Sunday Brunch: Raspberry Pancakes [Savoring Summer]

Sunday Brunch. Ever since I was little Sunday mornings were always family time.  My dad was the breakfast cook extraordinare.  Scrambled eggs, omelets, waffles, pancakes; they were all amazing.  Needless to say I always looked forward to Sunday mornings.  Even better were those Sunday mornings when I was home from college for the weekend- literally the best food I would eat all week, especially while living in the dorms and eating the hum drum dining hall cuisine [if you can call it cuisine...]. And then there were a couple years when I worked retail and my job required me being there bright and early on Sunday mornings to set ads. I had some serious Sunday brunch with drawls. Now that Joel and I both have jobs that give us the weekends off, we really enjoy having that special Sunday morning meal as a nice together time [and for me to pull out my culinary creativity]. 

Story time over :)

After our pretty long day of driving and sand volleyball yesterday..

We slept pretty late for us [9:45 am] and decided to have a nice yummy brunch.  Joel wanted pancakes, and I thought they would be delicious with some raspberries in there. I was right.

1. So I started off with you basic Bisquick mix pancakes [I was tired, forgive me] and then just added in a carton of raspberries.

2. Then I used a 1/4 cup measure to ladle the batter into the pan. 

 

3. A little helpful hint for making pancakes and for easy [mess free] pancake flipping- when the bubbles that form in the batter stay open you can tell it is time to flip.  And when you do flip them there will be no batter flying everywhere, just simple over and done, no mess and pretty pancakes!

4. Flip your pancakes to see this magnificence-

YUM! And they definitely were yum!

Happy Sunday Brunching!

Baked Summer Squash = Simple Satisfaction

One of my favorite things about summer cooking is my mom's zucchini and summer squash casserole.  Oh it is layer upon layer of deliciousness topped with bread crumbs and cheese. [YUM] But alas, during the week I do not have the time to make such an amazing side to go with this delicious chicken rollatini that Joel made.

Mmmmmm... I'm not drooling, what are you talking about....

So in order to live up to this ah-mazing looking entree, here's the baked squash I came up with on the fly.

1.  I took one zucchini and one yellow summer squash, chopped them up into good bite size chunks.

2. Season those up with about 1-2 T of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic (I love my garlic, so if that's too much for you, scale back to just one), salt & pepper to taste, and roughly 1t of Italian seasoning.  And mix those puppies up, getting them good and coated.

3.  Get yourself a glass of wine- you deserve one!  Drinking while cooking is a must in my book!

4.  Spread the squash mixture onto a baking sheet, and top with a sprinkle of seasoned bread crumbs and grated parmesan.

5.  The chicken was in the oven at 450, so I put the squash in at the same temperature for about 15 minutes and they were perfecto!

Oh so delicious, and simple, and healthy! Can you say winner?  Serve with your entree and have an amazing meal!

Enjoy!

Wacky Wednesday: Glitter Play-dough

Since I work with kids, I'm going to feature a fun project that I do with the kids on my "Wacky Wednesday" posts.  We're all kids at heart- so just admit, you know you will enjoy it and want to try these projects even if you don't have kids!!

Today's adventure is Glitter Play-dough! Thank you Pinterest, you have saved my charges from boredom on so many occasions (and saved me from three revolting children, running around like monkeys because they don't have something fun to do... Oh wait, they do that any way... Moving on).

I found the recipe here, and it is true to the claims.  I have tried many a play dough recipe and this is the closest to the actual play dough that I have come across (plus it's glittery and it smells good- what's not to love?). 

The kids had a blast making it! We doubled the recipe- First we mixed together the flour, water, salt, oil, and cream of tartar.

Then separated it into 5 bowls since we had 5 colors to add. We used kool aid for the colors since I figured hey, might as well smell good as well as look pretty!

And it really does smell ah-mazing!  Next we added glitter- lots and lots of glitter!

How fun is that? [I know you wish you were a kid so you could do this too- I say go ahead!! It's fun no matter what your age!]  Next you put it in a non stick pan over medium heat until you see the color darken and it look like, well, play dough.

Take it out of the pan and Ta-Da!! You have glitter play dough, and hours of endless fun!

Once they're all out and cooled, play away- just like regular play dough.  I'm serious this stuff is great, I am so glad I found this one!

I hope everyone enjoyed our little detour from food, and we'll see you tomorrow for some more healthy eats!

Apple Pie Egg Rolls (Yup, you heard right!)

So, sometimes my sweet tooth gets the best of me (and by sometimes I mean constantly).  But there definitely are healthy options to satisfy the craving.  Now this option is definitely not the healthiest dessert that I have made, but it's also not the worst.  So that's that, now onto some sweet Apple Pie Egg Rolls that will make you drool, I know I did!

I got the recipe here and followed it pretty much to a T.  The only thing I didn't do was my own whipped cream- light cool whip! Tastes just as good, and soooo much easier.  So the rest of this story I shall tell in pictures! Enjoy!

My love affair with avocados!

I love avocados. It is a deep seeded, long time, slow burning amazing love affair between avocados and I.  LOVE them. No joke.  I don't think I go a week without making SOMETHING that requires avocado (because if it doesn't require it, you can be sure I will find a way to add it).

Take for example your Sunday morning omelet.  I've definitely been places that have avocado inside the omelet, but why not go one step further and mix the avocado into the egg and make a TRUE avocado omelet (true in my definition at least).  So here we go-

 1. Mash up one avocado, nice and creamy. Mix it in with two eggs until combined.

2. Prep your filling.  We went with some reduced fat sausage, sauteed with jalapenos,

mushrooms and green onions (also sauteed),

and some pico de gallo (store bought, sorry I'm not THAT dedicated to my Sunday morning breakfast).

3. Pour your egg and avocado mixture into a hot pan with just a little itsy bit of melted butter, over medium heat.

(it already looks ah-mazing!!)
4. Add your cheese, then sausage, mushrooms, then pico.  (Maybe a little more cheese on top, couldn't hurt, right?)

5. Then, much more gracefully than I can do with my current pan, you slide the omelet out folding the top over once half of it is out.  A shallow  non-stick pan works best for omelets, sadly I do not currently have one that meets this description so my omelets came out looking like this-

But, you have to admit, they still look pretty darn good.  And I can assure you they taste even better!  So if you love avocados, join me in one of these lovely omelets- breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you can't go wrong!!