Imitation Pumpkin Pancakes

My daughter, being eleven, is angry with me. I believe this is her natural, at rest state these days. 

Couple this with the sour milk lurking in the back of the fridge, and I decided to make pancakes.

Specifically pumpkin pancakes because they have lots of vitamin A. 

But I looked in the cupboard and had crazy amounts of yams in heavy syrup and one can of pumpkin purée. So it made sense to get rid of some of the yams.

Ingredients:

- about 1 1/2 cups sour skim milk

- 2 cups organic flour

- about 3 tablespoons brown sugar, which I did not pack, I merely tossed it in the bowl

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon salt, which I never measure only eyeball

- some ground cloves (about 1/2 teaspoon)

- 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon

- about 1/2 teaspoon ginger

-1 tablespoon chia seeds

- 1/4 cup old fashioned oats

- 2 eggs

- about 1 3/4 cups yams (with about 1/4 cup of the syrup)

- 2 tablespoons PB2 powdered peanut butter with chocolate 

Serve with real maple syrup and powdered sugar 

Sweet potato chicken

The recent snow and ice storms have meant lots of hours for me in my retail life and paid snow days for my husband.

I am not a big eater but my husband and daughter are ravenous carnivores. So i made these chicken thighs in the crockpot based on this:

http://busycooks.about.com/od/chickenthighrecipes/r/peachcpchix.htm

I threw about 1/2 to 3/4 cup homemade chicken stock (a frozen disk) in the bottom of my crockpot adding garlic powder and parsley (about 2 tablespoons each). Crockpot to high.

I put two frozen chicken thighs (with bones and skin) on a plate and sprinkled with:

- about one teaspoon paprika

- about one teaspoon curry

- about 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

I then poured a big old can of Taylor yams in the crockpot, heavy syrup and all. 

Then I placed the chicken on top, seasoning side up. Final additions:

- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

- a few splashes low sodium soy sauce

Cook about six hours. I'm off to work 5 hours in-- house smells delicious.

Will report later.

The family said this was a keeper and my plate had just enough flavor to prevent boredom but not so much it covered up the natural tastes. Good stuff.

Squash and couscous

Today was a use-up-leftovers and play with the children kind of day.

So I heated up some Archer Farm Steam-in-bag sweet potatoes in maple-butter sauce that I got on clearance for $1.38 (before my discount). In the skillet, I mixed this, cubes of butternut squash and shredded vegetarian sausage (Morningstar breakfast patties-- 2 for the three of us).

Put everything over couscous and serve.

Baked mashed sweet potatoes and omelets

Since we have an extremely tight budget as of late, we're using the last of our roasted asparagus and spinach for yet another meal. That means I've made three meals from one box of frozen spinach and one sale bunch (12 ounces) of asparagus.

For three people, I used six eggs, a touch of half and half and a pile of spinach and asparagus for the omelet. Once the omelet got fairly solid, I added a thin layer of extra sharp cheddar.

As an unusual side dish, I mashed some sweet potatoes and baked them at 375 for about thirty minutes. Here are the ingredients I used (and it turned out fabulous):

- one egg
- about 3/4 cup brown sugar
- about 1 cup Very Vanilla soy milk
- 29 ounces canned sweet potatoes, syrup drained
I beat that until smooth and added:
- one handful regular raisins
- one handful golden raisins

Oddball Brunch

- leftover steak fries, reheated in the oven
- sweet potato fries with a side of real maple syrup
- Pacific foods, home style tomato soup
- morningstar breakfast patties
- grape juice with bubbles