Ahhhhhhh... Saturday morning breakfast. We love greeting the day with warm buttery pancakes (with the occasional chocolate chip added...) This is a "buttermilk" recipe without the buttermilk. I can never figure out what to do with the rest of the buttermilk when I buy it, so this is my answer. Cheap fries up crunchy bacon on the side as a nice complement. Mmmmmm... my mouth is watering as I type...

Ingredients
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract


Canola oil for pan frying

Optional add-in's:
Chocolate chips (our fave)
Banana
Blueberries
Toasted Nuts
Cinnamon

Directions
Mix milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Let sit and milk will sour and thicken like buttermilk (about 5-10 minutes)

Whisk dry ingredients together

Add egg, vanilla, and almond to "buttermilk" and whisk together.

Combine dry and wet ingredients and mix together.

Pour oil in pan so there is a thin layer covers the bottom (this helps make the edges of he pancakes nice and crispy). Heat oil.

Ladle batter into the pan and fry 'em up!


I love Saturday mornings!

This is not your typical hot chocolate. Let me forewarn you, this is liquid chocolate and should be consumed in small doses. It is not your typical watered down cocoa mix.... oh, is it worth it.

Ingredients:
4 oz of favorite chocolate or about 3/4 cup if using chips (Cheap likes milk chocolate and I like dark)
1/4 cup boiling water (You could also use milk but it does mask the chocolate flavor)

Optional
1/4 tea cinnamon or 1/4 vanilla extract

Directions:
Pour hot water into a small mixing bowl and add chocolate. As chocolate begins to melt, stir together.

You can re-heat over a double boiler or in the microwave. Serve in small glasses and sip. Chocolate lovers unite!

Now this is football food. I can't take credit for this dip but oh my word it's divine. A friend of mine brought this to a party and all of us left with the recipe. I made a few tweaks but it's pretty much the same. Cheap and I like to munch on this some weekends to feel very American. We can actually get Franks hot sauce in the UK for a reasonable price. Serve it with tortilla chips and make a lot!

Ingredients
1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded (I cook mine with a slow-cooker in chicken broth. It makes it extra moist and really easy to shred)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup Ranch or blue cheese dressing
3/4 cup Franks hot sauce
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese


Directions
Preheat oven to 350F

Stir together chicken and hot sauce and spread in the bottom of a greased 8x8 dish

Stir cream cheese and dressing together (sometimes it helps to warm in microwave)and spread over chicken mixture

Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and bake for about 20min or until bubbly

Serve with tortilla chips- enjoy! I'm proud to be an American.

We've been craving Chinese take-out (or "take-away" as the Brits would say). But with our limited budget we haven't indulged ourselves, which has made the craving inevitably stronger. While I know that home-made stir-fry doesn't hold a flame to traditional take-out, this Martha Stewart inspired General Tso's recipe does. It met our hankering perfectly and didn't feel like we had to sacrifice taste to save £'s.

Ingredients:
For sauce:
1 Tbs cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs white sugar
2 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
dash of salt

2-3 chicken breasts, sliced nugget size and breaded (drench in flour, egg-wash, then dry bread crumbs) Sometimes pre-breaded chicken is cheaper, so if you're looking for a quicker meal, grab some of those.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450F and bake breaded chicken until golden, about 25-30 minutes

In a glass, microwavable bowl, dissolve cornstarch in the water. Once dissolved mix the rest of the ingredients with water mixture.

Heat sauce until bubbly in the microwave (it will also thicken). Depending on the microwave, it should take 30sec-1min.

Pour sauce over breaded chicken, serve with fluffy rice. Enjoy!