Pink Princess Pancakes

How's that for alliteration? 

Princess Leah (PL) asked to make some pink strawberry pancakes the other day for breakfast, and I thought this might be a great opportunity for me to beef up our freezer pancake stock (more on this later).

Originally, I thought about doing raspberry flavored pancakes, but that didn't work out. Why, you ask? Because here in East Texas, they have many kinds of extract - mint, rum, banana, orange, butter (seriously?)...but NO raspberry. Readers, send me raspberry extract, stat. 

I could have used fresh or frozen fruit, but since these would be frozen later, fresh berries don't always work out during reheating. (HINT: you use a toaster, so YIKES).

Soooo...I used....Strawberry Nesquik! Go ahead and laugh, but it did give the pancakes a very slight strawberry taste that wasn't too sweet at all!

Ingredients

• 2 cups Original Bisquick mix
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup Strawberry Nesquik
• pink gel food coloring

I usually double this recipe, then wrap each pancake individually and freeze flat. Store them in freezer bags, and when PL wants a pancake, I just unwrap, pop in the toaster on the "freezer" setting, and she's all set! Cheaper than buying frozen pancakes, folks.

Mix the first 4 ingredients together, and you will see a pink color start to form, like this:

But PL states this simply isn't pink enough...so I add a small amount of pink gel food coloring, and get this:

Much better! Use a 1/4 cup measure to ladle out circles in your skillet or pan:

And cook normally - a minute or two on each side should do it. Set the pancakes out on paper towels to cool for freezing:

Or, cut into them right away to admire the beauty of the color pink:

Don't let the pink fool you - these are pretty versatile. Like 'em plain? Leave out the Nesquik and color! Like 'em with fresh fruit? Put some in! Like 'em blue? Purple? Orange? Swap out colors and flavors!!

Roasted Acorn Squash with Cinnamon

This was a very new side dish for me to try and I have to say a new favorite!

Ingredients
acorn squash
cinnamon
1/4 cup water

Directions
Preheat oven to 400.  Cut acorn squash right in half.  Scoop out seeds.  You can roast the whole halves or slice them.  I chose to slice them.  You want to roast them in a deeper pan filled with 1/4 cup of water on the bottom (to prevent burning or drying out the squash). 

Sprinkle squash all over with cinnamon ( to your desired taste).  Also if you like things on the richer, sweeter side, try drizzling 1 Tbs of maple syrup along with the cinnamon :) Roast for 1 hour.  This was so delicious! Almost like a squash and sweet potato had a baby. LOL Eat! Enjoy! YUM!

I can't wait to try this again in the fall!

Grilled chicken with fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella (cold or baked with balsamic vinaigrette reduction)

Spring is here!  With all the green suddenly surrounding me I found myself in the mood for something healthy and fresh but, still simple and fast! I mean really fast! I decided to do an ultra quick/ light take on a chicken parm! YUM!  

Ingredients 
boneless skinless chicken cutlet (as many as desired) 
ripe tomatoes
fresh mozzarella
fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper (to taste)
                 balsamic vinaigrette (optional)      




Directions
Salt and pepper chicken (to taste).  Start to grill chicken breast, usually takes 7-8 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken breast.  At this point I pour 1/4 cup of balsamic vinaigrette into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  By the time the chicken is done grilling the balsamic vinaigrette reduction should be done and thickened a bit.  Take it off the heat and let the reduction sit to the side.  

While the chicken is resting assemble tomato, basil, and mozzarella slices. Preheat the oven to 350.  Stack chicken with basil leaves, tomato, and mozzarella on top of baking sheet, coated lightly with nonstick spray :) Bake about 8-10 min.  Keep an eye on it, tomato should be softened and mozzarella melted!  Drizzle with reduction (optional) Eat! Enjoy! YUM! You can also omit the oven completely and just enjoy it cold on a nice hot day! 

                                                                       Try it hot!

 Try it cold!

Sweet Drop Biscuits YUM! (Inspired by/for Dad)

Ingredients

• 2 cups original Bisquick mix or any other complete pancake mix  
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons honey                                        
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 chopped ripe banana
• 1 handful rolled oats (optional)
• 2 tablespoons butter (for melting)
• 3 teaspoons granulated sugar (for cinnamon sugar topping)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (for cinnamon sugar topping)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 450

2. Stir Bisquick mix, milk, brown sugar, and cinnamon until soft dough forms.  Fold in chopped banana.  Drop dough by spoonful's onto ungreased cookie sheet.  I like to use an ice cream scoop for this part.  Sprinkle with rolled oats to top, this is optional but I love it for the added texture.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Melt butter in small bowl.  Brush over warm biscuits.  Mix together granulated sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over warm biscuits.  Eat! Enjoy! Yum!

These biscuits are my favorite!  They are so easy, delicious, and the ingredients are forever interchangeable.  Try them with shredded cheese and garlic for dinner, or chocolate chips and walnuts for dessert, you get the point!

Adventures in Soup Making - Slow Cooker Potato Soup

What? A set-it-and-forget-it potato soup that doesn't actually need to be topped with cheese? Why yes, such a thing does exist....not that it stops me from topping it with a ton of shredded cheddar and crumbled bacon...but, whatevs.

This is a pretty forgiving recipe, and I've made it with diced ham, bacon, or crumbled sausage. I've even shocked myself and eaten it with no artery blocking breakfast meats OR my beloved cheddar cheese (almost everything is bedda with chedda)!

Without further ado, here ya go:

• 1 pound ground sausage, browned (optional, but could use bacon or ham as well)
• 1 (30 oz) bag of frozen shredded hash browns
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 onion, chopped
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 (8oz) package of cream cheese (do NOT use fat free - it won't melt!)
• 1 tsp seasoned salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• shredded cheddar cheese/crumbled bacon to garnish

1. In your slow cooker, add in your sausage, hash browns, broth, soup, onion, and   seasonings.

2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on low for 3-4 hours.

3. About an hour before serving, add in your cream cheese (I cube mine up before adding it), cover soup back up and keep heating. 

Makes a great lunch, as it cooks in about 4 hours - especially delicious in the fall!

Nyan Cat Cake Saga

Note to self: never, ever, EVER ask your soon-to-be five year old what kind of cake she wants for her birthday. You'll get a response like, "ummmm a Nyan Cat Rainbow Cake!"

A what?!?!

Soooo...off to Pinterest I went, and I found a few different cakes that would fit my kid's pretty tall order. Ultimately I decided on mashing a couple of ideas together - this one and this one were my go-to images.

I decided to build a 6 layer cake and make each layer a different color of the rainbow - don't worry, I cheated and used a white box cake mix. 

Following the instructions, I mixed the ingredients to make 2 boxes of white cake mix. Using a 1 cup measure, I divided the batter into 6 bowls. I highly recommend using gel food coloring to tint your batter (and the massive amounts of buttercream you'll use to frost this monster) - you will get a much brighter color. After tinting, I went ahead and baked the cakes in 9 inch cake pans for about 13 minutes or so. It helps to have your mom there to stick her hand in the hot oven and touch the burning hot cake with her bare hand to test if done because you're too much of a wuss  busy with other things.

While the cakes cool, make a butt load of buttercream - seriously, I went through like, 3 and a half pounds of powdered sugar. The buttercream recipe I use is pretty simple:

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• a few tablespoons milk
• a few splashes of vanilla
• 4 cups of powdered sugar

Of course, I tripled these numbers...because more frosting = more fun. Just cream the butter in a stand mixer and slowly add powdered sugar, adding milk and vanilla to loosen it up as necessary. I set a small amount aside to tint different colors for the Nyan Cat's rainbow, and used the plain white to frost between each cake layer, plus a crumb coat on the outside. For the very top layer of frosting, I went with a bright sky blue.

To decorate the cake, I used a cherry pop-tart for the body, then free-handed the Nyan Cat's face, paws, and tail in gray buttercream. The facial details had to be done using store bought gel icing (so sue me), and the rainbow coming out of his butt was done in rainbow tinted buttercream.

The best part is when you slice into this bad boy...

Total shock and awe....as well it should have been  - this thing took me hours!!!!

Lesson learned.