Oat & Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

I have the most wonderful blueberry bush in the garden out back, and when the blueberries are plump, juicy, and ripe I can't help myself...I must make blueberry pancakes! I found a buttermilk pancake recipe a few years ago that I absolutely love. This time though, I was really craving something a little more dense, so I searched for a new - more filling - pancake. I found this recipe for hearty oatmeal pancakes. It was especially exciting because the instructions say to soak the oats in buttermilk - YES!!! As I reviewed the directions, I felt like it would be better (and more fun) to use oat flour instead of rolled oats. So, I used my Blendtec to magically do just that.

Ahhh...behold the magic of the Blendtec!

As you can see from the recipe, there are several steps involved in the process of combining the ingredients. It's kind of a pain, but it's chemistry...and unless you don't care how your pancakes taste or what texture they have, you'd better follow them to the T. You can't argue with chemistry! I'll break it down into three easy steps:

Step 1: mix the batter (it's best to use a KitchenAid mixer!)

Step 2: add the blueberries (it's best if they're from the garden!)

Step 3: cook and enjoy (it's best if you use pure maple syrup!)!

Pork Chops & Apple Sauce

Remember that episode of "The Brady Bunch" where Sam and Alice joke about having "pork chops and apple sauce" for dinner? Well, they were really onto something...it's a great combo! Personally though, I think pork chops and cranberry sauce is an even better combo. For months, in my freezer I've had two pork chops from my meat share at Simmons Farm, and I really really REALLY wanted to eat them. Well, it's the end of February, but all week last week the high temperatures were in the 50s, so I decided that it would be fun to defrost the pork chops and grill them. I already had a can of cranberry sauce (with whole berries), so I just needed a veggie. I've wanted to try smashed cauliflower for a long time, so I looked up some recipes and bought a head of cauliflower. So, it turns out that making smashed cauliflower is one of the easiest things to do ever!

Step one: Cook the cauliflower.

My method of choice is to steam it in my grandmother's fancy veggie steamer that looks like a double-boiler.

Step two: Smash the cooked cauliflower.

I've been dying to use my Blendtec for whatever I can, so instead of employing the potato smasher, I used the blender.

Step three: Add butter, salt, pepper, milk/cream, cheese, etc. to enhance the flavor of the smashed cauliflower.

Step four: Enjoy!

Ok, so using the Blendtec resulted in smashed cauliflower with the texture of thick yogurt or creamy frosting, but it tasted delicious!

So, the next time I do this I will either consult the user's manual for the Blendtec, or I will just use the potato smasher and some serious elbow grease...LOL It was very tasty, despite its creamy consistency!

Holy Blendtec, Batman!!!

It's here! It's here! It's here!!!!!

I can hardly believe it's finally here - the Blendtec blender I've been lusting over for months and months! I finally broke down and bought it for myself as a sort-of birthday present, so happy birthday to me! So long, Toastmaster - Hellooooooo, Blendtec! I think I'm going to name her Marge, because she's definitely large and in charge!

Isn't she gorgeous?!?!?!

This is not your mother's blender. No...she might have a Vitamix, but she doesn't have a Blendtec...at least not the Wildside, 3 qt BPA-free pitcher, 4" blade, 2 hp, 25 preset cycles, 1560 watt Blendtec. :) Um...yeah...my garage door opener is only 1/2 hp...so this is 4 times more powerful than that!

Marge came with an insane cookbook, too. She can make bread dough! Ice cream, soups, pancake batter, smoothies, about 50 different coffee drinks, the list goes on and on. Oh, and she can grind coffee and flour, turn oats and various nuts into milks, and brush my dog! Ok, I lied about that last one...wishful thinking! Since I bought my Blendtec through Green Smoothie Girl, I got a free copy of her ebook, "12 Steps to Raw Foods," and she's got some great green smoothie recipes I plan to try. The train for Smoothieville is now boarding at gate 7...

Raw Soup

In addition to introducing me to the Master Cleanse, J Word also introduced me to the most AMAZING raw soup recipe ever! It's all over the internet, and the best place I have found it is on a a woman's website called Heart at Home where she has a bunch of "raw" soup recipes. Well, my blender is a piece of $#@!^, and I bought all the ingredients for this raw soup a couple of weeks ago, then I got home and tried to use my blender, but it wouldn't work!

Well, I put the blade and the pitcher in the dishwasher, and it magically started working again! So, I re-bought all the ingredients again tonight, and I made the soup to take for my lunches this week. I love this soup because it's so good and so easy. If you have a decent blender, there is actually very little chopping involved. :D Don't get me wrong though, my next purchase for the FGF kitchen is a Blendtec Blender!!

This recipe is fun to make because you blend some of the ingredients and chop others then mix the chopped veggies with the blended soup. It makes a lot of soup, and if you put colloidal silver in it, it will help it last almost twice as long!!

The chopped ingredients

The final product...mmmm!