Pancake Cupcakes- Let's call them muffins.

It's back to school time! I'm rather sad. We've been having so much fun checking off our Summer Bucket List. I'm also excited to see what the year brings and what the girls will learn. I know they will have so much fun. To get ready for school, I have begun filling our freezer full of things like-

Mini meatloaves

Chicken Sliders

Meatballs- 1

Black beans- a huge pot to freeze for fast meals

Pancake Cupcakes

Chicken tenders

Chicken drumettes 

Chicken on a Stick
Sausage, Potato, and Cheese Handheld pockets or pies (I'll post these soon)
Frozen Garlic Pasta
Mini Handheld Pork Pies

Calzones

Muffins- like Pumpkin Cream Cheese

Pancake Mini Muffins

More freezer posts

I will only do a few things at once so the girls aren't eating food that's been frozen forever.

Manic Monday- Fruit and Nutella Crepes

Wordless/Repeat Wednesday post. These crepes are easy to make, with minimal ingredients. You can make them ahead of time and freeze them between sheets wax paper. They also keep in the refrigerator for a few days if you want to make them ahead of time for a meal. I don't put sugar in the batter, but it can be sweetened easily. I like to keep the crepes pretty neutral, I've wrapped them with savory fillings (chicken, cheesy spinach, ground beef and cheese, ricotta, etc). I have also filled them with fruit, fresh whipped cream, Nutella, chocolate sauce, cream cheese and cinnamon, chopped nuts, and fruit preserves.
These crepes have strawberry, banana, Nutella, and fresh whipped cream. I sprinkled them with chopped almonds. MMM.
Find more "ManIc MoNdaY" posts here.

Pepperoni Cheese Dip

This isn't a pepperoni pizza dip. It's not fancy. At all. It's good though. This is just, well, an accident. I was making crab dip and had some cream cheese leftover. I thought the crab dip would be too spicy for Pixie so I threw this in the oven for her. It's so good it's silly. Sure you could do all sorts of things, add ingredients and make it awesome. Something fancy or froo froo. But, we both thought it was awesome as is, perfect for a quick snack or lunch. We had it for lunch. With blueberries and some carrot muffins I had in the freezer for fast lunches.
It's like this Pepperoni Pizza Cheese ball, but heated up to a ooey gooey melted goodness.

Accidental Ginger Carrot Muffins

These muffins came about because DH made a mistake. He was helping me in the kitchen, grating carrots. He had the grater attachment on backwards on the food processor and the carrots looked like they had gone through a blender. I couldn't use them for the salad I was making. I had to use them for something so I decided to make some muffins. I actually wrote down my measurements, except for the spices! I forgot to weigh the molasses though. These muffins are made with whole wheat flour, crystallized ginger pieces, carrot, and molasses. The muffins are filled with a spiced cream cheese. For being whole wheat they are still tender and moist. I used a multi grain hot cereal that has rolled oats, rye, barley and wheat . Regular rolled oats would work also.

This is how we do it.

 When I was in high school there are three things I ate a certain way

Wendy's fries with a chocolate frosty.

McDonald's Hot fudge sundae with fries- no nuts

McDonald's Hot fudge sundae no nuts with a side of pickles- the only way I looove pickles and ice cream, still to this day. (not during pregnancy though, go figure.)

So it was interesting to me when the girls and I shared two sundae's and a medium fry the other day that I looked over to Pixie and she was eating her fries the same way I used to. I'm sure other kids/people do this, but it was neat seeing a little bit of me in her.

Rolled Pepperoni

 These are simply pepperoni with cream cheese rolled in them. SO good. The salty spicy pepperoni is perfect with the creamy mild cheese. I don't season the cream cheese or add anything. I've thought about shredded cheese or chopped olives but I just like them plain. Precut or deli sliced pepperoni is good. pancetta is good too.

I first had these before DH and I got married. We visited a dear friend of mine and her parents. Her mom was a wonderful chef that catered weddings and functions. I remember after our visit she pulled me aside and said something to the effect of, "this is the kind of man you should be marrying." <3

Pepperoni and Cheese Bread (Bread Machine)

This not a yeast bread, it's got more of a quick bread texture. But it's a great snacking bread. So easy peasy because I make it in the bread maker too.

Pepperoni and Cheese Loaf Bread

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup luke warm milk

1/2 cup butter, softened

1  cup shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 cups roughly chopped pepperoni slices 

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon double acting baking powder

Place ingredients in the bread machine and bake according to manufacturers instructions for a batter bread. I used the batter bread cycle, and scraped down any flour on the sides of the pan during the rest cycle.

Banana Bread

Banana bread... this is not my go to recipe. I have a fantastic recipe posted HERE, you know one of those that you just have and there's no reason to try another? One of those, the thing about it is it takes a lot  of ingredients. So I tried this one. It's good, it's just  not fantastic. But for simple throw it together banana bread, this is it. Great banana flavor and it baked up beautifully.

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt- I used kosher

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup butter- softened

1-2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 cups sugar- I used less

4 eggs 

2 cups banana mashed

Chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a loaf pan. Stir flour, salt and soda together. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Stir in flour. Fold in bananas. Bake 60-70 minutes. I tented it with foil the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Carrot Puree

I am sure I have posted a carrot puree before, but it's a great vegetable to add to other baby puree's, it's naturally sweet and let's face it carrots are cheap. For baby you can roast them, steam them, put them in soups. If you roast them you can add other root vegetables like turnips and toss with a little olive oil and rosemary sprigs. They can be steamed with other vegetables but also compliment fruits well. When added to vegetables like broccoli, spinach or asparagus that aren't sweet they can help you introduce less popular vegetables to baby. When cubed and cooked until tender they make great finger foods.

Fruit Juice Gelatin Blocks

Fruit juice gelatin is an easy alternative to boxed Jell-O. You can use any fruit juice- I haven't tried citrus juices though. You know exactly what is in the gelatin and you can control the sweetness. I just use the recipe on the back of the Knox no flavor gelatin box. I first made these for Diva when she was a baby that was FOUR years ago! EEK. I do cut the recipe down since the one on the box makes a big batch.

GPAC Teething Biscuits

**Sorry I removed all the pictures of Pixie chewing on these**
It’s hard finding teething biscuits with minimal ingredients, no soy products and no refined sugars. These teething biscuits hold up better than store bought. They are still messy but not as messy. You can add flavor with any spices you’d like, such as- cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, mild curry powder, all spice. The dough is stiff, not hard to work with but it isn’t like kneading bread dough.

GPAC Teething Biscuits

1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup maple syrup- I use about 2 tablespoons more
3 tablespoons applesauce- I use homemade applesauce, if you use store bought find one that is unsweetened
I put ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon in this batch

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Put all the ingredients into a bowl, stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to hold together.






It will be a little dry.








Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth (3-4 minutes).








Roll out to 1/3 inch thick. Cut into shapes that are easy for baby to hold. I used a mason jar lid to make a round biscuit, then I cut out a small hole in the middle. Bake on parchment paper until the bottoms are slightly browned. About 35 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet. Store the biscuits for up to two weeks in an airtight container.

Make snacks easier to pick up for baby

None of the girls liked the texture of bananas in their hands; they must get that from me. They don’t mind it if they don’t have to touch it though. I don’t like bananas for the most part. I do like them in a banana split or in baked goods though. If I eat one plain or uncooked it has to be firm. When Diva was a baby she wouldn’t pick up bananas or tofu because of the texture. So I would crush up cheerios and toss cubed bananas or tofu in them to coat. This just makes the pieces less slimy and easier for little fingers to pick up. This is a good method for kiwi, tofu, anything that is hard for babies to pick up.

Eggnog French Toasts bentos

Lunches for the girls...

This French toast is so yummy and easy to make.