Ever Ready: A Midwest Breakfast

Monday, June 16, 2014

A Midwest Breakfast

Create a Midwest breakfast to start your day.

Wild Rice and Blueberry Pancakes

Cook's notes: Wild rice and buttermilk gives these hearty pancakes a wonderful texture and blueberries are a flavorful addition. Cook wild rice according to package directions but do not add salt use plain water. How much wild rice is personal preference so start with 1 cup of cooked wild rice to batter, add more as needed. Cooking wild rice the day before is a time saver since it takes about 50 minutes to cook. Any leftover rice can be used in making a salad.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour or cake flour
3 TB. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup 2% milk
3 eggs
1 TB. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
5 TB. melted butter
1-2 cups cooked wild rice
1 pint and a half blueberries, rinsed and patted dry on a paper towel
syrup/butter

Directions:

Warm oven to 350 degrees and then turn oven off. Cooked pancakes can be stored on baking sheet in warm oven while you finish cooking the others.
In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk to combine and make a well in the center of the ingredients and set aside.
In a separate bowl beat buttermilk, 2% milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla.
Heat a griddle over medium high heat. You can flick water across surface and if it beads up and sizzles it's ready to go.
Pour the wet mixture into the well of the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to combine. Add wild rice and blueberries and mix just until blended. Do not over stir-batter should be slightly lumpy.
Pour or scoop 1/3 cup batter for each pancake onto the griddle.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup milk or substitute soy, rice or almond milk
1/2 cup ice cubes

Directions:

Crush ice cubes first in a blender, then add ingredients to mix well.

Smoothie Options include:
Best High-Protein Smoothie Ingredients:
• Nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt
• Nonfat or low-fat plain milk
• Nonfat or low-fat plain kefir (fermented milk drink)
• Tofu
• Natural peanut butter
• Almond butter
• Plain soymilk
• Plain almond milk
Best Fruits for Smoothies (use fresh fruit, frozen fruit or fruit canned in water or its own juice):
• Berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Peach
• Banana
• Apple
• Melon
• Cherries
• Apricot
Best Vegetables for Smoothies (use raw):
• Carrot
• Kale
• Spinach
• Avocado
• Cucumber
Healthy Smoothie Additions for Flavor and Additional Nutrition:
• Flaxseed
• Chia seed
• Old-fashioned oats
• Spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger)
• Vanilla extract
• Coconut water
• Unsweetened cocoa powder

Some of my favorite uses for Magic Erasers include:

Removing scuff marks from floors, doors, and baseboards (…not only scuff marks, but also years of black grime & built-up hairspray on white baseboards in the bathrooms & door panels of cabinets/doors)