Marmalade Pancakes

Citrus is in season right now. And I LOVE citrus! Last week I picked up beautiful pink fleshed Cara Cara oranges & satsuma cuties from which I made orange sugar. Simply add the zest of an orange to a couple of cups of sugar. Stir to make sure the zest is spread throughout. Store in an air tight container (I use a canning jar.) well. This morning I noticed we had one Cara Cara left and I decided to make pancakes! This is the same square pancake recipe I've shared before, but with an orange twist and an orange syrup to go along. The girls and I gobbled it up! Seriously tasty! 

INGREDIENTS:

(Pancake)

2 cups AP flour

2 1/2 Tbsp. Sugar (I used orange sugar)

2 tsp baking powder (heaping)

1 tsp baking soda (heaping)

1/2 tsp salt (level)

Zest of 1/2 an orange

2 eggs

2 cups milk

1 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar

2 tsp orange extract 

(Marmalade Syrup)

1/2 cup sugar (again I used 

Juice & remaining zest of 1 orange + 2 satsumas

Nonstick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:

1). Preheat oven to 350*

2). Spray 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

3.) Add apple cider vinegar to the milk & let sit while you measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl. 4.) Combine wet & dry ingredients & mix until just combined. Do not over mix. 

5.) Spread evenly in prepared pan & bake for 25 - 35 minutes.

6.) Mean while, combine the syrup ingredient in a small sauce pan & heat over low heat until it bubbles rapidly. Set aside until ready to serve.

7.) Allow pancakes to cool in the pan for 5 - 10 minutes, then slice or use cookie cutters to make shapes. Drizzle with marmalade syrup & Enjoy!

Lollipop Sincerity

Just a quick story today. My two year old cracks me up. When I announced that the plan was to go to Trader Joes, she asked if we could get lollipops. I gave her a quizzical look and she said with her sweet little lisp "Mama, lollipops are good for me. I'm not sick anymore. Daddy gave me Tylenol." And she was most sincere.

Chocolate Chip Square Pancakes

I love pancakes but I don't love standing over the stove flipping them while everyone else gets to eat! Well one night I found the solution while perusing Pinterest. Square pan-cakes! Pancake batter BAKED in a 9 x 13 pan! Genius! And so the next morning I tried the recipe. While the concept was good, the flavor was not pancakey enough. So after trying and tweaking several recipes, I finally landed on one that works. If you have a favorite pancake mix, by all means, use that and bake it up! But if you don't, below is mine.

This morning - after days and days of people in our house being sick - it seemed a little sunshine was in order and chocolate chip pancakes fit the bill! I use this same basic recipe and method to also make lemon berry or cinnamon swirl pancakes. You could be extra fancy and cut shapes out with large cookie cutters once baked, but Thats a little more than I want yo do most mornings. 

And now, instead of flipping pancakes, the oven bakes them while I sit with my coffee & my children play. It's glorious. 

Chocolate Chip Square Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups AP flour

2 Tbsp. Sugar

2 tsp baking powder (heaping)

1 tsp baking soda (heaping)

1/2 tsp salt (level)

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/4 cup oil 

1/2 cup chocolate chips 

Nonstick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:

1). Preheat oven to 350*

2). Spray 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

3). Mix batter & spread evenly in prepared pan.

4). Evenly distribute chocolate chips over batter.

5). Bake for 25 -35 minutes.

ALTERNATES: another of our favorites is to sub lemon extract for the vanilla and frozen or fresh berries for the chocolate chips. For a cinnamon swirl, use vanilla extra in the batter, and melt 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, & 2 Tbsp cinnamon in a small sauce pan over medium heat, until combined and the sugar is melted. Do not boil. Then drizzle by spoonfuls over the batter and bake. 

Apple Cinnamon Dutch Baby Pancake

I've been a little MIA from posting lately. With summer travel and then my oldest starting kindergarten, life has just flown by! This morning my oldest had no school due to "Staff Development." I decided to make a special breakfast, apple cinnamon Dutch baby pancake - also known as German pancakes.

The recipe below is for a 9 by 13 casserole dish. You can easily cut the recipe in 1/2 and make it in a 10 inch cast iron skillet which is more traditional. My family of 5 always wants more and so the cast iron skillet just doesn't cut it for us. LOL! I've also made these with frozen blue berries and you could probably use any fruit your family enjoys.

INGREDIENTS:

2 apples

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

3 Tablespoon butter

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

confectioners' sugar for dusting

lemon wedges 

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Place a 9 x 13 casserole dish inside oven and preheat oven to 475 degrees F.

2.  Peel and core apples. Then cut into 8 wedges each. Slices wedges into 1/4 inches pieces. Add apples, 1 Tablespoon butter, cinnamon, and granulated sugar to a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat until apples begin yo soften - about 5-7 minutes.

3.  Add eggs, milk, flour, nutmeg and salt to your blender. Blend until incorporated, scraping sides as needed.

4. Remove casserole dish from oven and reduce oven heat to 425 degrees F. Melt remaining 2 Tablespoons butter in the hot casserole dish so that inside of dish is completely coated with butter. Pour all the batter in the skillet, sprinkle apples on top, and return dish to oven.

5.  Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove promptly. Slice and serve with a generous dusting of powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

Lunch with my ladies!

We don't just like pizza, we LUV pizza. My oldest says the pizza we make at home is "Dangerous pizza! Because it tastes so good you want to eat it all!" So today my lunch with my little ladies was all their favorite toppings on a quesadilla! I know, not a new concept, but it was just so tasty I had to share. One of my secrets is to use tomato paste so it doesn't get soggy and instead of Italian seasonings, we use Dilly Herb blend so it tastes like the cheesy breadsticks from our favorite pizza delivery. I like things a little spicier so I add a bit of crushed red pepper to mine. Super yum!

And we really like the thick slices of the Open Nature uncured salami. Lots of flavor but not too spicy for the girls.

Somewhat homemade muffins!

I made up some amazing and easy muffins today. They would be even more amazing with some cream cheese frosting! They are kind of a cross between carrot cake and banana bread. 

1 box spice cake mix

1/2 cup coconut oil - melted

2 eggs

2 very ripe mashed bananas

3 medium carrots finely shredded

1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1/2 cup chopped raw pecans

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Line muffin tins with foil cup liners. (Makes 18).

3) In a large bowl, stir all ingredients together just until combined and the evenly distributed. Don't over mix or they will be come tough.

4) Divide evenly into the 18 muffin cups. I like to use a large cookie scoop.

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy plain, or like I said, top with cream cheese frosting. So very yummy!

Jars Of Clay

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 

(2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT)

I love the image of us as cracked and flawed, but God's amazing glory brilliantly, blindingly shining through those cracks... IF we let Him... and don't try to cover up our brokenness, if we don't try to hide our flaws.

We have flaws and cracks from heavy blows in life. God wants to shine in the midst of them - to use & redeem them for His glory. But Satan tries to shift our focus from God's working in us, to the jagged ugliness. He heaps on the shame so when we listen to him instead of God, we try to cover up our flaws, we see them as insecurities to hide from the world instead of places being healed by God. We buy into the lie that we need to be perfect right now! Instead of embracing and seeing beauty in the process of God perfecting us with HIS light, His glory.

Lord, help me to see as you see. Help me to tune out the lies. Use my broken places to shine your glory.