Lemon Blueberry Pancakes - It's What's For Breakfast

This morning I have helpers! Look they set up our ingredients for a photo op. How cool are they? The Pioneer Woman is going to serve us up something good that we have never tried before. I don't have any healthy options for this recipe. I only cook pancakes or waffles on Saturday mornings so it's a real treat for my peeps.

This is how children learn to love cooking and boy do we do math and reading.

I'm super excited because I'm one of those people that have been eating pancakes the same way their entire lives! I'm open to trying new things.

Hey! "No sleeping on the job sister!"

Whoa! These were soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yummy. I'm happy we got to take them for a test drive. Now I'm not a fan of the blueberries but my family loved it. I really did like the lemon flavoring though. Check out this calorie count....

Ingredients

• 1-½ cup Cake Flour (800 calories)
• 1 Tablespoon (additional) Cake Flour (I never figured out where this one went?)
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar (Organic Pure Cane Sugar 135 calories)
• 1-½ cup Evaporated Milk (more If Needed) (300 calories)
• 1 whole Lemon (more If Needed) (17 calories)
• 1 whole Large Egg (70 calories)
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted (64 calories)
• Zest From 1 Lemon
• 1 cup Heaping Blueberries (107 calories)
• Extra Butter
• Maple Or Pancake Syrup

800
135
300
17
70
64
107
1493
124.4167

I made 12 pancakes out of this recipe! Before we slather on the butter and maple syrup it's 124 calories. I'm pretty sure I will be making this again but I might try fresh blueberries rather than frozen. This is just one of those recipes that you break out right before a busy day so you can burn it right off. It's worth it! YUM.

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Rather Good Chili - It's Fantastic!

 All that energy I have inside that wants to work out but my body can't.....yeah I'm using it in the kitchen. Pinterest is my new BFF and I'm not sure if I will ever buy another cook book again. What am I doing? Well first I was just trying recipes out and trying to figure out how close I can stay to the Paleo/Whole30/Eating Clean method of eating. It's not easy! The challenge is over but I'm a lot more aware of what I'm cooking, buying and eating. I'm constantly looking at the ingredients and the calorie count. What I'm doing is finding the recipe and following along and then I'm going to figure out how to put a healthier spin on it. That's the goal any way.

This is Rather Good Chili and it's the best I have ever tasted hands down. Hats off to Jennifer Rather at EzraPoundCake.com.

• 1 1/2 lbs. ground chuck (leanest ground beef possible 900 calories)
• 1/2 lb. ground sausage (Jimmy Dean's breakfast sausage 640 calories)
• 2 medium onions, chopped (I opted for 1 large onion)
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced (I like garlic, 4)
• 1/3 cup chili powder
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (72 calories)
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon sugar (45 calories pure cane organic sugar)
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes (Hunts 420 calories)
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed (GOYA® Black Beans 360 calories)
• 1 to 2 cups water

I did end up using the water and of course I wanted mine to look just like the photo so I did top it with cheese, sour cream and dry chives! Whoa....my family and I are in love.

Now for the healthier spin on this awesome chili! 

• 1 1/2 lbs. ground chuck (leanest ground beef possible 900 calories)
• 1/2 lb. ground sausage (Light pork sausage 640 calories)
• 2 medium onions, chopped (I opted for 1 large onion)
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced (I like garlic, 4)
• 1/3 cup chili powder
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (72 calories)
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon sugar (45 calories pure cane organic sugar)
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 6 medium tomatoes (156 calories)
• 1 (16-ounce) bag of black beans (omit beans and it's Paleo)
• 4 cups water

It's a LOT more work to make it this way! You have to rinse and boil the beans so they can sit for an hour while you prepare the meat and slice up all those tomatoes. I ended up using all the water to allow for more juice. I threw it all in the crock pot this morning and we had it for lunch.

There are a lot more beans in this recipe and you can see the color difference between using canned tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. The beans are not nearly as soft but nobody was complaining. It was just something that I noticed. Also, omitting the flour made it more like a soup, boo! If you omit the toppings it becomes Paleo, also without beans.

I did the calorie count for both recipes! Check this out.....

Each recipe made 14 cups and that's a lot of chili. The left side is the first recipe and the right side is my tweaks to make it healthier.

beef	900	900
sausage	640	360
flour	72	0
sugar	45	0
tomatos	245	156
beans	360	140
Calories	2262	1556
Divide 14	161.5714	111.1429
Toppings	140	130
	302	241	with toppings

The 140 on the left is 1 tbs of sour cream and 1/4 cup of grated mild cheddar cheese.
The 130 on the right is the same except I went with Light sour cream this time.

Even if you throw on the toppings that is one hearty meal people. There doesn't seem to be a huge calorie difference but hey you are going to feed your family for a few days on this meal. Think dinner and lunches. What a fun find and I'm happy to add it to my menu.

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Stove Top Pork Chops

"A simple yet delicious recipe for a classic favorite! Makes 6 chops". At least this is what the original recipe says which can be found on Free Recipes.org. This photo on Pinterest looks so yummy! Now to take it for a test drive.

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sage (marjoram)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 8 6 pork chops (bone in) (boneless)
• 2 tablespoons butter olive oil
• 1 cup water
• 2 beef bouillon cubes

I didn't have any sage handy so I had to do some research to find a substitute. Lucky for me I found this handy dandy herb substitute chart. Marjoram is what I had on hand so that's obviously what I used instead. I'm not using butter to cook with, again with the Paleo/Whole30/Eating Clean method.

 

After the 45 minutes was over it looked like I was basically boiling my pork chops. I cranked up the heat with the lid off to thicken up the gravy! 

 WOW!!!

These were so tender and yummy. I certainly want to add this to our menu however, the beef bouillon cubes need to be tweaked. My container of Tones has a list of ingredients of things I can't pronounce! I'm sure there is a healthier option I just have to do a little more research. My photo doesn't look anything like their photo, could it be the difference of NOT using butter? I don't know but it was fun taking this recipe for a spin.

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Potato Cakes

 The Loaded Mashed Potato Cakes was found on Just Putzing Around The Kitchen.com.

Ingredients:
- Instant mashed potatoes

- 2/3 cup Colby Jack cheese, Mild Cheddar cheese grated
- 1-1/2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp chives, chopped (I used dried)

I missed the cover with a lid part. 

They still turned out ok. My family didn't really care for these. They were very dry and then when I read over the recipe again for this post, I realized I completely missed step 5! DOH!!!!

(5) Serve warm, with sour cream and bacon bits.

I quickly went to grab the left overs to warm them up and try it with the sour cream and bacon bits! That's the part that was missing.

They are MUCH better when you use the proper toppings. I'm not sure that I will make these often just because I'm trying to stick with the Paleo/Whole 30/Clean Eating methods but I get sucked into Pinterest recipes. Can you blame me?



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Crockpot Barbeque

The original recipe can be found on AllRecipes.com - Slow Cooker Barbeque

Ingredients:

1 (3 pound) boneless chuck roast

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder (minced onions)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 (18 ounce) bottle of Kraft original

Directions:

1.      Place roast into slow cooker. Sprinkle with garlic powder and onion powder, and season with salt and pepper. Pour barbeque sauce over meat. Cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

1.      Remove meat from slow cooker, shred, and return to slow cooker.

I actually sliced and shredded it while it was still in the cooker and let it cook for 1 more hour. My son wanted this to put over baked potatoes. Which we did but there was so much left over that we made sandwiches too!

Although this is a super easy recipe the calorie count in the barbeque sauce is 1,350 calories. I would like to find a way to cut those calories down. My family really enjoyed it but I'm not ready to eat this without putting a more "Paleo" twist on it. I found this recipe here but it's pretty detailed! I'm not sure if I'm ready to make homemade ketchup and mustard. I'll find something it's just going to take a little more time to research. This meal is going to last you for a few days.

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Yummies for The Kiddos

Amazing how much of these ingredients are already back in the house! My husband couldn't wait to restore the balance of the cheese in our home. These are Pepperoni Pizza Puffs. Click on the hyperlink for the original recipe but I'm going to list what I used because there are modifications.

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• pinch of salt
• a few shakes of red pepper flakes 
• 3/4 cup 2% milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup pepperoni
• 1/2 cup homemade sauce (1 can tomato sauce & 1 small can of tomato paste, season to taste with garlic salt and Italian seasoning)

 It's easy enough that the little people can help out too!

 We didn't have cubed pepperoni so I just cut the slices into quarters. They worked fine.

 We used the mini muffin pan so there were 24 of these little puffs. The kids LOVED these. 

Very simple to make and what a cool after school snack.

 He says it's 3 thumbs up but obviously he is lacking a third thumb so he's using his head! lol

Next up! Cinnamon muffins.

 I always opt to use apple sauce instead of the oil. I believe that is the only alteration I made to this recipe.

He was having so much fun dipping the muffins in the butter and cinnamon for the topping.

We tried dipping it all over and I don't recommend it. I would just stick to dipping the tops and calling it good. It's really enough sugar and it can get really messy. But hey if your into sticky then just go for it!

Finally we made some Valentine's Day treats! A spin on the pretzels. We did not use the candies in the recipe but opted for the white chocolate.

 We had an assembly line.

The kids had a GREAT time making these. They loved to eat them and share with their friends. What an easy idea. There you have it! Three easy peasy recipes to add to your menu.

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What Stuck from Paleo? Being in the kitchen!

I'm fearless now when it comes to trying new recipes. They can either go horribly wrong or get added to my menu. Pinterest has been so helpful to me. I can organize my boards and do some serious meal planning! I'm a little back logged here so I'm just going to jump in!

This is a "Detox Smoothie"Click on the link for the full recipe.

I wasn't feeling great and this was suppose to make me feel like a whole new person! I was ready, ready to feel good. Honestly, nothing really happened. It didn't taste bad but nothing noticeable happened to me either. Just coming off of Paleo I'm pretty sure I could have done without all the sugar in the pineapple juice.

 Take 2 on the Paleo waffles!

1 cup almond meal
1 cup whey or protein powder
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup coconut flour
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (you may want to add this to taste)
1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix all the ingredients together and pour about 1/3 cup batter into the waffle maker. Heat until no more steam comes from the waffle maker. - Recipe by Tracie DeVault

I must admit these were much tastier than the previous batch I made. I still couldn't get my peeps to eat them. It's all still a work in progress.




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Monkey Business!

It started out with a birthday party! What do you get for a good friend's birthday who happens to be a man? You gift him with a sweet treat of course. Monkey Bread it is and  I can not take any credit for the recipe because it's from The Pioneer Woman.

Now how do I keep my little people out of that Monkey Bread? I just knew they would be asking him every five minutes if they could have some. Pillsbury now sells their biscuits in a four pack in order to promote their own version of Monkey Bread.

I tried it once but I like Rea's better. Also with her recipe it asks for 3 cans of biscuits not 4. What do you do with the extra can of biscuits and hold off the children from devouring the birthday gift? Monkey Muffins of course! These didn't last more than 10 minutes. The kids went crazy for these treats. They didn't bother the guest of honor one bit! Whoo Hoo score one for Mom!!! 


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English McMuffin

I'm not really sure what you would call them but it does remind me of the Egg McMuffin from McDonalds but it's not. This is another quick breakfast that is great to whip up before school. I found it on the back package of the Target brand of English Muffins.

Ingredients:
English Muffins
Eggs
Sliced Cheese
Bacon

We own a George Foreman Grill so making bacon is super easy! I now only use Nitrate free bacon, it's one of those foods that stuck with me from the Paleo challenge. No matter how you prepare your bacon it's best to put that on first.

Next slice your English Muffin in half and put it in the toaster. Then take your egg and cook it. I will break the yolk and let it cook and then flip it. You can cook your egg any way you want though. By now your toaster has popped! Put your egg on the half of the English Muffin, slap a slice of cheese on and let it melt, then add your bacon. That's it!

It's Kid Approved!

Tip: My son says it's too heavy of a breakfast for him. He's not use to all that bread so I will skip the top slice of the English Muffin so it's not too heavy. I'm pretty sure you could also substitute that bacon for a sausage patty too! Mix it up and have fun.

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Veggie Lettuce Cups

There is a recipe called Chicken Vegetable Lettuce Cups but I used lean ground sirloin instead. The recipe calls for a a LOT of different peppers and onions. It's a little too much for my taste. I opted not to use all of them but I did use most of what was called for. Personally I like my standard taco meat that has taco seasoning like this: I'm adding the recipe because it has measurements and I usually just season to taste.

Taco Seasoning
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons oregano
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes ( a dash or two)

 You might also like to try the recipe Taco Veggie Lettuce Cups.

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Snack Stack English Muffins

 I found this recipe on the back of the package of a Target store brand package of English muffins. 

Take a half of an English muffin and toast it.
Add peanut butter
Top with raisins, bananas, cinnamon and drizzle with honey! Super easy.

The green plate on the right is Soy Butter for the little guy because he is allergic to peanut butter. It works just as well though.

 He's trying to figure out if he likes it or not.

 He's giving it 1.5 thumbs. It's just good, nothing spectacular.

My older son was equally impressed. However, being the problem solver that he is, he suggested apples instead of the banana!

 We quickly grabbed a green apple and diced it up!

 Now we have excitement!

 Oh wait, and two thumbs up this time! Major improvement. And there you have it Kid Approved.

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