Peanut Butter Breakfast Cake

 We went on an outing Saturday to visit an LDS temple.  This is a 3.5 hour drive, one way, for us, so we make a day of it. 

To simplify things, we bring a breakfast cake, or have bagels & cream cheese or even dry cereal.  Because the other things weren't in the budget for the week, we opted to have a breakfast cake.  To change things up a bit, and add a little protein, Peanut Butter Breakfast Cake seemed like a yummy idea.  I'll be playing around some more with this recipe in the future, but here it is as it now stands.  It smelled like peanut butter cookies when it was done.  Yum!

Peanut Butter Breakfast Cake
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
1/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
Mix these ingredients together, then add:
4 1/2 cups flour (I like white wheat)
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Stir well.  Pour into a greased 9x13 inch baking pan.
Topping:
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
In a separate, small bowl, melt 1 tablespoon butter, add 1 tablespoon flour, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
Spoon dollops, evenly spaced, across batter.  Cut through batter, with a knife, to swirl the topping into the batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a  toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Simple Fried Rice

 Some days you need dinner ready to set on the table when you walk in the door.  Not 30 minutes later.  Making rice in your electric pressure cooker or InstantPot can help you do just that.  You can even up the ante with brown rice!  If you don't have time to cook it ahead of time, this fried rice only takes about 20 minutes to cook.  Even takeout can take that long if you have to go somewhere.  Not to mention the cost! 

I love the fact that you can put your ingredients in the electric pressure cooker, and then walk away.  No babysitting it like the stovetop ones.  They were great in their day, but I seriously love this pressure cooker.  I've had a Cuisinart electric pressure cooker for awhile now.  L.O.V.E.  So much so that my sister got me a bigger one at Christmas.

Fried rice is so customizable and can be so cheap!  Brown rice, $.88, frozen mixed veggies, $1.00, a little oil and soy sauce?  Negligible if you have them on hand.  I fed my family of ten for a couple bucks.  Yes we like other stuff in our fried rice too.  Ham, or chicken or other meat of choice, scrambled eggs, or whatever suits your fancy.  We didn't have the other stuff on hand, and it was still a simple, tasty meal.  Fried rice is the Chinese equivalent of leftovers.  You can actually just use whatever leftovers you have, including leftover rice.  We like it so much, we make it for it's own sake.

Simple Fried Rice
16 oz brown rice
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons oil
12 oz frozen mixed veggies (I used peas and carrots this time around)

In your electric pressure cooker, add the rice, broth, water and oil.  Cook for 10 minutes on high pressure.  It takes time for the pressure cooker to get "up to pressure", about 10 to 15 minutes, and then it starts counting down the 10 minutes.  Let the pressure release naturally.  You can steam your vegetables quick in the microwave (love those steamer bags), or mix into your rice and let cook for 5 or 6 minutes.  Or in my case, I stirred them in when the rice was done, put the lid back on and kept it on the "Keep Warm" setting while I took kids all over the place for lessons and such after school.  When we walked in the door, dinner was ready and we were able to just sit down and eat.  We like to eat ours with soy sauce.

Leave your comments and questions below.  I'd love to hear from you!

Fondue

The other day we had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  We had these two beauties with fondue, along with a vegetable and salad.  Now my fondue isn't anything fancy, but it is sure is good.

Cheesy, thick and creamy, what more can a cheese lover ask for?  Maybe some more of that bread please.  Yum.

I use a white sauce base with cheese mixed in.  Exactly what I use for homemade mac and cheese in fact.

Fondue
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup flour
4 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon mustard
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Melt butter or margarine in a saucepan, stir in flour to make a paste.  Add milk.  Continue cooking until milk starts to thicken.  Add salt, worcestershire sauce, mustard and cheeses.  Serve right away with chunks of bread or with your favorite veggies.  Yum.

Please leave your comments and questions below. 

Update

This is so funny, that I started this blog, with only one post on it!  I don't really like the name, but hey, maybe I should use it anyway and see what happens.  Leave a comment below.  Ask me some questions.  Next time I'll try and post a little about me.

Stick With It

Welcome to my Blog stickety2E.  This is where I will try to Stick With It, one person, one project or one thing at a time.  Come back and see what's happening.  Leave your comments below.