Baby Dutch Babies

When I was little my dad would make Dutch Babies (German Pancakes) for us for breakfast. Oh how I love them! I never made them on my own since the only pan I have is HUGE and would feed a small army.  Then one day on Pinterest I came upon this pin. *gasp* using a muffin tin to make mini dutch babies!!! This meant I could make a smaller batch AND they are adorable to boot!

Here is the recipe as found on http://realmomkitchen.com

Mini German Pancakes
1 cup milk
6 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. orange zest (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Blend first six ingredients (milk thru orange zest) in a blender.  Be careful to see that any flour clumps get well-blended.
2. Blend in butter a little at a time in order to temper the eggs.
3. Grease muffin tins well and distribute batter evenly between 24 tins. Bake for 15 minutes, or until puffy and golden on top.

I omitted the orange zest since I didn't have an orange. I want to try it next time though as it would be super yummy. I also halfed the recipe as  there were only three people eating. Another reason why I love this recipe! Totally easy to scale up or down.

All set to go in the oven! 

Right out of the oven they are super puffy and airy.

They do settle a bit as they cool, but they are still light in texture.  I topped mine with powdered sugar, but you can top with anything you like! My family loves powdered sugar with lemon. Syrup is good too, and if  you have fresh berries is SUPER yummy.

 

Hope you give these a try! Super easy and much less daunting than making a full size Dutch Baby, and much cuter! 

Pinto Beans with Bacon

Pinto beans are a great source of protein, but on their own can be a bit bland. How to fix this? Well bacon of course!! Bacon is one of those magical ingredients that can make almost anything taste wonderful!

I started out by cutting 4 slices of bacon into narrow strips.  You could do chunks, small bits, whatever tickles your fancy.

Cook until crispy. Mmmmmm bacon. (you can choose to take out the bacon grease or you can leave it in.  I decided to leave it in since it wasn't very much and its soooo tasty. Diet be damned!)

I then added in my soaked beans.  I use the quick soak method as I am not nearly organized enough to soak my beans the night before.  To quick soak you boil the beans in water for 2 minutes, then put a lid on them and remove from the heat.  You then let them sit for an hour and *tada* soaked beans! I used about a half pound of beans for this batch.

I also added in salt and tons of pepper.

Add water to cover and bring to a simmer. Once at a simmer leave it on low for 1-2 hours.  After an hour I started checking them about every 15 minutes to see if they were done yet. (Bonus is the entire time they cook the house will smell of BACON)

Once done mine looked like this.

 

They are great on their own, but I had them wrapped in a tortilla for a bean burrito. Super nummy.  Another thing I love about beans is how easy it is to change up what you put in them. This could have easily been vegetarian and instead of bacon maybe add in some chilies to add some spice.  Super cheap and easy to make!