Nutella & Banana Crepes

I used to think that crepes were one of those delicacies you could only get at fancy French restaurants and if you wanted to make them at home you'd have to have some special equipment for it.  Not true!  Once I tried them I realized how seriously easy they are and these now make a regular appearance in our home.  My kids ask me all the time to make these -- breakfast, lunch and dinner! :)

First, gather up your ingredients -- sugar, flour, canola oil, milk, eggs, and filling.  Just blend the crepe ingredients in your blender and you are good to go.

Get your skillet on medium heat and spray w/non stick cooking spray.  When the pan is hot pour the batter in.

Give it a good swirl so there is a nice thin layer of batter all over the bottom of the pan.

When the edges start to get a little golden, run a rubber spatula around it to loosen it up and then flip the crepe over.  (I like to pretend I'm on one of those TV cooking shows and flip the crepe by flicking the pan and sending the crepe up and flipping and catching it in the pan.  But just using your fingertips works as well. :) )

Let it cook for another 20 seconds or so and then you're good to go.  I like to keep a stack under a paper towel to keep them warm until they are all made.

Next comes the fun part.  Fill them with what ever you want.  I recently discovered Nutella and pretty much always have a Nutella & banana crepe.  Other good fillings are strawberries, honey butter, ham & cheese, mushroom & cheese, peanut butter & honey, etc.  Really, the possibilities are endless!

So go whip up some crepes for your family and make them think you have taken a fancy French cooking class!


Recipe by Our Best Bites

2 eggs
2 Tbs canola oil
3 Tbs sugar (omit if making savory crepes)
1 C flour
1 1/3 C milk

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on low speed until combined, or whisk by hand until there are no lumps.

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium-high heat.  Hold pan with one hand while you pour the batter with the other hand.  Twirl the pan in a circular motion pouring just enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan.   Place on cooking surface and cook until edges are set and you can easily run a rubber spatula around the edge of the pan, 30 seconds.   Flip crepe and cook an additional 15-20 seconds.  Remove crepe from pan and either keep warm in the oven or cool to room temperature.

Fill with your choice of savory (meat, cheese, vegetable) or sweet (pudding, mousse, pastry cream, fruit) filling.  Top sweet crepes with  with a dusting of powdered sugar or  whipped cream.

Unfilled crepes can be stacked between sheets of waxed paper and refrigerated or frozen.  To thaw, leave at room temperature.  


Makes 12-14 8″ crepes

What I Wore Wednesday

Poncho- TJ-Maxx
Shirt- TJ-Maxx
Jeans- Nordstrom Rack
Boots- Discount Shoe Factory

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Pumpkin Turkey

I saw this idea at my dentist's office of all place and decided to make my own version. The feathers are from the wild turkey hunt. I used foam that I had around the house for the face and red craft foam sheets for the little red part. I used beads for the eyes and brown craft foam sheets for the feet.

-Buff

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Menu Plan Monday 11/21

I've been in a kind of dinner rut lately. Nothing really sounds good and usually by the end of the day I'm worn out and don't feel like cooking anyway. And on the occasions I actually do prepare a meal, my picky little eaters won't even touch it so I'm trying to get them to at least try it and of course they won't so it's this big battle and I end up making them something different anyway and by that time my food has gotten cold and it's just all very discouraging. Sigh.

In fact, last night I actually made dessert for dinner -- brownies, cookies, ice cream. Yeah, the kids totally ate it.

But since dessert for dinner isn't really a good option 99% of the time, I figured I need to get back on track with meal planning. I find that if I plan my meals for a week and get everything at the store (that's usually the hard part -- shopping with the kids!) then my dinners seem to go more smoothly. So here's my meal plan for this week.

Monday
Guiltless Alfredo over penne pasta w/grilled chicken
garlic bread
green salad

Tuesday
Broccoli cheese soup
rolls

  

Wednesday
Chicken Chimichangas
rice

Thursday
Thanksgiving dinner at family's

Friday
Ranch Chicken pizza

Saturday
Parmesan fondue
chocolate fondue

Sunday
leftovers


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Ikea Curtains: Upcycled

I'm currently working on decorating my guest bedroom. I decided to go with a yellow & gray color combo and I LOVE the way it is turning out! I painted the walls gray but when it came to window treatments I had a bit of a dilemma.  I knew yellow curtains would be too much so I thought white would look good.  But when I put them on the walls it just looked too blah.  Enter my awesome mother.  We picked up some cheap white curtains from Ikea (love the ones with grommets!) and some yellow & gray fabric from Joanns. 

(Since I have a phobia of sewing machines my mom did all the work on these!)  She cut the curtains, inserted a panel of fabric, and sewed it all together.

 

Don't they look fabulous?!  I am so happy with how they turned out.  It gives just the right pop of color in the room without being overbearing.  Stay tuned later this week when I show you the finished room.  I have a few finishing touches to do and then it will be all ready for our guests to arrive in a couple weeks! :)

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We Believe Board

I've wanted to do something like this in our home for a while now -- a place to display some of the scripture stories we've been learning about as a family.  So I found a scrap piece of wood in the garage that was the size I was looking for.  I spray painted it black and then used sandpaper to rough up the edges a little.

I found these jumbo clips at Walmart and thought they were perfect.  I tried gluing them on with a hot glue gun but for some reason they didn't hold.  So I used Gorilla glue instead and that worked perfectly.

I hung up the board and used my Cricut to cut the words "We Believe" in black vinyl and applied it to the wall.  Then I printed up some scripture stories and Articles of Faith cards from Simply Fresh Designs (which are sadly not available any more!).  Now each morning after we read our scriptures the story goes on the clip to help us remember.  And whenever we read a story from The Friend magazine we put that up there as well.  I'm hoping that as we see this every day it will remind us of our faith and our desire to learn more about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

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Christmas Pillows

I wanted to make some cute Christmas pillows this year. I have seen them in stores, but they can be expensive, so I thought that I would give it a try for myself. It makes it even better that it did not cost me a thing to make these since I already had the supplies.  I used scrap red, white and green fabric that Buff had.


Using the scrap white fabric we made a pillow (Buff did the sewing), then we stuffed it with batting.

 

For the "ho ho ho" I cut the letters out of foam craft sheets and then glued them onto the pillow.

After the letters were glued on, I felt like the pillow was missing something. I had a scrap piece of the white fabric and began to mess with it and came up with a flower. Then I hand sewed the flower to keep its shape and then glued it onto the pillow. Then I glued a button onto the middle of the flower and it was complete!

It was a cute and easy project to do. I now have a ton of ideas floating around in my head for more pillows to make, so there will be more to come! 

-chelz 

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