This is one of our families favorites, this is the pancake recipe that started it all my husband found it on allrecipes.com .

Brown sugar oatmeal pancakes

• 1-1/4 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients on a bowl and then add wet ingredient. Cook on hot griddle until pancakes start to bubble.

What are items that you should always have around? That is a good question, here is a list of what I keep in my kitchen at all times.

Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Powder sugar, Crisco, canola oil, oatmeal, Peanut butter, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon,nutmeg,cream of tartar, bouillon (Chicken and Beef), seasoned salt, salt, pepper, celery seeds, corn meal, wheat flour, vinegar, Chocolate chips, corn starch, butter, eggs, milk, kitchen bouquet, and cocoa.

Having these items readily available in your house will make baking easier on you. I have found that I do not need much more than this for basic recipes.

If any of you live around where I do you know Bammy’s cookie dough. This one is my husbands favorite, so I figured out how to make this at home. My kids school always sells this cookie dough but over the last few years it has gone up in price and I just can not justify it anymore. Homemade is always better any way.

Brownie White Chocolate chip cookies

• 1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 oz white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together butter , sugar, egg, and vanilla until creamy. Then add the rest of the ingredients except the white chocolate chips.  Add white chocolate chips last. Grease a cookie sheet and bake 3 inch balls for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy with a large glass of milk.

In honor of this mornings breakfast yummmmm….My all time favorite pancake recipe, again from allrecipes.com.

Country Crunch Pancakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• CRUNCHY TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/4 cup chopped slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a mixing bowl, combine flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Combine buttermilk, eggs and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Fold in blueberries if desired. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle about 1 teaspoon for each pancake onto a lightly greased hot griddle; pour 1/4 cup of batter over topping. Immediately sprinkle with another teaspoonful of topping; turn when bubbles form on top of pancake. Cook until second side is golden brown.

I am sure that we all have a memories of our favorite cookies baking, the smell, the warm gooey cookie and how wonderful they taste. I know that my mother baked cookies all the time, in fact she always kept chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer rolled into balls so we could come home from school and bake a few cookies or a bunch. I try to be like my mom however I usually fall short when it comes to making them and freezing them. I bake cookies quite often for my family, I just do not always freeze the dough (hmmmm….. could that be that my husband has taught my kids to eat the dough just like he does).

I would encourage you to bake fresh cookies and make  double batches and freeze them. These will come in very handy, for the day that you are craving something sweet or when you have to deliver a meal to someone and you need a quick dessert. Baking cookies at home will benefit your budget as well.

Chicken Soup (Broth)

3- 4 chicken breasts skinless ( can have bones in or not)

water lots of it

Noodles( you can choose the desired width of noodle you like) I do a mixture of thin and thick or rice (regular of wild)

In a large pot place chicken frozen is okay and fill pot with water, I add several spices you can use your favorites or my favorites.

Spices:

4-5 allspice whole

4-5 whole cloves

1 tsp whole balck pepper corns

1-2 tsp salt ( can add more later)

1 tsp celery seeds

2 bay leaves

You can add carrots or celery if you wish I do that later about 1 hour before you serve the soup.

Cook the spices, water and chicken for about 4-8 hours until chicken is ready to fall apart. Take chicken out and shred it on a cutting borad, put this to the side for now. I take a strainer or sieve and fish out the whole spice that are floating. You will want to taste your broth now and see if it needs anything else. I usually add about 4 boullion cubes(Chicken).  You will now add the veggies you want and the chicken to the broth. You can add either Noodles or Rice ( regular of wild), rice will take longer so add it with the veggies and chicken. Noodles do not take long add them about 15 minutes before serving.

You can garnish with a dollop of sour cream to make a creamy soup.

If you want broth to use later in recipes you can freeze it with out the meat. I would be sure to place them in approximately 1 cup containers for ease later.

Once again this is from one of my favorite baking blogs, Baking Bites. They have fabulous recipes. I am by no means saying not to buy girl scout cookies I have two girl scouts however these are very tasty.

Homemade Thin Mints
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup milk (any kind)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp peppermint extract

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. With the mixer on low speed, add in the milk and the extracts. Mixture will look curdled. Gradually, add in the flour mixture until fully incorporated.
Shape dough into two logs, about 1 1/2 inches (or about 4 cm) in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1-2 hours, until dough is very firm.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Slice dough into rounds not more than 1/4 inch thick - if they are too thick, they will not be as crisp - and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cookies will not spread very much, so you can put them quite close together.
Bake for 13-15 minutes, until cookies are firm at the edges. Cool cookies completely on a wire rack before dipping in chocolate.

Dark Chocolate Coating
10-oz dark or semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup butter, room temperature

In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and butter. Melt on high power in the microwave, stirring every 45-60 seconds, until chocolate is smooth. Chocolate should have a consistency somewhere between chocolate syrup and fudge for a thin coating.
Dip each cookie in melted chocolate, turn with a fork to coat, then transfer to a piece of parchment paper or wax paper to set up for at least 30 minutes, or until chocolate is cool and firm.
Reheat chocolate as needed to keep it smooth and easy to dip into.

Makes 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies.

I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Baking Bites. Please check them out they have some great recipes.

Coffee Cake Pancakes
Streusel
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and salt. Add butter to bowl and blend at low speed with a hand mixer until mixture resembles coarse, wet sand. Stir in pecans
Grab handfuls of the streusel mixture and press them together into clumps. Drop gently onto baking sheet. If clumps are too large (say, bigger than a golf ball) break up slightly.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm and light gold. Cool on baking sheet.
Before using, coarsely chop if pieces seem too large to easily use as a topping.
Store in an airtight container if not using right away.

Pancakes
Double this recipe to use up the full batch of streusel, or reserve the extra streusel for another batch
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add in buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Whisk until batter is well-combined and no streaks of flour remain. It’s ok if the batter is a little lumpy.
Preheat griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat until a drop of water sizzles on its surface. Grease lightly if not using a nonstick pan.
Using a 1/3 cup measure, dollop batter onto hot griddle. Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of streusel onto the pancake. Cook until bottom is browned, then flip and cook until streusel side is browned.
Serve pancakes with maple syrup and an extra sprinkling of streusel.

Serves 4, with enough streusel to top a double-batch of pancakes and serve 8.

We make pancakes for our children almost every morning during the school week. Pancakes seem to be the one breakfast that sustains our children for the entire morning. When the kids eat pancake we don’t here the “I’m hungry” 2 hours after breakfast, they seem to be able to last until lunchtime. This has also helped with our budget especially since cereal has become so expensive.

You may be asking how did you decide on pancakes? That is a very good question, last year my husband decided to learn how to make pancakes for the kids, this started while I was ill and he took control of the kitchen( no worries once I was better he relinquished the kitchen back to me). He has since become a very good pancake chef, we have quite the library of pancake recipes now that I will share with you.

If you are new or newer to cooking you may be wondering how should I clean and store my chicken. Here are a few guidelines for storing and cleaning the chicken you purchase.

I buy mostly skinless boneless chicken, with this kind of chicken all you need to do is run it under some cold water and cut off any fat that may have been left on the chicken breast. If you buy a larger packages of chicken I suggest you always wash and trim the chicken before you freeze it, this saves time later with cooking the chicken. When I do purchase smaller packages I will freeze the chicken and then work with it partially frozen. This is because I do not like the feel of slimy things, and it is also easier to cut when it is partially frozen.

Occasionally I buy bone in chicken ( this is usually cheaper) and then use it in the crock pot since these recipes usually shredded chicken, this way the chicken just falls off the bones. This also works great in chicken broth or soup recipes.

I never intentionally purchase chicken with it’s skin on, occasionally I have made this mistake and I so do not enjoy cleaning the skin off chicken. If you make this mistake or you like skin on chicken, you will need to pull the skin off which is not that difficult (texture thing for me), usually it just peels right off. Once you get the skin off you will want to continue cleaning the chicken the same way I explained above and prepare it for freezing or using.