Delicious Mother’s Day Breakfast!

You discreetly open one eye and scan the room. Maybe if you don’t move they will think you are still sleeping. Crash! The door flies open, the scrambled eggs go airborne and you know they have found you out! There they stand in the doorway – your family, grinning from ear to ear. It’s another Mother’s Day and once again they are treating you like a goddess- bringing you a tray full of burnt offerings (known in our culture as breakfast in bed).

There’s blackened toast, large brown lumps you think may be scrambled eggs, coffee "paste", and oh, are these strips of bacon, beef jerky or dog treats? Then of course you look at their smiling faces full of love and you are reminded how blessed you are. Gratefully, you pick up your fork and start eating. Has anything ever tasted more like manna from heaven?

If you’d rather be able to identify your Mother’s Day breakfast this year, then discreetly slip these recipes to your husband or children so that he can make sure that this heartwarming moment is also a tasty memory for you!

Recipes:

Pancakes

2 eggs
2 cups flour, all-purpose or wheat
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

In a bowl, mix ingredients just enough to moisten dry ingredients. Mixture will be thick and lumpy. Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium heat and lightly grease. Cook on a hot greased griddle. Flip when bubbles break on the surface and the edges begin to dry. Makes 15-18 medium pancakes.

Scrambled Eggs

8 eggs
4 Tbsp. milk or water (optional)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 tsp. margarine (or bacon grease)

Stir all the ingredients except margarine in a bowl until well blended. Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add margarine to the skillet. Pour egg mixture into skillet. Stir constantly about 4 minutes until eggs are fluffy and set. Serves 4.

Country Fried Potatoes

6 Tbsp. bacon grease or margarine
6 potatoes, peeled and sliced
salt and pepper

Melt bacon grease or margarine in a frying pan. Add the potatoes in the pan and cook over medium heat. Flip potatoes and cook until golden brown. Remove from pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4-6.

Creamy Orange Shake
(like Orange Julius)

1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water (optional)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
5-6 ice cubes
2 scoops vanilla ice cream

Combine ingredients in a blender until smooth. Serves 4.

For more money saving recipes check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.

photo by: agizienski

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Menu – Pancake Pizza – Cinnamon Bacon

We love to have brunch after church on Easter and here are some recipes I think will be a hit whether you serve them on Easter morning, for brunch or breakfast any time.

Menu:

Pancake Pizza*
Homemade Maple syrup*
Cinnamon Bacon*
Fruit Platter
Coffee/Juice

Recipes:

Pancake Pizza

2 cups biscuit mix
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. pancake syrup
1 cup granola
1 cup walnuts

Combine first 5 ingredients. Spread on a greased 14 inch pizza pan. Sprinkle with granola and nuts. Bake at 425° for 12-15 minutes until golden. Cut into wedges and serve with more syrup.

Cinnamon Bacon

1 lb. bacon
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Mix sugar and cinnamon. Cut bacon in half widthwise and roll in sugar mix. Twist and place on a foil lined 15x10x1 baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes until crisp. These freeze great. If you plan to freeze them, just bake at 350° for 6-8 minutes or until heated through.

The Following Recipes Are From the Dining on a Dime Cookbook

Grandma’s Maple Syrup

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp. maple flavoring
1/2 cup water

Stir together; bring to a boil. Simmer 2-3 minutes and cool. Makes 1 cup.

A. Jamie Syrup

2 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 cups dark corn syrup
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. maple flavoring

Combine all but flavoring in a saucepan. Stir until it comes to a boil. Boil for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and cool 15 minutes. Add maple flavoring. Makes 1 quart.

      -Jill

Photo By: Tania Liu

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Muffin Basics – Homemade Muffin Recipes

Muffins are very easy to make. Mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and hand stir lightly. Usually, you only need to stir them about 12-15 times. The batter will be very lumpy but that is the way it should be. Muffins are one thing you don’t want to over-mix. Pour them into greased muffin cups about 2/3 full. If you don’t have enough batter to fill all of the cups in the pan, you can fill the empty ones with water if you like. I do this sometimes but not always.

• If you are adding nuts or fruit, mix them in with the dry ingredients before you add the liquids. This keeps them from all falling to the bottom of the muffin.
• Your muffins should come out with rounded tops and a light fluffy texture. If they don’t, there could be a couple of things you are doing wrong:
  • Flat heavy muffins with tunnels may mean your oven temperature is too low.
  • If the muffin has a lopsided or misshapen peak, the oven temperature could be too high.
  • Knobs and peaks on top and long tunnels can also be caused by over-mixing.

Here is a basic muffin mix recipe from Dining on A Dime:

Basic Muffins

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil

Mix ingredients together. Spoon into greased muffin cups, 2/3 full. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes. Makes about 12-15 muffins.

Add these ingredients to a basic muffin mix or recipe to liven up your muffins:

• Bacon or Ham – Reduce sugar to 2 Tbsp. and add 1/2 cup chopped bacon or ham
• Blueberries – 1 cup
• Cherries or cranberries – 2/3 cup of cherries or cranberries, mixed with 2 Tbsp. of sugar first
• Dried fruit – 1/2 cup apricots, currants, peaches, figs, prunes, raisins or dates
• Nuts – 1/3 cup chopped
• Cheese – 1/2 cup grated cheese and 1/8 tsp. paprika
• Cornmeal – 1 cup cornmeal and 1 cup flour
• Whole wheat – 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup flour. This is especially good with crumbled bacon.
  
  The sky is the limit with what you can add to a muffin if you have a hand full of many different things. For example a little leftover corn would be good in a cornmeal muffin, a few chocolate chips would spruce up lots of different muffins, etc.

      -Jill

Photo By: norwichnuts

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Delicious Breakfast Recipes

Today we will share some delicious breakfast recipes with you. Now that the holidays are here, some of us will have every evening booked with a special get-together. If you are planning a get-together or party of your own, try having a brunch instead. It is a good way to use some of today’s delicious breakfast recipes, and is a great way to use the ones you are too busy to use on an ordinary weekday.

Breakfast Tips:

• The holidays are the time of year when many of us try new and different recipes. One rule of thumb is to always read the entire recipe before you start. As a seasoned cook, I don’t know how many times I was sure I knew how a recipe should be made, so I didn’t read it all the way through and got into big trouble because of it. READ YOUR RECIPE ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
• Waffles and pancakes aren’t just for breakfast. They make great dishes for supper on cold or snowy evenings. You can add so many different things to them. For example, add some puree pumpkin or sweet potato, apples, fried and crumbled sausage, nuts, berries or peanut butter.
• Have fun with different kinds of syrups and butters too. Here are some examples:
  1. Orange-Honey Butter – Add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of honey and 2 tsp. of orange zest to a stick of softened butter.
  2. Vanilla Butter – Stir in 1-2 tsp. of vanilla and 1 Tbsp. of powdered sugar to softened butter.
  3. Berry Butter – Mix a few berries with 2-3 Tbsp. of powdered sugar into butter.
  4. Cinnamon Butter – Add 2-3 Tbsp. sugar, 1-2 tsp. cinnamon and a small dash of vanilla to 2 sticks of softened butter. Double this and add to a one pound tub of butter or margarine like I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. Use on bagels, pancakes, bread or even on baked sweet potatoes topped with some extra brown sugar.

Recipes:

Some of these recipes will be richer and have more unusual ingredients than those we normally share but, since they are for the holidays, I wanted to give you something special for this special time of year.

This recipe can be used for a fun and different tradition for Christmas morning. Can you imagine what the house would smell like? Gingerbread– Oh Yum! You might also try using them for dessert. Make them ahead of time and then warm in the oven or toaster. Top with ice cream or whipped cream.

Gingerbread Waffles

2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ginger
2 eggs, separated
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat egg whites to form soft peaks. Beat egg yolks and add other liquid ingredients. Add liquid ingredients to the dry, stirring quickly until flour mixture is moistened. Fold in egg whites. Bake slightly slower and 1-2 minutes longer than plain waffles. Serve with whipped cream. Makes 5 servings.

This recipe was given to me by my sister in law and it is simply to die for! I can hardly eat my regular waffles anymore because these are so good. Check out the ingredients and see why.

Dutch Honey

1 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream (not whipped and no substitutes)
1 cup white Karo syrup

Mix everything in a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until it is a light caramel color. It takes about 20-30 minutes. Watch it when you first start to cook it because it boils over easily but once it gets started you can leave it, just stirring occasionally. It is great on pancakes and French toast, too!

Peachy English Muffins

2 English muffins, split in half
2 Tbsp. cream cheese, softened
1 (15 oz.) can peaches or pears, drained. (Cut thick slices lengthwise to 1/2 inch thickness.)
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice (optional)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. margarine, softened
1/4 cup quick cook oats

Spread muffins with cream cheese and place on baking sheet lined with foil. Place peaches in bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and stir. Arrange in single layers on muffins. Mix the brown sugar, remaining cinnamon, margarine and oats until crumbly. Sprinkle over peaches. Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes. Serve hot. Makes 4 servings.

You don’t always have to serve the usual coffee cakes or rolls. Try something different but just as good to go with your scrambled eggs and bacon like a fruit crumble. Here are two fruit crumble recipes. The first one is an easy version from my mother in law and the second is still easy, but more of the traditional crumble.

Blueberry – Raspberry Crumble

1 (21 oz.) can blueberry pie filling*
1 (21 oz.) can raspberry pie filling*
1 white cake mix
1/2 cup nuts, chopped
1/2 cup (stick) margarine, melted

In a greased 9×13 baking dish, combine pie fillings. Mix the rest of the ingredients until crumbly and sprinkle over pie fillings. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes until bubbly and golden brown. Serve warm.

*You can use any pie fillings you want, like peach or apple. I even saw a recipe once where they used a (16 oz.) bag of dark cherries and a (16 oz.) can of crushed pineapple. Another recipe had blueberry pie filling and a can of crushed pineapple, with coconut sprinkled on everything.

Traditional Fruit Crisp

2-3 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 apples, peeled and sliced or chopped in small pieces*
3 pears, peeled and sliced or chopped in small pieces*
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. brown sugar, packed
1 cup berries*
1 1/2 cup oats
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup melted butter

Toss apples and pears in lemon juice to keep from getting brown. Add cinnamon, flour and sugar to fruit. Pour into a 9×13 greased baking dish. Sprinkle with berries. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients until crumbly. Then sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 375° for 45 minutes until fruit is tender. Check at about 30 minutes.

*Before I add the topping, I microwave my fruit on high for about 5 minutes to get it partially cooked. This cuts down on the baking time.

*If you prefer, you can use all apples, all pears or no berries.

*Use your favorite fruit or whatever fruit is in season.

*If you don’t mind peels, you can leave them on.

For more delicious homemade scratch recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.

photo by: vancouver-bites

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Pecan Pie Muffins

1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup (stick) butter or margarine, melted

Combine first 3 ingredients. In separate bowl beat eggs until foamy and add butter. Pour egg mix into dry ingredients and blend until moistened. Don’t over blend. Pour into muffin tins with papers. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

For lots more quick and easy home cooked recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.

photo by:futurestreet

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Hello. I just thought I’d share a tip I learned recently about oatmeal (after seeing your post of breakfast tips). We find re-heated oatmeal unappealing to serve again as a cereal.  But the thrifty in me hates to throw it out.  I learned recently to put it in pancake batter. 

Just mix your batter normally and add in the oatmeal to the finished product. You may need to add just a touch of milk, but I rarely do.  This actually makes the pancakes heartier as well as using up something that may otherwise go to waste.  The same gal that told me of this trick also adds it to bread dough.  I haven’t tried it yet, but look forward to doing so soon!

Rachel

I bet this would be good in bread and even in muffins or other quick breads.

       -Jill

photo by: kthread

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Blueberry Pancake Tip

When using blueberries in pancakes or waffles, add frozen blueberries to the pancakes before they thaw to keep them from turning to mush in the batter.

-Jill

photo by: geishabot

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