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

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!

Pumpkin Pancakes



Credit: High Heels & Grills
Recipe: http://highheelsandgrills.blogspot.com/2012/09/pumpkin-pancakes.html

Cochran Review: After a tough night of teething with our son, my husband told me to go back to sleep as he got up with our son. Super husband moment! He looked up this recipe on my Pinterest board, took our son to the store to get ingredients, and I woke to the smell of these delicious pumpkin pancakes, bacon and coffee! Heaven! The pancakes were moist, fall like, and wonderful just like you would hope! I imagine he made them just as directed... my husband is a wonderful cook by number sort of chef. Meaning, he follows recipes precisely. Unlike me. I get distracted by creativity. You should definitely give these a try! Enjoy!

Here's a pic he took for my blog before I woke! Another super husband moment!



French Toast & Bacon Cupcakes

Credit: Mama B Blog
Recipe: http://mamabblog.com/2011/06/french-toast-and-bacon-cupakes.html

Cochran Review: I whipped these up this morning. You can tell a mama is responsible for this recipe, because it is oh so easy! I keep whole wheat flour on hand at home. So, I used that instead of white four. Other than this change, I followed the recipe. I'm getting ready to ice the cupcakes shortly. Unfortunately, my meat loving husband ate up all of the bacon I precooked. So, I'll need to pick that up during my weekly grocery run today. However, I couldn't resist trying one hot out of the oven! So, I iced one and we dug in! YUM! We got more of a cinnamon roll taste than french toast. Maybe it is the wheat flour or the lacking bacon. We will try again with bacon and let you know... if they last!! Cinnamon roll, french toast, whatever it is, there's no arguing in our family that it is pure yummy!!

So, just tried this with bacon! And it is AH-MA-zing!!! Oh so good! Thanks for joining us for breakfast! Enjoy!

Here's a pic of our cupcakes:

 

Oatmeal Bars with Strawberries, Bananas, & Chocolate Chips

Last Week's Treat

Credit: Inspired Taste
Recipe: http://www.inspiredtaste.net/9928/baked-oatmeal-with-strawberries-banana-and-chocolate-recipe/

Cochran Review: This is AH-MAZING!!!! I made this as a treat instead of breakfast. We warmed it and served it w/ natural vanilla ice cream! Yum! I used Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Chips and pecan bits instead, because I had them already. Try this one for sure!!!!