Honey Oat Muffins

I love muffins! They are like cake you can eat for breakfast. :)

I'm always on a search for the next great muffin, but even when I find one, I still come back to these. These have been my most favorite muffins for over a decade. Soft, moist, great texture and a subtle honey flavor that is just perfect.

I use rolled oats in these because I love the texture they create, but you can use quick cooking oats for a more overall evenly fluffy muffin.

Honey Oat Muffins

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cups flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 400*F.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the egg, milk, oil and honey until blended.

Place by spoonfuls into greased or papered muffin tins until approx. 3/4 full.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned.

Makes 1 dozen muffins.


For more great recipes visit Full Plate Thursday.

Life in the Pantry: Potluck Friday #3

Welcome to Potluck Friday! It is time to link up your latest food posts. My weekly link party, Potluck Friday, features your best recipes. If you would like to put a Potluck Friday button on your blog you can grab it here. I will be picking my favorite features and sharing them each week.



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My favorite post from last week was this Easy Chocolate No-Bake Cookies from Suburban Wife, City Life.

Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support.  We all love getting comments and who knows what inspiration you may find.

I will be featuring links from the party each week, so by linking to the party, you are giving me permission to use your photo and your link.  I will do my best to let you know about it.

 My only rule:

• Please link up as many recipe posts as you'd like, as long as they haven't been submitted to this party recently. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Spinach Chips

My kids may be a little weird but they love spinach. They would eat it all day, every meal if I would let them. Only ever raw though, never cooked. I haven't found a dish yet that makes them want to eat it cooked except this one.

These chips turn out super crispy, but somewhat fragile. I bake them and then leave them on a plate for the kiddos to snack on. They are usually all gone within an hour of me setting them out.

Spinach Chips

2 Cups Spinach leaves (big, healthy looking leaves)
1 Tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
Italian seasoning blend (to taste), I use just a light sprinkle, maybe 1/2 a tsp.
Salt (to taste), a good size pinch will do

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325*F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Set aside.

In a large bowl, put the spinach leaves and then the olive oil and mix it well with your hands without breaking or tearing the leaves.

Sprinkle salt and Italian seasoning and mix well until all leaves are coated.

Take the foil lined baking sheet and arrange the leaves in a single layer without any overlaps. Not all will fit on the sheet this first time. It normally takes me 3 or 4 times to cook them all.

Bake in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it sit on the baking sheet for another 2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer them to a cooling rack.

Note:
Do not overcrowd the baking sheet. Every leaf should be equally exposed to the heat.


For more great recipes visit Tasty Tuesday, Totally Talented Tuesdays, Hearth and Soul, and What's Cooking Wednesday.

Life in the Pantry: Potluck Friday #2

Welcome to Potluck Friday! It is time to link up your latest food posts. My weekly link party, Potluck Friday, features your best recipes. If you would like to put a Potluck Friday button on your blog you can grab it here. I will be picking my favorite features and sharing them each week.



<center> <a href="http://lifeinthepantry.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af114/TomorrowFarm/potluckbadge_zps0c8d1a1f.jpg"/></a></center>

My favorite post from last week was this Lite & Creamy Garlic Alfredo from Pickled Okra. I am definitely adding this to the dinner rotation!

Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support.  We all love getting comments and who knows what inspiration you may find.

I will be featuring links from the party each week, so by linking to the party, you are giving me permission to use your photo and your link.  I will do my best to let you know about it.

 My only rule:

• Please link up as many recipe posts as you'd like, as long as they haven't been submitted to this party recently. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Green Beans with Bacon

This is one of those recipes that kind of developed over time. I'm not even sure where the original idea came from, but I've been making this forever and each time it's not exactly the same.

I love french green beans. These are not "frenched" green beans like you can find in cans, but a certain type of green bean. They are long, slender and very yummy just as they are. They are amazing right out of the garden, but you can now find frozen whole french green beans in the frozen produce section and they are nearly as delicious.

Since I normally make this as I go without much thought to how much actually goes in the pan, these measurements are approximate. You can adjust them according to your own tastes.

Bacon Green Beans

1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bag (16 oz.) frozen whole green beans
1/4 cup cooked crumbled bacon
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, over med-high heat, saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil for about 1 minute. Add the green beans. Cook until all ice is melted and water has evaporated, stirring every 30 seconds (about 5 minutes).

Add salt, pepper and bacon to skillet. Cook an additional 3-4 minutes or until beans are crisp tender.

You can cook them a little longer if you prefer your beans a little more well done.


For more great recipes visit Weekend re-Treat, Weekend Potluck, Crafty Frenzy Friday, What's Cooking Wednesday, and Wake Up Wednesday

Cherry Granola

A few years ago I spent a couple summers selling food stuff at the local farmers market. I had breads, granola, brownies, cookies and even big trays of huge cinnamon rolls. It was a lot of work, but it was also fun.

Our local market was held in the afternoon so I'd get up ridiculously early to make sure everything was baked fresh that day. I had a pretty decent system of what needed to be started first and what order they needed to go into the oven. The hardest part was not eating all the inventory myself because who can resist fresh baked bread? Not me.

My best seller week after week was this granola. I always made it with cherries in it when I put it out for sale, but for family I also made it with dried blueberries, craisins and almost any other dried berry you can think of. It tastes amazing all on it's own too without the fruit so you have lots of choices.

Cherry Granola

6 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 cups flaked sweetened coconut
2 cups pecans, chopped as fine as you'd like
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups dried cherries

Preheat the oven to 300*F.

In a greased large roasting pan, combine the oats, coconut and pecans.

In a small saucepan, combine the oil, brown sugar, peanut butter, honey, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat gently over medium heat stirring constantly until smooth. Pour over the oat mixture and mix well.

Bake until browned, about 30-45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and add cherries. Stir to mix well. Cool on a large baking sheet. Store in an airtight container.


For more great recipes visit Tasty Tuesdays, Create Link Inspire, Totally Tasty Tuesday, Hearth and soul, Melt in your mouth Monday, and Recipe Sharing Monday.

Life in the Pantry: Potluck Friday #1

Welcome to our very first Potluck Friday! It is time to link up your latest food posts. My weekly link party, Potluck Friday, features your best recipes. If you would like to put a Potluck Friday button on your blog you can grab it here. I will be picking my favorite features and sharing them each week.



<center> <a href="http://lifeinthepantry.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af114/TomorrowFarm/potluckbadge_zps0c8d1a1f.jpg"/></a></center>

Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support.  We all love getting comments and who knows what inspiration you may find.

I will be featuring links from the party each week, so by linking to the party, you are giving me permission to use your photo and your link.  I will do my best to let you know about it.

 My only rule:

• Please link up as many recipe posts as you'd like, as long as they haven't been submitted to this party recently. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Oatmeal Pie

I recently had an oatmeal pie at a church dinner. I'd never heard of an oatmeal pie before. Honestly I thought the idea was a little strange even though I love oatmeal. Surprisingly it was good, but it seemed to be missing something.

I came home bound and determined to make one. I scoured the internet in search of recipes and finally settled on one I thought would do the trick. I couldn't leave it alone though. I did change it a smidge and now it's really, really good. I even microwave it for about 12 seconds to warm it up and it's even better.


I was surprised at how much it tasted like pecan pie although I shouldn't have been. The ingredients are really similar.

Oatmeal Pie

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup butter, melted
A pinch salt
1 9-inch unbaked, single pie crust (you can find my recipe here)

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, coconut, oats, butter and salt. Pour into the unbaked pie crust.

Bake at 325* for 45 minutes or until golden.


For more great recipes visit Full Plate Thursday.

Basic One Crust Pie Crust

Basic One Crust Pie Crust

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbls. shortening
2-3 Tbls. cold water

Mix 1 cup flour and 1/2 tsp. salt in a medium bowl. Cut in 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbls. shortening using pastry blender until particles are the size of small peas.

Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tbls. at a time, tossing with a fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves sides of bowl (2 to 3 tbls. total). Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into a flattened round ball on a lightly floured surface. Roll pastry using floured rolling pin into a circle 2 inches larger than upside down 9-inch pie plate.

Place crust in pie plate being careful not to stretch the crust. Trim pie crust if necessary so it's about an inch past the pie plate edge. Fold under edges to fit pie plate. Flute or other decorative edge if desired.

Lemon Chicken Spaghetti Toss

This spaghetti dish is one of the first I successfully cooked from scratch. Up until then I had made some ok attempts and had a love hate relationship with boxed and bagged foods. Prepackaged foods were easy and nearly fool proof, but lacked flavor and had way too much junk in them. I wanted something better.

This was it.

I still to this day make this meal nearly once a week. It makes an excellent lunch but also serves as really nice lighter supper.

I'm going to post the recipe as I made it for years, but now that the kids are hitting their teenage years I have to double it. It doubles quite successfully and is still just as delicious.

Lemon Chicken Spaghetti Toss

2 green onions, chopped separating the green tops from the lighter white bottoms
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbls. butter
2 Tbls. olive oil
1 lb. chicken breasts, sliced thinly
3 Tbls. lemon juice
1 Tbls. dried parsley
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning
8 oz. thin spaghetti

In a large pot, cook spaghetti noodles according to the package directions.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the chicken, green onion bottoms (the white part)and garlic in butter 4-5 minutes or until onions are tender and chicken is nearly cooked through.

Add the lemon juice, seasoned salt, lemon pepper and parsley to the skillet. Cover and cook on med-low heat for 15 minutes (the spaghetti noodles should be done about the same time).

Drain spaghetti. Add to the chicken mixture in the skillet. Toss to coat.

Top each serving with the remaining green onion tops.

This is also very good with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.


For more great recipes visit Tasty Tuesdays, Create Link Inspire, Totally Talented Tuesday, and Hearth and Soul.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Nothing says home to me like these pancakes. Always a staple for breakfast, but they make a fantastic dinner too.

I was given this recipe many, many years ago right after I was married. Unfortunately I can't remember the source which makes me a bit sad.

I'm not always the most hospitable morning person so these only get made for breakfast on a good day. Most of the time we enjoy them for lunch, especially Sunday lunch which could in fact be labeled as brunch I suppose. It's so easy to whip these out right after church and save a heavier meal for later in the day. I'll also make these as dinner on those nights when I am completely exhausted from work and have no interest in cooking.

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 2/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
2 Tbls. brown sugar
2 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and buttermilk until well blended.

Add the remaining ingredients and whisk together until smooth.

Heat a griddle or heavy frying pan slowly over medium heat. Test the temperature by sprinkling a few drops of water on the pan. If they bounce, the temperature is right. You can grease the pan lightly if needed.

Ladle about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle or frying pan for each pancake. Cook until small bubbles appear on the tops and begin to break and the edges of cakes are dry. Flip pancakes and cook until brown on other side. Set the completed pancakes aside and continue with remaining batter.

Enjoy!


For more great recipes visit Recipe Sharing Monday.