Breakfast Ideas for your Valentine

posted in: food | 0

Valentines Day Breakfast

The most important meal of the day is breakfast right?  And one of the best holidays is Valentine’s Day, right?  Then why not combine the two and serve a delicious themed breakfast on Valentine’s Day.  I’m glad that it falls on a Friday this year, my Mister’s day off.  That way we can all linger over the breakfast table a little while longer.  Here are three recipes that you can whip up in no time flat for your Valentine. Enjoy every moment of the day!

Strawberry Pancakes (I actually served these for dinner tonight).  I used Rachael Ray’s Strawberry Pancakes recipe from her magazine.  Things I would change: chop your strawberries more fine.  Use less of them.  Or puree them and lower the milk amount.  They were TOO moist.  But, they had great flavor!

Strawberry Pancakes

Heart in the Hole.  I made this yesterday for my little Valentine for lunch.  So quick and easy.  I used Great Day Farms’ organic eggs because they taste amazing and I know are healthy for my family.  Just put some butter in a heated skillet, cut out a heart shape (with a cookie cutter) of the bread, and drop the egg in.  Let it cook until your liking.  How runny do you like your egg?

Heart in the Hole

Strawberry Nutella PopTarts.  I made the smores version of these last week at a friend’s house and we gobbled them up.  Tomorrow morning I’m taking some fresh strawberries, mashing them with a fork, already made pie crust, a cookie cutter, egg wash, and delicious creamy nutella.  Amazing pop tarts await me!  Yay!

Strawberry Nutella Poptarts

See…three easy breakfast ideas.  And thanks to my friend Liz for the picture of her cute thrifted coffee mug.  Perfect morning to use that!

Strawberry Buttermilk Pancakes

posted in: food, Uncategorized | 1

The taste of summer – at breakfast!

I went strawberry picking the other week, got about 6 lbs and was exhausted.  That’s what being pregnant will do for you.  Well, I had some left and they were just about to be gone (meaning, they were going bad) so I wanted to use them up.  So, I woke up one morning and thought I’d look up a recipe.

I tweaked one I found on the internet and came up with these.  Light and fluffy, perfect with some added berries on top and some real maple syrup.  This batch made 10-12 pancakes depending on how big you want them.  Enough for the hubs to have some leftovers the week I’m out of town.

Enjoy the fresh summer taste!

  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 3/4 cups sliced strawberries 

Mix dry ingredients, then wet ingredients and combine.  Spray griddle pan and cook the pancakes (I used 1/4 cup to scoop out the batter) over medium heat until bubble form around the edge of the pancakes.

Enjoy warm with butter, syrup, or whipped cream, and if you are a strawberry freak like me – more strawberries!

New Year’s Much & Link Love (January 3)

Happy New Year!  When do you get tired of hearing that?  I usually have to wait until after my birthday, which is tomorrow.  New Years and birthdays, both great.  I used to dislike having a birthday so close to Christmas (school was out so I never got to celebrate it in school), but now I love it, because not only am I starting a new calendar year, but also a new birth year. 

1.  I had one of the best new years ever!  A friend from seminary came over to Raleigh: we cooked dinner, hung out a cool place in Cary, went to the NCMA, and watched movies.  It was low-key and wonderful.

2.  I already went away from on of my 2011 goals.  I ran in a 5k on Saturday and unfortunately left my cell phone at home so I had no interval timer.  I finished this multi-terrain, ice/mud, hills, loops race about the same time I finished my first one.  So, I wasn’t happy.  But, I did it.  And I had friends cheering me on and running with me!

3.  This is going to be a tough week and a good week.  Tough week with many things going on a work and writing kicked into high gear.  Good week because I get to have dinner on Thursday night with some of the most amazing RDU friends a girl can have, both new and old, and I’ll be missing some too because of vacations and babies.  God is good, isn’t He!

4.  Day one of clean eating went very well yesterday!  I am thankful for oranges and sweet potatoes that I don’t have to buy because of family!  Everytime I have craved nut butter or even milk or egg whites today I thought that God is sufficient for my every need and He is gracious too.  I have included seeds in this clean eating: fruits and veggies only while at home.  Seeds because I eat hummus and tahini is in it – ground sesame seeds.  I’m already thinking post-40 days to see how my diet will be altered, and see how my food-relationships/sin issues have been changed.  Thank you God for the cross!

5.  Bring on the playoffs!  Excited.  We’ll see how long my teams last.

6.  January… here we go: I’m doing the list here rather a whole new post. 

6.1: Birthday celebrating

6.2: Working out and logging milesd

6.3: Stemmerman Inn for my birthday!  Thank you Mom!

6.4: Charlotte to prepare for an upcoming women’s conference I am speaking at in March. 

6.5: Photog!

6.6: Writing and reading.  Sound familiar?

Link Love

1.  One of the coolest things I’ve heard from country music in a while – great on the gender issue too.  Go Zac Brown!

2.  With clean eating for 40 days, I’m making this soup.

3.  For those of you memorizing Philippians, John Piper reciting it may spur you on!

4.  Do you already need help keeping those resolutions?  These apply to any you have made.

5.  One of the smartest guys I know, and do ministry with, gives his list of best reads of 2010.  And he read a lot more than this. 

6.  Some great sermons and talks about keeping resolutions

7.  After taking off most of 2010, John Piper returns and tells all what God taught him and Noel from their leave of absence.  Good stuff.

8.  Also, if you have never memorized long passages of Scripture, here are some quality sermons from Andy Davis and John Piper to help you out and to see the benefit of it. 

9.  If you still need help picking which Bible reading plan to do for 2011, go here.  Justin lays a lot of them out for you.  I am doing Elevate’s B90X from last year, just multiplying it times 3 with some breather days in there. 

10.  Her photos are inspiring.

11. 

Recipe coming soon!

Apple Cider Pancakes with Sugared Apples

posted in: Uncategorized | 0
On this ice-y morning, I woke up early and immediately thought of pancakes. I had been thinking about them for days but thought today is the day. I didn’t really want to brave the roads due to the slush and ice, but proceeded. I saw a jug of Trader Joe’s Spiced Cider on my counter and that was my inspiration, so I headed to my little netbook and plugged away into the world wide web.
Here we go:

1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups vanilla yogurt
1 cup apple cider
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Combine wet. Mix dry. Gentle stir the two together. Keeping griddle pan on medium low heat, make pancakes using a 1/4 cup scoop and cook until done.
Before you start making the pancakes, get the apples cooking:
2 cripp lady apples
4 tsp unsalted butter
2 heaping T brown sugar

Slice apple thin and stir into butter and sugar. Keep on low and let cook until all the pancakes are done.

Top with cool whip, apples, maple syrup, whatever you fancy.