Bacon pancakes, makin' bacon pancakes...

Relevant to the cat's interests...

Hubs doesn't really love breakfast foods, especially if they're bread-like and/or sweet (French toast, pastries, muffins, etc).  He does, however, love breakfast meats. I mean, who doesn't like bacon?! (Quiet, vegetarians and your ilk...)

Hubs was up late on baby duty, and came across this clip from Adventure Time (one of our favorite cartoons). It's pretty catchy, and had the added benefit of calming our little Dude.  There is also a ten-hour version.  I have spared you.

The unintended (but perhaps obvious) side effect? Hubs wanted bacon pancakes for breakfast the next morning. Luckily, I had seen just this on Pinterest!!

It would seem that Pinterest now has MANY such recipes... Love the Breaking Bad reference on the left ;)

 I used this oven-baking method for the bacon from About.com (genius!) and made this pancake batter from Allrecipes (notably, I substituted bacon grease for the melted butter).  It became pretty simple after that- pour one over the other!

The result wasn't glamorous, but it WAS tasty. Hubs loved it, and The Dude enjoyed watching.  Hubs is now convinced that we should buy a food truck and serve these.  Of course, they'd also be battered and fried with cinnamon, chocolate and powdered sugar.  He's even investigated companies that would make a custom food truck.  I wonder if there's enough room at the Strawberry Fest for another food vendor...

Om nom nom.  Kinda like Cookie Monster.  But with pancakes.

The one on the left is still too small for solids.  I'm sure Hubs is hoping he'll take to bacon immediately at 6 months...

Hoping early exposure to bacon smell is beneficial for baby's growth,

-Honeybee

Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Believe it or not, I managed to actually cook a bona-fide meal!  Wohoo!!  I even set up G-man's bouncy chair in the kitchen (safely out of the way of culinary dangers) so he and I could hang out while I was cooking.  Somewhat unfortunately, though, this leftovers container is the only pic I have of it.  Oh well.  A testament to how tasty it was!

Since my lengthy blogging hiatus, Pinterest seems to have soared in popularity.  I'm not immune; I even have a board linking back to this blog, showcasing my favourite pics.  No harm there!  I bring up Pinterest because Hubs' mom posted this recipe the other day, and it caught my eye.  Stupid-simple?  Spicy?  Tasty-looking?  Using ingredients I usually have around the house?  Winner!

Here's the pic from the recipe at this site.  MUCH better than mine (and looks far more appetizing!)

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone.  I had to muck with both the recipe and the method of preparation (the original involving the use of chicken, which isn't Hubs' favourite, and far too many dishes for my liking.  Ain't nobody got time to wash all that!).  This is my slightly altered version!

 Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Adapted from www.int-recipes.info/2013/11/cajun-chicken-pasta.html

Serves 4, with leftovers

Cajun Blackening Seasoning:

• 2 tsp paprika (smoked or sweet)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregan
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 3/4 tsp salt
• freshly cracked pepper (20-25 cranks of a mill)

For the Pasta:

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 2 small cooking onions
• 1 lb frozen raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails off (especially if you're Hubs)
• 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes (fire-roasted if you have 'em; I didn't)
• 1 large scoop (maybe 1/4 cup?) cream cheese
• 12 oz (or ~330 g, or ~3/4 of a 1 lb package, or whatever you can estimate) linguine
• 3 green onions

Instructions

1. Combine the herbs and spices for the blackened seasoning in a bowl.
2. Prepare a large pot of water for the pasta. Bring it to a boil over high heat and then add the pasta. Cook the pasta until tender and then drain in a colander.
3. Meanwhile, thinly slice the bell peppers and cooking onion. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot and the butter is melted, add the sliced vegetables, and sauté until they are tender.  Add the shrimp and half of the blackened seasoning.  Cook until shrimp are cooked through (pink, firm, and opaque all the way through). 
4. Turn the heat under the skillet down to medium low. Add the can of tomatoes (with their juice) and the second half of the blackened seasoning. Add the cream cheese. Stir the mixture until the cream cheese has melted and created a creamy sauce.
5. If your skillet is extra large, add the cooked pasta to the skillet and toss to combine with the shrimp, vegetables, and sauce. If your skillet is smaller, you can add the drained pasta back to the large pot it was cooked in (with the heat turned off), then add the shrimp, vegetables, and sauce to the pot and stir to combine.
6. Slice the green onions and sprinkle over top before serving.

Tastiness, and took only about a half an hour at best.  Served this to my parents (now known as "the Nonni", Italian for grandparents) as a small token of gratitude for everything they've done for us since G-man arrived.  Of course they insisted that it wasn't necessary (and Nonna even did the dishes), but that's why we love 'em.  Plus, even though I'm a busy new mom, I can't leave behind my tradition of using friends and family members as guinea pigs for all my new recipes!

Looking forward to making some freezer-friendly baked pasta casseroles for her & her friends' new little families,
-Honeybee

And baby makes three...

...hours between "milkings."

Caught you off guard there, didn't I?

Yes, as mentioned briefly in my last (and very belated) post, our little bundle of joy is here.  Baby G is rockin' it so far.  We love him to bits.  So much so that, after our nursing partnership turned into more of an angry one-sided relationship, I have dedicated much of my days to making "magic Mommy Juice" by exclusively pumping (EPing) and feeding it to our little man via bottle.  It's great, because Hubs gets to help!

Here he is, my lazy baking partner!  Graham Raymond Richard, born 11-Oct-2013, 5 lb 14 oz!  Proud first time mommy, daddy, and grandparents are all doing well.

How is this relevant to my food blog?  Well, since we have an extremely hungry little man (born a little too small for everyone's liking), milk-making has become a big deal around here.  It's pretty much the ONLY food I make these days; we adults have mostly been subsisting on leftovers generously provided by friends and family or frozen microwave/oven meals.

I swear, there's a recipe in this post.

See?? I swear this isn't all about baby!!

I'm trying all sorts of things to make the most Magic Mommy Juice possible.  I forget how I came across this recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip "lactation cookies", but I finally (after 3 1/2 weeks with G-man) got a spare hour to pull them together.  They're tasty (and, they're a perfect excuse to eat cookies without impunity)!!

Apparently the "magic" ingredients are oatmeal (I've been eating a huge bowl every morning), flax, and brewer's yeast.  I've used flax before as an egg substitute, so that was nothing new.  I'd never seen brewer's yeast before, but after some help from a Bulk Barn associate, I got my hands on some.  I used the max amount called for in the recipe (4 Tbsp, or 1/4 cup); it sort of made the cookies taste malted.  Reminded me of an oatmeal stout I had once.  Not a bad thing!!

Here's the brewer's yeast!  It's very interesting in that it's a byproduct of beer-making; it's not active or alive at all (it's already done its job, making delicious booze!)  I had a guy in Bulk Barn try to convince me to buy active brewing yeast from his website; the helpful store associate chided him for trying to steal away customers!  Plus I had to explain to him that this wasn't for home brewing.  He didn't believe me.

My lonely Kitchenaid; it's been about a month since she saw any use!!  Mixing up the dough here.

Finished product!  Tasty stuff.  Even Hubs had one (after I assured him that they wouldn't turn him into a dairy cow like me)!  I've packaged some up for my friend with a 4-month-old, and there's a store of them in the freezer for whenever Teh Kimmeh's baby girl bundle of joy arrives!

Ah, motherhood.  It's all new and exciting to me, but I'm doing my best (with the amazing, constant, wonderful support of Hubs) to have my cookies and eat them too!

Thinking that Medela is the most wonderful company in the world,
-Honeybee