I've been taking a jar of overnight rolled oats to work with me for a healthy, light lunch. This month, I have almost eaten an entire container of rolled oats by myself! That's some serious oat love.

So far my favorite is pumpkin pie overnight oats.

Layered and ready to stir before putting into the refrigerator.

Five Ingredients
1/4 cup 100% pumpkin puree
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

• Put your ingredients into a jar or container.
• Mix thoroughly and put a lid on your container
• Let sit in your refrigerator for 8 hours.
• Your pumpkin pie overnight oats are ready to eat! 

Pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree! Yum!

Toasted Cheesy, Bacon and Egg Sandwich - A Microwave and Toaster Oven Recipe

When I was a single, Navy gal working on night shift,
I learned how to cook beaten eggs in a microwave from a shipmate.

Before I learned how to do this, cheesy breakfast biscuits were already one of my favorite things to eat and I was buying them at fast food restaurants.

After my shipmate showed me this cooking method, I started making cheesy breakfast sandwiches in the barracks because all I needed was a toaster oven and a small microwave. My room was furnished with a dorm-size refrigerator.

Cheesy Bacon and Egg Sandwich Recipe                       
Cooking time: 25 minutes                                                          Yield:  1 sandwich

Directions for Cooking Bacon for One Sandwich

• Remove your toaster oven tray
• Toast two slices of bread using the toaster function for your toaster oven using the manufacturer's directions.
• Set the two slices of toast aside until you are ready to assemble your cheesy bacon and egg sandwich.
• Preheat toaster oven to 325°F
• Arrange two slices of bacon in the toaster oven tray
• Place tray of bacon into the toaster oven

Cooking Tip: Cook 6 slices of bacon. Refrigerate or freeze the extra bacon slices so you can make your next two sandwiches in 5 minutes  

• Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown
• Carefully remove the hot tray of bacon from the toaster oven 

• Place the cooked bacon strips on a folded paper towel to drain

5 minutes before the bacon is done, start preparing your eggs.

• Crack two large eggs into a microwaveable, sandwich container.
• Add 1 Tbsp. of water
• Beat the eggs and water with a fork until well blended

After 30 seconds in a 900 watt microwave

• Place the egg mixture into your microwave and cook for 30 seconds

Note: Eggs will expand as they cook. This is normal.

• Rotate the container a half turn

After an additional 30 seconds in a 900 watt microwave

• Cook for an additional 30 seconds
• Place desired amount of cheese on top of cooked eggs.

• Set the container lid on top of the container, but Do Not Seal
• Let the covered container of eggs and cheese sit for one minute

• Remove the lid

Assemble Your Breakfast Sandwich

• Spread your desired condiment onto your toast.  I like to use Dijon mustard, or mayonnaise. Bill likes to spread butter on the hot toast
• Place the cooked cheesy eggs onto a piece of toast.
• Cut your drained bacon slices in half, crosswise.
• Put the bacon slices on top of the cheesy eggs See the picture below
• Top with the second slice of toast
• Slice into halves, quarters, or leave whole

Enjoy your homemade happiness on a plate!

You can save about $180 dollars a year

 by making your own breakfast sandwiches 

 instead of buying them! 

Purchasing fast food breakfast biscuits or sandwiches can be quite expensive. Especially if you are buying them twice a week.

For Example
One bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, at a nationally know chain, is $2.99 plus .08 cents tax for a total of $3.07.   If you eat two bacon, egg and cheese biscuits a week, in three weeks you will have spent $18.42 for six breakfast biscuits. 

In contrast, the ingredients for about six bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches cost around $8. 
Below is a price breakdown for the ingredients in US dollars and cents.

1 20 oz. loaf of bread                          1.39
7-8 oz. of cheese                                 1.79
16 oz. of bacon                                   2.99
1 dozen eggs                                       1.66
__________________________________
Total cost                                            $7.83     Total savings         about  $10.42 every 3 weeks

In a year, your savings will add up to $180.27

                                         

Salty Sweet French Breakfast Puffs

Craving something salty-sweet, but not too sweet?
Try making a batch of  Salty Sweet French Breakfast Puffs. They're an amazing blend of buttery, salty-sweet, cinnamon-nutmeg, cake doughnut meets muffin! AND it only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish to make these addictively delicious puffs.
According to the hubby, these breakfast puffs should be called anytime puffs!

Time: about 30 minutes                 Yield: 12 Puffs

Puff Ingredients

• 1/3 cup shortening, at room temp
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 cup milk

Cinnamon Sugar Coating

• 6 Tbsp. salted butter, melted This is where the salty taste comes from.
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
• Grease the cups of a 12 cup cupcake pan, or muffin pan

• Combine the first three ingredients in a medium size bowl - shortening, sugar, and egg - until the mixture is light colored and fluffy.
• Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.

• Add dry ingredients and milk alternately with the shortening mixture until it is mixed well.

• Scoop a rounded tablespoon of the batter, or dough, into each greased cupcake/muffin cup. 

• Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until golden brown. 

While The Puffs Are Baking

• First, thoroughly combine the white sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. 
• In a separate bowl, melt the 6 Tbsp. of butter by microwaving for 30 to 45 seconds. 
• Cover a cooling rack with a sheet of waxed paper.

When the Puffs Are Done

1. Roll a hot puff in the melted butter
2. Next, cover it with the cinnamon/sugar mixture
3. Set the puff on the wax paper covered cooling rack (See title pic)
4. Repeat the above three steps with each puff.

Enjoy eating a piece of homemade happiness on a plate!

Baking Mix Pumpkin Spice Waffles

Thanks to the Krusteaz pumpkin spice quick bread baking mix I received from a coworker, we are eating pumpkin spice waffles this morning. The kitchen smells amazing! Cannot wait to dip in!
‪#‎bakingmix‬ ‪#‎waffles‬

P.S. The waffles taste (singing voice) ammmmaaazinnng!  I used the pancake directions and reduced the water from 1 1/4 cup to 3/4 cup. My waffle iron baked each waffle in about 4 minutes. I served them with butter and warm pancake syrup. OMG pantry style good! 

Buy the mix     Click Here

My camera is still packed up with my camping gear and I settled for my cellphone camera to take the waffle picture. A reminder of why I bought my digital camera! lol...lol

Homemade Soft Tortillas

A pancake meets a tortilla and they get married. From this union is born, a tortilla that is as quick and easy to make as a pancake.

 No dough here, just whip together a batter and you are ready to make your own tortillas!

I love putting a teaspoon of mild taco sauce  and shredded Colby Jack cheese on a tortilla, folding it in half, and grilling it until the cheese just begins to melt and get gooey.

Seriously good food that is simple to make. One taste of a homemade tortilla and you will never grab a bag of prepackaged ones again

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups cold water
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup yellow cornmeal
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 large egg

Directions

• Combine the flour, cornmeal, and salt.
• Stir briefly to blend
• Add water and egg.
• Beat until smooth.
• Heat an eight-inch skillet over medium low heat until hot.
• Grease lightly with canola oil, or spray with pan coat.
• Pour not quite ½ cup of batter into the skillet and immediately tilt the skillet until the batter forms a thin tortilla.

• Cook the tortilla until dry around the edge, about two minutes.
• Turn the tortilla over and cook the other side until it bubbles and browns.

Yield: five eight-inch tortillas

Banana Cranberry Oat Muffins

Tangy cranberries, tropical bananas, aromatic warmth from a nutmeg/cinnamon blend, and hints of salty sweet oats make this muffin a pleasure to eat for breakfast.

Yield: One Dozen

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup frozen fresh cranberries, chopped

I buy a bag of fresh cranberries and place the bag in the freezer compartment of my refrigerator.

• 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• Pan coat spray, or shortening

NOTE: You may use self-rising flour in this recipe. However, do not add baking powder or salt if you use self-rising flour.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
• Mash two or three ripe bananas in a small bowl and set aside

• Put one cup of frozen cranberries into a mini-food chopper, or food processor. Pulse until the cranberries are in small pieces. Remove the chopper or processor container and place it in the freezer until you are ready to add the cranberries. Do not let the cranberries thaw.
• Crack egg into your quart or quart and a half bowl.
• Add milk and oil to the bowl and beat until mixed will.

• Add the dry ingredients and stir with a large mixing spoon until the ingredients are barely blended. The batter will be thick. Do not add any more liquid to the batter.
• Add the mashed bananas and chopped cranberries to the bowl.

• Gently fold the fruit into the batter with the large mixing spoon. The batter does not have to be completely smooth. Lumps are okay.
• Lightly spray the inside bottoms of each cupcake pan with pan coat spray, or shortening.
• Using a large mixing/serving spoon, Spoon 1 spoonful of batter into the cupcake pan for each muffin until the batter is gone.

                                                         

• Bake the muffins until they are golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.

My muffins bake in 25 minutes. However, my oven is nice and hot when I put the pan into the oven.

• Gently remove each muffin from the pan and cool on a cooling rack. I like to use a tablespoon or soup spoon to remove the muffins.

Now it is time to eat some homemade happiness on a plate!

Sheet Bacon Sandwich for Two

Love bacon on a sandwich, but hate the bacon falling out at every bite?
Try my five step method for turning bacon strips into a crispy sheet of golden brown bacon that can be sliced into two squares.

Five easy steps to the the perfect sandwich bacon

 Directions

1. Place eight strips of bacon in an 8" x 11.5" casserole dish that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray, overlap the slices. You may need to place the outside slices slightly up the side of the casserole dish.
2. Place into the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Many recipes will tell you to bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but I think this is too hot. I have made this many times and it is perfect this way.
3. Turn bacon sheet over when top is browned, about 15 minutes.
4. Remove cooked sheet of bacon to a double layer of paper towels.
5. Drain and then slice in half.

Note: Spraying the casserold dish with cooking spray will make cleanup quicker. Also, soak the casserole dish in hot, soapy water for a few minutes. 

The bacon can be cut into a square that fits a slice a bread perfectly because it was overlapped and formed a sheet of bacon!

Golden brown sheet of bacon sliced in half .

Fall Spiced Blueberry Pancakes

Ripe, juicy blueberries.
Fragrant cinnamon.
What do you see or think of when you read these two phrases? I think of spicy, dark blue cobbler, cinnamon spiced blueberry pie, and quick breads combined with aromatic cinnamon.

Wake up your taste buds with the fall flavors of cinnamon and blueberries combined in a tender, golden brown pancake for breakfast. Plus, no one will be able to guess your secret ingredient---just a pinch of allspice. Just a pinch of warm, pungent spice that makes your taste buds say, " Wow! What is that?"


Ingredients

Note: Use a dry measuring cup to measure the liquid ingredients. Trust me. It works.

I like to use the wire whisk attachment for my mixer to fluff
flour with. It is lighter than a regular wire whisk.

• 2 cups of flour, fluffed in the bag with a wire whip, or sifted. 
• 2 Tbsp. of sugar
• 4 tsp. of baking powder
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/4 cup of canola oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of frozen blueberries

Directions

• Place all of the dry ingredients into a bowl. 
• Stir to blend
• Make a depression in the center of the dry ingredients.
• Place the egg, milk, and canola oil into the dry ingredients.
• Beat by hand with a whisk just until smooth. 
• Add 1 cup of frozen blueberries.

• Stir gently until the blue berries are evenly distributed in the batter.
• Put about 1 tsp. of canola oil on  a griddle or large skillet and heat over medium heat.  I use the high output burner on my gas stove and set the knob between 2.5-3. Regular burners about 4-5 (medium to medium low).
• Use about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of batter for each pancake.
• Cook pancakes until puffed and dry around the edges.

Ready to turn - Full of bubbles and the pancake edges look dry.

• Turn and cook the other side until golden brown.

Do not flip your pancakes if they are any lighter than this.
Your pancakes will not be completely done and taste
doughy.

• Serve your favorite pancake syrup and butter, or whipped topping. Yum! 

Serving Tip: When Bill and I were first married, he thought I was amazing because I served pancakes with warm pancake syrup. Fill a one cup measuring cup with pancake syrup. Microwave for one minute. If you want it hotter, microwave for an additional 30 seconds, but hot syrup is much thinner than warm syrup.

Have a crowd for breakfast? Use a bigger measuring cup. 

Syrup ready to heat in the microwave.

Yield: 11-12 pancakes or 4-6 servings

I like to make this recipe on Sunday. Bill and I eat 3 each. Then, I  freeze five or six left over pancakes for breakfast during the week. 

Not Quite A Fail - PB&J Oatmeal

You are used to reading food blog posts that feature wonderful,carefully tested recipes. What about the food ideas that do not work out? Surely adventurous home cooks and bloggers have tried an idea that does not work.

Truth time: Some of my attempts to create a new recipe do not work out. This morning was one of those days. Prepare to read about a Bonham Business Breakfast idea that did not create ANY eye appeal.

The Problem - No Sweetener
Bill loves a big bowl of buttery oatmeal that is sweetened with brown sugar. My bowl of oatmeal had no butter and no sugar. Gruel-like is the best description. Why? I forgot to buy my sweetener. What was I going to do? Logical thinking is hard for me in the morning. Especially before I consume at least two cups of coffee.

Birth of a Solution or My Best Morning Thinking

• Hmmm....grape jam would make it sweet. And peanut butter would taste great with the grape jam. Eagerly, I reached into the refrigerator for the jar of grape jam. The jar of creamy peanut butter was next. 
• How much was I going to use? Two parts jam to one part peanut butter would sweeten the oatmeal and the peanut butter. 
• Two rounded Tbsp. of grape jam went into the bowl with the cup of oatmeal and two cups of water. Yes, I super size my morning oatmeal.
• One generous Tbsp. of creamy peanut butter followed.
• The bowl of oats, jam, and peanut butter went into the microwave for three minutes. 
• I removed the bowl from the microwave and stirred to blend the melting jam and peanut butter.
• The normal oatmeal color changed into...........pale gray. Great that sure looks yummy.
• Thinking it would look better after completing the cooking time, I placed the bowl back into the microwave.
• Two minutes later, I removed the bowl and stirred it well. Pale gray became grayier. At least I could smell the peanut butter.
• Taste test.....barely discernible grape flavor, nice peanut butter flavor,  no sweetness.

What Now?

Brown sugar sweetened the oatmeal. I do eat my almost failed dishes. The grayish, peanut butter flavored oatmeal was much better with 2 Tbsp. of packed brown sugar. 

Note to Self:

Stick with fruit flavored oatmeals. When hungry for PB&J, make a peanut butter and jam sandwich. 

A Surprise Breakfast for Great Grandma Tucker

Front Center: Great Grandpa Marion Tucker and Great Grandma Ella Mae Tucker 

Back L - R:  Francis, Neal, Shirley(Shirl), My Grandpa Millard, and Roland 

Oatmeal reminds me of my Great Grandma Tucker. Great Grandma started me on the healthy breakfast path when I spent weekends with her. In fact, I cooked my first bowl of oatmeal at Great Grandma's house.

Early one morning, I woke up before Grandma and wanted to surprise her with an oatmeal breakfast. My five year old self carefully crept out of bed and went into the kitchen to begin the morning meal. What could have been a disaster ended very well.

I had carefully watched Grandma Tucker prepare our breakfast oatmeal many times. Feeling very grown up, I began my surprise. Opening the cabinet, I reached in for the oatmeal pan. Slowly,standing on a chair, I took the oatmeal box out of the cabinet. The rolled oats scoop was in the round oats box. One scoop of oats went into the pan of water, just like Grandma did it. Time to get off the chair and move the pan from the sink counter to the stove counter. Carefully, standing on tiptoe, I placed the pan on the counter by the gas stove, pushed the chair up to the stove, climbed onto the chair, and moved the pan onto the front burner. Time to light the stove! Pausing for a moment, I thought about everything I had watchedGrandma do to light the stove. Reaching for a match out of the metal matchbox holder, I lit the match, turned the burner knob, lit the front stove burner, and turned the stove knob to the right mark, Still standing on the chair, I let the oatmeal come to a simmer. Just about the time the oats were done, Grandma appeared in the kitchen.

Her eyes went wide and I knew I had surprised her. "Grandma," I said proudly."I fixed breakfast for you!" Grandma opened her mouth and closed her mouth. I had a vague feeling I had done something wrong, but did not know what. Suddenly,she smiled gently, hugged me, and said thank you.

After breakfast, Grandma told me I was a wonderful,  kitchen buddy. She quietly told me that kitchen buddies waited for each other before cooking. I promised that I would wait for her before I cooked again.

After that morning, my Grandma Tucker started asking me if I was going to be her kitchen buddy before we went to bed. Happily, I answered,"Yes, Grandma. I'm a good kitchen buddy!" and Grandma would say,"Yes, you are!" accompanied with a big hug.

As I grew older,  I realized how dangerous what I had done was. My admiration for my Grandma Tucker's self control taught me a lesson that I didn't fully appreciate until my own daughters wanted to begin cooking.

#TBT 

No Fuss Brown Butter Blueberry Pancakes

A bowl of your favorite pancake batter and frozen blueberries are all you need to make No Fuss Blueberry Pancakes. The blueberries thaw as the pancake batter cooks on the buttered griddle. Bill loves the way the juicy, warm blueberries burst when he bites into them!

1. Heat a griddle or skillet.
2. Melt 1 Tbsp. of butter in the griddle or skillet and allow it to brown.
3. Pour pancake batter onto the hot buttered griddle.
4. Sprinkle frozen blueberries on top of the pancake batter.
5. Flip pancakes when tops are bubbly and edges look dry.
6. Cook until pancakes are golden brown.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 until your pancake batter is done. 

Yield: about eight 5" pancakes

Cooking tip: 
   Problem - Pancakes are not done in the center, but golden brown on both sides
Solution - Microwave for 15 seconds. Check centers. microwave for another 
15 seconds if necessary.

My Favorite Pancake Recipe 

My tried and true pancake recipe is from my vintage 1985 Betty Crocker Cookbook. I adjusted the recipe slightly.

Ingredients

1 egg

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup milk, or water

2 Tbsp. canola oil

1 Tbsp. sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1-2 Tbsp. of salted butter

Directions

• Place all of the dry ingredients into a bowl. 
• Stir to blend
• Make a depression in the center of the dry ingredients.
• Place the egg, milk, and canola oil into the dry ingredients.
• Beat by hand with a whisk just until smooth. 
• Grease heated griddle with 1 Tbsp. of butter.
• Use 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake.
• Sprinkle frozen blueberrie on top of batter
• Cook pancakes until puffed and dry around the edges.
• Turn and cook the other side until golden brown.

Makes about eight 5" pancakes.

To double this recipe use:

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

1 1/4 cup of milk, or water

1/4 cup of canola oil

2 Tbsp. of sugar

4 tsp. of baking powder

1 tsp. of salt

2-3 Tbsp. of salted butter.

Follow the same directions.

#blueberries #foodieforlife