Choc.Chip Pancake Bites

Recipe Source: bakerella on thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen

Here's another kid-friendly recipe that I tried in the absence of dad.  The first time I tried these didn't actually go very well.  I KNEW I had a bag of mini-chocolate chips, so I didn't add them to my grocery list.  Mysteriously, I could not find the bag anywhere when I began making these on the appointed night.  Frustrating!  What I did have was a bag of mini m&ms.  So I tried those....bad idea!!  Once I stirred them into the batter, the colors all bled together, and the batter turned a muddy swirl color.  Then while baking, the m&ms all sunk to the bottom and stayed in the bottom of the pan when I took the pancake bites out.  So, DON'T follow my bad example and be sure to use mini chocolate chips for this recipe!  The original recipe calls for regular milk chocolate chips, so those would work, too.

These were a big hit at our house. (More so the second time around.)  The recipe says to use maple syrup for dipping, but we loved ours dipped in strawberry yogurt.  The strawberry and chocolate go really well together!  The first time around we had these with strawberry yogurt fruit salad.  The second time we had them with peanut butter maple granola over vanilla yogurt and bananas.  (I'll share the granola recipe soon.  It is SO good!!)


1 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
⅔ cups Buttermilk (You can make your own buttermilk by putting 2 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup. Add enough skim milk to make 2/3 cup. Let sit for 5 minutes.)
1 whole Egg
2 Tablespoons Pure Maple Syrup (I bet you could substitute pancake syrup, but I haven't tried it.)
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
½ cups Mini Chocolate Chips
More Maple Syrup or Strawberry yogurt For Dipping

 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Generously grease a 24 cup mini muffin pan with nonstick spray.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the top of muffins before placing in the oven.

Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.

Serve immediately with more warmed butter if you like and/or a small bowl of maple syrup for dipping.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Recipe source:  cassiecraves.blogspot.com

Russell has been super busy getting ready for his exam coming up in June, so he hasn't been able to make it home for dinner lately.  Usually when he eats with us, I love trying new recipes and some oldies and favorites.  Sometimes that means the kids don't care for what we're eating.  Sometimes they are hungry enough to try what we are having and are so surprised when they actually like it!  Since Russell isn't around for dinnertime right now, I have been trying some new kid-friendly recipes out on the kiddos.  Tonight we tried these pepperoni pizza puffs.  They are basically mini pizza muffins.  I don't know about your kids, but mine love to dip things, so they liked having these to dip in pizza sauce.  They turned out really yummy, everybody ate, and everyone was happy. :-) 

Of course, you can mix in whatever pizza toppings your family prefers, but we were safe and stuck with pepperoni.  I doubled the recipe and did one tray with those cute little baby pepperonis and one tray with chopped turkey pepperoni to be calorie-conscious.  Both were delicious.  Pair these cute muffins with whatever fruits and veggies you can get your kids to eat, and you've got a great kid meal.  My kids love fruit salad.  TOTALLY EASY and delicious.  Chop one apple, one banana, and 5-6 strawberries and mix with
1/2-1 cup of strawberry yogurt.  YUMMY.


3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon pizza seasoning
3/4 cup whole milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or whatever you've got. I used a monterey jack/colby blend.)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup mini pepperoni rounds (or 1 cup cubed pepperoni)
1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce (I used a jar of spaghetti sauce.)

 
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and pizza seasoning; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.


2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

Easy-peasy ranch chicken sandwiches

I was looking for something fast and easy and DELICIOUS for dinner the other night.  What's easier than canned chicken and a few mix-ins?  Seriously, I was surprised how good this was.  The bread for the sandwiches is the focaccia bread from an earlier post.  You can even make it ahead of time to make things even quicker.  The bread is what took these sandwiches over the top.  I doubled the focaccia recipe and topped one with tomatoes, olives, and parmesan cheese and the other with only parmesan cheese.  Both were delicious!  We had some really yummy roasted potato wedges to go along with the sandwiches.  They seriously tasted like french fries!  I'll post that recipe on another day, but it is definitely one that I make over and over as will this sandwich recipe!

Focaccia bread
1 can shredded chicken breast
5 tbsp light mayo
1/2 pkg dry ranch dressing mix (1/2 oz.)
1/3 cup craisins

Mix chicken, mayo, dressing mix, and cranberries.  Slice open focaccia bread and spread mixture between slices.  And enjoy!

Spaghetti w/ Artichoke hearts and Tomatoes

Recipe source: thepioneerwoman.com/cooking

I love getting recipes from the Pioneer Woman.  Almost everything I make from her recipes turns out deeee-licious.  Seriously.  For easter we had her Pork loin with cranberry sauce, her Caesar salad, and her Buttered rosemary rolls.  Each one turned out perfectly and absolutely yummy.  And I have a ton of her other recipes on my "to make" list.  I really want to get her new cookbook.  Has anyone out there gotten it yet?  You'll have to let me know if you like it!

Tonight I was looking for a light, easy and low-cal pasta dinner.  Of course one of the first places I looked is PW's recipes.  I decided on this Spaghetti with artichoke hearts and tomatoes.  (Click here if you'd like to see her step by step pics, which I LOVE!) To be honest, I really didn't think I would like the chunks of artichoke hearts, but actually they turned out to be my favorite part.  This ended up being perfect, delicious, and just what I had in mind! 

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Butter
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
½ whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
1 can Artichoke Hearts (14.5 Oz. Quartered Or Whole) Drained
1 can Diced Tomatoes With Juice (14.5 Oz.)
1 cup Heavy Cream (I used half and half to save on calories.  It worked fine!)
½ cups Chicken Broth (More As Needed)
½ teaspoons Nutmeg (I forgot this, but I bet it would have been great!)
Salt And Pepper, to taste
1 pound Thin Spaghetti
1 cup Parmesan Cheese, Freshly Grated
2 Tablespoons Fresh Chives (or Other Herbs) Chopped


Cook spaghetti till al dente. Drain and set aside.


Melt olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add artichoke hearts and tomatoes. Stir and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream and chicken broth. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not undersalt!) Cook over low heat until heated through, then turn off heat.

Place drained pasta in a large bowl. Sprinkle with 1 cup Parmesan. Pour sauce over the top. Add chives. Toss lightly to combine and coat; add a tiny bit of reserved pasta water if sauce seems too thick.

Black Bean Burgers

Recipe source: ablogaboutfood2.blogspot.com

Please don't be scared away from the title.  These burgers really are so delicious.  And beans are so great for you!  Give them a try, I promise you won't be sorry you did.

One recipe will yield about 5 burgers, so I usually double it for our family.

1 can Black beans, drained and rinsed, a 1/4 cup of them set aside
1/2 cup green onion
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used a colby/monterey jack blend that was delicious, but you can use whatever you have on hand.)
1 egg beaten
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 Tbsp ketchup
2 Tbsp barbecue sauce
1/2 teaspoon Chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Lettuce
Sliced tomato
Sour cream
Salsa
Red onion
Buns (We used these new sandwich thins.  I sprayed them with the no-cal spray butter and toasted them in my grill pan. You could toast them in any skillet.   They were delicious!  They're only 100 calories each!)

Use a potato masher to smash black beans. In a large bowl combine mashed beans with remaining ingredients, including whole beans. Mix well. Form into five patties on a parchment or wax paper covered cookie sheet, cover in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Cook patties in a large skillet at med/high heat for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes per side or until outsides are crisp and cheese is melted.  In another skillet or grill pan, toast buns while the burgers are cooking.

Serve on bun with whatever fixings you like. We topped our buns with sour cream, salsa, lettuce, and tomatoes.  So good!

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Recipe source: picky-palate.com

This pizza is super fast to make and is so delicious, I could seriously eat a whole pie!  It's SO good and actually can be very calorie conscious.  This is another one where I don't mind the fat free ranch.  The ranch taste is very subtle, so it's not obvious when you don't have the good stuff.  Also, I am too lazy to make my own barbecue chicken for this, but that's what makes it so fast!  I swear by the brand "Curly's".  It is my favorite to use in this recipe.  You can buy the prepared tubs of pulled barbecue chicken over by the lunch meat (that's where ours is). 

As far as the cheese goes, you can use whatever you love.  My favorite cheese to use on pizza is the Sargento brand mozzarella/provolone blend.  But anything works for this recipe, even cheddar.  For this recipe, I use one recipe of pizza crust to make two pizzas.  It creates a thinner crust, but it works well, plus it's half the cals!  But if you'd like thicker, just use one recipe for one pizza.  I also divide the tub of chicken between the two pizzas, but again, you can pile it all on one, if you're up for it!  Anyway, here you go!

One recipe pizza dough (Click here for the one we love)
1/2 cup fat free ranch dressing
1 tub Curly's pulled barbecue chicken
8 ounces shredded cheese
Chopped cilantro (if you are anti-cilantro, you can leave it off.  But if you aren't, don't , because it's so good on this pizza!)

Press pizza dough into two round pizza pans.  Spread 1/4 cup ranch dressing over each crust.  Divide tub of chicken between two pizzas, and spread evenly over pizzas.  Sprinkle 4 ounces of cheese and chopped cilantro over each pizza.

Bake at 475 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Focaccia Bread

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

I'm always looking for new things for sides to go with dinner.  This foccacia bread is perfect for that.  We've used it as a side for things like chicken, fish, and spaghetti.  It's nice because you can choose whatever you want to put on top.  Typically I do sliced tomatoes, black olives, and parmesan cheese.  But once I made one separate for the kids and did a few pepperonis, black olives, and a monterey jack/parmesan cheese blend, and they loved it. (Except for little Russell, who will pick the black olives off of or out of anything.)  The best thing about it is it's pretty simple, pretty quick, and REALLY delicious!

Disclaimer: I did not take this photo.  Photo credit: Allrecipes.com username: pelicangal

1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Toppings: sliced tomatoes, black olives, other cheeses, pepperoni, etc.

1.Dissolve sugar in the warm water in a large bowl, then sprinkle yeast over the top. Let stand for 5 minutes until the yeast softens and begins to foam. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil, onions, basil, oregano, and 2 1/2 cups of flour until the dough comes together. If using a stand mixer, continue mixing with dough hook until smooth and elastic. If by hand, knead on a well floured surface until smooth and elastic. Spray inside of a large bowl with cooking spray, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.



2.Preheat oven to 415 degrees F (215 degrees C).


3.Place dough onto oiled baking sheet (I use a cookie sheet), and flatten to cover the whole sheet evenly.  Here instead of oiling a baking sheet, I cover the bottom of the baking sheet with parchment paper.  It works great!! Use the tips of your fingers to make indentations all over the dough spaced about 1 inch apart. Drizzle the focaccia with 2 tablespoons olive oil, then top with tomatoes, olives, Parmesan cheese, (or whatever toppings you've chosen) and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt over the top. Let rise for 10 minutes


4.Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes until golden brown.