Oatmeal Pancake Cupcakes

Recipe: Donnie Cochran (my husband), cooking instructions by Gwaltney Foods

Gwaltney Foods Link: http://www.gwaltneyfoods.com/food-fun/?fun=sausage_pancake_bites

Recipe/Cochran Review: My husband is the true morning chef in our house. He's been tweaking and perfecting his pancake mix for quite awhile now. I found a fun way to make pancakes through Pinterest. The Gwaltney Foods link said to mix pancakes as instructed and provided a unique cooking method for pancake bites... or as we like to call them, pancake cupcakes. Call anything shaped like a cupcake just that and our toddler will gobble it up! Parent trickery!

So, here it is. Donnie's recipe combined with Gwaltney Foods cooking method. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Pancake Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini or full size muffin pans, your choice.

- 1 & 1/4 cup of oatmeal (ground in food processor or blender finely)

- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

- 3 Tbsp of Greek yogurt or 1/4 cup of oil (we prefer yogurt)

- 1 tsp of baking soda

- 1 tsp of baking powder

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1 & 1/4 cup of milk

- 1 tsp of apple cider

- 1 egg

- Extras desired: Turkey sausage crumbles, fruit, nuts, syrup, etc

In a small bowl, mix 1 & 1/4 cup of milk with 1 tsp of apple cider. Let this mixture stand for a minimum of 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, blend ground oatmeal, flour, Greek yogurt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, vanilla, and egg. After milk & apple cider mixture has sat at least 5 minutes, combine in large bowl with other ingredients. If the mixture appears too runny, adjust by mixing in small amounts of additional flour.

Pour mixture into greased muffin pans. Add extras. For example, we like turkey sausage crumbles, strawberry & banana, strawberry & chocolate chip, toasted almond & syrup, etc. We even made one with apples, cinnamon, & nutmeg, like an apple pie! Yum! This is where you can get creative and personalize the pancakes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes.

This baking method is great for several reasons:

- the cook can socialize with a cup of coffee instead of slaving over the stove

- little hands love to gobble the cupcakes up

- fun dipping into syrup or fruit compote, if you choose

- they freeze well; so, make a large batch during the weekend, and breakfast is quick with a reheat

- these travel well for breakfast on the go

- for those who struggle eating oatmeal, you'll never know you did

- And last, but not least... Toddler approved!



Hope you enjoy!

~ The Cochrans

Chicken and Avocado Soup


Recipe Inspiration from: Skinny Taste
Original Recipe: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/02/chicken-and-avocado-soup.html

Cochran Review: I say inspired and original above because I had to alter the original recipe cooking instructions in several ways to appeal to my boys. I'm sure I'd love the original recipe as is. We're having this for dinner tonight. Stay tuned for what we thought and pictures.

Rather than state my changes in a paragraph format, I thought it may be easier to just rewrite the recipe as I made it. So, here is how I prepared our dinner..

Chicken
- 5 cups of chicken broth
- 10 whole peppercorns
- 1 lime (sliced thinly)
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 raw boneless skinless chicken breasts
- pinch of cumin powder
- pinch of cayenne pepper powder

Place the chicken in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with peppercorns, cumin, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves. Toss lime slices on top. Pour chicken broth over top of everything. Cook on high 4-5 hours (5 if frozen) and low 6-8 hours (8 if frozen). Making the chicken is definitely a step you can do in advance.

Soup
- 1 tomato, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1&1/2 cup of green onions, finely chopped
- 2 ripe avocados, mashed
- 1 cup of cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 lime sliced
- 2 tsp of grape seed oil
- ground sea salt & fresh pepper to taste
- 18 oz of whole wheat three cheese tortellini

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat grape seed oil. Saute tomato, garlic and green onions in pot about 3-5 minutes. Let cool enough to be safe to transfer to food processor. Blend saute mixture well in food processor.

When chicken is done, remove from slow cooker and shred or cut into bite sizes pieces. Strain broth (to remove fatty chicken pieces, peppercorns, bay leaves, and lime slices) into large pot or dutch oven used to saute vegetables. Bring to a boil. This is the base for your soup. Whisk saute mixture into soup base. Whisk mashed avocado into soup. Put tortellini and chicken into soup broth. Simmer, covered on low for 15-20 minutes.

To serve, place cilantro, lime slice(s), additional scallions (if desired) into a bowl, and ladle soup over top.

Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup

Credit: Two Peas & Their Pod
Recipe: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/italian-sausage-tortellini-soup/

Cochran Review: This was really good. You may notice on the labels I have Meatless and Slow Cooker. Meatless is tagged because you can make this meal without the Italian Meatballs... unless you're cooking for me boys. Ha! I had a jam packed day when I made this so I altered the meal to a slow cooker method. However, you do not have to make this in the slow cooker. Just follow original recipe for stove top cooking.

One cautionary word of advice, I found rolling a zillion tiny little meatballs time consuming and tedious. So, if preparing this on a work day or busy day, you may want to do this step in advance. You could put them on wax paper in fridge to keep or even freeze them. Also, I ended up scooping all of the tortellini for our original meal and buying another batch to make for leftovers. My family likes a chunky, hearty soup over mostly broth. I will definitely make this again with doubling the tortellini. Enjoy!

Here are some pics from our dinner:

I made the meatballs about the size of a baby spoon.

I couldn't decide which pic to use, so I offer both. Ha ha! Also, I decided to top the soup with freshly grated Romano cheese I had on hand from another recipe.

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Credit: The Comfort of Cooking
Recipe: http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2012/08/crock-pot-honey-sesame-chicken.html?m=1

Cochran Comments: This was super easy and super yummy! Lots of flavor. I only did a few things different from the recipe. I used 2 pounds of frozen chicken thighs. I threw them in the slow cooker, and generously seasoned them with salt and pepper. I didn't do both sides as the recipe indicated since my chicken was frozen. I would've thawed and seasoned both sides if this wasn't a last minute dinner effort. I then cooked my meal for 3 hours on high since the chicken was frozen. They were done and tender.

I removed the chicken and made the sauce as indicated. After the sauce thickened, I threw in about a cup of frozen sweet peas and let them cook in the sauce on warm until we were ready to eat (15-20 mins). I opted to omit the scallions because my boys are not fans, and added peas to incorporate a veggie. It turned out great, and everyone was happy.

As for the rice, I made four servings of brown Jasmine (sticky) rice in our rice cooker. This was the perfect amount. The quantity of chicken suggested in this recipe made 4 servings plus a small toddler serving for our family. We had some sauce leftover, but not an obnoxious amount. I think what I'll do next time is go ahead with the entire 3 lb bag of chicken and follow the same sauce measurements. Enjoy!

Below is a picture of our meal:

Steak: Fabulous w/o a Grill

Credit: Lauren's Latest
Reciepe: http://www.laurenslatest.com/steak-its-a-beautiful-thing/

Cochran Review: These were succulent and wonderful! I highly recommend making this recipe! Quick, too! One to two minutes of prep and nine minutes of cooking. I did a few things different from the original recipe post due to comments on the blog, but basically followed the blogger's original instructions. Here's how I made our steaks:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Fill skillet (safe for stove top and oven use) with 4 Tbsp of butter and olive oil. Oh yeah! LOL
While waiting for the skillet mixture to scream at you on medium heat, start next butter mixture.

Butter mixture:
- 4 Tbsp of butter
- 1 Tbsp of basil
- 1 tsp of white pepper
- 2 tsp of minced garlic
- put ingredients in a heat resistant bowl and set on oven so oven heating up softens butter

Salt and pepper steaks.
When skillet mixture is sizzling place steaks in the skillet seasoned side down. Don't move them, they're fine.
Cook steaks for 3-4 minutes. I did 4 and our steaks maintained a pinkish middle, but no bloody drippings.
Season steak side facing up with salt and pepper while other side is cooking.
Flip steaks after 3-4 minutes.
Turn stove top off.
Top steaks with butter mixture.
Place skillet in the oven at 400 degrees for 5 mins. Again, don't fuss with them.

Original recipe suggest plating them to rest, but I put them in a casserole dish so I could pour all of the yummy juice with them.
Cover with foil.
Allow to rest 15 minutes to an hour. I let them rest for an hour, but we ended up heating them a bit when my husband got home from work. I'd probably shoot for 30 minutes nest time.

I served this with tricolor quinoa with green beans mixed in and a salad on the side for the original meal. Yum, yum, yum! Enjoy!

For next day leftovers:
I sprayed olive oil cooking spray in a hot pan & added tortillas.
Then heated cut up steak and quinoa in the pan.
While meat mixture was heating I smashed fresh avocado in the tortillas and squeezed fresh lime.
Wish I had cilantro to add, but I didn't.
Add meat mixture to tortillas.
Top with salsa. Our favorite is Mrs. Renfros Mango Habenero.
Enjoy again!

Deer Chops in a Slow Cooker

<pic coming soon. Blog system having issues when I posted this>

Credit: allreceipes.com
Receipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/deer-chop-hurry/Detail.aspx

Cochran Comment: Dad brought us some venison chops from hunting season. Growing up a never liked venison chop dinner night. With an open mind and all due respect to our family hunters we'll give this a go, but have the pizza delivery number at the ready. LOL! Stay tuned.

Bacon Egg Cups

Credit: Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body
Receipe: http://www.fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.com/2011/04/bacon-egg-cups/

Cochran Review: We served these to our guests over the holidays with English muffins and fruit. Easy, tasty, and great! Perfect for serving several people bright and early in the morning. Upon suggestion within the reviews, we cooked the bacon a little bit before lining the muffin cups. This step could easily be done the night before. Leftovers warmed up easily. So, perfect to make over weekend to have quick week day breakfast available. Enjoy!