#And adding a little bit of salt to your pancakes

[salvadorbonaparte]

I love you food that is sweet and sour. I love you food that is spicy and sweet. I love you food that is sweet and salty. Etc etc etc

[furiousgoldfish]

Survival skills: Cooking, Cleaning, Laundry, Living space maintenance, and other extra stuff, for those who need the basics because they've never been taught by abusive parents/caretakers! (this post is cooking only, I made another post for the rest)

Cooking

I'm going to assume you know absolutely nothing about cooking, and you're just looking for basic survival meals. There are videos online but it can be overwhelming to watch them without knowing the basics!

One of the first thing people usually learn is to make eggs; this is how you do it:

You find a pan, some eggs, and turn on the stove. You only turn the part of the stove on that you're intending to use. New stoves can be turned on by a click of a button that tells you which heat circle you're about to activate, old gas stoves sometimes need a little lighter, in order for the gas to catch fire! Don't worry; the fire will only be enough to heat up your meal. Once you've successfully turned the heat on, you put a pan on this heated area, and you leave it there for a minute or so, because you want the pan to be hot before you start putting food on it. That way the food will stick less to it too. You pour in about a spoonful of oil, if the pan is heated enough, the oil will easily spill around, then crack an egg directly into that oil, carefully not to splash oil on yourself. You can crack as many eggs as you want in there, depending on how hungry you are. The easiest way to crack it is to do it against a surface, and you're trying to keep any shell from getting into the pan – if you get some shell in, you can fish it out using some utensils.

If your pan has a lid, you can close it to allow the egg to be surrounded with heat on all sides. Some people like to add in a little water to steam the top of the egg, when they close the lid! The water will evaporate (if you add it, you don't have to). You'll see it's done very quickly, when the eggwhite is all in white color, and it gets a little brown on the bottom, you can check with a fork if it's brown yet! You turn the stove off, put the eggs on a plate. You salt it at your preference, and you have a meal.

Pancakes are the second thing I ever learned, it goes like this:

You need a bowl big enough for the pancake mix, a pan that is flat at the bottom, a whisk (or a fork if you have no whisk), a knife or some long flat utensil that can flip pancakes. One or two eggs, milk (can do with water too), flour, sugar, salt. American version uses baking soda or baking powder, in my country we do without that and will sometimes add mineral water. Baking soda and baking powder just make them puff up and make the little air bubbles inside of them, so you can decide if you want flat pancakes or puffed up ones!

You crack the eggs into the bowl, add milk (you add however much you want the mixture to have, there's no hard limits), add a spoon of sugar, pinch of salt, and you mix this up with a whisk or a fork, and then add flour bit by bit, until the mixture becomes a bit thick. It's still supposed to be liquid, you're supposed to be able to pour it out easily, but the consistency is supposed to be thick enough to not be runny, if you drop some on a plate, it should not spill around. If this is confusing, you can try making it with different consistencies and see which one you like best and which one works best for you!

Once you have your pancake batter, you can turn on the stove, put your flat pan on it, and wait for it to heat up, you want it hot before you start. Put about a spoon of oil on the pan, pick it up and angle it around, so the oil covers the entire bottom of the pan – if the oil is hot, it should spill around the pan easily! Then you can grab either a big spoon, or a telugu, or you can just pour directly from the bowl, the pancake batter. If you've added baking soda or baking powder, you want small little puffed-up pancakes, so you add them in little circles and wait for them to be cooked on one side. If you want flat pancakes, you add the mixture to the middle, then grab the pan and angle it around so the batter spills over the entire pan, so it covers the entire bottom of it, like you did with the oil.

It's cooked on one side when it's no longer looking liquid on the top, usually within one minute. At that point you grab your knife, or whatever utensil you have that can flip pancakes, you push it under the pancake, see if the entire pancake is unstuck to the pan, if there's bits sticking, you unstick that first! If you can easily separate the pancake, you try to flip it. Later when you have more confidence, you can flip them just by grabbing the pan, shaking it to unstick, and then snapping it so the pancake snaps up, turns in the air and falls down – it's what I usually do, but you need to be careful to not have a lot of oil under it in that case.

If you mess up the flipping, don't worry, it's still edible even if not cooked perfectly on both sides, it also happens to everyone on the planet, I mess this up regularly, you didn't do anything wrong, pancakes are fickle and don't listen to reason or logic, you can still eat it, it's all good.

Once it's been cooking on the other side for half a minute or so (usually takes less time to cook the other side), you can slide it onto a plate, then cook the rest of your pancakes (usually the first looks the worst and the second one is better), and then you can put whatever toppings you want. We usually use jam, or cocoa, it can work with just sugar, or maple syrup, or honey, or fruit (berries), or some melted chocolate. You can eat it as-is if you don't have anything. In any case you've made something nice tasting that has some protein from the eggs, milk and flour, and you're not going to be hungry after eating them.

Vegetables

I'm going to assume you don't know anything about vegetables, and what you need to know is that there's 2 main differences between veggies: cooking time, and whether they let water out, or soak water in. You can cook any vegetable in water, salt it, and it will become edible, it's not complicated, it's healthy no matter how you do it. If you want to mix different vegetables, you need to know what their cooking time is, so you could add them at different times in your soup/stir fry/whatever you're doing.

All of the legumes (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, soy beans) will take water in when they're cooked, they usually are soaked about 8 hours before cooking (lentils and fresh peas don't need the soak) and then cooked for about an hour. Soaking just means you put them in a bowl, cover them so there's twice as much water in there as beans, and then just leave that for 8 hours. Afterwards you throw away that water, put them in a pot, pour new fresh water over them, put this on heat until it boils, then reduce the heat so it's not bubbling so violently, it can be a very gentle bubbling, cover it and let it cook for about an hour. Then you can take one out with a spoon, check if it's soft and nice tasting, and if it is, you're done! You can now use your cooked beans for a meal.

Fresh peas you can just cook for 10 minutes and they're done, lentils can take up to half an hour, chickpeas can be an hour and a half of cooking time, you can adjust this to how these taste to you. After you've done your basic cooking of them, you can eat them in a salad (you just add some oil, salt, vinegar, spices and whatever other veggies you have, and you got a salad), or you can additionally bake them, cook them in a pan, use them for other recipes. You can NOT eat these raw, you need to cook them until soft, if you attempt to eat raw legumes, you will get poisoned.

Vegetables like cabbage and asparagus also likes to take in some water, so be sure to never let them cook just on oil for long, they get softer and nicer with some water.

Vegetables that let water out while cooking are: Zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, beets; this means that if you put them in a pan with some oil, the mix will get soggy quickly, they will let out their own juices, which you sometimes might want! Also they will let more juice out more quickly, if you salt them, salt helps take juices out.

Vegetables that don't take water in or out, meaning they can be cooked just on oil and the mix will stay the same: onions, leek, potatoes, green beans, garlic, carrots, pumpkin. You can put any of these in a hot oiled pan, cook them, and you will get a nice stir-fry, that won't get soggy. You can also add the peppers, zuchinni, or any water-letting vegetable in, and then cook it until all the water evaporates, that works as well! This is then a sautee, meaning you're cooking the vegetables in their own juices, which is delicious.

Greens like spinach and swiss chard are usually added to stir-fry mix last because they are done cooking very fast. Okay let's look at some of the cook times (these are in water, oil cooks them all faster):

Cooking times for vegetables

Potatoes: 20 minutes if in big pieces, 10 if cut really small. Cannot be eaten raw, poisonous when raw.

Carrots: Can be eaten raw, you can cook them for any time you want, they'll get soft after 10 minutes, in soups they can be cooked for long time to let the flavor out.

Zucchini: takes only 5 minutes to get soft and start letting water out, you can cook anytime in a soup, it's not poisonous when raw either.

Peppers: will get soft after 5 minutes, can be eaten raw and are full of vitamins.

Pumpkins: 5-10 minutes to get soft, can be cooked in soups for longer.

Onion and leek: 5 minutes, gets soft very quickly, you can cook in soup for any amount of time, this is the main flavor of many meals! Onions and leeks are added to meals specifically to make them flavourful, and so is garlic.

Green beans: 20 minutes, don't eat raw.

Peas: 20 minutes if fresh, longer if they're dry and soaked.

Spinach, swiss chard, other greens: they're done in an instant almost, a minute of cooking is enough.

Broccoli, cauliflower: 5-10 minutes, depends on how small they're cut.

How to make a vegetable soup:

You'll need onions, and other vegetables of your choice, you can decide which ones mix well for you. Where I live it's traditionally onions, parsley, celery, carrots for the base, and then it can be leeks, potatoes, peas, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, zuchinni, peppers, even just one or a few of these ingredients will make an okay soup, you can mix and match them to your liking or according to what you have. The main flavor of the soup usually comes from onions, or garlic if you want to make garlic-tasting soup.

You cut your vegetables first, and the size doesn't really matter, you cut them how you want to eat them, it won't specifically affect the quality, can make the cooking time less if you cut them really small.

You turn on the stove, put a pot on it, let it heat up for a minute or two. Then you add a spoon or two of oil, and you add your onions. You let onions cook for a few minutes while stirring them, this is your main flavor, and the longer you can stir them without them getting burned, the better the soup will taste. When they start browning, you can add other flavor enhancers, like garlic if you have some, salt and spices, and if you're doing potatoes or green beans or leeks, I would add those in sooner too, because oil enhances their flavor. Once these have some good flavor profile, you can add the rest of your cut veggies, and pour water until all of your vegetables are covered. Then you let the water come to boil, reduce the heat, and let it cook until the longest-cooking vegetable is fully cooked.

Soups made of only vegetables are not super filling, so people will usually add some pasta-like stuff in it, I will make a little mixture out of flour, water and salt, with soft consistency, and then add spoonfuls of that in the soup – this is done in the last 5 minutes of cooking, because this only needs a few minutes to cook. That will make your soup more filling!

It's also normal to add some kind of meat to your soup from the start, to enhance flavor and add more nutrients, I can't really write about this because I actually don't consume meat so I am not smart about it, but I know stuff like pieces of meat, or pieces of bone are added to soup, and then soups are cooked much longer in order for the nutrients and the flavor to combine.

If you're feeling super lazy you can just add bunch of vegetables and pasta and whatever to a pot, add water, boil, and it will still be a soup, even if you don't pay attention to how flavours combine and if cooking time is not aligned, this will still turn into something edible if you add salt and you won't be hungry or lacking in nutrients. So if my detailed description sounds intimidating, you can do it in whatever way. Just adding water and heat and salt to vegetables, makes them edible, and you can eat that and be done. It doesn't need to be perfect.

If you want to make a specialized soup, like mushroom soup, tomato soup, pea soup, it's basically the same thing with putting some onions on oil, but then you just add this one thing you want your soup from, like you'll just add tomatoes, garlic and some spices to the onions if you want tomato soup. For mushroom, you just add mushrooms and whatever spice you want, and later you can blend it with together if you want a creamy soup. For peas, you just add peas on top of onions, add water, cook that, smash or blend it to make it creamy. Those are super easy soups, and onions are a base flavor for all of them. And you can even do it without onions and it's fine, they'll still have an okay taste.

Sauces: are very similar to soups, except you add some flour on the oil, mix that to make a roux and then add water to make it thick! You choose whether you want a tomato sauce, mushroom sauce, or whatever else, and you make it a thicker consistency than a soup, and with more concentrated flavor (less water).

Mashed foods: you cook your vegetable in water, cut to any size you want, once the cooking time is over and your vegetable is super soft, you pour the water our (you can reuse it for soups later), add salt, you can add some butter or milk if you like it more creamy, and you mash it with a masher or a fork, until it's all mashed! You can do this with many vegetables, you can make mashed potatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, carrots, peas. You can even mix two veggies, I love mashed potatoes with zucchini mix.

Fried foods: I don't do this a lot, so I am not the best to explain it, but the basics of this is that hot oil cooks the food much quicker, draws out much more flavor, and makes it delicious! It also adds a decent amount of calories so it's great for when you need a lot of energy quickly. I know people like to smash pieces of meat, cut it or grind it into small pieces, then mix it with cut up onion, garlic, spices and herbs, add some flour, and then form it into nice little patties, which they can fry on oil, and it makes for a good sandwich pattie. You can also make this type of pattie out of vegetables, if you mix some cooked beans, soy, lentils, potatoes, cabbage savoy, kale, really anything with some flour, garlic, spices and salt, and form it into a pattie, you can put it on hot oil and make a little burger pattie, or mix it with some mashed potatoes to create a meal.

I'm unable to make detailed instructions for meat as I don't consume it, but I know it's important to cook it thoroughly, and make sure it's never raw in the middle, because it could give you diseases otherwise. I won't go into making bread because this post is already too long, but if you want me to write it out in detail, let me know!

If you want to make more specialized meals, you can find instructions and recipes anywhere, knowing the basics will make it easier to understand any recipe out there. I myself am not good at baking so I won't go into that!

I'm going to write a separate post on cleaning, maintaining space and laundry, because this is already very long and might be overwhelming to read. If anyone wants to write details about non-vegetarian dishes, please do add it in the comments!

[digitalfishwish]

Kit's Traybake Pancakes (cinnamon apple var.) - Updated!

Love eating pancakes but hate making them? This traybake pancake recipe may be for you! Making these gives me enough pancake squares for 6 days (5 if you eat two on the day you make them). They’re fluffy, reheat well, can either be eaten with or without maple syrup, and are very customizable! I recommend adding fruit and protein powder like I do in this recipe, making it a (slightly) healthier breakfast than just pure carbs.

(Updated) instructions under the cut!

Full disclosure, the base for this recipe was the mug pancake recipe from Emma’s Goodies, which you can watch here!

I made this mug pancake for years (except with tripled portions because I was using a very big mug) and it was super delicious! However, for just one mug pancake, it was a bit of a production and didn’t feel super worth it. Thusly, I have adapted the recipe to be made in a 13”x9” baking tray, which makes a whole lot of breakfast.

Recipe (serving size: 2 squares):

Base Ingredients:

12 tbsp. butter (I use salted, if you don’t have salted butter, add a small amount of kosher salt to your recipe)

9 tbsp. (1/2 cup+ 1 tbsp) granulated sugar

12 fl.oz. milk (I use skim, use whatever kind you like)

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

Customizable Ingredients:

1 scoop protein powder (I use vanilla flavored whey)

1/4 cup of maple syrup (ideally not pancake syrup, they’re different)

1 apple (I use McIntosh or Honeycrisp)

A piping hot cup of apple tea with a heaping tablespoon of honey

Nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom to taste, for sprinkling on top

Base Instructions:

Heat oven to 375°F, take out a 13”x9” nonstick baking pan and spray bottom and sides with cooking spray (yes theoretically I know you don’t need to spray a nonstick pan but better safe than sorry).

If you choose to put apple chunks in, I recommend doing this step first. I personally like to let the chunks soak in my favorite loose leaf apple tea (non-sponsored plug)! Boil a cup of water and fill the tea infuser with tea. Add a heaping tablespoon of honey to the cup and stir until it dissolves. Then put them infuser in and steep the tea for three minutes, after which you should give the mug a final stir and pour it into a bowl. See “customizable instructions, steps 2-4” for how I recommend cutting the apple. After that, put the peeled apple chunks into the bowl of delicious tea and let them soak until it’s time to add them later on!

If you’re not putting apple in, do this step first. Put butter in a bowl and melt it in the microwave. I recommend microwaving for 1m20s.

Put butter in a stand mixer, preferably with the paddle attachment. While you heat the milk in the microwave* (40 seconds, I use a glass liquid measuring cup), add the granulated sugar to the mixer. Once the milk is heated, give it a real quick stir, and then add it and use one of the lower settings on your mixer.

(If you have customizable wet ingredients, add them now!)

Add the flour and baking powder, mix again on low setting until it forms a batter (a small amount of lumps is okay from what I’ve heard, you don’t want to overmix).

*You can’t put cold milk into hot butter, it will form little clumps and be gross

Customizable Instructions:

Add a 1/4 cup of maple syrup (as above, preferably before the flour, with the other wet ingredients), and also one scoop of your preferred protein powder. Mix on low setting until it’s incorporated.

Peel the apple wedges with a peeler (don't use the skin, you'll thank me later). If you have an apple cutter (the thing that looks like a wheel with handles), use that. If you don’t:

Take your apple and a large, sharp knife (be careful) and cut the apple in half vertically. Then place it down with the core side up, and cut each apple half like so: cut off the left side, avoiding the core, followed by the right. Then turn what’s left of the half apple on its side, and cut off the last piece at the back. Do the same for the other apple half, then chop the segments into whatever sized chunks you want.

Use as much of it as you want, but I myself use the whole apple. (If you don’t, eat whatever segments you don’t intend to use for a lil snack.) Then put apple chunks into mixer, and half the tea if you made it, and mix until incorporated. (Drink what tea remains, it’s even more delicious now that the fresh apple’s been in it!)

Baking Instructions:

Pour batter into greased baking tray, shake the pan until the batter is flattened and reaches all the corners (or use a spatula and spread it evenly by hand). Optional: Sprinkle the top with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom according to your tastes. I tend to have a heavy hand even if I don’t mean to, but it still comes out very tasty! (and smells great while baking!)

When the oven reaches temperature (if you preheated it at the beginning, it may have already been at temperature for a while) put the pan in and cook for 35 mins. Know your oven and if it tends to be hotter or colder*, adjust cook time as necessary.

When the timer goes off, test the center in several places with a toothpick. As long as it doesn’t come out goopy, you’re good! (crumbs on the toothpick is fine) I say test in several places because if you accidentally go through a piece of apple, your toothpick may come out slightly wet, but that doesn’t mean the pancakes aren’t done. If it's not done, cook in intervals of 5 minutes, testing each time the timer goes off.

Take pan out and use a butter knife or a pie serving spatula and poke around the edges of the pan to free the pancake traybake from the edges. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Cut into squares. I tend to cut 12 pieces, but you could go smaller or larger depending on how much you intend to eat at once.

*How do I know if my oven runs hot or cold, you may ask? If any recipe you make comes out raw and/or takes longer to cook than the instructions say, your oven is colder! If your food ends up burnt and/or takes less time to cook than the recipe instructions say, your oven is hotter!

Enjoy! I eat two squares at a time and it makes a good breakfast! For storing, put however much of it you can eat in 2-3 days in the fridge. Store the rest in the freezer.

For any customizing other than what I did, use whatever fruit, spices, syrups, and/or protein powders you want! Just be aware that more fruit in the batter means it may take longer to cook!

If you make them, either the same way I did here or differently, let me know how they came out!

OLD EDIT: After some experimentation, it seems like the pancakes come out more moist if baked for 35 minutes at 375°F! I also soak the apple pieces in a cup of “Apple Blood Tea” (find it on adagio teas, it’s super delish!) with honey at the beginning of the process, then add the ‘marinated’ apples and half a cup of the tea into the batter.

NEW EDIT 09/2024: I just changed the recipe whether it needed changing, since I realized that changing stuff behind the readmore didn’t transfer to previously reblogged posts 😫 I also added image descriptions.

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (yes you are)

(Ao3) (Masterpost) (previous) (next)

(Chapter ten baby!!!!)

Danny isn't stupid. He knew Giga Fish was still here somewhere. Watching him... Hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, oxygen ticking lower and lower as he darted back into the semi-safety of his base.

A backpack full of peepers and bladderfish smelled awful. Getting the fishy smell out of his suit was going to take ages! Bladder fish are natural water filters. The fabricator draws out drinkable water from the fish's well...Bladder. Ancients, he hoped the fabricator sterilized this with its little lasers.

Non vegan water...

Sam would have a conniption fit, Tucker would love everything about it. He'd find a way to contact them soon if they didn't find him first. The earful he would get from Jazz might just be worse than his giant stalker. Getting lectured by Jazz would be preferred over sitting here with a gigantic fish a few dozen meters away. At least with Jazz, he knew she cared about him. He didn't know what the big guy wanted from him. Danny wasn't exactly a snack you'd travel through the sea for.

Whatever the guy wanted, Danny didn't care. As long as they both stuck to themselves, things would go just fine...

Peeking through the curtain, Danny saw the massive eel-like fish curled up, staring directly at his base.

Danny really wanted to study the guy. What were his eating habits? He didn't seem to be interested in eating any of the fish around him. Both the sharp teeth at the front of his maw and the shiny bioluminescent stripes that drew fish closer to him suggested a carnivore, but his complete disinterest conflicted with this.

Could a fish be vegetarian? A fish capable of sentience like this one probably could, but Danny didn't want to shove his head in the lion's mouth to test that.

Drawing on his PDA, Danny sketched out the blueprints for a table with a trash bin that slotted into the left side. Two air-tight cabinets were built into it. One smaller one underneath the trash bin and one larger, like a fridge on the right. In the middle was a collapsible set of stairs that'd allow him to reach the top of the table. Maybe making the table shorter would be more convenient, but giving up that extra storage space along with his dignity would be too much for him right now. The table top was a bit too empty for his liking, so he added small drawers at the back edge of the table. A perfect place to store small blades and silverware when he created the blueprints for them. Overall, it was much more like a workstation with built-in storage than a table, but Danny still planned to eat his meals here just as he planned to prepare them.

The fabricator would've been sufficient to cook his meals, but the lasers vaporized the shit out of the organs and bones of the fish. Anything nonedible in a fish's body turned to dust. The dusted ligaments and organs gave the meat a medical taste, like using hydrogen peroxide as mouthwash. Sure, the lasers were cool, but what was the point of cooking if your food tasted like high-tech sadness? It was bad enough that the only seasoning he had was salt. He didn't need his food to taste like it was made in a lab. Gutting his own fish was a necessity. Anything he couldn't eat could be tossed outside for the carnivores to snack on. They deserved a little treat for dealing with his stupidity.

Danny built his little table close to his fabrication station, ensuring it was anchored to the floor and wall. An unsteady piece of furniture could flatten him into an ugly pancake. If his friends were here, they'd agree he looked much cuter when he's only fifty percent dead.

Quickly stepping up to the table with his backpack full of fish, he unsheathed his survival knife... The knife would've been so much more effective than his teeth when he fought the big guy. Danny fought the urge to facepalm. What's done is done, he bit someone like a feral raccoon, but everything worked out!

Gutting fish was more difficult than he'd expected it to be. It was hard to tell if his lack of experience or now tiny hands were what made the task feel a thousand times harder. Peeper blood was yellow, but his own was still a vibrant red that dripped onto the table with every slip of the hand. It felt like a fishing trip with Dad, only without the forty-minute lecture on the dangers of ghost fish.

Running his hands over the now gutted Peepers, Danny used all the power he could muster, freezing them solid. Spots danced in his peripherals, the floor spinning underneath him like a carousel. It took a minute or two to regain his composure. Sitting on the ground with his frozen fish head pounding, face flushed red. Forcing his powers was like trying to drink scalding hot coffee through a toothpick-thin straw. It left him out of breath, fingertips burning with no evidence of damage.

There was an ecto dampener on this planet, he was certain of that. One stronger than any of the ones his parents had built. A radius that reached far past the planet's atmosphere yet still remained potent enough to prevent any significant power usage.

Unfortunately for whoever put the field up, it didn't cancel out his powers completely. Maybe if it did, he would have died completely, saving the culprit or culprits from being mauled. If Danny was anything, he was a stubborn bastard, and there was no amount of dampening that would stop him from clawing the faces of whatever had the audacity to do this! If he had access to his powers he could've saved everyone!

Over a hundred people died because he wasn't strong enough to save them! Because he was prevented from saving them. Ships like the Aurora don't just crash and burn for no reason. Alterra might skimp out a bit on employee safety, but the engineers they hired for serious maintenance were top-of-the-line. Underpaid, but top of the line, they wouldn't make a mistake that could cause that much damage. The way the ship shook, it felt like something had hit them. Everything about this seemed more and more suspicious the more thought he put into it.

For now all he could do was survive in hopes of finding some kind of lead. Finding and stopping whatever was stifling his powers was number three on his to-do list. Just above studying the wildlife but below finding other survivors and surviving himself.

First things first was rations! Both he and any other survivor would need food and water. While he was set with his... questionably hygienic water, fabricating more was a necessity. Giga fish was still out there, Danny could feel eyes on him whenever he passed the glass. All it would take was a split decision to plop his tail in front of the hatch, and Danny was trapped in here to either starve or dry out like a sponge under a sunlamp.

Coral samples and crumbling chunks of salt were taken by the fabricator, turned into bleach within the blink of an eye. The PDA screamed at him, a pitch that could've made his ears bleed. Warnings flashed on screen, the AI desperately pleading with him not to put the substance anywhere near his face. A wild contradiction to the PDA entrance that recommended using it to disinfect his wounds.

Only when he used the bleach to fabricate more water did the tablet stop screaming. The water smelt chemical, and it tasted vaguely of metal coins. Like the overpriced bottled waters, you'd find at an airport vending machine. Laying the bottles on their sides, he stashed them away in the cabinet, placing frozen peepers between each layer. Cold water wasn't a luxury he'd be willing to give up, nor was it something he'd give himself a mind-splitting headache over. So the obvious solution was to turn the cabinet into a disturbing refrigerator with dead fish eyes that stared into the deepest depths of his soul!

Nobody ever said survival was aesthetically pleasing.

Walking back to the window, Danny stares flatly at the curtain. Apparently, the whole "You can't see me, therefore I no longer exist," rule didn't work on this guy, so the curtain was completely useless. Peeking past the cloth, he could see the fish staring at him. Didn't even bother to hide, just sat there like he didn't belong hundreds of meters down doing anything else.

If watching him gave this guy joy, he's going to do something nobody could be entertained by. No longer should he be the comedian for giga fish! He was going to do something so drastic, something he'd only done sparely over the past year! He was going to...

Sleep!

He collapsed down onto the floor, curling himself up with the low-hanging curtains. Spite made it all the easier for him to fall asleep.

@ashoutinthedarkness @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim @dragongoblet

[nonnieapple]

⛈☂ Mall Emo, Mall Time, Mall Crime!☂⛈

 • (human!Marshall Lee x reader)  • r a t i n g: t e e n & u p • 2 1 0 3  w o r d s  • p o s t e d 04.10.2023     🌧 navigation  • s u m m a r y: what do you do when the cashier at a store is a dick? cheese it!

You couldn't wait to see Marshall again. Even though you had seen him a few days ago, you couldn't help but brim with happiness at the thought of seeing him again. You felt electrified, no matter how dumb that sounded, it was exactly how you felt. You smudged on dark eyeliner, pulled on your skinniest jeans, decked out your wrists with enough bracelets to cut off circulation, and wrapped one too many belts around your hips.

Two to be exact.

When you saw Marshall you practically strangled his waist with your grip. He sighed and hugged back.

"Are you trying to kill me or are you just happy to see me?" He said, strained. You pulled back enough to see his face. His beautiful, otherworldly face, his piercings, and his relaxed, dark eyes, which had a red undertone.

"I am never letting you go," You mumbled as you embraced him one more time before pulling away.

"Way to break a promise." He laughed, raising his brows and walking by your side to the entrance of the AAA Mall, one of the only malls around.

"I meant that in a more… metaphorical sense." You shrugged with a smile. Even the annoying mall, with all its lights and people and sounds, couldn't make you upset around Marshall. You were low-key obsessed with that man. In a mostly healthy way.

You walked through the mall, having been there quite a few times before. Why meet in a mall? There wasn't… a particular reason. It was one of the only notable places around. Sometimes you got food there that was edible. The vibes were okay, and Marshall liked staring at the Gridsound displays from time to time. Now that you thought of it, that was the biggest reason.

The AAA Mall wasn't crowded most days either, and you two, both unemployed artists, went there on the dead days- Monday through Friday. When the stores were a relative ghost town. That suited your sensory and human sensitivities. Nothing was worse than people staring at you. Besides the dry sound of dry skin on extremely dry paper, or nail filing. It felt like the sound itself filed down on your teeth. You never quite figured out why people stared. Was it your fashion? Were people that bored? Theorizing was useless. All it did was make you more anxious.

You looked up at Marshall. When you just started hanging out, he asked why you were looking at him like that, but eventually, he accepted that at times you stared like a cat at the nearest object. He was understanding, and whenever you needed some help, he was there. He was a good guy. A little bit of trouble, but you were too, and that was fun.

"It's cold in here. I can feel my blood turning into ice cubes…" You shivered, speeding up your pace as you looked around at blank mannequins and generic posters of conventional-looking white people. The embodiment of salt as seasoning.

"Hm?" Marshall blinked, glancing at you. "I think it's fine." He slipped his hand into yours, and you gasped.

"I'm convinced you're cold-blooded," You murmured, his hand cool and dry, his black nail polish chipped under your fingers.

"Would you still love me if I was a worm?" His calm voice was not suited for the absurdity of that phrase.

"Dude… why the hell would you ask me that?" He feigned immense devastation at your sound question.

"So, you wouldn't?" He stopped, giving you the saddest look.

"You should've been a darn actor…. of course I would. Now let's move, my something is about to fall off." You pulled him behind yourself gently. You passed by a breakfast diner called Kingdom. Not even. Their pancakes were super soggy.

Every store was a carbon copy of the next and the last, clothes so blank they were fit for a pharmaceutical ad. Warning- buying these clothes might be deadly. You'll die of boredom. Unless you only wear a shirt and nothing else. You know what they say, public indecency is a fashion statement! For the record nothing is wrong with being basic; it's fun to make fun of capitalistic copycats which probably don't even let their workers pee in a bottle, all for an off-white cardigan fit for a widow cosplay. You could even get a handkerchief in the pharmacy nearby.

Marshall slowed and you both marveled at the display- the store. Electric guitars with glossy, colorful, and rich exteriors, mics that cost as much as two pairs of eyeballs on the black market. The store was also filled with various tech. The interior was red and orange, covered with a checker pattern. No one was inside, only the cashier. They were taking a nap on the counter. Soft music played on the speakers. The sign above the entrance flickered. "Gridsound", lit up by a warm glow.

Around the corner was one of the most interesting shops in the AAA Mall, which said something. Flame Topic, a huge corporation trying to make money off people with an alternative style, essentially the same widow cosplay repackaged in a leathery, dark package.

You passed by it as you waved to one of the clerks, a person you knew, Flamber. A funky name for a funky person who was much better than that store but didn't wanna be another unemployed hoodlum.

The store right next to it was an exceptionally empty craft store, Raggedart. The cashier had resorted to doodling in a sketchbook, seated between the aisles. He wore a frumpy, muted in color, messily stitched-together sweater. You turned your head to the side.

Gum & Dia. The owner was Dia Gumm Baldwin, an older woman who had as much scandal surrounding her as she did money.

You hated that store and all of its tacky fast fashion, but the belts seemed okay. Just the belts. You wandered around it, pondering if you should get anything. Marshall was encouraging, at times to fault, so you stayed quiet as you pictured your life with a particular pair of socks. Riveting stuff.

There were a handful of people in the store, and its open nature made you worried, your shoulders tensing and nails digging into your palms. A clerk in all green and a green hoodie over their head with spikes atop it spoke to a couple of customers, gesturing to another section of the store.

You stood closer to Marshall.

"The cashier is looking at me funny… they can't handle the autistic swag," You whispered. He chuckled.

After a lot of meandering around the store, you settled on some belts. Marshall didn't seem interested in getting anything, instead inspecting the enticing crap around the checkout as you paid for your crap, setting the money on the register.

The cashier, a woman with brown hair and a crazy look to her glared at you. She looked so mad you'd think she was staring at an arch-enemy of hers.

"That's not enough."

You dug through your wallet, but no matter how many times you counted the money, you couldn't get the number right, or you didn't have enough money, hell knew, by that point your brain was shutting down.

Your mind blanked, your heart filled with panic and nonsense. You shook, feeling cold yet hot, everything in your eyes blurring and time stopping yet going too fast at the same time. It felt like a nightmare- a nightmare where a tsunami was about to wash over you, and you stood stupid, frozen by icelava. The scenario? Entirely different. The feeling? The utter dread? The same.

You didn't only stand stupid, you felt stupid. You wished you could control it. Control the anxiety.

Marshall found your hand. You didn't react, hand limp and cold. You tried to ground yourself. You were floating off into nowhere mentally as the judgement of the customers and cashier built.

"Ugh, what a weirdo, how can it take so long to pay?" Said a person behind you in line. The person next to them snickered.

"Can you please move it? What, are you scared or something?" The cashier had an air of suffocating smugness about her, glaring at you. You searched for a shred of understanding in her face. She flicked a crumpled-up check at you, and you could only stare in horror.

"Probably one of those people afraid of the world. One of those "mentally ill" ones, you know, the ones seeking attention," Whispered one of the people behind you as though you didn't hear. Not like they have a shit if you did.

Marshall strained to not strum the cashier a new one, also standing like a deer in headlights. An all too familiar reaction to conflict from him. He leaned down to you.

"I'm not saying we should take the stuff and run, but, if you want to, we totally could," He whispered, standing up straight right after as if he hadn't said a thing to you.

Your eyes darted to the register. Your mind went fast, thinking of the pros and cons. It all merged into a big lump of panic. You were filled with feverish worry.

You grabbed the things, gripping them for dear life, running toward the exit as fast as you could. Marshall was nearly perfectly in sync with you.

You ran out of the store and the belts beeped loudly, security chasing after you. Your mind and muscles screamed at you, but you yelled over them.

"You're way too supportive!" You addressed Marshall. You glanced back. The guards were hot on your trail of petty theft. They pulled out their walkie-talkies and gave you icy looks from under deeply furrowed brows. Their thick black and white uniforms, making them look like penguins, slowed them down significantly.

"Sorry for being nice and great and the best," Marshall murmured with utter seriousness as you breezed past the front entrance and past to the parking and beyond. You turned around and around until you were far enough to catch a breather.

You both panted. Your heart burned with cold fire and you buzzed and shook with excitement.

"I don't even want these…" You blinked slowly at the belts in your hands, the post-shoplifting clarity hitting you like a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 Spyder. Your panic had begun to ebb and it felt awful. Also like getting hit by a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 Spyder.

Marshall looked down at what he had grabbed with even more confusion than you. He had grabbed random crap. A pair of chains with crosses and a black face mask with a cat on it.

"Neither do I care about this chain. Do you want it?" He asked unsurely. Your eyes sparkled. Shinies.

"I'll have that." You grabbed them out of his hands, dropping them into your pockets.

"I care more about those assholes judging us," Marshall sighed, leaning against a wall. You hummed and frowned.

"I don't get it, is it so hard to stay outta our business? Do I have a sign on my back saying JUDGE ME?" You raised your arms to the heavens.

"I sure didn't put one there," He replied with a mischievous tone. You huffed, glancing at him up and down.

"You wouldn't do that."

You looked at your back.

"It's true, I care about you. It's my dirty secret." He turned away, covering his face dramatically.

"Awww! You're rotten!" You shoved him ever so softly. He looked to the side.

"In more ways than one." You fastened the belts around your hips, tags still on. Marshall raised a brow, silently questioning your sanity. He should've done that when he met you. Too late now.

"If anyone questions me I'll turn them into protein powder." You smoothed out your clothes, crossing your arms.

Marshall opened his mouth. He closed it, giving a thumbs up and a shaky grin.

"Let's go to the City Of Thieves bar and then home." You stretched, walking. He followed without question. He tended to do that, especially if you were in a new place, he was like a lost puppy.

"Home?"

"My apartment." You glanced at him.

"Sounds good." He smiled softly, reaching his long arm around your shoulders.

You waited at the bus stop. The bus rolled in, coming to a slow halt. You got on and made your way to the last seat which was almost always empty. The bus was pretty empty too.

"I am not paying for this bus," You whispered to Marshall as you stared outside at the sunset. His grip tightened around your shoulders comfortingly, pulling you into him.

You could hear his smirk.

"Me neither."

[jungle-angel]

The Animal Doctor Is In: Part 4 (Rhett Abbott x Reader)

Summary: You and Rhett thought you had enough critters in the house until Peach shows up

Warnings: Mentions of animal cruelty, abuse and neglect, animal parenthood, critters with a happy ending, human parenthood etc.

Tagging: @floydsmuse @sebsxphia @kmc1989 @callmemana @attapullman @sorchathered

It had been one of those beautiful spring Sundays when you, Rhett and the rest of the family had gotten up early to go to church and had planned to go to the local diner afterwards. As always, Pastor Jim had kept his sermons short and to the point with a few little traces of his sick and twisted sense of humor laced in. You and Rhett weren't sure if you'd be able to sit through an hour and a half of it, even with the windows open. The days were getting hotter which meant there would be no shortage of overheated parishioners.

"Whatcha thinkin for chow, darlin?" he asked, adjusting Amy on his hip.

"Oh God, a big plate of apple cinnamon pancakes, a side of bacon and a tall glass of orange juice with extra ice," you told him.

Rhett couldn't resist the thought of that nor could he resist the thought of Herbie's steak and eggs special with homefried potatoes and grainy wheat toast on the side. As soon as you, Rhett and Amy were loaded up in the truck, you made your way down towards the diner that Herbie McMillan owned, one frequented by Wabang's collective of old-salt ranchers and first responders.

The diner was absolute heaven, a bit of a greasy spoon that hadn't changed since the 50s when Wabang was still somewhat in its infancy. Waitresses went back and forth between the booths and the counters with pots of steaming coffee and plates of food fresh off the griddle stove. Herbie himself was right at the grill, scraping the cracklings, cracking a few eggs, bacon, ham, sausages and corned beef hash on the stove.

"Smells damn good Herbie," Rhett remarked as you, him and Amy seated yourselves at the counter.

"Man what are ya'll doin here?!" Herbie laughed.

"What else would we have come for Herbie?" you asked him.

"And here I thought ya'll wouldn't be by till lunch at least," he remarked. "Got Momma's southern barbecue and her cornbread on the menu."

Rhett and Herbie went back and forth about the goings on in each other's lives before he took your orders and brought them over along with your drinks. "There we go and here's a little somethin my grandsons added to the menu," Herbie said. "A little somethin they call Jawa juice."

"Oh that's right I forgot, yesterday was May 4th," Rhett chuckled.

You and Rhett enjoyed yourselves immensely, going back and forth with Herbie and the other regulars while you enjoyed breakfast with each other. Once everything was paid for and the tip left under your empty glasses, the two of you headed for the truck to make way for home.

"Aw c'mon you piece of shit car key," Rhett mumbled, trying to unlock the truck doors.

A noise suddenly caught your attention from close by. "You hear that?" you asked him.

Rhett scrunched his eyebrows together. He followed the sound which grew louder the closer he got to the dumpster and when Rhett rounded the corner, he found the source.

"Aw shit, he darlin!"

"What's up?"

"Got another one."

You knew all too well what that had meant, another poor stray out on the streets that needed help. You gasped when you saw a poor cat come creeping out from behind the corner of the dumpster, emaciated with the outline of her ribs in plain view. One eye was shut and covered with marks that didn't look to be anything natural while bald spots had covered her body.

"Oh my God, Rhett......"

"She's definitely got a bad case of mange," Rhett observed, pulling a handful of cat food from a pouch in the pocket of his jeans. "Looks like she hasn't eaten in forever either."

The cat meowed loudly as she crept closer to Rhett, sniffing the food in his hand before taking a little bit of it. He gave her a little water from his Yeti which she drank eagerly before you wrapped her in one of the shitty truck blankets, loading her into the carrier you used whenever you had to take Garfield to the vet.

You took the cat straight to the vet where she was promptly looked at and would be kept until her mange had cleared. You and Rhett had made it a point to come and see her every day that you possibly could. Sure enough, on the day she was due to go home, you and Rhett learned that her previous owner had been arrested and would indefinitely be doing jail time.

"She's probably gonna need a name," Rhett chuckled on the way home with her.

"She's got this peachy colored fur, maybe Mango?" you mused.

"I dunno my peach," Rhett said, giving your thigh a squeeze. "Kiwi would be kinda cute if she was green."

You gave him the look when something suddenly clicked.

"Uh oh," he joked. "Whatcha thinkin?"

"Peach?"

And so it had stuck.

You and Rhett were surprised at how well Peach had taken to her new home, curling around Royal and Cecelia's ankles, purring and meowing when she jumped up on the cat tower in the living room. But it was when she was near Garfield that she purred the loudest.

You and Rhett laughed at how inseparable Garfield and Peach had become as the days rolled on, never finding one without the other unless it was for a vet visit. The two of them were almost always curled up in Royal's lap at the end of the day while Peach often nested into the couch to watch Cecelia work on her knitting or a crocheting project.

But you and Rhett were especially shocked when you woke up one sunny summer morning to find Peach and Garfield both in their little house box, all penned in under the stairs, snuggling their litter of newborn kittens. Amy was excited as ever to see the kitties and Rhett smiling and shaking his head at Garfield who wore the biggest cat grin on his face.

[nerves-nebula]

I HEAR you about the struggle of having to re-parent yourself. Honestly 2 meals a day is a good goal, and like yeah people may judge you for not eating ""correctly"" but like.. food is food. You're eating food and you have access to food. Honestly I'd say the fact you can choose what you eat is a pretty big success

Remembering to eat and keep clean and all that is wayyyyy tougher than what people say it is. Especially when it wasn't taught. You working on and with yourself and trying is great. Might not mean anything but one neglected kid to another I'm proud of ya.



But kaerjgnakejrgn food is so complicated like ?? textures?? tastes?? actually making your body chew and swallow?? Growing up my mother went wildly from one diet to another and had me on them too. After a few years she got us both to do a "eating once a day" thing but if she got out of bed she'd eat while I was at school/away or in bed.

I ended up doing cooking in school once I could to get free food, jumping at any left overs and sometimes digging in the trash. Took lots of dares to get food, I'm very good at swallowing things whole to get over whatever it was I was eating. When/if my mom cooked it was literal depression era food recipes, minus boxed stuff 'cause it had "too much flavour" (sigh). (tomato or cucumber sandwiches anyone? literally bread with a slice of tomato inside. Salt and pepper was fortunately in the house but rarely used. The good old classic of sliced potatoes, frozen vegetables and ground beef cooked in water without anything else added.)



Anyways sorry for the rant. Basically food is more complex than how it's treated, and even if you aren't eating in a way that people say is "correct", you're getting food and have edible food available to you when you're hungry and that's a big thing. That's a success, don't judge yourself too harshly for learning something that others get their entire life to learn. There's no shame in catching up, your efforts are worthy of recognition

yooo wait this all reminds me that when I started high school I would ask my friends if they were gonna eat their food or not, sometimes I ate like 3 people's meals (just bits of other people's meals they didnt wanna eat like 3 extra apples or a bunch of celery and carrots) because I didn't know if mom was gonna make something I could stomach or not. It definitely doesn't help that I apparently have Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder <- fancy words for saying I'd rather starve than eat food with a weird taste/texture

my mom was really busy so she went from making 3 meals a day when I was way younger (i have the vaguest memories of eating breakfast and helping make pancakes) down to around 1 or 2

and my dad can really only eat one big meal a day because of his own childhood abuse stuff that happened so nobody really helped us get back on track haha.

OH YEAH and another funny thing kind of related to all this: when I started high school I was working on a story with a bunch of abused kids so I looked up symptoms of abuse and I just ended up collecting a bunch of screenshots that literally described things I was doing. at the time I was like "oh lol I'm abused?? wild anyway." cause i was kind of already aware but it's a little crazy just HOW many of the signs/symptoms I had hahafdsfsd.

as far as the 2 meals thing- that's actually kind of a side effect of a different issue where I can't eat around 3-4 hours after waking up otherwise I'll have really bad digestive issues. So uhhh no breakfast for me! It's way worse the earlier it is. Like if I have to get up around 8 AM there's no way I'm eating until around 11-12

ANYWHO. for what its worth, I value other neglected kids opinions on stuff like this a bit more than other peoples, so I do really appreciate the pride :')

[mejomonster]

mejos peanut butter noodles (when u can’t have wheat noodles ;-;)

yes this recipe is kind of blasphemy, its adapted from pad thai but i don’t think it’s at that level lol. that said it has a similar taste.

take a small bowl. slap 1 tablespoon (or 2) peanut butter in. squeeze in 1-2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice (or less). add 1-2 teaspoons brown sugar (or even regular sugar) as desired for sweetness. add a dash of fish sauce if you have it (1 teaspoon - 1 tablespoon as desired) or a dash of soy sauce if you don’t have fish sauce. 

try to stir and if you can’t, add a little water until you can stir. the goal is a liquidy sauce that is thick enough to look like it will stick to noodles but thin enough to slide over the noodles and cover them (so like ketchup consistency). you water added will be approximately 1 tablespoon to 5. just keep trying to stir until the sauce looks the consistency you desire (at least as liquidy as pancake or cake batter, can be as liquidy as ketchup texture). 

take some butternut squash noodles. or any squash noodles. you go to the store and buy some noodles made out of a vegetable of your choice (squash tastes sweet though so i’m making it out of squash - i think zucchini would break down too fast in texture too honestly). put a skillet on the stove on medium-hot, some oil on it (i like olive oil), throw your noodles in. sprinkle some garlic salt (or throw in ACTUAL cut up garlic and onion if you have it - i do not). stir fry your noodles in the pan a little to get them warm. *optional steps before throwing in the noodles: adding onion and garlic until cooked, adding shrimp until cooked, adding some egg until scrambled and cooked.

once noodles are warm, pour in your sauce. mix the sauce with the noodles in the pan, continue cooking. turn the temperature down to medium so you have better control and stuff like the sauce doesn’t immediately burn. at this point you could throw in some peanuts (but i don’t have any). continue cooking until noodles are the level of cooked you desire (i like them warm and tender but not mushy - since we are talking about squash noodles, they will taste warm and a bit like cooked squash and a bit like al dente noodles). 

the whole process should take 3-10 minutes depending on how fast you mix, if you add shrimp (since that will take some cooking time before the noodles), and how fast you heat up the noodles/how cooked you make them. it takes me about 8 minutes.

ingredients (bare bones essentials only):

sauce: water, peanut butter, lemon or lime juice, sugar (brown or any). optional: fish sauce or soy sauce

in pan: vegetable noodles, oil to cook, garlic or garlic salt. optional: shrimp, peanuts, eggs, garlic, onion. 

i am eating these right now and they’re yummy.

[missguomeiyun]

Bindae-ddeok from scratch

When I went to Korean in 2017, I tried Korean mung bean pancake at Gwangjang Market, one of THE largest & most famous markets in Korea. Pretty sure it was featured on some Netflix show. Anyway, one of the items the market is known for is this mung bean pancake, called bindae-ddeok in Korean. Koreans especially love eating this on rainy days with a bowl of makgeolli (Korean rice wine).

Bindae-ddeok is not only NOT popular here but it also does not even exist on restaurant menus. The taste & texture are both not appealing to the mass public here I guess. Acquired taste, you know? I recently watched a video where the guy was eating this so I decided to make it at home!

1st you’ll need this: mung bean!

This is a dry lentil; & I got it from Hmart.

There are many variations to this pancake but you definitely need the mung bean, hence the name :P

As for the rest of the ingredients & amounts . .. *shrugs* I didn’t really follow any particular recipe but kind of just took a little bit from each recipe that I read so. .. yeaaahhh let’s do it!

Rinse & soak the mung bean for a minimum of 6 hrs (preferably overnight, which was what I did). Ohhhh mannn there was so much starch coming off the beans. I’ve never used mung bean before; there was like more starch than rice.

A few of the recipes mentioned adding glutinous rice to the mung bean (& soaking it together), so I added some too. This was roughly a 4:1 ratio between the mung bean & the rice.

* 10 hrs later * .. they bloated a little bit but definitely softened.

Rinse a few times, & drain.

This is the other ingredient that needs to be soaked overnight. You don’t HAVE to but it takes a long time to cook otherwise so it’s better to soak/soften them up, & then cook.

You’ll have need bean sprouts.

So the fernbrake (cooked & chopped), mung bean, & bean sprouts (blanched & coarsely chopped) are absolutely needed for bindae-ddeok.

I added a small amount of onion bcos I didn’t have kimchi of any sort at home. The onion (/kimchi) will give the pancake a little bit of crunch.

Here is the most time consuming part...... the mung bean-rice mixture needs to be blended into a lumpy solution.

I don’t have a big blender so I had to use this small blender & blend in batches.. .

The result should be a slightly lumpy & thick ‘paste’.

I knew at this point I had failed - mine was too watery =(

Added all the other stuff to it. I tried to “save” it with an egg, & I think I’ve semi-succeeded. The thing is. .. the bean sprouts let out water over time so you gotta account for that.

Pan-frying . . . at the markets, it’s like deep-fried. Almost. There’s a LOT of oil, but like I mentioned in previous posts, I’m limiting the oil amount.

This 1st one wasn’t as golden brown as I would have liked so I adjusted my heat & oil accordingly. ..

Eventually, I did get a nice golden, crunchy pancake. It takes about 3-4mins per side but it will vary depending on thick your pancake is.

TA-daaaa~

Taste - [Sorry, I forgot to say .. I also added salt & a little of bit beef stock powder as the seasoning in my batter earlier]  Overall, a bit bland, but can use dipping sauce on the side. I’d always rather have something more bland than too salty. It was heavy on the fernbrake flavour as expected.

Texture - crunchy (from the bean sprouts) with some chewy bits (the fernbrake) & not very bean-y, you know what I mean? I mean, it was kind of mushy/bean-y but definitely not near the same extent as the ‘professional’ ones. I partially think my pancakes were too thin; I did it to save some cooking time.

Would I make again?

Yes, but not often haha it’s too much work & I need to have bean sprouts around for this, which isn’t something I normally have. I really need to plan it out, especially with the overnight soaking for the ingredients.

[addierose444]

Easy Workday Breakfasts

Throughout much of high school and college, I rarely ate breakfast. This is primarily because I’ve never been much of a morning person so waking up any earlier than strictly necessary didn’t seem worth it. I’m also not a huge fan of typical breakfast foods. In college, I always hated the weekends because rather than providing a proper lunch most of the dining halls only served brunch. And while I do like some breakfast foods, buttermilk pancakes for instance, in general, I don’t consider them to be real food. I do consider eggs to be real food, but for roughly a decade I couldn’t stand the taste of them. As of January of this year, I’m now able to eat eggs and in a typical week make a spinach omelet for dinner two nights a week (with the leftover spinach from my tofu spinach salads). I hope to share the full recipe soon, but the secret for me has been adding cheese directly to the raw eggs. 

Now that I’m working a full-time job, I typically eat breakfast (during the workweek that is). To make my mornings easier, I tend to gravitate towards meals that I can prepare the night before and eat at work. I tend to eat the same breakfast every single day for a few weeks or months after which I’ll mix it up. In this post, I’ll go through the weekday breakfasts I’ve enjoyed over the past ten months as well as some commentary on why I started or stopped eating it. 

Yogurt with Granola

This was my go-to breakfast during the first two months of my job. This breakfast can be made the morning of by simply spooning yogurt into a bowl and topping it with a handful of the granola of your choice. The granola simply provides flavor and a crunch. To enjoy it in the office you’ll need a container for the yogurt as well as a separate smaller one to keep the granola dry. (Alternatively, you could store the granola in your office as it doesn’t need to be refrigerated). My storebought granola of choice is the Kind Peanut Butter Whole Grain Clusters. I’ve also successfully made my very own peanut butter granola by combining rolled oats, peanut butter, maple syrup, and avocado oil on a sheet pan and baking. (I made this as a snack for my hike up Mount Si, but unfortunately don’t have an exact recipe). If I remember correctly, the yogurt I used to use for this breakfast is low-fat vanilla. It would also work well with a higher fat and/or plain yogurt with a little bit of maple syrup. As for why I stopped eating this breakfast, part of it is that I stopped eating breakfast in my apartment. Additionally, the store-bought granola was a bit pricy and it wasn’t until this spring that I tried making it myself. 

Peanut Butter Overnight Oats

This is one of my absolute favorites! It’s somewhat similar to the previous breakfast but has a different texture and ratio of ingredients. To make my overnight oats I simply stir together half a cup of rolled oats, half a cup of milk, two large spoonfuls of peanut butter, and a splash of maple syrup. The oats then sit in the fridge overnight to absorb the milk. The next morning the oats can be enjoyed cold straight out of the fridge. Milk as compared with yogurt has some pros and cons. The pro is that I could get free 8oz milk cartons from work. The con is that I had to remember to grab milk when leaving the office. As for why I didn’t just buy milk at the store like a normal person, the reality is that I’d end up wasting a lot of milk as I only needed two and a half cups per week. (I don’t drink milk and would only cook with it on the very rare occasion to make mac and cheese). 

Oatmeal with Dried Cranberries 

In the winter, it can be nice to have a hot breakfast. Thus for a time, I turned to hot oatmeal instead of overnight oats. The easiest way to make a single portion of oatmeal is in the microwave. Simply combine half a cup of rolled oats, one cup of water, and a small pinch of salt in a deep microwave-safe bowl. Cook on high for two minutes, stir, and cook for an additional 30 seconds. To serve, add a splash of maple syrup and a handful of dried cranberries. The one downside to hot breakfasts is that they to be eaten at home or prepared in the office. For that reason, this breakfast only really stuck for about two weeks. That said, I think it’s still worth recommending.

Peanut Butter Toast or Rollup 

I don’t have a toaster so the toast version of this was just a sad piece of bread that I thawed overnight. Yeah, doesn’t sound great, but peanut butter is delicious and pulled its weight. I can’t exactly remember why I started eating this breakfast, but I think part of it was that I was missing peanut butter but not ready to return to something fridge-cold. One downside to this breakfast is that it isn’t particularly filling. That said, at the time I was eating a very early lunch with folks on my team so a filling bowl of oatmeal was overkill. Over Thanksgiving, I ate store-bought yogurt cups. After Thanksgiving I, by and large, reverted to being a no-breakfast person. I guess part of this was due to those early lunches and all of the rich holiday meals. In mid-January, I temporarily returned to eating peanut butter for breakfast this time spread over half of a flour tortilla and rolled up. 

Strawberry Yogurt

By the end of January, I returned to having a yogurt-based breakfast. The motivation for this breakfast was to incorporate fruit into my diet while also being more conscious of the amount of carbs I was consuming. Despite being for health reasons, I genuinely do look forward to this breakfast each morning. To make this breakfast, I start by making a maple yogurt base by adding four tablespoons of maple syrup to a quart of plain whole milk yogurt. For the strawberry part, I finely chop or grate frozen strawberries. To make a single serving, I combine ⅕ of the yogurt (just over ¾ of a cup measured as three serving spoon-sized spoonfuls) and ⅓ cup of the strawberries. I’ve not yet tried mixing all of the strawberries directly into the quart of yogurt, but don’t think it would come out as well. For starters, the yogurt container is already full to the brim after adding the maple syrup. More importantly, once fully thawed the strawberries add a bit of water to the yogurt which could mess with the texture. Finally, I don’t know how long the thawed strawberries would last in the fridge. 

[milwyn]

Delicious and Nutritious Meals for the Whole Family

Introduction

When it comes to feeding your family, you want to ensure that each meal is not only delicious but also packed with essential nutrients. After all, a well-balanced diet is crucial for everyone's health and well-being. But finding recipes that are both tasty and nutritious can sometimes feel like a daunting task. Fear not, for we have gathered some tried and tested meal ideas that are sure to please even the pickiest eaters in your family. So, let's dive in and discover some mouthwatering dishes that will have everyone asking for seconds!

1: Breakfast Bonanza

Mornings can be hectic, especially when you have a family to feed and get ready for the day. But starting the day off with a nutritious breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day. One family-favorite breakfast idea is a hearty vegetable omelet. Begin by whisking together eggs, a splash of milk, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl. In a separate pan, sauté a medley of colorful veggies such as bell peppers, mushrooms, and spinach. Once cooked, pour the egg mixture over the veggies and cook until the eggs are set. Top it off with a sprinkle of cheese, and you have a protein-packed breakfast that will keep you satisfied until lunchtime.

If your family prefers something sweeter in the morning, try making a batch of fluffy whole wheat pancakes. In a bowl, combine whole wheat flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, and a touch of sweetness with some honey or maple syrup. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and a bit of melted butter. Gradually add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Cook the pancakes on a hot griddle until golden brown. Serve with fresh berries and a drizzle of honey for a delicious and nutritious start to the day.

For those busy mornings when time is of the essence, a make-ahead breakfast casserole can be a lifesaver. Prepare it the night before by layering whole wheat bread, cooked sausage or bacon, and a mixture of beaten eggs and milk in a baking dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, simply pop it in the oven and bake until golden and bubbly. This convenient and nutritious dish will have your family excited to jump out of bed and enjoy a hearty breakfast together.

2: Luscious Lunch Ideas

Lunchtime can often feel like a rushed affair, especially during busy weekdays. But that doesn't mean you have to compromise on flavor or nutrition. One quick and easy lunch option is a colorful and refreshing salad. Start with a bed of leafy greens such as spinach or mixed greens. Top it with an assortment of vibrant veggies like cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and grated carrots. Add a protein source like grilled chicken or chickpeas for a satisfying and filling meal. Drizzle with a homemade vinaigrette made from olive oil, vinegar, and your choice of herbs and spices for a burst of flavor.

If your family prefers something warm and comforting for lunch, a hearty soup is always a great choice. Whip up a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup by simmering chicken broth with diced chicken, chopped onions, carrots, and celery. Season with herbs like thyme and bay leaves for added depth of flavor. Once the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, add cooked noodles and let them absorb the delicious broth. This soul-soothing soup is not only nutritious but also perfect for those chilly days when you need a little extra warmth.

For a fun and creative twist on the classic sandwich, try making a homemade wrap. Start with a whole wheat tortilla and spread a layer of hummus or creamy avocado spread. Add a variety of fillings such as sliced turkey or chicken, fresh lettuce, juicy tomatoes, and crunchy cucumbers. For an extra pop of flavor, drizzle with a tangy dressing like yogurt and dill. Roll it up tightly and slice into bite-sized pinwheels for a lunch that is not only delicious but also easy to eat on the go.

3: Dinner Delights

Dinner is the perfect time to gather the whole family around the table and enjoy a wholesome meal together. One crowd-pleasing dinner idea is a flavorful and nutritious stir-fry. Start by sautéing your choice of protein, such as chicken, beef, or tofu, in a hot pan with a splash of oil. Once cooked, remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, stir-fry a colorful array of vegetables like bell peppers, broccoli, and snow peas. Return the protein to the pan and toss everything together with a homemade stir-fry sauce made from soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and a touch of honey. Serve over steamed brown rice or whole wheat noodles for a satisfying and well-balanced dinner.

If your family loves Italian cuisine, why not make a homemade pizza? Start by preparing the pizza dough by combining flour, yeast, salt, and warm water in a bowl. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, then let it rise until doubled in size. Roll out the dough into your desired shape and thickness and top it with a flavorful tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and an assortment of fresh vegetables and lean proteins like grilled chicken or turkey pepperoni. Bake in a hot oven until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly. This homemade pizza is not only a fun family activity but also a delicious way to enjoy a nutritious dinner.

For those evenings when you're short on time, a simple yet satisfying pasta dish is always a winner. Cook your choice of pasta according to package instructions. In a separate pan, sauté a medley of veggies like zucchini, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes in olive oil until tender. Toss the cooked pasta with the sautéed veggies and a dollop of pesto or marinara sauce. Garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of fresh basil for a quick and nutritious dinner that will have everyone asking for seconds.

With these delicious and nutritious meal ideas, you can ensure that your family enjoys every bite while getting the essential nutrients they need. From a hearty vegetable omelet for breakfast to a flavorful stir-fry for dinner, there's something for everyone. So, grab your apron, gather your loved ones, and get ready to create memorable meals that nourish both body and soul!

[productsreviewings]

Among the best gadgets you should purchase from Dealer Joe’s is frozen hash browns. In case you’ve ever been to McDonald’s and have ordered a hashbrown patty, a Dealer Joes hash brown is almost an identical. And with a number of alternative ways to cook dinner these frozen potatoes, they’re probably the greatest and best additions to your breakfast. Serve them up alongside bacon & eggs, pancakes, avocado toast, or any of your favourite breakfast meals and also you’ll have one unimaginable breakfast. Whereas Dealer Joes presents cooking directions on the package deal, it’s very restricted, so I need to current you with my 3 favourite methods to arrange these hashbrowns (and a method I undoubtedly don't advocate).   What precisely are Dealer Joe’s frozen hashbrown patties? In case you’ve by no means skilled a hash brown patty, enable me to enlighten you. Hash browns are my favourite method to elevate any breakfast dish, and the Dealer Joe’s hashbrowns are my absolute favourite. These frozen patties are produced from shredded potatoes that are mixed with oil to create hash brown patties which are able to cook dinner. They find yourself tasting fairly completely different from shredded hash browns due to the oil and salt which are added when the patties are fashioned. The very best half (outdoors of the good style) is that they're able to cook dinner instantly from frozen with none thawing mandatory, making it an amazing choice for a fast breakfast. As you'll be able to see by the label, Dealer Joe’s recommends baking these patties in a traditional oven. Whereas that undoubtedly works properly, it’s truly not my favourite cooking technique for Dealer Joe’s hashbrowns…   What’s one of the best ways to cook dinner Dealer Joe’s hash brown patties? To search out out as soon as and for all what the very best cooking technique for these hashbrown patties is, I made a decision to attempt 4 completely different strategies. Whereas all of them look very comparable, there have been some main variations that gave me a clear-cut winner, so let’s run by them.   Cooking hashbrowns within the microwave First up, I made a decision to check how the hashbrown patties would prove utilizing simply the microwave. Whereas it’s simply the quickest technique (the hashbrown cooked in about 1 minute) it's by far the worst. For the reason that Dealer Joe’s hashbrown patties comprise oil, they require some type of frying to permit the patty to crisp up. Through the use of the microwave, all that basically occurs is that we rapidly thaw and warmth the hashbrown, so it results in a particularly mushy & greasy hashbrown patty. While you attempt to decide it up, it simply falls aside on you. Undoubtedly not what we would like in a hashbrown patty. To salvage this cooking technique, I added the mushy hashbrown patty to a sizzling pan and seared each side for about 2 minutes to permit it to crisp up a little bit bit. Whereas it did in actual fact agency up a tiny bit and develop into extra golden brown, this was nonetheless the softest of all of the patties I attempted, so I don’t essentially advocate it.   Cooking hashbrowns in a frying pan After microwaving, I gave pan frying a attempt. Since these hashbrown patties already comprise oil, it doesn’t require including any cooking oil or butter to the pan: simply add the frozen patty to a sizzling pan and also you’re able to go. While you preheat a frying pan over medium warmth, these hashbrowns take about 8 minutes to totally cook dinner. I discovered that frying for 4 minutes per aspect result in the very best outcomes, however the precise time will be adjusted primarily based on how well-done you want your hashbrowns. Wherever from 6-10 minutes in whole will work nice. Whereas pan frying does depart you with a crispy hash brown patty, I’ve discovered that it turns into too simple to burn the patty with this technique. While you examine this technique to the others, this one stands out because the hashbrown that has the darkest shade to it (the third hashbrown within the row):

I ended up pulling the hashbrown off the warmth on the proper time, however another minute would have rapidly burnt the hashbrown. Since there’s such a high-quality line, I don’t favor this cooking technique, but it surely’s undoubtedly an choice, particularly contemplating it’s comparatively fast.   Cooking hashbrowns in a traditional oven Dealer Joe’s recommends cooking these hashbrowns in a traditional oven, and it’s simple to see why: it’s simple, hands-off, and you may cook dinner the entire hashbrowns collectively. I made a decision to attempt making 4 at a time, however you'll be able to simply cook dinner your entire package deal if in case you have a big sufficient baking pan. Once more, since there's already oil inside these patties, you don't want to fret about utilizing any cooking oil or parchment paper. Merely line the hashbrown patties in a single layer and bake them at 400 levels for about quarter-hour, flipping every patty midway by. Baking these hashbrowns is a good way to attain crispy hashbrowns, and I don’t blame Dealer Joe’s for recommending this technique. Plus, you'll be able to simply add a couple of additional minutes to the cooking time to attain additional crispy hashbrowns with out working the chance of burning them simply like with the frying pan technique. However even with this being an amazing cooking technique, it’s nonetheless not my favourite. There’s one cooking technique that takes the cake for me…   Cooking hashbrowns within the air fryer Air fryer hash browns are hands-down my favourite cooking technique. The truth is, I've a whole submit devoted to only that, since they’re considered one of my favourite air fryer recipes. If you'd like an excellent crispy hashbrown that tastes prefer it simply got here out of a deep fryer, the air fryer is the way in which to go. With different cooking strategies, the skin tends to get a good crisp, however the inside stays comparatively mushy. The air fryer provides you an superior crisp all through, and in my eyes, it’s not even shut. So far as cooking time goes, the air fryer requires barely extra time than pan frying, but it surely takes much less time than a traditional oven. Preheat the air fryer for a couple of minutes, then place your frozen hashbrowns within the air fryer basket in a single layer (you don’t need to stack the hashbrowns or they won't crisp up evenly). I've a Ninja Foodi that permits me to cook dinner 4 at a time, however if in case you have a bigger air fryer basket you’ll be capable to cook dinner a bigger batch. Air fry at 400 levels for about 12 minutes, flipping the patties midway by. In case you favor additional well-done hashbrowns, you'll be able to air fry for an extra couple of minutes, however I discover 12 minutes to be the right period of time. While you seize the hashbrown patty with a pair of tongs, you’ll instantly really feel simply how gentle and crispy it's. Plus, the air fryer permits the surplus oil to cook dinner off, which means you gained’t be left with a greasy hashbrown patty. In the end, any of those cooking strategies for Dealer Joes hashbrowns works, however the air fryer at all times produces the very best outcomes for me. If I needed to rank the assorted cooking strategies, this may be it: Air Fryer Standard Oven Pan Fry Microwave & Pan Fry Microwave Solely (however don’t do it) If I needed to rank my favourite kind of frozen potato, I don’t assume I may do it, however these are definitely up there with fries and tater tots.   Tips on how to take care of extra oil Relying on the cooking technique you select, it's possible you'll discover your hashbrown patties to be greasy. Whereas some individuals could not thoughts that, I undoubtedly don't take pleasure in it. In case your hashbrown is greasy, easy dab the highest with a paper towel, or enable the hashbrowns to relaxation on paper towels to take in extra grease the identical method you do with cooked bacon. In case you cook dinner your hashbrowns within the air fryer or the air fryer, you shouldn’t run into this situation.

However in the event you pan fry or use the microwave for a fast thaw, you’ll seemingly run into some additional grease, so this straightforward trick ought to prevent.   A few of my different favourite gadgets from Dealer Joe’s To say I’m obsessive about Dealer Joe’s could be an understatement. However then once more, who isn’t? I like utilizing Dealer Joe’s merchandise in recipes and walkthroughs, so listed below are a few of my different favorites:   Elements Dealer Joe's Hashbrown Patties Directions Air Fryer Directions (the very best cooking technique)Place frozen hash brown patties within the air fryer, leaving house in between them (2-4 at a time relying on the scale of your air fryer).Air fry at 400 levels F for 12 minutes, flipping the hashbrowns midway by.In case you favor additional crispy hashbrowns, you'll be able to air fry for an extra 2 minutes.Oven DirectionsPreheat oven to 400 levels F.Place frozen hashbrowns in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for quarter-hour, flipping midway by.For well-done hashbrowns, bake for an extra 2-3 minutes.Pan Fry DirectionsWarmth a frying pan over medium warmth. There is not any want so as to add any oil or cooking spray to the pan for these hashbrowns.Place frozen hashbrown patties within the pan in a single layer (you need to be capable to match 2-4 patties relying on the scale of your pan).Cook dinner for about 4 minutes per aspect or till golden brown, however the precise time will be adjusted to your liking.Be aware: if you wish to velocity the method up, you'll be able to microwave the hashbrown patty for about 30 seconds for a fast thaw, after which cook dinner it within the pan for about 2 minutes per aspect. Notes The crispiest hashbrowns might be made within the air fryer. Whereas all of the strategies work, the air fryer undoubtedly produces the very best golden brown hashbrown.I don't advocate cooking these hashbrowns within the microwave. They arrive out very greasy and mushy when microwaved. In case you use the microwave, you need to pan-sear the hashbrowns rapidly to crisp them up.Dealer Joe's hashbrowns cook dinner very properly instantly from frozen, so you don't want to thaw them earlier than cooking. Really helpful Merchandise As an Amazon Affiliate and member of different affiliate packages, I earn from qualifying purchases. Vitamin Data Yield 4 Serving Measurement 1 Hashbrown Quantity Per Serving Energy 120Whole Fats 6gCarbohydrates 15gProtein 1g Did you make this recipe? Share your photographs and tag me on Instagram! #Cook dinner #Dealer #Joes #Hashbrowns #Methods

[pandaoreocheesecupcake]

#fun fact #one of the first things they tought us in confectioners school is that when u scale a recipe #you ALWAYS keep the original amount of salt #salt doesnt get scaled along with rest of the ingredients #i hope you make it out alive op

wait I'm really curious about this now. Do you have any idea why it works that way? (And if you're halfing the recipe instead of doubling it, do you still keep the salt the same?)

Okay you asked for this, so allow me to elaborate!

Basically you need some salt in your pastries because of the way our sense of taste works - humans taste stuff with the tongue, as thats where our taste buds are located. And we have different buds for different flavors!

Now, if you made a pretty basic recipe with just sugar in it, you would set off a set amount of those taste buds, those responsible for sweetness. Add a little pinch of salt and a tiny bit of lemon juice, you set off thrice as much taste buds. The cake is still sweet, not salty nor sour, because you added such a small amount vs the large amount of sugar that you don’t notice these additional flavors. But the brain still receives thrice as much feedback on the taste! This is the reason why a cake sometimes tastes a little bit flat and sometimes really well rounded - that little pinch of salt (and lemon juice!) goes a long way.

Now to answer the downscaling question: its basically a matter of proportion. If you half a recipe for ten pancakes, then yes, you keep the standard pinch. If you half the recipe for a single pancake because you want to make a tiny little baby pancake, I would be careful with that pinch. We usually add salt in pinches because its just really easy and convenient, and also because we want the salt concentration to be so small as to be unnoticeable. If you were to add a good pinch of salt to a total half a cup of other ingredients, those probably won’t be strong enough to overpower the ensuing saltiness.

(Now, every good rule has at least one exception: don’t add salt to cheesecake. Not unless you are doing a specific salty variation. Just… trust me on this one.)

[digitalfishwish]

Kit's Traybake Pancakes (chocolate chip var.)

Heyo! You may have seen my original pancake traybake (cinnamon apple var.) recipe! If you haven’t, come check it out here! If you have, check again, since I’ve made some crucial changes to the cook time/temp/optional prep after much experimentation!

Well, here’s:

Love eating pancakes but hate making them? This traybake pancake recipe may be for you! Making these gives me enough pancake squares for 6 days (5 if you eat two on the day you make them). They reheat well, can either be eaten with or without maple syrup, and are very customizable! I recommend adding something healthy like fruit or yogurt, and protein powder like I do in this recipe, making it a slightly healthier breakfast than just pure carbs.

Full recipe under the cut! (Reader beware, you're in for a... lot of asides and annotations lol)

Full disclosure, the base for this recipe was the mug pancake recipe from Emma’s Goodies, which you can watch here!

I made this mug pancake for years (except with tripled portions because I was using a very big mug) and it was super delicious! However, for just one mug pancake, it was a bit of a production and didn’t feel super worth it. Thusly, I have adapted the recipe to be made in a 13”x9” baking tray, which makes a whole lot of breakfast.

Base Ingredients:

12 tbsp. butter (I use salted, if you don’t have salted butter, add a very small amount of kosher salt to your recipe)

9 tbsp. (1/2 cup+ 1 tbsp) granulated sugar

12 fl.oz. milk (I use skim, use whatever kind you like)

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

Customizable Ingredients:

1 scoop protein powder (I use vanilla flavored whey)

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 cup (around 5oz) nonfat strawberry Greek yogurt (pick a good quality brand/one you like)

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (for the batter)

Small handful of semisweet chocolate chips (to sprinkle on top)

1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips, 1 tbsp of butter, ~2 capfuls of milk (for chocolate drizzle)

Base Instructions:

Heat oven to 375°F, take out a 13”x9” nonstick baking pan and spray bottom and sides with cooking spray (yes theoretically I know you don’t need to spray a nonstick pan but better safe than sorry).

Put butter in a bowl and melt it in the microwave. I recommend microwaving for 1m20s.

Put butter in a stand mixer, preferably with the paddle attachment. While you heat the milk in the microwave* (40 seconds, stir milk once it’s done; I use a glass liquid measuring cup for the microwaving), add the granulated sugar to the mixer. Once the milk is heated, add it and use one of the lower settings on your mixer.

(If you have customizable wet ingredients, add them now!)

Add the flour and baking powder, mix again on low setting until it forms a batter (a small amount of lumps is okay from what I’ve heard, you don’t want to overmix).

*You can’t put cold milk into hot butter, it will form little clumps and be gross

Customizable Instructions:

Add the brown sugar (as above, preferably before the flour, with the other wet ingredients. Wait, why is sugar a wet ingredient? see † at the bottom).

Add one scoop of your preferred protein powder, then mix on low setting until it’s mixed in.

Similarly, mix in the strawberry yogurt*. Now, I know what you’re saying: this is a very specific thing to add to the pancakes, but hear me out**: it gives moisture to the recipe (in this version, there’s not as much, cuz there’s no added tea/maple syrup, and there’s an additional dry ingredient), and it adds a subtle fruity flavor (also it makes your living space smell amazing while it’s cooking)! I may experiment with adding actual fresh strawberry to the recipe in the future.

Finally, put the cup of choco chips in and mix gently! My mixer head tends to bump around a little bit during this step so you may want to use that generally ignorable lever that keeps the mixer head secure.

*Unlike the brown sugar, you may want to mix the yogurt in after you add the dry ingredients. If you do it before, it won’t incorporate smoothly and end up in a bunch of gross looking lumps. It doesn’t actually affect anything though and once you add the dry ingredients, everything is fine. It’s more about if you’re a wet before dry purist vs. someone squicked out by lumps.

** It’s also the only thing I had on hand lmao

Chocolate Sauce (for ‘drizzling’) Instructions:

Put 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave with a tablespoon of butter. Melt for 45 seconds on high (according to the packaging on my choco chip bag). Mix the resulting glorp carefully (it’s hot!) with a rubber spatula then microwave for another 15-20 seconds until most/all of the chips have melted.

Mix again. It will look like a gross dry paste (but trust the process). Once you add in a capful of milk and mix—immediately you will have a glossy beautiful mixture. Then add an additional capful of milk (you may need to add more) to make it thin enough to ‘drizzle’!

Baking Instructions:

Pour batter into greased baking tray and use a spatula and spread it evenly by hand, as this batter is thicker and a little stiffer than my apple version. Optional: Sprinkle the top with that handful of chocolate chips—then if you made the chocolate sauce, take the spatula from before, scoop a little bit of chocolate sauce onto the tip of the spatula, and carefully* flick it over the surface of the batter! Really channel your inner Jackson Pollock! Do as much of this as you want until you have your ideal amount of chocolate drizzle on top (and if you have any left afterward, eat it as a tasty little snack. live deliciously lol).

When the oven reaches temperature (if you preheated it at the beginning, it may have already been at temperature for a while) put the pan in and cook for 35 mins. Know your oven and if it tends to be hotter or colder**, adjust cook time as necessary.

When the timer goes off, test the center in several places with a toothpick. As long as it doesn’t come out goopy, you’re good! (crumbs on the toothpick is fine) I say test in several places because if you accidentally go through a chocolate chip, your toothpick will come out wet and chocolatey, but that doesn’t mean the pancakes aren’t done. If it's not done, cook in intervals of 5 minutes, testing when the timer goes off.

Take pan out and use a butter knife or a pie serving spatula and poke around the edges of the pan to free the pancake traybake from the edges. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Cut into squares. I tend to cut 12 pieces, but you could go smaller or larger depending on how much you intend to eat at once.

*By making this recipe you agree to not hold me liable for any chocolate mess that may result from the flicking process (lol).

** How do I know if my oven runs hot or cold, you may ask? If any recipe you make comes out raw and/or takes longer to cook than the instructions say, your oven is colder! If your food ends up burnt and/or takes less time to cook than the recipe instructions say, your oven is hotter!

Enjoy! I eat two squares at a time and it makes a good breakfast! For storing, put however much of it you can eat in 2-3 days in the fridge. Store the rest in the freezer.

I will note, this version of the recipe doesn't form the same kind of cool thick edges like the apple version.

For any customizing other than what I did, use whatever fruit, spices, syrups, and/or protein powders you want! Just be aware that more fruit in the batter means it may take longer to cook!

If you make them, either the same way I did here or differently, let me know how they came out!

†Yes, all sugars are considered wet ingredients. Yes, it is conceptually weird, but there is a reason: because they need to dissolve in liquid in order to be incorporated properly, you add them in with the wet ingredients. It's like Thompson from Gravity Falls, who's kinda in the friend group but only because he performs a specific social role (poor Thomson tho fr fr)

[peakyblinders1919]

Hello! Ok so when you said baby blurb I wasn’t sure if you meant like a really little blurb idea or an idea involving a baby so here’s an idea that can be small and also if you wanted it to involve a baby some how😂 but maybe something for J Cody or Michael and a reader where it’s the morning and the reader is already up and just buzzing around the kitchen making food when the guy comes in still half asleep looking for his shirt from last night, not realizing the reader is already wearing it, so R just leads him on telling him different places to look for it for a while before he realizes it😂 ❤️❤️❤️

“Hey babe, where’s my shirt?”

“You’re going to have to be a bit more specific.” 

“The black one, I wear it all the time, you know the one.”

“I’m not a mind reader love,” you teased lightly. Your voice was somewhere between a shout and a whisper as you talked to J from two rooms over. Not loud enough to wake babygirl yet, but enough for him to hear as your he tried desperately to get dresses and you finished flipping the pancakes. “Just wear something else. You have about a thousand black shirts.”

“Yeah, but this one’s not the same. It’s better.” His voice is lightly, now standing in the kitchen doorway. He’s a walking angle, bedhead curly, eyes still heavy with sleep. His sweatpants hung low on his waist, tanned skin on display as he stood there still shirtless.

He smirked, stretching her arms above her head. “It’s my lucky shirt, I need it.”

“You don’t need luck babe, I already know you’ll do great.” The pan sizzled. 

“You know the one, it’s black and it’s got a gray checkered pattern around the collar.” You hummed as he explained the shirt, in detail, only realizing it was the very one you had grabbed this morning in your tumble from bed. It hung on you and smelled of sea salt and coconut. 

“Babe-“

“I think I’m going to go look again.” 

“Babe-“ you nearly whined, mimicking your daughter as you reached out for him. And just like with you daughter, he obliged, gave in easily, wrapping his arms around your waist and kissing you good morning. 

“I love you.”

“Love you too. Maybe it’s in the laundry room, I’m going to go check.”

“Sorry she kept you up late last night, huh?”

He yawned, he shrugged, he promised it was no problem. But he was beyond tired if he hadn’t noticed that you done exactly what he was looking for.

“I think I may have seen it in the laundry room.”

“Nope.”

“Dresser?”

“Uh huh.”

You moved effortlessly around the kitchen, cutting fruit and adding to the stack of pancakes on the counter. “Maybe it accidentally mixed with her things, try there. But be quiet.”

After a one-sided game of hide-and-go seek, he returned to his spot in the doorway, his eye raised at you already eating.

“How long were you going to let me look?”

“As long as it took for you to realize your beautiful girl was wearing it the whole time,” you smiled devilishly at him. “Could you blame me, I liked the view.”

[comparativetarot]

Queen of Coins. Art by Kim Thompson, from Divine Your Dinner.

WATER OF EARTH * ALIGNING HOME AND HEART

The foundation you are building will support your emotional and physical needs as well as those of your community. Don’t worry about lack of resources. Anything you need can be obtained by planting the seeds in the ground you have made fertile with your careful tending. Stay true to your heart and everything you touch will grow heavy with fruit. Send down roots and drink in the bounty of the Earth.

An aspirational character in terms of prolific creation of life is the blackberry bush. They grow almost everywhere, so well that people freak out about them taking over their gardens. They provide sweet, delicious berries and they’re not afraid to get a little mean to protect them.

MAGICKAL INGREDIENTS: BLACKBERRY, LEMON

BABY DUTCH BABIES WITH BLACKBERRY BUTTER DESSERT—MAKES 12 DUTCH BABIES

A Dutch baby is a puffy cross between a crepe and a pancake—it’s a sweet that falls on the slightly savory side of the spectrum. It’s usually made as one giant baby, but this recipe uses a muffin tin to make 12 baby Dutch babies. You’ll slather each one with blackberry butter right when they come out of the oven, adding a bright purple, tangy sweetness as it melts. Start to finish, this whole recipe comes together in about 30 minutes, making it great for eating morning, noon, or night.

The butter is heavy on the blackberries, so if yours are extra ripe and juicy, the butter may have a hard time staying emulsified. When you’re done, it should be a vibrant deep-blue color and just barely holding together. If it breaks, you can either decide to be okay with that, or add a little bit more softened butter, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it holds together.

BLACKBERRY BUTTER 6 blackberries 2 tablespoons granulated sugar ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

DUTCH BABIES ½ cup all-purpose flour ½ cup whole milk 3 large eggs 2 tablespoons granulated sugar ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, for the muffin tin 1 lemon, cut into wedges, for squeezing Fresh blackberries, for garnish Powdered sugar, for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 475°F. Place a 12-cup muffin tin inside to warm.

2. MAKE THE BLACKBERRY BUTTER: In a medium bowl, combine the blackberries, granulated sugar, and salt and mash them with a wooden spoon until the blackberries have broken down and released their juices. Add the butter and whisk vigorously to combine.

3. MAKE THE DUTCH BABIES: In a blender, combine the flour, milk, eggs, granulated sugar, and salt and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.

4. Remove the muffin tin from the oven and evenly coat each cup with the butter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups (about 3 tablespoons per cup).

5. Bake until the Dutch babies are golden brown and have puffed up in the middle, about 15 minutes.

6. Immediately transfer the Dutch babies to a platter and top each one with a generous dollop of the blackberry butter and dust them with powdered sugar. Serve them hot with lemon wedges and fresh blackberries.