A Pantry Meal Day

Yesterday I started my wintry day with my recipe using a single-serve packet of instant oatmeal to make a batch of healthy Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes.
These are very filling (will keep me full till dinnertime), very healthy and extremely tasty. Oatmeal in any form is a miracle grain and pairing that with blueberries is probably the best thing you could do to start your day.
I can not eat oatmeal in a bowl but mix it in with a pancake batter and I LOVE it.
Go figure.
This time around I used a packet of Instant Cinnamon French Toast oatmeal.

Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes
makes 6 medium pancakes, 8 small ones
* 1 packet instant oatmeal, any flavor
* 1 cup 1% milk
* 1 tablespoon melted butter
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 tbls sugar sub
* 1 1/2 to 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
* Dozen washed blueberries

In a large mixing bowl, add oatmeal, milk and butter and nuke for 75 seconds.
Let sit to soften the oats. Add the rest of the ingredients, along with 1 cup flour.
Stir adding more flour, spoon by spoon until it is lumpy thick but pourable.
Non-stick pan, pour batter, add blueberries. When bubbles appear, flip.
Remove to warm plate, place an inverted bowl on pancakes.
Serve with Cary's sugar free syrup. I have tried them all and this has the best flavor of them all.

Now, what to do about dinner.............

Again, we woke to almost a foot of snow. All day yesterday the snow from Monday melted and dripped on my back patio from the deck overhead. Drove me nuts.

Now it will do it again all day today and Friday. The Nudge got up at 5AM, to take a ride upstate with an engineer from his company to a vendor that makes a glue but made a bad batch and is telling him they have no time to reformulate and test again. Unfortunately this company is the only one worldwide that makes this type glue so they have to do something. Seriously. Potential problem if they can't fix the formula. The Nudge is taking this engineer to see if he can get things back on track so he can get an order in before they run out of what they have in stock.

I am not sure what time he will get home, with the weather and all, so I need a 30 minute meal tonight. So far it has stopped snowing but another wave is coming and they say it will snow all night. He could sit in traffic for hours. I told him not to go but this was too important. I just want him to be safe.

After a quick perusal of my fridge, I found a package of Buitoni whole wheat linguine, left-over ham, a half carton of fat-free half & half, a couple of eggs and a nice hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.....sounds like a quick meal to me.

Pasta Carbonara requires no recipe. I make it the way I saw Jaime Oliver do it. It really is more like an Alfredo then a Carbonara, but really good and filling. I just wish I had lettuce for a salad or at least something green......wait, I could throw in a handful of frozen peas. This is why you need a fully stocked pantry and freezer.

No recipe needed for this either......
Boil salted water for pasta. Use a full tablespoon for each gallon of water (I can not stress this more, taste it...it should taste like the ocean).
In a warmed pasta serving bowl (I stick mine in the oven set on warm), break 2 eggs, 1/2 cup fat-free half & half, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, a handful of peas and prosciutto. Mix well. Add pasta to bowl and toss. If sauce is too thick, add some pasta water and serve with extra grated cheese.

If you wanted to use only egg yolks, then freeze the whites for another day.