Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:

• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup quick oats
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 TBSP brown sugar
• ¼ cup yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ cup add-ins like chocolate chips or fruit, optional

Directions:

Toss the flour, oats, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

Load the egg and milk into the blender. Pulse. Add the brown sugar, vanilla and yogurt and blend until no lumps remain.

Pour the wet ingredients in with dry. Stir gently until just combined. Do not over-mix the batter or your pancakes will be tough and dense. Add any mix-ins you like.

Heat a griddle or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Coat generously with cocoanut oil or butter.

Once hot, drop about 1/4 cup of batter on the griddle. Cook until the edges look dry and bubbles begin to form on the center or sides, about 1 minute. Flip and cook on the other side until cooked through, about 2 more minutes.

Makes 4 medium size pancakes.

Ugly Rice

The Gulf Coast states have their Dirty Rice. This is my Ugly Rice.

Ingredients:
1 tsp coconut oil

¼ pound Jimmy Dean sausage, cut to ¼” cubes.

¼ cup dried mushrooms

¼ cup dried vegetables.

2 TBSP red onion, chopped,

1 TBSP tomato paste

Heat coconut oil in cast iron frying pan. Cook sausage to “mostly done” stage. 

Add remaining ingredients, and mix well. 

Place mixture in rice cooker. Add:

3 slices bacon, cooked, cut into ¼” slices.

¾ cup rice blend mix

½ tsp roasted garlic powder.

¼ tsp red pepper powder

¼ tsp roasted paprika powdered

⅛ tsp curry powder

A little pepper may be nice. I used white pepper.

2 – 2½ cups water.

Yeah, it's really ugly. But it's really good. But this is not a "lite" or a diet meal. This is Guy Food.

TJ’s Curry Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cut into “chicken tenders” size.

Sauce:

3 cloves garlic

1 TBSP fresh ginger

2 TBSP sweet onion

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp yellow curry powder

1½ TBSP tomato paste

Mix this together in a blender until it’s a paste. Add a little olive oil if needed to make this a medium thick sauce to coat chicken with. Sauté the sauce until it’s dark brown. TJ describes this as “almost burnt.” Set aside.

Fill a large (cast iron) fry pan half full of water, and heat to boiling. Add chicken and boil until the outside of the pieces is done, but the centers are still raw. Discard water.

Add sauce, and cook over medium heat until chicken is nearly done. Increase heat to maximum for the last few minutes just to dry the sauce and get it firmly soaked into the meat.

Bacon Cornmeal Flapjacks

The instructions are pretty simple:

1) Fry some bacon. Drain off some grease.

2) Make some cornbread batter (make it kind of thin).

3) Fry the flapjacks on the bacon.

4) Add syrup, and peanut butter if you like.

5) Enjoy.