Blueberry Cheesecake Pancakes

    Before we get started, I’d like to pause a moment to acknowledge the tragedy of 9-11 and the lives that were lost that horrific day.  I’d also like to add, that we live in a fallen world, and our hope and peace can be found in Jesus….

  Yesterday, I got your taste buds all set up for Breakfast foods, so it’s only right we continue today with more one of our favorite Breakfasts: 

Blueberry Cheesecake Pancakes 

  My favorite part, of COURSE, is the whippy spread you put on in place of butter.  Because, HELLOOOO, you know by now, that I have an addiction to anything CREAM CHEESEY!

  Check it out……

{click title to print}

Ingredients

• FOR THE TOPPING:
• 3 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, Softened
• ¾ cups Cool Whip Or Other Whipped Topping
• FOR THE PANCAKES:
• 1 cup Flour (we Use White Wheat For A Healthier Choice)
• ½ cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 2 whole Eggs, Slightly Beaten
• 1-¼ cup Buttermilk (If You Don’t Have Any You Can Make Your Own By Adding 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice To Milk And Letting It Sit For A Minute)
• ¼ cups Butter, Melted
• 1 cup Fresh Blueberries
• Warm Maple Syrup

Preparation Instructions

For the topping: in a small bowl beat cream cheese and whipped topping until smooth. Chill until serving.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cracker crumbs, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Combine the eggs, buttermilk and butter; add to dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in blueberries.

Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls on to a greased hot griddle, turning when bubbles form on top. Cook until the second side is golden brown.

Spread topping over pancakes instead of butter.

Serve with warm maple syrup.

{Makes about 10 pancakes}

Dig in!  Tastes great with Farm fresh scrambled eggs and sausage links!!!!!!

~T

Breakfast for Supper

  This is Post 2 for today, head back a post to see the most recent family session from 4 little Ferguson’s Photography!

  There really is no good word for Breakfast for Supper, is there?  My kids say its called “Blupper”.  Works for me! 

  Whether you choose to eat these for breakfast or supper, both of the recipes I am going to share with you today, were deemed “keepers”! 

This casserole is deee-licious! It’s listed as a brunch casserole, but I can totally imagine it being delicious for a rainy day supper with homemade wheat rolls.

Ham & Swiss Hash Brown Bake

Ingredients

• 1 bag (30 Oz) Frozen, Shredded Hash browns
• 2 cups (about 8 Oz) Cooked Ham Cubes
• 2 cans (12 Oz Each) Evaporated Milk
• 2 cans 10 Oz. Cream Of Mushroom Soup
• 2 Tablespoons Dijon Or Yellow Mustard (I’ll do Dijon next time)
• 1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1 package (9 Oz) Frozen, Chopped Spinach, Thawed And Squeezed Of Moisture
• 2 cups Shredded Swiss Cheese, Divided

Preheat oven to 400*. Grease a 9×13 casserole dish. Combine potatoes, ham, evaporated milk, soup, mustard and pepper in large bowl. Pour half of potato mixture into baking dish. Sprinkle with spinach and top with remaining potato mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until heated through and lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

These pancakes were a fun treat, and the wheat flour and wheat germ made me feel a bit better about letting the kids have chocolate!

  Chocolate Chocolate Chip Wheat Germ Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1-¾ cup Whole White Wheat Flour
• ¼ cups Wheat Germ
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ⅛ cups Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Chocolate Chips – Up To Mom How Many 🙂
• 1-¾ cup Milk
• ¼ cups Butter, Melted
• 2 whole Eggs Beaten
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar

Combine flour, wheat germ, cocoa, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar. Stir wet ingredients into dry, being careful not to over mix.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto skillet. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and repeat.

Dig in!

~T

This post shared with:

Tasty Tuesday

This Chick Cooks

Wonka Wednesday

Full Plate Thursday

Melt In Your Mouth Monday

Weekend Fun

  Monday’s are always a bit hectic at the Ferguson household, more than usual when we’ve had a big weekend, which we did.  Now, when I say “big”, that means we had more than one thing to attend over the weekend.

   I know, I know, that may not seem like much to you, but when you have little ones to haul around, it can really take it out of them (and momma) to pack up and leave the house like that, sometimes missing naps (gasp!) or getting home and to bed late, in the process.  We try to limit our activities and use weekends to just play and relax at home as a family.

A busy weekend means mommy pays for it alll day Monday, with whiney, needy children, and an over-stimulated baby…….

  I actually can’t complain, they are playing nicely right now, but I am super tired! Maybe its just me who’s whiney and fussy?!  🙂

  My Friday was spent making pies, 5 pies to be exact.  They were to be donated to Central Christian School for the German Supper fundraiser.  Avery was a great helper!  Good thing I only signed up for 4 pies, cause Dale kept one of the Custard Pies at home for himself. That thing was NOT leaving the premises! 

  Overall, I’d say they turned out pretty darn good for only my 2nd attempt as a pie baker. (not counting pies with graham crackers crusts) I have a super easy, flaky & delicious, push crust recipe, that I used.  For those of you as intimidated as I am at the thought of making a pie crust from scratch, and rolling it out all nice, this crust is the answer to your problems! (Maybe I could try to put it on TK soon?)

  I only had one disaster, and it occurred when I poured the egg mixture for the Custard pie in the par-baked crust. My counters slope, and I was an idiot and set the just-from the-oven crust on the burner, rather than getting out a trivet and working at the center island.  It overflowed all over my stove top, and I mean ALL OVER, running down all the different burners and making all the knobs sticky. You know how flimsy those dumb disposable pie plates are, I spilled more trying to pick it up and move it off the stove.  All this with an exhausted baby bawling in the background to be fed and put to nap.  Not my finest hour to say the least!  I survived, and after we got the kiddos down, Dale and I had a nice popcorn, ice cream, stay-at-home movie date.

  Saturday began at 5:50 am.

Yes, you heard me, 5:50 to the minute. I know this because I groaned and said, “What TIME is it?”, while rolling over to consult my alarm clock. The grizzly bear I share a bed with just grunted.

  Can someone PUL-EASE teach our children what “Sleeping In” means? 

  Breakfast is not served before 7, so they know to play quietly until then.  When it is time to get up, this is the scene that greets us….PRECIOUS!

    We cranked up some oldies and jammed while we made breakfast.  “Lollipop” is always a favorite with the kids!

   A Saturday morning tradition at our house, is daddy making breakfast for the family. He makes a mean omelet and is the best pancake flipper around!

We were out of syrup, so we had to get inventive and just do powdered sugar and fruit.  The kids thought it was great that way!

  Avery promptly licked off all the sugar before declaring she was done. Yeah, we pretty much informed her otherwise. 🙂

Later, after the 2 middle’s went down for nap, Destiny, Nana and I headed to the school to drop off my pies, and help serve from 2:30-8. 

  Paxton came along, as is necessary, when baby still seeks nourishment from momma throughout the day.  I wore him in a front pouch and about fell over after a few hours of wearing him.

That’s over 18 lbs. of adorableness pulling my shoulders forward! Thankfully, after a nice snooze in there, some sweet ladies from church took their turn toting him around the gym, showing him off and giving my poor back a break. 

Here are a few photos I snapped before we got insanely busy:

 This is the main course served, called Verenka. Totally a German/Mennonite thing! Think delicious fried dough pouches, surrounding “curds” (looks like ricotta cheese) and smothered in an amaaaazing ham gravy.  I don’t know how many thousands they made, but the line was long and they could barely keep up.  What a great problem to have!

These are New Year’s Cookies, something Central is famous for. The school has a booth that sells these at our State Fair each year.  Think donut with raisins, except BETTER! They made nearly 4,000 of them, and sold every single one.  I was bummed I didn’t get one!  Guess I’ll have to wait until September, when the State Fair comes to town!!

     A darling Polka Band entertained us with live music throughout the day, it was SO fun!  One of the gentleman told me they’d played together since 1970.

  We love Christian education and want to support our school however we can! I can’t wait until the year it’s possible for the whole family to help at this event.  I think they’ll love it, and what a valuable lesson in serving others, and in understanding that attending a Christian school is a privilege, one that comes with a high price tag!

So. Worth. It.

     During nap today, I’m working on some yummy recipes to share with you this week, so stay tuned!  🙂 

Happy Monday!

~T    For my new readers,

   I wanted to give you heads up on how things work here at 4littlefergusons. I post every M-F at 8 am, because I am anal, and being scheduled and organized makes me happy.  🙂   (This may all change this summer when all 4 of my little Fergusons are home all day and we spend more time playing outside, but for now, that’s the plan.)  I typically write about what we are up to for the day, a recipe we tried and deemed a “keeper” the night before, or something I feel the Lord has laid on my heart to share with you.

   I hope you’ll keep coming back to visit, I love your comments and look forward to them! You bless me!  🙂 

~Tonya