Whole Wheat Pancakes

Saturday morning usually starts off bright and early with the demand for pancakes and bacon.  I refuse to use biscuit mix since the pancakes taste more like flat biscuits when I do.   The recipe we use is fairly simple and takes almost the same time to prepare as a mix and is a fantastic way to start the weekend!

Whole Wheat Pancakes
½ cup white all purpose
½ cup whole wheat
1 ½ tablespoon sugar
½ tsp Saigon cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1cup milk
1 egg-beaten
2 tbls oil

Heat griddle or pan on medium heat

Stir together flours, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder.  Combine milk, egg and oil and add it to the dry ingredients.  Stir until combined.  Cook over medium heat until done.

Real World Menu Easy Corn Bread

Tonight we’re having chili and cornbread.  The chili I made yesterday during my Soup Making Day. It’s an incredibly easy and versatile chili recipe in that it’s great with either chicken or beef and I can use most any bean that I have on hand (red, black, pinto, great northern).  The amounts of beans and meat can also be varied depending on preference.  The recipe calls for hatch chili peppers, but if you don’t have any on hand or can’t find them you use canned chili peppers instead.

Even better is the fact that my 13-year old daughter is a pro when in comes to preparing the corn bread (from scratch) and happily makes it whenever we have chili!

Chicken chili
2 cups dried beans sorted and rinsed
1 lb chicken thigh meat
1 large onion diced
1/ 2 large bell pepper diced
1 mild hatch chili pepper
2 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp salt or 1 beef or veggie bullion
2 cups water
3 tbls chili powder
2 tbls cumin
1 bay leaf

Soak beans overnight or if you are short on time, place beans in large pot and cover with water.  Boil beans for about an hour until beans are soft adding water if necessary.

Place chicken in an oven safe pan (cast iron works best) and sprinkle with chili powder and cumin. Bake at 400 for about 20 min. Take pan out of the oven and let chicken sit until cool.  Dice chicken and set aside.

In the same pan place onion, garlic and peppers and sauté over medium heat about 5 minutes.  Combine all ingredients in a large pot and let simmer at least an hour.  If you can make this ahead of time it gets better after sitting a day.

Corn Bread
1 cup corn meal
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbls sugar-more or less can be used
2 tbls baking powder
Dash of salt
Two beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil or melted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Grease pan- I prefer cast iron skillet

Sift or stir corn meal, flour, sugar baking powder and salt together. Make a well in center of dry ingredients.  Combine milk, eggs and oil and add to dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

The menu for this coming week reflects the fact that I need to reign in my grocery spending from the last several weeks and that I need to focus on using the items that I already have in my pantry and in the fridge.

Sunday
Chicken chili with corn bread

Monday
Very veggie salad

Tuesday
Panini’s and tomato soup

Wednesday
Pasta with salmon alfredo

Thursday
Tortilla soup

Friday
Pizza (Homemade)

Saturday
Tostadas

I love food related blogs, books, magazines and television.   I can spend hours at sites like 101cookbooks.com, thepioneerwoman.com and sustainableeats.com.  I buy cookbooks with the overwhelming desire to create replicas of the incredible creations pictured and I get giddy at the thought of opening up the latest edition on my Gourmet Live app.   Even now, just writing about them, I want to stop what I’m doing and click over to another food site. But, for the most part they represent a fantasy world.  The gloriously quaint kitchens that couldn’t possibly look messy or have kids running through with a dog in hot pursuit. Chickens that lay eggs for breakfast and meticulously cared for gardens that produce a bounty enough to feed their family daily.  Not to mention that thewriters possess the unwavering ability to either eat only local, sustainable, seasonal, raw and/or organic foods or produce gourmet meals in remarkably short time for little money.

In the real world my kids are running around yelling “play with me” while I try to cook. Instead of eating off found pieces of vintage china they prefer to eat off melamine plates with cartoon characters.  In the real world my husband often only has a 30-minute window between work and school to eat.  And our garden…the garden produces two maybe three cantaloupe and a couple of tomatoes that the birds fight with our dog to eat.

Despite this I diligently work at making my family’s meals at home from scratch, with fresh natural ingredients.  I try to use local foods when I can. The same with organic.  I look for seasonal items and incorporate a few vegetarian or raw meals in the weekly menu when I can. I take all the advice, all the information on making wholesome meals, and use what I can when I can.  Because sometimes I just need to get dinner on the table and fast. Welcome to my Real World Menu.