Dutch Baby

This is the Dutch Baby recipe my mom made for us growing up, I love it still.

Here's a soaked option as well

Dutch Baby

1/4 cup butter

Place in a pie plate or 8" baking dish and put in oven to melt while preheating oven to 350 degrees.

In a blender mix:

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup flour (wheat works, but unbleached white is nicer!)

Blend well and pour into heated dish with melted butter.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes till puffed and lightly browned.

Serve immediately, it will "puff down" quickly, so this is one to get right on the table :-)

Serves 4

For a little variation, you can add 1/2 cup cooked apples and a tsp of cinnamon to the baking dish before pouring egg mixture on top. Very yummy!

Granola

I have several recipes for granola floating around. Depending on what else is going on I might choose one over the other. I really like Katie's recipe, soaked and unsoaked in her new book Healthy Snacks to Go. I think her granola recipe that is posted is slightly different from the one in the book......... so if you want a really good recipe, get her book :-)

Below is my recipe, it's not a soaked version, but makes a nice granola for gift giving, need a more traditional version or when you are ready to make granola and forgot about soaking...... no, I've never done THAT!

Here's a step by step on soaking and dehydrating oats as well.

We enjoy granola with a little milk or almond milk on it........ Or sprinkled liberally over yogurt....... Or a handful tossed onto the baby's tray to nibble on while I am making dinner...........

Granola

Mix together:

6 c. oats

2 c. bran cereal

¾ c. slivered almonds

¾ c. sunflower seeds

1 c. flaxseed meal

Heat in saucepan till blended:

1 c. honey

½ c. maple syrup

1/3 c. coconut oil

Pour over dry mixture and blend thoroughly

Pour into a shallow baking pan and cook at 250 for 2? hours, stirring every 30-40 minutes - (I forgot to time how long I actually cooked it!)

Cool completely

Add:

1 c. assorted nuts, chopped

1 c. coconut flakes

½ c. raisins

1 c. dried fruit

½ c. dark chocolate chips (if you like chocolate in your granola, my husband didn’t care for the chocolate, but liked the rest!)

Store in an airtight container. Serve with milk or over yogurt.

Waffles

This is a basic waffle recipe and my classic standby. It's fromallrecipes.com, I just modify it all little bit. To make a soaked version, mix the flour and milk and add a teaspoon of vinegar the night before and add everything else in the morning. You can leave on the counter if you use raw milk, if you use regular milk I would refrigerate.

Waffles

2 cups flour (any mix will work, I usually use 1/2 unbleached white and 1/2 wheat or all wheat)

2 tsp baking powder

2 TB sweetener (depends on the moment, any version of sugar or honey works)

1 tsp salt

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 TB oil (I use coconut or olive)

Mix well and cook on hot waffle iron.

Serves 4-6

Pancakes

This is my favorite pancake recipe.

I thought it came from Katie, but I can't find it on her site, so maybe I am

remembering wrong :-) If it is your recipe, let me know and I can link properly to give you credit!

The Best Pancakes Ever

3 cups whole wheat flour*

1 cup buttermilk or milk or yogurt **

1 cup water

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Combine ingredients and leave on the counter, covered, to soak 12-24 hours.

(I usually leave overnight and I find I often need to add an additional 1/4-1/2 cup of water to the recipe, otherwise my batter is too thick, sometimes I add it in water with the above and sometimes I add it in milk with the ingredients added in the morning)

Just before cooking, add:

4 lightly beaten eggs

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Melt 1/4 cup coconut oil or butter or spray oil in your pan and heat. Cook on a med/high temperature.

For us, a HALF batch makes enough to easily feed me and the 3 kids. If there is anyone else eating with us I make a full batch. OR I make a full batch and freeze the remainder for a quick breakfast later!

*This recipe works with all regular whole wheat flour, it is much better with half whole wheat and half pastry/white flour and is best with all pastry flour.

I use 1/2 and 1/2 almost all the time.

** Because you are adding vinegar to the milk, it's a "fake" buttermilk of sorts and hasn't had a problem sitting on my counter overnight. Raw milk would be safest for this though if you choose to use milk. You can also use the dairy choice in place of the water for richer pancakes.

I usually use yogurt and water with the added vinegar and have no issues leaving it sit out. If I am going to add milk rather then water for any additional liquid, I usually add it in the morning and let it sit with the water overnight.

I also often add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter in the morning, I think it adds nice flavor and some added nutrition.

Meal-planning

Menu's and meal planning really help me out...... alot. It is so helpful to know what direction I need to head each day and thru the week. However, my menus are never "set in stone". I usually make a list for the week of the meals I am planning to make. If I know how my week is going to go, what my husband's work schedule is like, what we have plans to do, I will try and assign days for the meals. Some weeks, I put meals with days and though we eat many of the meals planned, they don't end up on the day planned. That's okay. It used to bother me. I got over it. Some weeks I just list meals I have everything for and go from there. But, it is helpful to know where I am heading in the week. For example: if I have planned to make White Chicken Chili, I need to start soaking the beans ahead of time, unless I have some in the freezer I want to use. And since I often try to have dinner well under way before late afternoon, it is helpful to get my meats or beans out of the freezer a day before rather then the morning of, sometimes frozen ground beef is hard to work with :-) I use my crockpot often. And I usually plan for at least one leftover meals day a week. Oftentimes Sunday so I don't have to cook.

For breakfast and lunch, I usually just have a list - in my head or sometimes written out - of ideas to work off of. Breakfast usually rotates thru a variety of egg dishes (especially if my husband is eating with us), french toast, oatmeal, yogurt or muffins. Lunches are usually pretty random. Leftovers, sandwiches or pasta are typical. Though I am working on expanding my ideas here and making some "real" lunches for the kids instead of just tossing something together at noon :-)

So, as I post various meal menus, know that as pretty as a planned list looks, it probably won't happen like I have planned. Life happens, being self-employed and having 4 young children my life is busy and unexpected things are expected and I often decide for sure what's for dinner each day anticipating what that day will be like.

Menus

Here is my menu plan. It's a 2 week plan and though I may vary what I am serving on a given day due to how my week is looking, I am hoping to keep this list for the next couple months and then re-assess it and make changes. We are looking at possibly moving- locally- in the next month and I am currently 28 weeks pregnant. So, I am hoping to keep the meals, simple and nourishing. And over the next couple weeks I will probably try and eat down my freezer stash so it's easier to move and then plan to replenish the freezer once we are moved and before baby is born. Here's my thoughts! If it doesn't link to a recipe, it's easy enough you should be able to make it without one!

Week One

Sunday - leftovers

Monday - Chicken Enchiladas w/ green salad

Tuesday - Tacos

Wednesday - Spaghetti and Meatballs (this is a meatloaf recipe, but making into balls would work too, I often make mine up as I go, but I've been wanting to try this recipe!)

Thursday - Salmon Salad Sandwiches

Friday - Hamburgers w/ Salad or other veggies

Saturday - Sweet and Sour Chicken w/ Rice

Week Two

Sunday - leftovers

Monday - Pasta Florentine w/ Chicken

Tuesday - Chimichangas w/ Rice or Salad

Wednesday - White Chicken Chili or other soup

Thursday - Fish

Friday - Beef Fajitas (the recipe says Chicken, but just substitute with Beef or Pork!)

Saturday - Quinoa or Rice Salad w/ sausage or Rice Salad - Lentil Salad or Quinoa Taco Salad- I will use/or work off something along these lines and either cook and slice the sausage or just serve a couple on the side. Depending on my mood I will use either quinoa, rice or lentils as a base, veggies with what I have on hand and make a dressing- there's lots to choose from HERE!

Menus

Here's the last couple weeks of menus - what we actually ate. I am trying to write down what we actually end up having for awhile, hopefully to better plan out menus to be realistic and able to stick to a menu better. I still work best off a list of meals available and then plan a couple days out at a time. I am usually making a list of meals over the weekend to start the week out and then I re-vamp or add to it mid-week when the sales come out and I make my grocery list. I tend to grocery shop Friday or Saturday (with kids, so it's usually just quick trips in and out) or on Tuesdays (without the boys) - this also enables me to catch some of the good sales twice if I want since the sales run Wednesday to Tuesday, usually.

Sunday - Steak, baked potatoes and corn on the cob

Monday - White Chicken Chili

Tuesday - Chimichangas - made by combining refried beans & a pound of hamburger, filled tortilla shell with mixture and cheese and fry in oil!

Wednesday - Baked beans and cornbread (at my mom's!)

Thursday - Chicken Fajitas

Friday - Hamburgers

Saturday - leftovers

Sunday - Chicken Florentine

Monday - Potato Broccoli Soup w/ leftover chicken and pasta

Tuesday - Pizza

Wednesday - Salmon Salad Sandwiches

Thursday - Roasted Whole Chicken in the crockpot - this is the recipe I use!

Save your bones for broth, I usually just toss it all in a ziploc bag and throw in the freezer till I have 3 of them in there and then I make broth!

Friday - Hamburgers

Saturday - Egg Rolls with Sweet and Sour Beef and Vegetables

Menus

A couple weeks ago I made a list of 2 weeks worth of dinners to work off of. Here's my list and then below it is what we actually ate :-) I ended up having to change a couple meals around due to unexpected company staying with us, but for the most part I did pretty good. I am going to look over both lists and then compile the next couple weeks menus. I am hoping to get to a point where I have a good 2 week menu and then try rotating thru that menu on a regular basis.

Week 1

Monday - Hamburgers w/ green salad

Tuesday - Enchiladas w/ green salad

Wednesday - Chicken Fajitas

Thursday - Soup w/ bread

Friday - Salmon w/ buttery carrots

Saturday - Pasta Florentine w/ veggies

Week 2

Monday - Beef Stroganoff w/ bread

Tuesday - Chicken, broccoli and rice w/ green salad

Wednesday - Tacos

Thursday - White Chicken Chili

Friday - Salmon w/ Garlic spinach

Saturday - Pasta Florentine w/ veggies

Note - yes, I left Sunday off intentionally because Sundays tended to either be easy meals or leftovers - I don't typically do a big meal. And we usually do leftovers at least once a week, if not twice so I left room in there to push meals around and use up leftovers.

Several meals are slightly vague - like Pasta Florentine - depending on the week, my mood and the sales this might be Ham Florentine, Chicken Florentine or Salmon Florentine and the veggies may be what was on sale or just what I have stockpiled in the freezer.

The same is with the soup - this might be a simple classic standby I make or maybe I will try and new recipe I found.

Tuesdays tend to be my out and about days - so those days I either plan a meal I can make ahead on Monday and pop in the oven when we get home or one I can put in the crockpot in the morning.

Almost all my meals are the type that can be almost completely prepped ahead of time and just combined/cooked/completed just before dinner or is crockpot-able. I find, especially when pregnant, but even some when not :-) that my energy and motivation is much better in the morning and if I can complete the majority of my mess and work before naptime it makes for a much better evening!

Here's what we ACTUALLY ate the last couple weeks!

Week 1

Sunday - White chicken chili w/ bread and green salad

Monday - Enchiladas w/ leftover green salad and bread

Tuesday - Beef Stroganoff w/ garlic bread

Wednesday - leftovers

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Hot Salmon Salad sandwiches

Saturday - Beef and Bean Burritos w/ guacamole, sour cream, etc on the side

Week 2

Sunday - leftovers

Monday - Salmon w/ buttery carrots

Tuesday - Chicken, broccoli and rice in the crockpot

Wednesday - Chicken fajitas

Thursday - Beef Stew w/ bread

Friday - Salmon w/ fingerling potatoes and garlic spinach

Saturday - pizza

I tried to link the meals above to the site or recipe I used, if there is no link, it's my recipe and I will try and post it soon!