Blog Carnival Virgin No More

It's Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in My Dryer, so I thought I'd join in.  

Breakfast is usually not a big deal at our house.  It's often conquered with a few bananas and some yogurt, oatmeal or cereal.  But sometimes it's not so easy.  Sometimes, there are pancakes. Pancakes themselves are not difficult to make, but I hate getting out the griddle and then cleaning the griddle afterward (or the next day if I'm feeling especially resentful toward the blasted thing).  And once there have been pancakes, there is always leftover batter.  

For a long time I didn't know what to do with the leftover batter until one day, a little light went off in my obviously tiny brain.  And this is my WFMW tip: These days, I cook that leftover batter.  Once the unneeded pancakes have cooled, I place sheets of wax or parchment paper between them, pop them in a ziploc bag and put them in the freezer.  Next time the wee one wants pancakes for breakfast and I don't have the time or the will to make them,  I pull a few out of the freezer and heat them up in the microwave.  This leaves me with no annoying griddle to clean, no wasted batter when pancakes are made, no outrageously priced boxed frozen pancakes (with who-knows-what in them),  and best of all, one uber-happy two-year-old. And that DEFINITELY works for me.

Breakfast Inspiration

Lately, we have been eating a LOT of Sam the Cooking Guy's version of grilled vegetable sandwiches. We eat them at least once a week, sometimes more. I love them because not only are they crazy healthy, but I love the way vegetables taste when grilled or roasted or otherwise cooked to the point of carmelization. It's the best way to eat vegetables. Plus, my husband and my toddler absolutely adore these sandwiches, too.

But anyhoo... Eating these sandwiches always leaves me with one little leftover square of ciabatta bread because said toddler eats a half-sized sandwich. Finding something to do with leftover bread is not difficult, as bread is one of my great loves in life. Seriously, I would rather die slowly than give up bread. One recent morning, I had a lovely bit of inspiration. I was about to unceremoniously devour the bread when the large bag of tomatoes from a friend's garden gave me an accusatory look. Clearly, they would not be ignored. My Foreman grill was still out from the night before (Hey, no judging. This isn't a housekeeping blog.), so I sliced up a tomato and threw it on that baby. (Man, I LOVE my Foreman grill, even if it is nearly a decade old.) Of course, now that grilled tomato was in the picture, plain ciabatta bread wouldn't do, so I spread a little butter on it, added a slice of Monterey Jack and popped it under the broiler. In a couple of minutes, this is what I had:

Now THAT says good morning- even on a paper plate.

P.S. Sorry for the crazy text spacing- I'm having issues with Blogger.

Or Not.

Perhaps my last post about me being a gourmet and such was a wee bit premature. I recently went to visit my husband who has been away on business for a long enough span that I was compelled to go visit him. During my stay, the hubs asked me to make some oatmeal for him one morning. Despite the utter lack of measuring devices and all familiar kitchen accoutrements, I agreed, because I am a team player and I make oatmeal multiple times a week and have mastered it.

Or not.

What was intended to be a little stove-top-cooked pot of stick-to-your-ribs love turned out to be something else. Something solid and inedible with the ability to defy gravity. That's right, DEFY GRAVITY. When hubs saw the abomination that was supposed to be his breakfast, he grabbed the pot, turned it upside down, and NOTHING HAPPENED. Not even one little lump of gluey horrendousness fell to the floor. And then my husband proceeded to laugh at me. A lot. Very loudly.

And that is why perhaps my previous post may have been a teensy, tinsy, almost imperceptible bit premature.