Yummy Pumpkin Pancakes

One of my favorite dinners to make is breakfast.  I love pancakes and eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits and gravy.  Although I love pancakes, I don't like thick pancakes and don't care much for plain pancakes.  I've been searching for a basic pumpkin pancake recipe that I could tweak and make to my liking.  I found this recipe on about.com.  I made several changes to this recipe.  These pancakes were the bomb!!  Amazing!!

2 cups any brand pancake mix
2 1/2 cups milk (I used Fat Free)
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp orange peel
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
Mix the dry ingredients: Pancake mix, cinnamon, orange peel and the brown sugar. 

Finely chop the walnuts and add to the dry mixture.

In separate bowl mix the wet ingredients: Eggs, milk, vanilla and pumpkin puree.

Next combine both the wet and dry mixtures together.  Turn on the griddle or pan and let heat up before you put on batter.  You should be able to feel the heat with your hand above pan.  Spray griddle with non-stick cooking spray.  Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to put batter on griddle.  Let the pancakes get the bubbles before turning them.

Maybe I'll try them with some fat free whip cream next time.  These were amazing.  My son wanted me to make some with a smiley face.  And of course no breakfast is complete without some over medium eggs and of course scrambled for Noah.  I also made some turkey sausage.

Chicken Kabobs on the Grill

Anyone who cooks on a regular basis knows that we can get stuck in a rut quite often. I'm always searching the internet and cookbooks for ideas for new dinners. I do have one problem though when it comes to following directions; I don't!! I have a hard time following directions. I never follow receipies. I always have to add my own indegridents and my own twist on receipies. I just like exploring others ideas and then branch off in my own direction.

After quite some time of searcing for some other options for dinner, I realized that I had not made chicken kabobs in like, FOREVER!! One advantage to not following receipes is you always have what you need. This is what I have come up with for amazing Chicken Kabobs.

6 chicken breasts

1 large bellpepper

4 large red potatoes

1 large zuchinni

2 ears of corn

2 cups fresh pineapple

1 tbsp garlic salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp pepper

1 tbsp dill

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 bottle light Italian dressing

12 wooden skewers

Wash and poke holes in potatoes. Put them in the microwave for a few minutes. You do not want to cook potatoes completely. You just want to be able to cut then easily with a knife into large chunks. I cooked four potatoes in mircrowave for 7 minutes. Cut chicken and zuchinni in large chunks. marinate chicken, zuchinni and potatoes for a few hours. While that is marinating soak the wooden skewers for a few hours in cool water.

After items above have been marinating for a few hours cut up the rest of the veggies in large chunks. But the bellpeper and pineapple. Cut the corn into about 2 inch chunks. Also after I cut the corn I took a meat theromomter and poked a large hole through the center of the corn. It's pretty difficult to put a hole in the center of the corn with a flimsy wooden stick.

Put all items on wooden skewers in ramdom order.

Mix olive oil, rice vinegar, dill, pepper and garlic salt into a small bowl. Brush over kabobs.

Turn grill on to medium. Place kabobs and turn a total of four times every four minutes. I turned mine a fifth time thinking that they weren't quite done, but they would have been perfect if I took them off the grill after the fourth turn.

I served the kabobs over brown rice. Instead of making the rice with plain water though I put two chicken boulion cubes in the water.

I topped off my creation with fresh diced tomatoes for some added color and flavor. These were divine! I will be making these chicken kabobs in the very near future.