Archive for the ‘Kitchen Aide’ Category

Donna Venning

 A normal morning in the Venning house looks something like this:  My older children come out of their room (one sleepily, one wide awake) and greet me in their usual way…

“What’s for breakfast, Mommy?”

“And good morning to you, too, children,” I reply dryly. 

“Oh.  Good morning, Mommy (hug, hug)…what’s for breakfast?”

Now, depending on how much sleep the Little Mister (our baby) let me get the night before, I can cheerfully or not-so-cheerfully answer this question.  Lately it feels like I’ve been answering it not-so-cheerfully.

So, working for TEACH and knowing that Lorrie has an eBook on this very topic (Sanity Saving Breakfast Ideas), I decided that it was time to tackle the breakfast dilemma and follow some of her recipes.  Below is an outline of what we did this past week and what the family thought of my attempt at a new routine.

Monday’s Recipe: Oatmeal Pancakes

I decided to do this experiment on Sunday afternoon, so while I was grilling dinner I whipped up the batter for Oatmeal Pancakes and put it in the fridge overnight.  Since there are only five of us in my family, I froze half the batter and used the other half.  It worked out well…it made more than enough pancakes and thanks to the extra batter, I now have breakfast in the freezer for next Monday!

When I put the first plates of pancakes on the table, my five year old looked suspiciously at me and said “These don’t look normal.” 

“They’re yummy,” I replied.

The kids started eating and about four bites into them, my seven year old said “These are GREAT!”  Honestly, you’d have thought I’d coached him to say that, but my family didn’t even know about the little experiment I’d undertaken!

 Before I continue on, let me note here that each of the meals I made were made the night before, much like the Monday meal was made during dinner prep on Sunday.  I choose to make the recipes as I fixed dinner each night. I was already in the kitchen and clean up was a cinch!

Tuesday’s Menu: Fancy French Toast

Per the instructions in the recipe book, you make this French toast at once and then freeze it.  When you’re ready for breakfast, you put it in the toaster and voila, breakfast is served! Since Tuesday mornings are my Weight Watchers meetings, it was great to leave instructions with the kids “Toast your waffles for breakfast” while I took a shower and such.  Five and seven year olds can more than handle the toaster and some syrup on top.  Again, this recipe was a hit.

Wednesday’s Recipe: Simple Quiche (from Healthy Sanity Saving Breakfast Recipes)

I chose to make crustless quiche, even though the recipe includes a no-roll dough.  But, I made the quiche without the crust and instead of cooking it in a pie pan, I cooked them in a muffin tin.  The kids loved having two little yellow and green (they had spinach in them) muffins plopped onto their plates. 

By now, I was loving the convenience of having breakfast taken care of when I awoke in the morning.  I always have a dinner menu…why hadn’t it ever occurred to me before to have a breakfast menu plan?  Our mornings were going so much better after only three days!

Thursday’s Recipe: It and With It

Okay, the only negative thing I could say about this recipe is that Lorrie didn’t include the story behind the name “It and With It” in the book.  With a name like that, there’s got to be a story. I’ll have to ask her about that. I made a half-batch and that filled a 9×9 baking dish.  The kids thought the idea of serving it in a bowl of milk was odd (why I can’t explain), so they ate their oats/granola/corn flake concoction with vanilla yogurt on top. Kevin summed it up best when asked if he liked it and replied “No.  I LOVE it.” Honest…I did not coach him on his responses to these new meals!

Friday’s Recipe:  Breakfast Cookies

I used a recipe I already had for this.  We have co-op on Fridays and getting there on time is always a task, even for a hyper-punctual person like me. So on Thursday, the kids and I learned about fraction and measurements as we made a batch of protein breakfast cookies.  Don’t you love the ability to roll homemaking and homeschooling into one event? 

Note: I used a recipe I was already familiar with, but Healthy Sanity Saving Breakfast Recipes does include a similar recipe called “Breakfast in a Cookie.” 

Saturday’s Recipe:  Captain Crunch

Saturdays are always “Saturday Cereal” days at our house.  The kids get to choose any cereal (for them, the brighter colored it is, the better) from the grocery store and that’s what they have on Saturdays.  Later in the morning, we’ll have an early lunch.

Sunday’s Recipe:  More Fancy French Toast

I love it!  A recipe that I made once and served twice (so far…there are actually enough pieces left for one more day of frozen Fancy French Toast. Cook once, eat three times!  Now that’s a ratio I can enjoy!) 

Now that I’m at the end of my first week, my dilemma is this…do I repeat these same recipes or try new ones?  I’m hooked…I won’t go back to making breakfast in the morning. This is way too simple, way to easy and has changed our mornings.  I’m no longer grumpy when the kids ask “What’s for breakfast, Mommy?” Because now I have an answer! 

Having breakfast made the night before has helped with my exercise.  I was getting up in the morning to walk on my treadmill and after exercising, my kids would want to eat, while I wanted a shower.  Now that breakfast is already made, I no longer have to decide which to do…cook or take a shower.  Now I can do both, at a reasonable time of the day (without having to get up before the sun).  Seriously, this has been the best experiment.  I’m going to keep at it and see what difference it makes after a month. So far, I’m hooked!

Writer’s note: with the exception of the Simple Quiche and the Breakfast Cookie recipe, the other recipes mentioned in this article are all from Sanity Saving Breakfast Ideas by Mrs. Lorrie Flem.

Check out the other articles in this week’s ezine…there is a free recipe and a sale on the books I used for my experiment!

If you love cooking in the kitchen, but occasionally need an ingredient for your favorite recipe that you don’t have on hand, the Cook’s Thesaurus is a handy web site that lists substitutions for those items.

Say that a recipe calls for mushrooms, but you used the last of them yesterday. Key in the word “mushrooms” and the mushrooms page not only lists the many varieties, it also includes substitutes (tempeh, eggplant, bell peppers and zucchini).