Printable Recipe
Ever since I bought my waffle iron a few months ago I have often wondered what else I could make on a waffle iron.  I saw waffle french toast on The Early Show on CBS it was a segment about breakfast classics with a new spin.  You can imagine my excitement!  I said I much try this!  So today was the day to have waffle french toast and I loved it!  Tyler and Kameron enjoyed breakfast, Alyssa….well she doesn’t like change, she was a little upset that it wasn’t a true waffle and she was mad because it wasn’t traditional french toast but she ate it anyway with snow…powdered sugar!  Shaun was at work so he didn’t get to have any.  I didn’t use the recipe that was on The Early Show only used the cooking method.  Also on The Early Show was flavored butter even though I did not make it I wanted to share with you because the recipes sound really good.  I would have made the butter but I didn’t have any jam or preserves.  The recipes for the butter is below the french toast recipe.   If you try it let me know I would love to know how it taste.  Enjoy your breakfast!

Ingredients
Waffle French Toast
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon melted butter
10 slices of your favorite bread (bread should be thick slices about 1 1/4 inch)

Directions
1.Preheat a waffle maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Spray the surface with nonstick cooking spray.
2.  In a bowl, using a handheld whisk, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the milk, butter, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice and sugar whisk until blended.
3.  Dip 1 bread slice into the egg mixture and soak, turning once, 30 seconds per side. Place the bread on the preheated waffle maker, close the lid and cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions until golden brown and crisp, about 4 minutes. Keep warm while cooking the remaining bread.
4.  Serve the French toast warm with syrup.

Flavored Butter
Orange butter:
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbs. orange marmalade
Zest of 1 orange

Strawberry butter:
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbs. strawberry jam

Mixed Berry butter:
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbs. mixed berry preserves

To prepare each type of flavored butter: In a bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until combined, about 1 minute.

Transfer the flavored butter to a butter dish or small bowl and serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes about 1/2 cup.

Waffle French Toast

Next week is Spring Break for us.  We are heading to San Antonio, we haven’t had a family vacation in two years.  We have a busy week planned.  We are going to the Alamo, Fiesta Texas, visit family and more site seeing.  Our last trip was Disney World and Kameron was only three months, we went to Florida for my cousins wedding, then we all went to Disney World.  We are looking forward to our trip, the kids are excited and I’m glad to be getting out of the house for a little while.  The weather is suppose to be really nice so I need to go get a pedicure so I can wear my cute sandals and flip flops.   I’m to get a pedi I will see you soon!

Ingredients
1/2 cup dried onion flakes
2 pounds ground chuck
1/2 t. seasoned salt
6 slices of your favorite cheese. I used cheddar and pepper jack.
24 small slider rolls- I used Pepperridge Farm Sliders
Toppings, pickles, lettuce, tomato. Typical hamburger stuff

Directions
1. Evenly spread the onions on the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. Gently press the ground beef on top of the onion flakes. Press evenly making one patty.
3. Sprinkle with season salt.
4. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
5. After 20 minutes blot the grease from the top using paper towels. Top with cheese slices and return to oven until cheese is melted, about 2 minutes.
6. Cut into 24 patties and make a slider with your favorite toppings.

Ingredients
1 can of pizza dough (I used Pillsbury thin crust)
4 eggs
4 strips of bacon (use could use breakfast sausage also)
4 tablespoons butter (melted)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut dough into 5 inch circles, I was able to get 4 individual pizzas. I used a bowl turned upside down to cut the dough.
2. Brush each pizza with melted butter.
3. Prepare pizza dough according to package.
4. Cook bacon on stove top while pizza dough is cooking.
5. Half way through the dough cooking crack one egg onto each pizza and season with salt and pepper.
6. Continue cooking until the crust is golden brown and the egg is cooked to your liking.
7. Remove from oven top with bacon or sausage.

I’m sure there are a million ways this could be changed. I added a little salsa before adding the egg but I kept the ones for kids simple. You could even scramble the eggs if you wanted.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @5forks, become a fan of 5 Forks on Facebook.

Onto the recipe and why I do not have any pictures of the pancake poppers.

A couple of weeks ago hubby bought me a new camera, a Nikon D3000, it is the one I wanted. I know it is not the best of the lot but I can not justify spending $1,500+ on a camera when this one has all of the bells and whistles. I received it in the mail on Tuesday, made pancake poppers Tuesday night to eat for breakfast on Wednesday. Wednesday morning I took pictures of the cute little pancake poppers, viewed them on the computer, they looked fantastic,  and put the memory card back into the camera. Well somewhere between me viewing and putting the card back in the camera I lost the pictures of the pancake poppers. Not sure what happened because I have the other pictures I took while testing out all of the new features.

So I’m sorry to say the only picture I have of the pancake poppers is one of little Kameron shoving the whole thing in his mouth. He was probably on his third or fourth popper in this picture because he has chocolate on his upper lip. I’m pretty sure it is safe to say he liked them.

If you think they look yummy head on over to Bakerella.com, get the recipe bake up a batch for yourself. It is extremely easy not much to the ingredients, they were delicious. Next time maybe we will have blueberry pancake poppers.

Please head on over to Chef It Yourself and vote for your favorite!  Voting ends February 24th!

Earlier this month I signed up for this great food challenge hosted by a local Houston Foodie, Anamaris of Chef It Yourself. This is my very first Top Chef It Yourself Challenge and I was excited when I found out what the secret ingredients were; dates, ginger and couscous!! I’m a big fan of couscous but the family isn’t, well Alyssa likes it but no one else.  I knew I was going to make my recipe sweet but wasn’t sure what to do.  After thinking about it for a few days I finally had a recipe in mind and it turned out great.  I loved it and so did Alyssa.

Fruit and Nut Couscous
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
1 10 oz box of Original Plain Couscous *I used the Near East brand
1 cup water
1 cup apple juice
3 Medjool Dates, diced
3 tablespoons crystallized ginger, chopped
1/2 cup *cranberry fiesta mix (dried cranberries, coconut, walnuts, pecans and almonds)
1/4 cup honey, save a little to drizzle on top
1/4 cup apricot preserves

Directions
1. Prepare couscous according to package using 1 cup of water and 1 cup of apple juice.
2. While couscous is cooking, chop the dates and ginger.
3. Move couscous to a large bowl, while it’s still warm, add the dates, ginger, craberry fiesta, honey and apricot preserves. Gently stir until well combined
4. Serve warm with a drizzle of honey.

*A little side note. I shop at H.E.B and they have this great healthy living section that has bulk containers of fruits, oats, nuts, just to name a few. You are able to scoop the amount of product you want, put it on the scale, weigh it and it prints out the barcode for you. I love this little section of my store. For example, Medjool dates were $10.99 for 1lb in the produce section, they were $6.99 in the natural food section. I didn’t need a pound I only needed a few so I bought four big fat dates and it was only $1.40, great deal!! I also bought the ginger and cranberry fiesta is this section. I bought .10 lb of ginger and it was $0.45 and I bought .31 lb of the cranberry fiesta and it was $1.70, take about great deals. I’m sure you could buy a trail mixer to substitute for the cranberry fiesta. I would have spent a lot more if I went straight to the baking section for everything.

We love the pretzels that are at the mall. We get the cinnamon and sugar pretzel every time we make a trip to the mall. They are a little messy, but our kids love them. After seeing this recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod I knew I was going to have to give pretzel making a try. It’s a lot easier than I expected, to be honest.  The dough took an hour to rise and they took 15 mintues to bake.  If you love soft pretzels you must give this recipe a try.  I did try to make the basic pretzel twist and I failed, next time I will try again.

Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites

From Two Peas and Their Pod

Soft Pretzels:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 package active dry yeast
3 ounces unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil
3 quarts water
3/4 cup baking soda
1 whole egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
Coarse sea salt

For the Pretzels: Combine the water, sugar, yeast, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Add the salt and flour and mix on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl, about 3 to 4 minutes. If the dough appears too wet, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead into a ball with your hands.

Oil a bowl with vegetable oil, add the dough and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Bring the water to a boil in a small roasting pan over high heat and add the baking soda.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, about 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 ounces each. Roll each piece into a long rope measuring 22 inches and shape. Cut the dough into one inch pieces to make the pretzel bites. Boil the pretzel bites in the water solution in batches for about 30 seconds. Remove with a large slotted spoon. Place pretzel bites on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Make sure they are not touching.  Brush the tops with the egg wash and season with the salt. Place into the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown.

Remove to a baking rack and let rest 5 minutes before eating.

Cinnamon and Sugar Bites

After baking melt 1/4 cup butter in a bowl.  Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons cinnamon in a ziploc bag.  Toss preztels in butter then toss around in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

So here we go…
1. I was stationed in Iceland for two years while in the US Navy.
2. I’m a computer geek and I like it.
3. I watch Disney channel with my kids and laugh at the tween shows.
4. I’m and addicted to Bravo’s Real Housewives…all of them, Orange County, ATL, NYC and Jersey.
5. This blogging gig is hard but I enjoy it a lot it. I feel like its “me time”.
6. I sleep with earplugs every night because my husband snores.
7. My favorite summer time treat is a blackberry snow cone topped with Eagle Brand sweeten condensed milk.
8. I love cold weather and wish I lived some where that had tons of snow.
9. I would love to have two of everything in the Kitchen/Housewares departments of Target. Aaahhh….Target, my favorite store.
10.  I watch HSN and QVC all the time and my daughter likes to watch it with me.  When my husband is working nights I fall asleep with HSN on TV.

I am passing the Honest Scrap badge to two of my new favorite foodies.

First we have The Teacher Cooks.  She blogs about her days in the classroom and lets her readers be the judge of her students creations.

Second there is Flavia of Flavia’s Flavors.  I love her blog and love reading about her family history.   Her story and recipe from her post Sugo all’amatriciana is by  far my favorite.

Now onto the giveaway part.

*This is a Sponsored Giveaway*
The wonderful folks at Wanchi Ferry and MyBlogSpark are giving one of my readers a little prize pack that will include a set of Asian-inspired rice bowls, chopsticks, bamboo placemats, flavored fortune cookie and a $25 gift card to Target.

You can go the Wanchai Ferry website and print a $1.50 off coupon. Guess where you can buy this yummy frozen meal, yep that’s right Target!

Everything you see in the picture below is what you will win, except the Wanchi Ferry Frozen Meal but don’t forget about the coupon.

I will admit that we eat frozen meals sometimes. We get busy and something I really do not want to be in the kitchen to cook and clean. Our busiest night of the week is Thursday, my daughter has soccer practice from 5:30-7:00, I have to leave my house at 5:00 to get there in time, so we really do no have time to cook a big meal. We will eat fast easy meals on soccer practice days and Wanchi Ferry is one of the meals we eat. I have to buy two packages because one only feeds two adults. Our favorite is the Shrimp Lo Mein and it’s really good for a quick dinner and you can make it in one pot. I love one pot meals, who doesn’t?

This is how you can win, really easy.

Answer this question and leave your answer in the comments.

What are you having for dinner tonight??

The giveaway will end February 21 at 10:00pm central time.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER.  THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT ENTERED THE GIVEAWAY.

~~~Thank you Wanchai Ferry and MyBlogSpark for the giveaway~~~

******The winner of the Wanchai Ferry Prize Pack is Erin @ One Particular Kitchen.  Congratulations Erin, I will be contacting you for your mailing address.  You will receive the prize pack from MyBlogSpark.  Thanks for participating!!******

I’m back from Starbucks and now it’s 9am. I made baked apricot french toast this morning for breakfast, I started it last night so all I had to do this morning was put in the oven this morning. Alyssa is being hard headed, she’s hungry but doesn’t want to eat what I cooked. I’m not the kind of Mom that will make each kid a different meal, I know, I’m mean. I told her she will have to wait until lunch time to eat and it was a long time from now. I guess she got to thinking about and said “ok I will eat the French toast”; guess what she loves it because she has had it before, she said she forgot!

For dinner last night I made toasted ravioli. I found this lovely little recipe on Tasty Kitchen. I know it’s not a new concept but it’s the first time I have ever made it. I made marinara sauce for dipping, I didn’t make it, I opened the jar, so I guess you could say I warmed up some marinara sauce. Tyler and Alyssa did not want it, Kameron will eat almost anything. Tyler and Alyssa will agree with the other when it comes to food. If one says I’m not eating that, then I can guarantee the other will say the same thing. So being the mean Mom that I am told the kids the same thing I told Alyssa this morning, “The next meal will be breakfast.” They continued to play as I was finishing up dinner. When everything was ready I called them to the table and they have this look of disgust on their faces, they are a little over dramatic. This is how I deal with foods they have never eaten before. I tell them they have to at least try it once and if they really do not like it then they do not have to it eat it. I knew they would like it if they would just give it a try. They liked and Tyler took some for lunch today, I guess it wasn’t as gross as they thought it would be. My kids are so funny.

Printable Recipe
Ingredients
1 bag (about 13 Oz. Bag) Cheese Ravioli (fresh Or Frozen)
1-½ cup Italian Style Bread Crumbs
½ cups Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 cup Buttermilk
Oil, For Frying, I used Olive Oil.

Directions
1. Cook ravioli until al dente (follow directions on the package). Cool.
2. Heat oil to approximately 350 degrees.
3. Dredge ravioli in buttermilk and then bread crumbs mixed with half of the Parmesan cheese.
4. Gently place into hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.
5. Once ravioli are browned, sprinkle with remaining grated Parmesan cheese.

Every time we have taco the kids always want me to make fresh salsa and guacamole.  They even have their own guacamole song and dance.  Check out the video below.  I laugh every time I watch it, they are just too funny.

Ingredients
1 cup Fresh Lime Juice (it’s The Best And Worth The Time)
¾ cups Tequila
½ cups Triple Sec
3 Tablespoons Frozen Limeade
2 Tablespoons Sugar (optional) I Like Mine A Little Sweet
2-½ cups Ice

Directions
Preparation is really easy. Toss everything into the blender and blend until smooth.
Serve with a salt or sugar rimmed glass and enjoy!
Keep any leftovers in the freezer.

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