Blender Pancakes

I love it when a wonderful recipe just falls into my lap.  My sister in law, Rochelle, emailed me this recipe one morning.  This is what she had to say about the recipe, "I was given this recipe a while ago and it has become a regular breakfast choice.  We like them so much that they are preferred above regular pancakes.  They are an easy way to use your food storage and get some grains in your diet." She's not kidding, this recipe uses a bunch of food storage ingredients, which is always a good thing.

Now I have to admit, I was skeptical.  My blender is not top of the line.  It works fine for making smoothies and such, but I was worried it would not be up to the task of grinding up hard red wheat kernels.  But I figured "what the heck, you only live once, right?" and gave it a try.  I am so glad that I did.  My blender was up to the task, and I discovered that this is a super easy recipe that is quick enough to whip up even on a busy school morning.

Blender Pancakes
1 ¼ cups water
1 cup whole wheat kernels
¼ cup powdered milk
1 egg
2 Tbs oil
1 Tbs honey or sugar
½ tsp salt
1 Tbs baking powder

Place water, wheat kernels, and dry milk in the blender and mix on high for 3 minutes. Add egg, oil, honey, and salt. Blend for 20 seconds. Add baking powder. Pulse three times, just enough to mix. Mixture should foam up and get very light.

Cook immediately on hot nonstick griddle.

Rochelle also added that if you do have an amazing blender like a vita mix or blend tech to not mix for the full 3 minutes or it will turn into bread dough.  Like I said, not a problem for my blender, I was just happy the wheat ground up at all :)

And if you really want to make them doubly delicious click here to make Vanilla Pancake Syrup to pour over the top!

Thanks for a great recipe Rochelle!!!!!

Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Wow, it's been a really long time!  Life is too busy.  I just finished making some AWESOME cookies from my fresh ground whole white wheat flour :)  So these are healthy right?!?!?!  They are definitely a delicious way to eat food storage.  I haven't told my family they are made from whole wheat flour - no need to get them all suspicious about eating them.  I left the "whole wheat" part out of the recipe title too.  So here we go -

Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I ground white wheat for this recipe)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (I have cans of this in my food storage too!)
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar (part of my food storage :)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
6 oz white chocolate bar, chopped 1/2 inch pieces (or 1 cup chips)
6 oz dark chocolate bar, chopped 1/2 inch pieces (or 1 cup chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease (spray and wipe off) or line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat.

2. In a medium bowl, combine whole wheat flour, soda, salt and cocoa with a wire whisk. In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Stir in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time. Combine completely. While mixing add flour mixture 1/2 cup or so at a time.

3. Hand stir-in chopped chocolates. Drop by tablespoonsful onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks for cooling completely.  I usually like to eat my cookies warm, but I prefer these the next day after they have been stored tightly wrapped or in a ziplock - they get nice and fudgy.

Now I like to bake only a dozen cookies at a time - that way we don't eat too many! So after baking a dozen, I take the remainder of the dough and roll it up in plastic wrap in the shape of a tube (like you would find cookie dough in the grocery store). 

If I want to make it pretty, I wrap that in parchment paper. This dough can be refrigerated up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 6 months. 

To bake just take it out of the refrigerator (frozen dough should be thawed in the refrigerator for 24 hours), cut 1/4 inch slices, place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350° for 12 minutes.

And if you want to make bar cookies, lightly grease and spread dough into a 9x13 pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Seriously.  Good.