Pumpkin Pancakes

I've been wanting to try Pumpkin Pancakes and finally made some!  It's one of those things I knew I would like thinking the kids wouldn't care for them, but turns out even the kids thought they were yummy.  I used a recipe from Brown Eyed Baker and only changed the amount of milk I used.  At first they were too thick and I like it when my pancake batter slowly pours into pan to make a more consistent circle shape.  These will be made again in this house!

Ingredients
1¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
1 1 /2 to 1 3/4 cup milk (whole or 2%)
½ cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat a griddle to medium heat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin, egg, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mixture and whisk gently until completely combined. Set aside for 5 minutes.
4. Once the griddle comes to temperature, drizzle with vegetable oil and wipe off excess with a paper towel.
5. Ladle ⅓-cup of the batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the edges are set and the bubbles around the edges are open and set. Flip and cook on the second side for an additional 2 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve immediately. Leftover pancakes can be frozen for up to 1 month.

Sausage Balls

These are a popular recipe that everyone seems to make.  I actually recently just made these myself for the first time a few weeks ago.  I've been wanting some more of these and wanted to use spicy sausage.  I made some this morning to go with our breakfast and they are just so yummy!  I think next time I make them I will add some chopped jalapeno and more cheese.

Ingredients
1 lb spicy sausage
1 pkg. cream cheese
1 1/4 cup Bisquick
4 oz. fresh grated sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together and roll into balls.  I use Kitchen Aid mixer with dough hook for mixing.  Cover baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick spray.  Line balls on pan and bake 20-22 minutes.

Snickerdoodle Pancakes

Last Saturday I was determined to make some pancakes that my kids would like!  I found these Snickerdoodle Pancakes on none other than pinterest and thought surely the kids will like these.  Your probably wondering what kids do not like pancakes.  The deal with my kiddos is they have been eating the packaged frozen pancakes from Walmart for a little too long that they don't realize homemade pancakes are by far better.   My husbands mother introduced my kids to them and I took to them because of the "it's easy" idea!  I really just prefer fresh cooked items but do revert to using some frozen foods every now and then.  Anyway, back to these pancakes!  The kids liked them after all and I made them again this morning.  So I used her recipe for the most part while adding some extra of a few things and a little less of some other things, and then accidentally forgot to put the butter in.  I found the butter in the microwave later that day, lol!  So they turned out great and any time I make these I'll just stick to the way I made them the first time. 

Ingredients
1 cup of all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup of sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, lightly beate
1/2- 3/4 cup of milk

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and whisk to combine.
Add wet ingredients and whisk just until combined.
Use ¼ cup of milk for thicker, fluffy pancakes. Add more milk for thinner, tender pancakes.
Pour ¼ cup of pancake batter onto hot non-stick griddle.
When edges of pancakes start to set, flip and cook until light golden brown.
Serve with butter and warm cinnamon vanilla glaze.
Makes 8-10 pancakes.

Make Ahead Spicy Omelets

My husband has never been one to have to eat breakfast before heading off to work because he is in a hurry.  I usually keep breakfast bars on hand but those get old fast!  With this being said I try to come up with something different for his breakfast every so often.  So a few months ago I decided to try making omelets and freezing them.  Well it worked out great and he loves them when he remembers to put them in the oven before getting ready, lol!  This recipe is my husbands favorite but you could use just about anything. 

Ingredients
1 pkg bacon
1 dozen eggs
1 quart bag mixed sweet peppers & jalapeno's with seeds
16 oz fresh grated pepper jack cheese
1 stick of butter
Paula Dean Seasoning

Cook bacon as directed  and crumble.  Chop sweet peppers and jalapenos to fill quart size bag. Grate fresh pepper jack cheese.  I usually prepare the bacon, peppers, and cheese the day before.  Have 3 eggs mixed in small bowl.  Melt butter in small nonstick pan on medium heat.  Add a handful of peppers and season with Paula Dean Season.  Stir consistently about 2 minutes, then add crumbled bacon and stir together another minute or so.  Pour in eggs and cook until top begins to puff up or have bubbles.  Place cheese on one half of omelet and fold opposite side over to close omelet.  Let cook about 1 minute then flip to opposite side cooking another minute.  Remove from pan, place on plate, and put plate in freezer.  Begin cooking another omelet!  As you are making omelets you'll need to cut previously made ones in half before frozen, but you want them to be cooled and firm before cutting.  Place them in freezer gallon bag once cut in half. 

If preparing all ingredients in one day this usually takes about 2 to 3 hours.  I usually end up with 8 sometimes 10 half omelets, lasting 2 to 3 weeks for my husbands breakfast.  To reheat these for breakfast you should take one from freezer, wrap in foil and place in fridge the night before to allow some thawing.  In the morning preheat over to 375 or 400, depending on how fast you want ready.  Heat omelet for 10 to 15 minutes.  If frozen you will have to heat for 20-30 minutes. 

Bacon on George Foreman

In years past my husband has done the Atkins diet for the main purpose of losing weight, and he always loved it because he is a meat eater.  Recently he got to looking into the Atkins diet for health purposes.  He had heard some about sugars playing a role in cancer, and looked into what studies with the Atkins diet stated.  Having a kidney cancer a couple years ago really had him interested in this.  I wouldn't say we are big on studies at all, because every study has it's good, bad, and opinion.  With this one though, my husband made a decision that he's not going to eat a bunch of carbs the rest of his life.  So with any change of diet you begin to ask yourself what am I going to eat now.  So I have been preparing eggs in muffin cups for him to have for breakfast, but knew some different options were needed.  So I thought about trying to cook bacon on the George, and it turned out to be a good idea.  I can not stand frying bacon due to the grease popping and hitting me, and baking it in the oven is a whole big mess even when placing foil on baking sheet.  This leaves me loving cooking it on the George because grease is not popping everywhere and it's draining into the tray.  No it's not as good as frying it but it's really not bad at all and it's still crunchy.  It is time consuming, taking probably an hour or little more to cook a 3lb package, but it makes for easy breakfast throughout the week.  Take what you want place it in oven for bout 3-5 minutes and you have crispy fresh like bacon!

Took pictures with my phone so they are not very good

Scrambled Eggs

I usually have eggs every morning for breakfast.  So sometimes the regular salt/pepper eggs gets old, and I do little something different.  These eggs are still easy using two main seasoning I keep in my cabinet.  They have good flavor and are moist, making for a nice twist on eggs.

Ingredients
2 tsp Tones Garlic & Herb
2 tsp Paula Deen Seasoning
4 eggs
1/2 cup fresh shredded cheddar (divided)
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp salted butter

Preparartion
1.  Crack eggs in large bowl, and add milk.  Using a wire whisk, I used my handheld Cusinart with whisk attachment, blend eggs, milk, and seasonings very well until smooth and blended.

2. Place butter in skillet and place on burner at medium heat.  Coat sides of skillet with butter also.

3.  Once butter is melted and kinda bubbly, add egg mixture and add 1/4 cup cheese.  Stir eggs continuously to keep from sticking and forming thin dry pieces.

4. Once cooked to your desire, remove from heat, and serve.  Garnish with extra cheese.

Serves 2 people

Panini Egg Sandwich

Growing up a scrambled egg sandwich was one of my favorites, and now that I have children of my own it is a favorite of theirs.   Since we have a Panini Sandwich press we make the egg sandwiches on it and they turn out perfect. 

Ingredients

2 pieces bread
1/2 cup shredded cheddar divided
spray butter
2 eggs scrambled

1. Scramble eggs in skillet, adding cheese just before they are done.

2. Place eggs on one side of bread, add shredded cheese on top. 

3. Place breads together, lightly spray outsides with butter.

4. Cook on Panini until lightly browned.