Christmas Breakfast Casserole

This is a fun one I got when we lived in the Bountiful Heights 41st ward. Rather than a Christmas party/dinner each year, we had a Christmas breakfast on a Saturday morning. They would serve this (recipe from Gayla Allen) as the main dish (you'd sign up to bake it and someone would deliver to you all the ingredients) along with juice, milk, chocolate milk, some sort of Danish from a bakery, and fruit (I think it was just canned fruit cocktail in a cup). I don't remember if we did a Nativity program, but I sure remember LaVon Johnson leading us in signing a very boisterous 12 Days of Christmas!

1/4 C margarine or butter*

1 32 oz. package hash browns - thawed*

1 doz. eggs

1 t onion salt

1/2 t pepper

1/2 t seasoning salt

1/8 t dry mustard

1 2/3 C milk

4 C grated cheese

2 C cubed ham, bacon, or sausage

Melt margarine or butter in large bowl, add hash browns and stir. In another bowl, beat eggs and seasoning together. Add milk, cheese, and meat, and then add to hash browns and stir. Pour into greased 9x13 and bake at 350 for 45 min to an hour.

Note: This can be made the night before and cooked the next morning. If made the night before, bake at 350 for 1.5 hours to 1.75 hours.

*I think it's yummy with the butter on the potatoes, but if you want to cut calories and fat, you can omit the butter, and I don't think you'll really notice that much. You can also use baked/boiled potatoes and shred them if you don't have frozen hash browns on hand (around 4 cups).

Chunky Monkey Pancakes

Chunky Monkey Pancakes

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium bowl:

1 1/2 c flour

1 Tbs sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

In a separate bowl mix:

1 ½ c. buttermilk

1 lg. egg

1 Tbs oil

1 tsp vanilla

Add wet ingredients to dry until just moistened and combined.

Mash 2 small-med ripe bananas with a fork and fold into batter. 

Add 4- 6 Tbs mini chocolate chips and mix (or you can do regular, chopped and tossed with 2 tsp flour).

Cook on griddle.

Top with Maple-Peanut Butter Syrup:

½ c. creamy peanut butter

1 c. syrup

Heat PB in microwave 30 seconds. Add syrup and gently

whisk together. Heat another 30 seconds, mix, and set aside.

Porter's Whole Wheat Waffles

This is my favorite waffle recipe!  It's all whole wheat but doesn't taste like it.  We got this from the Porter's where Sam, Em, Mom and Dad stayed at their "Bed and Breakfast."

Combine:
2 c whole wheat flour
2 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 tsp sugar

Add gradually and beat with mixer on low:
3 eggs
2 c milk

Add and beat hard for 2 min.:
1/4 c oil

*Their original recipe calls for 4 eggs and 1/2 c. oil, but we found that this keeps them puffy longer.

Crockpot Oatmeal

1 C steel cut oats

4 C water (or part milk)

1/4 C brown sugar

1/8 t salt

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.  Put oats, brown sugar, and salt in slow cooker.  Cover with water.  Stir to mix slightly.  Cover; cook on low for 7-8 hours.  Stir in 1 t cinnamon (opt).  Can also add dried fruit/chopped nuts after cooking.  Leftovers are great.  4 servings.

Mixes, Mixes, Mixes

I had so much fun making mixes yesterday!

I ground my wheat then made cornbread, pancake, waffle, and a no-bake cookie mix (we'll see if it's worth it to make that mix, because it already has too many steps!)

Usually I put my mixes in yogurt cartons and store them in the fridge (because of the whole wheat), but I though I'd try baggies this time.  I wrote my add-ins on the bags and plan to save the bags to re-fill later.

Too bad my kitchen was left like this!

Waffles (variation from BHG Cookbook):

1 3/4 C WW flour*
1-2 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
Very heaping 1/4 C dry powdered milk (or however much you need to equal 1 3/4 C milk depending on your dry milk product)

When ready to use, add:
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 - 1/2 C oil
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 C water (depending on how runny you want your batter)

Pancakes (variation from BHG Cookbook):

1 3/4 C WW flour*
1-2 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
Heaping 1/4 C dry powdered milk (or however much you need to equal 1 3/4 C milk depending on your dry milk product)

When ready to use, add:
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 C water
3 T oil
Any mix-ins (fruit) or 3/4 - 1 C pumpkin and some cinnamon.

Waffle/Pancake Mix 

7 C flour (or combination such as 4 C WW flour, 1 C oat bran, 1 C wheat bran, 1 C spelt)
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C baking powder
1 t salt
1 1/2 C powdered milk
1 C oil

Put all the above ingredients in a mixer.  Drizzle the oil in while mixing to combine.  Store in fridge in a plastic bag.

Use 2 C mix, 1 C water, 1 t vanilla, and 2 eggs per batch.

Cornbread (variation from BHG Cookbook):
3/4 C white flour
1/4 C WW flour
3/4 C corn meal
2 - 3 T sugar
2 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt

When ready to use, add:
2 eggs, beaten
1 C water
1/4 C oil

Spray 8x8 dish, bake at 400 for 15 - 20 minutes.



* Sometimes I replace up to 1/2 C of the WW flour with oat bran, wheat bran, or corn meal.

Molasses Pancakes

1 1/2 c milk,
1 egg
2 T oil
1 1/2 T molasses

1 t baking powder
1 1/2 t soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

Mix milk, egg, oil, and molasses together in one bowl. Stir dry ingredients together in a second bowl. Add dry ingredients to liquid mix and blend. Bake pancakes on griddle.

Apple Syrup

Here's a recipe from Haily Roberts.  This is fantastic on apple pancakes (you can use a real recipe or just grate some apples into your favorite pancake recipe and add some cinnamon and/or other spices). This would probably also taste good on ice cream.

Combine in a pan:
1 C sugar
3 T cornstarch
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg

Add 2 C apple juice. Boil. Remove from heat and add:
1 T lemon juice
1 T margarine or butter

Dutch Babies

When I was a kid, we used to make this at Aunt Bonne and Uncle Ken's house when we had sleep-overs.  I don't know why we couldn't get Mom to make them for us -- probably because they don't work so well with whole wheat flour!  I'm not sure what the difference is between this and a German Pancake; although, I do know I like these better.  The ingredients are pretty much the same as for crepes (just way easier).

2-3 qt dish (9x13 works)
1/4 C butter
3 eggs
3/4 C milk
3/4 C flour

3-4 qt dish (9x13 works)
1/3 C butter
4 eggs
1 C milk
1 C flour

4-4 1/2 qt dish (9x13 okay)
1/2 C butter
5 eggs
1 1/4 C milk
1 1/4 C flour


4 1/2 - 5 qt dish (9x13 not big enough)
1/2 C butter
6 eggs
1 1/2 C milk
1 1/2 C flour

Melt butter in oven at 425.

In glass bowl, mix eggs, add flour and milk.  Blend until smooth.  Pour in pan with melted butter.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

I always cut the butter in half.  Seems to work fine if I just mix all the ingredients all at the same time until smooth.  The 2-3 qt and 3-4 qt recipes work beautifully if baked in 2 glass pie dishes.  Make sure you bake them lower in the oven so they won't burn on top.

Super Tasty-Good Granola (Southern Living)

Combine in large bowl:

2 c uncooked regular oats

3/4 c. uncooked hot oat bran cereal (I use wheat bran)

1/2 c. sliced almonds

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

Combine in small bowl:

1/2 c. honey

2 Tbs oil

1 Tbs water

1/2 tsp vanilla

Stir honey mixture into oat mixture.

Spread onto a 15" x 10" jellyroll pan.

Bake at 350, stirring often (about every five minutes) for 20 min (I do 18min) or until dark brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Combine and stir into above, cooked mixture:

3/4 c raisons

1/2 c dates, chopped

1/3 c craisons

1/4 c sunflower seeds

*I haven't ever used dates. I add about 1/2 c. raisons and 1/2 c craisons with the sunflower seeds.

Store in airtight container