Blueberry Coconut Pancakes

Whenever I ask my toddler what she wants to eat, 99% of the time she will say pancakes.  Pancakes are a special breakfast in our house that we like to do on the weekend.  I thought it would be nice to try a new recipe for a change so I went online and did some searching.  I found a couple of pancake recipes made with coconut milk and I am a huge fan of coconut milk.  Knowing that we still have a bunch of blueberries in our deep freezer to use up in the next couple of months, I decided this would be a great recipe to try.
The pancakes tasted wonderful and had just a hint of coconut.  If you really want a coconut flavour I would suggest adding some coconut flakes to the batter as well.  I like my pancakes with a lot of blueberries so adjust the amount of blueberries in the recipes to you liking.

Blueberry Coconut Pancakes

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2c tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 14 oz can coconut milk

1tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cups blueberries

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Whisk the coconut milk together until it is smooth (I find it helps to heat it up a little bit). Then add the addition wet ingredients, whisking them until they are blended.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients together and mix enough to moisten all the dry ingredients.  
4. Lightly stir in the blueberries.
5. Heat a non-stick pan or griddle to medium heat and oil the surface as needed.  Pour enough batter on the surface to make the pancakes your desired size.  I will usually use 1/3 of a cup per pancake.
6. Allow the pancake to bubble and the edges begin to dry before flipping to cook the other side.

*I will often turn my oven on to the lowest setting so I can keep the first pancakes warm while I use up the batter. 

Cranberry Orange Chicken

Life has gotten very busy in the past few months and I am making use of my crockpot more than ever.  In the new year a couple of my friends had shared a link on Facebook to 20 Freezer Meals in 4 Hours from the Stock Piling Moms website.  I was intrigued so I decided to make a bunch of them for the freezer so on my really busy days, all I have to do is pull a bag out of the freezer the night before to let it defrost and then set it in the crockpot in the morning.
I love how well cranberry and orange go together and whenever I see bags of cranberries at the grocer, I will grab a couple for the freezer to use at a later date.  I really enjoyed this recipe for Cranberry Orange Chicken and I found it went well with rice.  It is a good one to make if you have leftover cranberry sauce to use up.

Cranberry Orange Chicken

3 chicken breasts
1 cup of orange juice
1 cup of cranberry sauce
2 cups of water

1. Place the chicken, orange juice and cranberry sauce in the crockpot and then add the water. 
2.  You can set your crockpot to low and cook for 6-8 hours or set it to high and cook for 2-4 hours.

If you want to make a couple to have on hand in the freezer, put the chicken, orange juice and cranberry sauce into a freezer bag. Be sure to write the instructions on the bag to add 2 cups of water along with the cooking temperature and time.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake

I think mug cakes are brilliant for many reason but since my little is very observant and wants to eat whatever Mommy is eating I have fallen in love with them even more!  We are trying to teach our little ones good eating habits by setting a good example and so we are trying to avoid having sweets that are easily accessible.  Mug cakes are a good solution for when I need a sweet treat after the little ones are in bed.  They are quick to make and are just one serving so there is no evidence in the kitchen for them to find the next day.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake

3 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

3 tbsp milk

1 1/2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp peanut butter

1. In a large mug whisk together the dry ingredients.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until everything is combined.
3. Microwave on high for 1 minute and 10 seconds and enjoy!