Pancakes for all days...

...even those in which you have no eggs or milk! (or for those who happen to be allergic to such things!)

Very simple recipe that took only a few minutes to whip up, and a very short while to cook! The batch made enough for us to have breakfast this morning, and freeze a meal's worth for later this week (yay for saving time!).

I found the original recipe last night and just had to try it. I have an overabundance of flour (bought flour instead of sugar one grocery trip, and ended up with several bags of flour in my cabinet!) and a general lack of milk (need to get to the store...my little man drinks it all!), so this was perfect.

Milkless & Eggless Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup of Flour
2 teaspoons of Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoon of Salt
2 tablespoons of Sugar
3 tablespoons of veg oil
2 -3 tablespoons of Applesauce
1 1/4 cup of Water

 

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients.

2. Bake up some pancakes!

3. Enjoy!

Healthy Cookies! (supposedly...)

I had a couple of oranges in my fridge that needed to be used up before they went bad. Since we don't really eat a lot of oranges, just cutting them up was out of the question...so I went looking for an orangey idea...

and came across this.

Yummy, delicious, light, fluffy, frosted orange cookies. Oh. Yes.

I don't have any pictures because I was trying very hard to follow the recipe exactly and get it finished before my family showed up for Bible study this afternoon. BUT...if you look at the original recipe, my cookies looked like that...without the orange slices on top. :-)

SO yummy! Kimberly tried to tell me they were terrible and I should just let her "get rid of" them ;-)

Ingredients:
COOKIE DOUGH:
11 Tbsp (5½ ounces) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (5¼ ounces) granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup (4 ounces) freshly squeezed orange juice (grate zest before juicing)
2 Tbsp grated orange zest (the rind of 1 large or 2 small oranges)
2 cups (8 ounces) whole wheat flour
ICING:
2 cups (8 ounces) powdered sugar
2 Tbsp (1 ounce) unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp grated orange zest (the rind of 1 small orange)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp (1 ounce) freshly squeezed orange juice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Prepare dough: Cream butter, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat in egg, then orange juice and orange zest, scraping the bowl. The mixture will look curdled; that’s OK! Add the flour, beating until smooth. Drop dough by Tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
3. Bake the cookies: Bake cookies, reversing pans midway through (top to bottom, bottom to top), until they’re just barely beginning to brown around the edges, 10 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and let them cool on the pans for 10 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.
4. Prepare the icing: Beat the sugar, butter, orange zest, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl until well combined. Beat in orange juice until the mixture is spreadable. Spread icing on the cookies when they’re completely cool, using a generous 1 tsp. icing for each.
Servings: 30
Yield: 30 cookies

ENJOY!
 

Life update...

No recipe today...but the promise of one soon!

I figured it would be a good idea to update everyone on our life in general...not just on what we eat!

Lane and I celebrated our 1st anniversary on the 7th of this month, and got to spend a relaxing weekend a few hours away from home at an adorable English bed and breakfast. It was so much fun! ((I love you babe!))

Just yesterday, Lane interviewed for and was offered a new job. This was perfect God-timing for our family! He was able to have a few weeks off since the last job, and is healthy again. Hopefully no more big illnesses are headed his way any time soon!

Lane at breakfast on our anniversary weekend away.

I am 32 1/2 weeks pregnant now, and getting very ready to have this little guy here and with us rather than inside me! No health problems, mom and baby are doing great, but my tummy is getting big and I'm ready for it to be small(er) again!

Preggo mommy around 31 weeks

Ethan is enjoying his summer time by spending the night at Nu-nuh and Papa's house, playing on the porch with Lady and getting to spend time with Mommy *and* Daddy! Next week he and I are going to start working on some "schoolwork" for him...he's already brilliant, I want to channel that into something productive early!

Daddy and Ethan playing play-doh for the first time.

As a family, we have started couponing, and working towards being a cash-only family. We are learning a lot from others both online and in our extended family who have been doing this for awhile, and are enjoying spending less and less each week on groceries and other expenses!

Lane and I start back to school at the end of August, so we're enjoying the last of our summer time too. It's nice to be off school, but it will be nice to be back into the schoolwork schedule for our days and have a little more daily structure.

I'm hoping to get started on all my scrapbooks soon too! I have over 500 pictures printed and ready to go, as well as tons of pages and 4 or 5 brand new empty books just waiting for my creative touch!

I'll be sure to keep updating as our life continues to change and our family grows. Keep an eye out for new recipes coming soon! I have a brand new chocolate cake recipe book, as well as a great "regular" cookbook that I will be starting to pull from more and more as the weeks go on (and I get more organized!).

God Bless!
*Hillary* (and the rest of the Wallace clan)

Chocolate Cake...on a whim!

While watching an episode of Star Trek TNG, I started craving cake...because they were eating cake...so I found a quick recipe online and made up a delicious chocolate cake.

DELICIOUS. Chocolate. Cake.

You can't go wrong ;-)

This recipe has several variations, and I'm sure they are all as amazing as this one! Try them out and let me know!!

Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I used oil, per a suggestion in one of the comments on the original recipe. It worked GREAT!)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup baking cocoa powder

1. Sift together the dry ingredients.
2. Mix in the oil (or shortening) until fine crumbs are formed.
3. Add eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix well. (the original recipe calls for a mixer, but I did all my mixing by hand with a whisk.)
4. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. (I didn't flour mine, just made sure to use a lot of cooking spray) Bake in a preheated 350* oven for 25-30 minutes.
5. Let it cool, frost and enjoy!!

Happy 4th of July!

So I know it's late...like a lot :-P...but I made a really cute "Red, White and Blue Breakfast" for the 4th, and just now got around to getting the pictures uploaded to share with you!

It's nothing fancy, just french toast made with french bread, some scrambled eggs, bacon, blueberry syrup and some (white) powdered sugar to top it all off...but it was fun and festive! Enjoy the pictures, and hopefully I'll actually bake/cook some more this week and have something real to share!!

yes, I dyed the scrambled eggs red ;-)

(nearly) white French toast

(kinda purple) BLUEberry syrup (see previous post about this recipe)

Red, white and blue!

and aside from looking so patriotic, it was delicious to boot!