Quick and Easy Pizza Crust (Bisquick Pizza Crust)

If you are ever like me, you are sometimes hard on time. And in my family everyone loves pizza and during the summer everyone wants yummy food for lunch. They always ask me for pizza for lunch. And instead going through the trouble of making a complicated time consuming crust for lunch, I usually use this extra easy crust instead for an easy lunch or what ever calls for a crust. It is easy and doesn't require a lot of preparation or time to make. So it fits in perfectly for lunch. 

I have made dessert pizza with this dough and to add a little sweetness to this dough, I just add a tablespoon of sugar to the dough. And when I am in a pinch, I make mini pizzas for the kids to make and decorate on their on for a fun hands on lunch time.

Quick and Easy Crust (Bisquick Pizza Crust)
based on recipe from Tablespoon.com

1 1/2 cups Bisquick
1/3- 2/3 cups hot water

1/4 cup flour to roll dough

Mix Bisquick and hot water together well in a medium sized bowl. Roll dough into desire size and shape. (I can get one 12-inch crust or 3-4 mini crusts)

I know this recipe has helped me in a pinch and I hope it does the same for you. Have an amazing rest of your day and thanks for reading. Enjoy!

 Peace, love, bake on.
                    
                                               Andrea 

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

Everyone loves pancakes, right? I do and so does my family. We have them quite regularly because they are a family favorite and also because they are rather simple to make. I had been grasping at straws because while I liked the convenience of a boxed pancake mix there was something missing in flavor. I don't what it was but I found what was missing in this, now loved, pancake recipe. They make perfect fluffy buttermilk pancakes. And of course I want to share this amazing recipe with you. 
This recipe is originally a copycat IHOP pancake recipe. And it comes pretty close. 

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes
from Mostly Homemade Mom

1 1/4 cup flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 egg, beaten

1 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used regular milk with 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon vinegar as a substitute)

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add egg and buttermilk and mix until well incorporated. Stir in melted butter and sugar. Grease griddle and cook pancakes over medium heat, flipping once bubbles appear on surface of batter. Serve with softened butter and warmed syrup. And enjoy!

                            Peace, love, and cook on.

                                                     Andrea 

Caramel Frappuccino.

           Before the summer was here at my doorstep, I had school. And usually after school, I either hit up the happy hour at Sonic or popped by Starbucks. Usually, though, it was Sonic that I frequented. Starbucks was a special treat that I limited to a once a week thing. When it was quite warm, I would get either get the caramel frappuccino or the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, which is a rather new drink available for the summer at Starbucks. The Caramel Ribbon Crunch is most definitely my favorite. After the first sip I took, I was hooked. 

       

 The only thing that I wasn't hooked on was the price. To get a Tall Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino was $4.25 with tax. That's only 12 ounces. To me that is a little pricey. After shelling out the almost $5, I finally had a light bulb shine bright above my head. Why not try to make frappuccino at home? Why I had never even thought of this before is beyond me. But after that light bulb lit up, it was like a whole new world was opened up to me. 

     

        Let's first talk about the basics of frappuccinos. Basically, a frappuccino is ice and milk blended together with syrups and other delicious flavorings. This I knew.  What I didn't know, though, was the ratio of ice to milk. That was my most basic question. 

        The recipe I found was very basic, which was what I liked. It didn't give embellishments so that a reader could be creative on their own. The best ratio of ice to milk I have found is 1 cup of ice to 1/2 cup of milk. This may depend on your taste but this will at least give a place to start.

      Now the next part was the amount of coffee or expresso to add. This I found varied in each recipe I found. So I came up with a happy medium, which I will mention below later. The fun part was finding the syrups to add and the amounts. Of course with a Caramel Frappuccino, you need caramel (duhhh). And with a Chocolate Chip Mocha Frapp.  you need Chocolate chips (duhhh) and coffee. So a lot of the ingredients were self explanatory, but what wasn't was the amount to add. 

    The syrups Starbucks uses are a bit pricey, but you can always use caramel sauce from the grocery store. For the caramel, I make my own and I will be putting the recipe up later. For chocolate syrup, I use the chocolate syrup from Hershey's. For a vanilla syrup, I make my own (which I will be putting up at a later time, too). But you can also just use vanilla extract and a little sugar. For the moment, though, I am just going to put up the recipe up for a Caramel Frappuccino.

   

        Ingredients for a Caramel Frappuccino:

1 cup ice

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee or expresso

3 tablespoons caramel syrup or 2 pumps of Starbucks Caramel Syrup

whip cream (optional)

    Add ice, milk, coffee, and caramel to the blender. Blend together until all the ice completely chopped finely. Put in your favorite cup, add whip cream on top, and drizzle a  little caramel and voila!

As you can see this is so simple to make and so much cheaper. I hope this recipe is as great for you as it is for me! Now sit back and enjoy a cool slurp of your handiwork. 

                                                                       
                                                                                                                          Andrea