Healthy Eating - Home Made Whole Grain Pancake Mix

My family and I are embarking on a healthier whole foods based diet. In general we've always eaten fairly healthy, but every so often the occasional box of Oreos or bag of potato chips finds their way into my pantry where the remnants of junk food accumulate over time. It wasn't until I was cleaning out the pantry for the move that I really realized how much junk we had. As I stood tossing half-full box after half-full box into the garbage two thoughts entered my mind. 1) What a waste it is to have all of this food sitting here going bad, and 2) Why the heck did I buy this crap anyway?  Upon moving into our new house it has been my personal mission to stock our kitchen with fresh and healthy food and to minimize waste by using up everything rather than letting 1/2 servings full of cereal boxes pile up in the depths of the pantry. With the extra time we have from not working, E and I have taken to making healthier home made variety of some of our favorite food starting with none other than E's all time favorite food, pancakes. Here's the recipe from King Arthur Flour if you'd like to try it out for yourself: 

Home Made Whole Grain Pancakes:

Ingredients

View by: Volume Weight

• 4 cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3 1/2 cups old-fashioned or rolled oats
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 16 ounces King Arthur white whole wheat flour
• 4 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 12 1/4 ounces old-fashioned or rolled oats
• 1 1/2 ounces sugar
• 1 1/2 ounces baking powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 7 ounces vegetable oil

Directions

To make the mix:

1) Grind the oats in a food processor until they're chopped fine, but not a powder.

2) Put the flour, oats, and all other dry ingredients into a mixer with a paddle. Mix on slow speed, and drizzle the vegetable oil into the bowl slowly while the mixer is running.

3) Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks at room temperature, or indefinitely in the refrigerator or freezer.

To make pancakes:

1) Whisk together 1 cup of mix, 1 cup of buttermilk (you can use soured milk, but buttermilk gives noticeably superior results; a combination of half plain yogurt and half milk also will do), and 1 large egg. Don't worry if it seems thin at first: the oats will soak up the milk, and the mix will thicken a bit as it stands. Let the batter stand for at least 20 minutes before cooking.

2) Heat a lightly greased griddle to 350°F (if you've got a griddle with a temperature setting; if not, medium-hot will do).

3) Drop the batter onto it in 1/4-cupfuls (a jumbo cookie scoop works well here) to make a 4" diameter pancake. If you have English muffin rings, use them; they make a perfectly round, evenly thick pancake.

4) When the edges look dry and bubbles come to the surface without breaking (after about 2 minutes, if your griddle is the correct temperature), turn the pancake over to finish cooking on the second side, which will take about 2 minutes.

5) Serve pancakes immediately, or stack and hold in a warm oven.

Yield: a batch using one cup of the mix will make about eight 4" pancakes.

Note: If you don't have buttermilk in the house, try the yogurt and milk combination first; if you happen to have buttermilk powder, try this: In place of the buttermilk, add 1/4 cup buttermilk powder to 1 cup of dry mix, then stir in 1 cup water and 1 large egg. The results won't be as magnificent as using liquid buttermilk, but you'll still have very tasty pancakes.

Variation: Add 1 tablespoon orange juice to the dry mix along with the buttermilk. We've found that the acidity and sweetness of the orange juice helps mellow the tannic taste some people perceive in whole wheat flour; while the pancakes won't have any orange flavor, they may taste slightly milder to you, if you're not a fan of whole wheat flour (but still want to get more whole grains into your diet).

Recipe summary

Hands-on time:

20 mins.

Baking time:

4 mins. to 8 mins.

Total time:

60 mins.

Yield:

10 cups dry mix; enough for 80 pancakes

4.848485

Recipe comments (35) »

Tips from our bakers

• This mix is remarkably easy to use. The proportions couldn't be simpler: 1 cup of mix, 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 egg. If you're not in the habit of having buttermilk around, reconsider: you can freeze leftover buttermilk, in 1-cup portions, for future batches of pancakes.
• These pancakes hold in a low oven for half an hour without getting tough or rubbery, and they're more than willing to act as a vehicle for any kind of fruit addition. A partial list of combinations that have made successful appearances so far: peach, raspberry, banana-walnut, cheddar-apple, blueberry, and cranberry-apricot.   

I used powdered buttermilk in place of regular buttermilk and they turned out great. We topped them with a homemade berry syrup and they were a huge hit. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Home Sweet Home

hIts been a long time coming but I am proud to say we are officially Ohioans! We finally received our moving truck early Wednesday morning and I was quick to tear through the boxes like a little girl on Christmas morning, so eager to make this house look like home.  After unpacking the kitchen, the first things on my list was finding a place for my two sad but surviving house plants.

I can't tell you how relieved I was to discover that these two little guys had survived the long move. I know it is silly but these plants mean a lot to me. My sister got me the orchid for my first Mother's Day and I bought the Christmas cactus last year to commemorate Emily's first Christmas. I would have been devastated if my visions of watching them grow throughout the years had been crushed. No need to worry though, with a little TLC these guys will be good as new before long.

So far we are really enjoying Ohio and loving our house but the hardest part about this adventure is not having anyone to share it with. If you'll humor me for just a moment I'd like to take you on a short photo tour of our house in my best attempt to share our new lives with those that are far away.

Come on in...

Please excuse my filthy floors

 To the right of the front door is the hall to the coat closet ( which I am excited to say holds more than 5 coats) and the powder room.

Here is the living room...Much bigger than our old house. It makes our couch (and TV) look tiny (don't tell Lee about the TV part or he will take it as my blessing for him to get a new one).

 

Here's another view of the living room and eating area.

And now we are in Kitchen. This is probably my favorite part of the house. Granite counter tops, tons of cabinet space, a dishwasher that actually does it's job, and the red lights - well - I'm not quite sure how I feel about those yet but we'll go with them for now ( not that we really have a choice).

Oh and I can't forget to show you the yard... Nothing special - just lots and lots of grass. Can you believe that no one has a sprinkler system out here. Now that's a foreign idea to us Coloradans.

Alright, I guess it's time to head upstairs

 

This is the hall at the top of the stairs - nothing too exciting.

Here is the master bedroom. 

...and the master bath.

 

I'm loving that this bathroom is actually big enough to fit two adults in at the same time!

Here is the laundry room. Not much too look at but it is a highlight for me as I was used to having my laundry in the basement

 

Emily was sleeping when I took these pictures so you'll have to wait to see her room and I will spare you the sight of Lee's office which is currently a disaster - so I guess that means we are done for now. Thanks so much for humoring me. I promise we will be back to fun activities and adventures before long.

Thanks and come back soon!

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This

Happy late Mother's Day to all of you wonderful Mamas out there! I hope you had a lovely day. Despite the fact that I was hundreds of miles from both my mother and my baby yesterday I managed to enjoy a beautifully relaxing day alone with my husband. It was a much needed chill out day after the rocky start to our weekend. Just to give you an idea, it started off with us finding out on Friday afternoon right after I landed here in Ohio, that our house (supposed to have been ready on the 9th) will now not be available to us until the 15th (at witch time I will be back in Colorado for my sister's graduation). Lee and I shared a moment of panic as we mentally tallied the expenses we would accrue if our stuff could not be delivered on time ($550/day!). Come to find out, the moving company was unable to find a driver for our truck until Saturday so thankfully our stuff was still back in Colorado and we managed to luck out with a truck charge of a couple hundred rather than several thousand that we were expecting! We thanked God for looking out for us and decide to make the best of my time here as a mini vacation ( for me at least, Lee still has to work ).

We woke up Saturday morning ready to start this so called "vacation" only to find this.

Yup, Lee's car was broken into over night and his GPS was stolen. Yes, he shouldn't have left it on his dash but still... Our hotel is in a very nice area and his car was parked right outside the door under a bright-as-day street light. Who ever stole it definitely had some guts. The surveillance cameras did pick it up but unfortunately they weren't able to see a license plate number. Oh well, lesson learned. In retrospect it could have been much worse. Neither of us were hurt or put in danger in any way so we are very fortunate in that regard.

We sat in the hotel lobby that afternoon waiting for a cab while Lee vented to his parents about our situation on the phone. "Mama said there'd be days like this" I heard him proclaim to his dad with a sigh. I began humming the tune to myself and not a minute later the song came on the hotel radio. Bazar because it was an eclectic playlist not just oldies. Some may think of it as a coincidence but I like to believe it was God's little reminder that while things may go wrong, he is always there looking after us orchistrating his larger plan for our lives. Sure enough he did have plan for all of our troubles. Left without a drivable car, we ended up having to rent a town car to drive us around on the date Lee had planned for us that night and I swear to you that the Lord sent our driver, Pam, just for us. A retired Columbus poliece officer and qunticential mother, she single handedly brightend our evening. We swapped stories, shared pictures of our kids, got the run down of good and bad parts of Ohio ( for the record our area is supposedly a good part), laughed, and had an all around great evening. Thank you Lord for putting life into perspective!

Silhouette Tutorial

I've been meaning to post about for days, but being that this is the week of the big move I've been bogged down with loads of packing and cleaning.  I am now officially in Ohio and with our house not yet available and our moving truck still on it's way, I finally have the time to sit down and share this fantastic little project with you. If you are looking for a quick and easy last minute home made Mother's Day gift you are in luck!

What You Need:
Photo of child's profile
Picture Frame
Tracing paper/ scrap paper

Black card stock
White or Cream card stock cut to fit frame
Glue stick
Black calligraphy marker/pen (optional)
Precision scissors
Pencil


What You Do:
1)  On your computer enlarge your photo to the size you want your silhouette. Place the tracing paper over the photo and trace the outline of your child's profile.

2) Cut along the outline of the profile to create a stencil of the silhouette.

3) Place the stencil on the black card stock and trace around with a pencil.

4) Using your precision scissors, cut out traced silhouette.

5) Carefully apply glue to the back of the cutout silhouette and adhere to the white card stock
* smudges of glue on the front of your silhouette can be removed with a slightly dampened cloth before it dries.

6) With your calligraphy pen you can customize the silhouette with your child's name, date, any other decorative markings. Place your silhouette in its frame and you are done!