Spice up boring pancakes!

So who here isn't a morning person?

...

exactly ... and unless it's the weekend who wants to be up at 6am cooking a 3 course breakfast meal for your kids or husband or even yourself? With that said however we all know breakfast is in fact the most important meal of the day, so how can we make breakfast easy, but still good and not boring. 

one word PANCAKES

it's so simple! 

now you can be like me and just get a box and add water =) 

bad culinary kid I know but I cut corners in the morning what can I say

A great way to add a little something extra (plus extra nutrients) to pancakes is fruit.

The other morning I made blueberry pancakes for James and I, they were amazing!

other variations that would be great are strawberries, raspberries ... really any berry or fruit. you could also add cinnamon or a little nutmeg, which would be great for fall, for a different flavor. 

Now in addition to all of this pancakes are great to freeze, so you could even make them from scratch on Sunday cook 2 batches and freeze a batch and re-heat them for your kids or whomever throughout the week!

On a side note, the garden is doing AMAZING! the morning glories are everywhere! Which is to be expected and I've been picking 2 or 3 tomatoes a day! Yesterday we picked our first cucumber and there's a few more that are getting pretty big and now out of no where the strawberries are producing fruit.

Here's a shot I took of the kitchen window above the sink.

The coffee cup planter in the middle has a cactus or two that you can't really see. They are growing very very slowly and i'm not really sure what's going to come of them since I've never grown them before and can't seem to keep the cat out of them =) one of these days she'll learn! 

Perfect after a long day

Okay i'm sorry for the lack posts in the past two weeks, I got a sinus infection and haven't been making anything other than frozen pizza and chicken salad. But night before last I started craving real food. 

I love eating fruit, cheese and bread. It's a great snack.

So James and I went to Kroger and picked up some things to snack on.

I also picked up a bottle of Pino Grigio and added some sliced strawberries

I love Brie but don't like the rind and apparently you can get a container of Brie (no rind) for the same price as a small thing of Brie! We also had some Munster and Cheddar in the fridge. 

Then for the sliced baguette, strawberries and blueberries! 

Also! Minus the wine this makes a great breakfast for those of us who aren't morning people! 

Vegetable Omelet

For some unknown reason I was dying for breakfast yesterday ... usually breakfast for me consists of coffee .. then another cup of coffee.

So since I was actually hungry I figured id make it special

Vegetarian Omelet!

You can always substitute the eggs for an egg substitute. My beau's parents have a farm and we're lucky enough to get eggs and some veggies from them from time to time.

I used some broccoli, mushrooms, and tomatoes 

then added the eggs, i used 3 and had left overs for later

make sure you grease your pan well!! Using oil and butter will raise your smoking temperature so your omelet will be less likely to burn.

as an afterthought I added some Munster cheese

Use a spatula and pull at the sides of the omelet, this helps the egg cook thoroughly 

Flip to the side and enjoy!!

Breakfast for Dinner

So since i'm not a morning person AT ALL!!! I never make breakfast foods for breakfast, so last night I decided we should do breakfast for dinner. We made pancakes and homefries!
I also cut up some veggies to have on the side since it was dinner and pancakes don't exactly have the best nutrition value haha

We've been keeping veggies around that we can dip in ranch .... soooo yummy!

pancakes!!! 

Best homefries ever!!! 

Sliced red potatoes, onion, and garlic .. some s&p and herbs de province and you've got yourself some amazing fries! 

Yum!!!

Hearty Irish Lager Stew

Last night I was craving soup ... I have no idea why when it's about a trillion degrees outside but we crazy women can't help what we crave right haha (that's what James would say anyway) It was too late to start making soup (and i was too lazy to do it anyway) so I made a greek salad quick instead.

So tonight I'm going to make this, we've got some really good French bread I want to eat up before It goes bad and we all know bread is fantastic with soup <3 

This is the exact recipe from Vegetarian Times

which i'll use as a guideline ... i'm horrible about following recipes unless i'm baking 

can't wait to see how it turns out!!! 

Serves 8

• 1 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 8 oz. button or shiitake mushrooms, halved
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
• 1 medium leek, white part only, diced (1 cup)
• 3 small red potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes (1 1/2 cups)
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced (2 cups)
• 2 small parsnips, peeled and sliced (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 tsp. tomato paste
• 1 15-oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, tied in bundle, plus 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme, divided
• 1/2 cup lager beer
• 1 1/2 Tbs. quick-cooking tapioca
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• 1 Tbs. white miso
• 2 Tbs. chopped parsley

1. Heat 1/2 Tbs. oil in large pot over medium heat. Add mushrooms and garlic; sauté 8 minutes, or until mushrooms are browned. Remove from pan. Add remaining 1/2 Tbs. oil to pot. Add leek, and cook 5 minutes. Add potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and tomato paste. Cook 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth, and thyme sprigs; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add lager, tapioca, and mushrooms. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes, or until thickened, stirring often. Remove thyme sprigs, stir in cabbage and miso, and simmer 4 to 5 minutes, or until cabbage softens. Stir in chopped thyme and parsley, and season with salt and pepper, if desired.