I spent Sunday afternoon working on breakfast. That sounds a bit strange. Surely by the afternoon breakfast is over. Even my slowest dish washing child usually has the morning dishes completed by the afternoon. No offense, darling children.

What I meant was that I used a good portion of Sunday afternoon to do some breakfast baking, for the upcoming week. I read two wonderful blogs this weekend which inspired me to gather baking supplies and settle in for the day. Last week I asked Lisa in FL (a homeschooling e-mail friend) some questions about how she handles the breakfast meals in her family. She wrote this detailed blog on the subject. Amy (another homeschooling SHS friend) posted a great blog on creating menus and preparing meals in advance. Both of these neat moms make excellent use of their freezer in their meal planning.

Joshua got up early Sunday morning and made waffles for breakfast. Have I mentioned, recently, that it is just LOVELY having older children around to help in this way?

Maple syrup or Mrs. Butterworth?? This is quite the source of conflict in our home. Healthy (this could be questionable) or cheap?

Since the waffle maker was still out (and the last waffle torn into pieces by ravenous children and then sneakily eaten by me, sorry guys) I figured it would be smart to make up another batch of waffles and have some on hand for next week. As soon as that thought hit me, I knew I shouldn’t stop there but should make some additional things. Since I was obviously craving waffles (ie yummy starches) I thought this would be a great time to try out a master muffin mix someone shared online last year. I also wanted to make up Tim’s breakfast pancakes for the week. I often don’t remember to start his breakfast/lunch preparations until it’s late in the evening, by that time I’m low on energy and not very interested in baking. It is extremely helpful to make up all of his breakfast pancakes for the week on Sunday evening.

Tim’s pancakes all bagged up and ready to go!

If I make up a batch of Tim’s pancakes then I obviously have to get out the griddle. With the griddle out, I could easily fit in a batch of blender oatmeal pancakes. You can see how this whole thing took on a life of its own. Joshua and the younger children walked around all afternoon with happy expressions on their faces as the kitchen filled up with delicious aromas. In the end I had quite a collection of breakfast options. I’ll include recipes (as well as my changes).

Waffles
3½ C Pastry flour (I used a combination of ww pastry flour and unbleached flour)
4 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
2 Tbsp. Sucanat (or other sweetener–I used brown sugar)
2/3 C oil
3 C Rice milk (or other milk)
6 eggs

This is a great, all purpose waffle recipe. It seems like a lot of oil – I haven’t tried cutting it down with applesauce. I use whatever types of flour I have on hand and milk of various sorts. The first time I made this recipe I had rice milk but the rest of the time I use skim or 2% cow’s milk.

Waffles – bagged and heading for the freezer.

Master Muffin Recipe

5 cups flour (use up to two cups whole wheat, crushed cereal, or packed rolled oats if desired)
2 to 2 1/2 cups sugar (use the higher amount if fruit is sour, you may also use all or part br. sugar, or even half or more of sucralose for the sugar)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbs.(3 tsp) baking powder
2 cups buttermilk (you can use part yogurt for the milk)
1 cup vegetable oil or melted butter (or substitute 1/2 cup apple sauce for half the oil)
3 eggs

Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to blend. Place wet ingredients (oil, eggs, milk) in blender container and blend well.

Make a well in dry ingredients in bowl, add wet mix from blender and pour into well. Stir gently to mix, add fruit and fold and stir in. Do not beat, batter should be a bit lumpy. Over stirring muffins makes them tough.

This will make 24 to 30 muffins depending on size of pans. Grease muffin pans or use muffin liners fill almost to the top and sprinkle with and of the following: sugar, cinn. sugar, chopped nuts and sugar, coconut, rolled oats and sugar etc. (I missed this last part and didn’t put on any topping).

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min. Cool on racks. Freeze these in Ziplocs for quick breakfasts or easy snacks.

I made one batch of apple/butterscotch muffins and one of carrot raisin. I dropped an entire pan of the carrot raisin muffins on the floor – before they were baked. Yep! Nasty mess and waste of a lot of batter. Sigh. I think the little anti-vegetable imp that lives in the house jostled my arm. Thankfully Tim was home and cheerfully cleaned up the entire sloppy mess.

The wonderful thing about the Master Muffin Mix recipe is that the sweet lady who shared it also included a whole page of add-ins and variations. Since this blog is already lengthy, I figure it doesn’t hurt to make it a little longer. Here are the muffin variations that go with this master mix.

Apple cinnamon: Use 3 – 4 apples (just peel and cut in chunks and throw in blender with wet ingredients, don’t over process, or chop by hand), 2 tsp cinn. and 1 cup chopped pecans.

Apple raisin – same as above but add 1 cup raisins (plump first by covering with liquid and nuking for a couple minutes. I like to used part rolled oats with the apple muffins and sprinkle the tops with a little oatmeal and sugar.

Carrot raisin – same as above but use 5 or 6 carrots chopped in blender with wet ingredients instead of apple. Add 1 cup chopped nuts if desired.

Carrot raisin pineapple – Same as above but add one large can crushed pineapple and reduce milk to 1 1/2 cups.

Strawberry – cut up 3 cups strawberries and mix in
Strawberry/White Chocolate, same as above, but add 1 cup white choc pieces
Strawberry pecan – same but add 1 cup chopped pecans

Tollhouse - add 2 cup choc chips (1 12 oz bag – I like to use the mini chips) 1 cup chopped nuts, walnuts or pecans, use brown sugar and add 2 tsp vanilla.

Banana - Reduce milk to 1 cup – add 5 or 6 bananas to blender – add 2 tsp vanilla and 1 cup nuts

Banana/Strawberry 1- Same as above but fold into batter, 2 cups cut up strawberries.
Banana/Strawberry 2 – Add 1 cup strawberries to the blender with 4 or 5 bananas. Stir 2 cups of cut up strawberries into batter.
Banana/Strawberry 3 – Follow either banana or banana strawberry 1, but add 1 pkg strawberry jello to wet ingredients.
Banana Choc chip – same as above but add 2 cups mini chips and 1 cup nuts if desired.

Blueberry /Orange – Peel the orange skin off one orange in very thin pieces using a potato peeler and put in the blender with the other wet ingredients. Remove the white peel remaining on the orange and cut orange into 4 or 5 chunks. Pick out the seeds and put the chunks in the blender. add the remaining wet ingredients reducing milk to 1 3/4 cups, if you are using regular milk do not add lemon juice. Blend well. Proceed as directed stirring in 2 1/2 to 3 cups blueberries.

Cranberry Orange – Same as above (no blueberries) except add 1 1/2 dried cranberries (plumped in microwave by covering with liquid and nuking for a couple minutes). Can also add 1 cup chopped nuts

Orange Pineapple – Same as above (no blueberries) but add 1 large can of crushed pineapple and reduce milk to 1 1/2 cups.

Hawaiian - Same as above but add 1 cup coconut – sprinkle tops with a little coconut.

Peanut Butter and Jelly – This is for the kids, into blender container put milk, 1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky, you can add extra chopped peanuts if you like) and only 1/3 cup oil. Use 4 eggs and mix as usual. Fill muffin tins 1/2 full and put 1 tsp jam or jelly in center of each cup. Fill with batter almost to top and bake as usual. Chopped peanuts sprinkled on top is a nice touch.

No wonder they call Judy the Muffin Queen.

Tim’s breakfast pancakes are an altered version of my no-flour recipe. He likes them because they are one of the few breakfast items that really fill him up. They are hearty and tasty.

Tim’s Pancakes

1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup flour (whatever you have on hand)

I tend to make these rather heaping measurements (probably ends up being closer to 1/3 a cup).

1 or 2 tbs of sweetener (brown sugar or honey)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
Cinnamon or Nutmeg or Vanilla if desired
2 eggs
1/2 can of pineapple (either crushed or chunks, including some of the juice)

I’m afraid I don’t really measure these ingredients (except for the eggs). It’s a very forgiving recipe.

Mix dry ingredients. Add eggs and pineapple. Fry on griddle or in frying pan (greased with butter or baking spray).

Blender Oat Pancakes (Sue Greggs cookbook)

Place in blender blend at high speed 2 minutes until smooth.

1 3/4 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
2 T. olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats uncooked

Mix in thoroughly, but briefly, using blender and or rubber spatula, as needed.
2 T. Sucanat (or other sweetener – I used brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

These are fun because they don’t use any flour. Okay, maybe ‘fun’ isn’t the right word but they are certainly different than the typical pancake. The recipe makes a thinner pancake but it is very tasty and thoroughly appreciated by my family.

After all of this work I wasn’t sure I had energy to make dinner. Ha! It was pouring outside so the thought of cooking hamburgers on the grill was a bit unappealing. Since the griddle was still hot from the pancakes, we moved right into dinner and used the griddle for the hamburgers. Nothing like an easy meal of burgers and salad. Following dinner, Tim and I went to the garage/game/media room to finish our movie and left the older children to do ALL THE DINNER and BREAKFAST BAKING CLEAN UP. Wonderful! They did a fantastic job.

We’ll see how long these baked goods survive. I need to ask Amy and Lisa how often they do this kind of baking. Anyone else ever do this kind of baking? I’m sure I’m missing some other fantastic recipes. Share if you have some good ones!

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 141

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