one giant pancake

When Kent and I were first married, I tore this recipe out of Gourmet Magazine because I liked the simplicity of it. It stated that it served 2, which is very hard to find when there really is just two of you eating (although it really serves 4). We both fell in love with the soft, eggy texture and crispy brown edges, and I (over)cooked the apples so they'd be soft too.

Sautéing the apples in butter gets this recipe off to a great start. Then the batter is blitzed in the blender and poured into the buttery apples and the whole pan is placed in the oven until the pancake is puffed and golden. Couldn't be easier or tastier.

breakfast in bed

Growing up, it was a Mother's Day tradition to bring our mom breakfast in bed. Our dad trained us well and had us girls help make the toast for mom's breakfast tray. As we got older, us girls took over the breakfast tray and it evolved into scrambled eggs or pancakes.

Unfortunately, the eggs weren't the only ones scrambling. Teenagers hate waking up early and when we needed to get up to make my mom's breakfast, we just wanted to make something quickly (sorry mom!). I wish I had known about these scones.

Healthy Swaps

I've been using some healthier substitutions in my baking and here are some infograph's that make it easy to figure out when and where a sub is possible: 

~This infograph focuses mainly on flour substitutions- great for low-carb and gluten-free needs.

via

~Looking for low-fat options? How about an infograph for oil and butter replacements? I love that this also give descriptions as to what kind of texture and taste you can expect from each ingredient- I use this one the most.

via

~Even though this infographic is specifically Chobani, any brand Greek yogurt should work as long as it's plain and unflavored (regular yogurt may work but is runnier than Greek yogurt, so keep that in mind and maybe add more flour if the mixture is too runny). 

via

** I've had some successes and failures with substituting ingredients- It's just a trial and error. Just last week I subbed so many ingredients in a brownie recipe that it turned into a "cakenie" (yes, another weirdo word I made up) which became a hybrid of a cake/brownie... it's not that the texture was bad, it was the taste.... it was not good. Going forward, when I'm experimenting with subbing ingredients, I'm only going to try and change just one or two of the ingredients in a recipe- who knows, you may not be able to tell a difference and it'll probably be healthier for you. Have you had any luck with subbing an ingredient? If so, I'd love to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.