Peach Toast

I'm still living off avocado toast most of the year, but in the summer, this is my breakfast of choice! 

The inspiration came from here: https://avocadoskillet.com/air-fryer-peach-cottage-cheese-toast/ but mine is simpler. 

I buy sourdough bread at Sam's Club. It's less than $5 a loaf and it's really tasty. I toast a slice in the toaster (takes two turns to get both ends toasted). Then I spread that with cottage cheese. Then I line up thinly sliced peaches across it. Sometimes I fill in the gaps with raspberries, which we always have on hand. 

I put it in the air fryer at 400* for seven minutes. 

Then I drizzle honey over it. And it's delicious! 

Zucchini Banana Oat Bread

ETA: I will only make this in two of my smaller loaf pans, ever. lol. 

I tried this recipe six years ago and pinned it to my "tried and approved" board. Today I made it again and shared it with a friend. It is SO yummy! You can find the original post HERE. 

From the comments, someone suggested adding in chocolate chips, so today one loaf had none and the other two loaves had maybe 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

The loaves are very short, splitting the batter into three pans. I might try using just two, larger bread pans... I don't know how much that would effect the baking time. But for three loaves that are less than 2 inches tall, it baked 40 minutes in my oven.

I am linking it here and copying over the recipe because the original post is eight years old and I don't want it to disappear. Also, I refer to this blog way more often than I look at Pinterest for food ideas. I get too distracted on Pinterest! And this is a keeper! 

Zucchini Banana Oat Bread
from Amanda Rettke at I Am Baker.

INGREDIENTS

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 cups shredded zucchini
  
  INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Heat oven to 350°F and prepare loaf pans. (I used three small loaf pans.)

  2. In large bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and oats. Stir together.

  3. In a smaller bowl combine sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and mashed banana.
     Pour sugar mixture into the flour mixture and stir by hand. Add in zucchini and mix until well incorporated.

  4. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until bread pulls away from sides of pan and an inserted toothpick is removed clean.

Oatmeal Pancakes

Original Variation Base Batch	Buttermilk Variation Base Batch
1 cup rolled oats 3 tbsp brown sugar 1/2 cup dry milk powder 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 large eggs 1/4 cup olive oil 1 1/2 cups water 2 tsp vanilla	1 cup rolled oats 3 tbsp brown sugar 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 large eggs 1/4 cup olive oil 2 cups buttermilk 2 tsp vanilla
Makes about 12 five inch pancakes

Original Variation 1 1/2 Batch	Buttermilk Variation 1 1/2 Batch
1 1/2 cup rolled oats 4 1/2 tbsp brown sugar 3/4 cup dry milk powder 3 3/4 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp salt 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 3 large eggs 1/3 cup olive oil 2 1/4 cups water 3 tsp vanilla	1 1/2 cup rolled oats 4 1/2 tbsp brown sugar 3 3/4 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp salt 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 3 large eggs 1/3 cup olive oil 3 cups buttermilk 2 tsp vanilla
Makes about 17 five inch pancakes

Put the rolled oats into food processor or blender with the brown sugar and process everything into a relatively fine powder. Should look mostly like flour when you are done. If there is room, add the rest of the dry ingredients in and blend everything together. If not, combine the ground oats/brown sugar in a bowl with the rest of the dry ingredients and whisk everything together to fully combine.

Combine the eggs and olive oil together and whisk to combine. Put in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together. The ground up oats will prevent the flour from forming gluten, so you can whisk the batter together pretty well, but don't overdo it. When everything looks good and combined, stop mixing. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes before beginning to cook.

Heat up your preferred pancake pan to your desired temp and use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to produce pancakes that are roughly 5 inches round. Add bananas or blueberries while they are cooking in pan, not into the batter directly. Cook them as you like them.

If the batter seems a little thin still, add more all purpose flour a tbsp at a time until it is the right consistency.

Good tip: spray your oil into your pan, then use a paper towel to rub it all over the pan. That will create a smooth oil surface for your pancake to cook evenly on.

Avocado Toast

I know, I know, suuuper late jumping on this particular bandwagon. The thing is, even tho I like avocado, it also makes me gag, haha. My mom often slices up an avocado and puts the slices on bread for lunch. But I can't just take a bite of avocado... So in recent weeks I looked up what's so great about the super trendy "avocado toast".

I liked THIS LINK best, and I read somewhere that pomegranate goes great on avocado toast, and I do love pomegranate! So here's what I've been doing:

I use a stick blender to puree a whole avocado, plus a pinch of salt, some lime juice (maybe a tablespoon?) and some dried cilantro (roughly a tablespoon of that too). Then I store that in a container in the fridge. I like it better on toasted wheat bread for sure, but whatever is in the house works. I butter the toast, then sprinkle a tiny pinch of salt over both slices. I hold the black pepper grinder several inches above the toast and use two turns. Then I spread the avocado all over the bread. I sprinkle a bit of red pepper flakes over that (the photo has too much red pepper, haha!) and then some pomegranate seeds all over that! YUM! The mix makes at least 6 slices of toast. It's healthy, quick and yummy! Yeay for that!!

2 slices toast
butter
1 avocado
lime juice
cilantro
salt
black pepper
red pepper flakes
pomegranate seeds

Country Gravy

1 lb ground sausage
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
4 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil

Heat a 12-inch Skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium high heat with one tbsp of olive oil. Add the 1 lb of ground sausage to the pan and and break it up into small crumbles as it cooks. Brown the sausage until about 50% of the crumbles has crispy bits. Take the sausage out of a pan and put it in a bowl off to the side to be added back into the gravy later.

Lower the heat to medium and add the one tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of olive oil back into the hot skillet. Once the butter and oil have melted and heated up, add the 4 tbsp of flour to the pan and whisk until it is combined. Cook the flour roux for about 1 minute then whisk in the 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock slowly. Stir the mixture with the whisk until it is smooth (no lumps) and thickened. Whisk in the 1 cup of milk until it is completely combined and the gravy starts to thicken again. Add all of the seasonings at once and whisk until combined.

As soon as everything is combined in the pan, and the gravy is the desired thickness, remove from the heat and serve.

Fruit Yogurt Parfait

I saw this recipe ages ago on a Yoplait ad. I forgot all about it and then went thru the drafts on this blog and found it again. Sooo now that I've made it frequently for months, I'm sharing it!

This is what the original post said: 

"This Spiced Pear Yogurt Parfait with crunchy granola layers and a little bit of cinnamon is exactly what we need to bring in the holiday season.

To make: Layer a glass with your favorite granola (we used Nature Valley) and spoon Yoplait Greek 100 Vanilla yogurt on top. Sprinkle in chopped pear and repeat. Top with a little extra granola, cinnamon and pear then break out the spoons!"

So when I make it, I have used vanilla yogurt and I've used vanilla greek yogurt- whichever I get works fine. I have used Nature Valley granola, Cascade Farms granola and Kashi Go Lean. I like all of them. Most of the time I use chopped up bottled pears, but you can see I've used raspberries, peaches, and blueberries. I'm guessing any fruit will work great! When I use pears or peaches I add a dash of cinnamon.
Personally, I scoop up some yogurt, add the fruit and sprinkle on the granola, then I stir it up!
And it is delicious! I eat it anywhere from 3-7 times a week, sometimes as breakfast or lunch, sometimes as a snack! 

Buttermilk Pancakes from Martha Stewart

This one is a keeper. Posting it here in case the recipe disappears from the website I got it from. Here's the original link in case anyone is wondering.

http://www.marthastewart.com/318689/best-buttermilk-pancakes

I have made these a few times and they have become a staple for pancakes in our house. Yes use real buttermilk. I have started keeping buttermilk on hand for various recipes especially pancakes, waffles, and southern style biscuits. I have done the soured milk thing when I have to, but I am finding that just keeping buttermilk on hand is the way to go. My experience is that you never have to throw the stuff away. I have kept it way past the expiration date even after it goes "sour" and used it in my cooking with no noticeable in flavor. Sometimes, I kidd you not, up to two or three months after it expired. It just seems to be thicker than when it was fresh from the store. If I need to, in those instances, I just thin it out a little bit with milk.

I like to make them smaller in diameter than the recipe recommends below, but to each their own.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle

Heat griddle to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons butter; whisk to combine. Batter should have small to medium lumps.

Heat oven to 175 degrees. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If water bounces and spatters off griddle, it is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush remaining 1/2 teaspoon of butter or reserved bacon fat onto griddle. Wipe off excess.

Using a 4-ounce ladle, about 1/2 cup, pour pancake batter, in pools 2 inches away from one other. Scatter with berries, if using. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.

Repeat with remaining batter, keeping finished pancakes on a heatproof plate in oven.

Burt's French Toast

For the batter:

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup half & half
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp buttermilk
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• cinnamon & nutmeg (as much as you'd like)

Put all of the ingredients in to a nice wide bowl and whisk to combine. The batter should have a nice uniform yellow color that will remind you of egg nog. (BTW, you can replace the half & half with egg nog, be sure to add a couple of tablespoons of milk to thin the egg nog. Also you can leave out the vanilla, buttermilk, and nutmeg.)

This amount of batter should be enough for 12 to 13 slices of regular sandwich bread, about 8 slices of Texas Toast, or about 10 slices of french bread cut to a 3/4 inch thickness.

For best results, be sure to dry bread out so that the outsides of the bread are dry to the touch, but the interior of the bread is still soft. About 12 minutes in a 225 degree oven should do the trick. Place the bread in half sheet pan on a cooking/cooling rack that fits inside the pan. Flip the bread slices after about 6 minutes so both sides dry evenly.

If you don't have the rack that fits inside a half sheet pan then put the bread directly onto the oven rack arranging them in such a way that they don't fall through. When placing the bread directly onto the oven rack it won't be necessary to flip them.

After you take the dried bread out of the oven, turn it down 200 degrees and leave in/put a half sheet pan inside. If you have a cooking/cooling rack leave that in the pan too. As the toast comes out of the frying pan or griddle, you will put them in the oven to finish cooking the interior of the toast.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Right before you put a piece of soaked bread into the pan to cook use a little spray oil on the part of the pan where the bread will go. This will ensure the bread won't stick. If you have one, an electric griddle is ideal for this because you will be able to fry multiple slices of toast at one time. Since the toast goes into the oven to finish, bigger batches will help ensure that all of the slices don't overcook and dry out before all of the slices are done.

Cooking the French Toast

Step 1: Put the dried bread into the batter and let soak on each side for a few seconds. You want the liquid to penetrate to the middle of the bread. Drying out the bread before hand ensures that you let the bread soak, but won't turn into a soggy mess when you try to put it in the pan.

Step 2: Cook on each side until the side is a mostly uniform golden brown. This should take about 3 to 5 minutes per side. If it takes longer than that your pan may be too cool. If your toast gets darker than that in that time, turn the temperature down. You can even wave the pan through the air to cool it down between batches a little.

Step 3: Put the cooked slices into the heated oven on the half sheet pan to continue slowly cooking the interior of the toast while you finish the rest of the slices. They only need about 7 minutes in the oven before they are ready to serve.

Take them out of the oven warm, cover with whatever (butter, syrup, etc) you'd like and enjoy!

I'll add pictures to this post next time I make french toast.

Autumn Oatmeal

While grocery shopping recently I saw a box of instant oatmeal with 'applesauce & cranberry' as it's listed flavor. At first glance I thought that sounded good then I instantly realized I could make it myself. That's almost always healthier anyway, right?

These were the ingredients I pulled from my cupboard...

These are the measurements I put in my bowl....
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp craisins
1/2 tbsp pecans cookie bits (which means almost pulverized)
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup milk

I stirred it together and microwaved it all for 2 minutes.
And here was my breakfast!

It was very quick and easy. And it was tasty just as it was! I think you could add more water or milk, but I like my oatmeal "dry". Just note that it does get drier as it sits there...haha. You could add some cinnamon or nutmeg, but really, the applesauce and craisins add enough sweetness for me, and that's saying something.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal

So today I tried a breakfast from a healthy living challenge you can view HERE.

Breakfast: Peanut butter oatmeal ~400 cal
1/2 c dry oats
2/3 cup milk 
1 big spoonful peanut butter
1 tsp cocoa powder
few drops of honey
Mix milk and oats, microwave on 50% power for 1 - 3 minutes. Then mix in pb, cocoa and honey. (It's not a flavor explosion, but it's smooth, creamy, low sugar, high fiber and good protein... don't expect it to taste like a cinnamon roll wink emoticon
*Regular peanut butter and dairy milk are higher protein, but it's fine modify to almond/soy/etc for your personal preferences. 

Turns out, she's right, it is rather bland, but it isn't bad at all. And I can eat exactly half of it. Hmm...But I like the change up from my daily smoothies, so I'm keeping the recipe!

Bagels!!!!

6 cups bread flour
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
4 tbsp dry milk powder
1/4 cup potato flakes
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp dough enhancer
2 eggs

Egg wash:
1 egg
2 tbsp water

Breadmaker version:
Put all of the dry ingredients, oil, and eggs into the breadmaker set on a dough only cycle. Put the yeast and the sugar into the two cups of warm water (110 degrees), stir to thoroughly combine and let sit for about 10 minutes or until the yeast water is bubbly. Pour into the breadmaker and let go through the dough cycle. At the end of the cycle, pull out the dough, knead a few more times and form the dough into a big round and smooth dough ball. Pull the dough into a big bowl (punch bowl size at least) with a couple of tablespoons of oil. Turn over the dough to completely to coat with the oil, cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and let rise until it is about 2 1/2 times it's size or fills the bowl. Should be between 60 to 90 minutes total.

Turn on the oven to 400 and position two racks in the center part of the oven. The racks should have enough space between them to allow the bagels on the lower rack to bake without touching the upper rack. Punch down the dough, put back on the counter and roll it into a long log. Using a kitchen scale, cut off 4 or 5 oz portions. 4 oz dough balls will give you about 18 bagels. 5 oz dough balls will give you about 15 bagels.

Form each portion into a small dough ball and then flatten out into a dough disk on the counter. Using your finger, punch a hole into the middle of the disk then widen the hole by spinning the disk in between your two fingers.

Lay the formed bagels onto parchment lined half sheet pans. Allow them to rest and relax (raise) another 10 minutes.

Once all of the bagels have been formed, start dropping them into boiling salted water (2 tbsp salt to 3 qts of water) 3 or 4 at a time depending on the size of your pot, starting with the first bagel formed working until the last. Drop the bagels into the boiling water one at a time. Let them boil on one side for 1.5 minutes (90 seconds), turn them over and allow them to boil on the other side for another 1.5 minutes.

After a total of 3 minutes of boiling, place the bagels back onto the baking sheets and brush them with the egg wash when they have mostly dried off. They dry off fairly quickly so it won't take long. After all of the bagels have taken their boiling bath and been brushed with the egg wash, put both pans into the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, rotate the pans back to front, move the pan on the upper rack to the lower rack and move the pan on the lower rack to the upper one. Bake for another 10 minutes then rotate in the same manner. Rotation of the pans will ensure even baking/browning. Bake for an additional 5 minutes then pull them out. They should have a honey/golden color to them. Place the bagels on a dish towel or tea towel on the kitchen counter to cool. Once cooled, bag them up and leave on the counter or place in the freezer. Do not put them in the fridge as it will only dry them out!

French Toast Muffins - Take 1

Yesterday I found this gem on pinterest: French Toast Muffins! Sounded good to me!! My daughter has been asking for French Toast lately and this sounded quicker than making traditional French Toast for breakfast. I don't know if it was quicker, but it was very tasty!!

So here it is, about to go into the fridge until later when we can eat...

 And here it is, being eaten!

If you paid attention to the title of this post you can probably expect we had some issues...

First of all, I adjusted the recipe from the get-go. I only put in 1/2 TBSP vanilla because that seemed like a ton of vanilla to me!

Secondly, the crumble was not so much crumble as it was...cookie dough consistency? seriously. but it was very yummy as 'dough'! I just put little dollop fork fuls around the muffins.

Finally, the cooking problem... We baked it the 25 minutes and all that egg that seeped out around the muffin cups was still very wet. Hmm... I am notorious for over cooking scrambled eggs to make sure my kids are not eating raw egg...I wasn't excited about eating what was definitely still raw egg... We added I think 10 minutes, and then my husband suggested the broiler. We may have also adjusted it to 375* or 400* for those extra 10 minutes...
When we pulled them out they were at least double in size. By the time the pan made it to the table they had sunk in like little craters....
You can see they didn't all come out very well. The insides were less "done" than I would have liked but! they were soooooo yummy I didn't mind the slightly gooey texture at all! My husband and I didn't add syrup- it was perfectly sweet and very tasty!!

Our plan for Round 2? Decrease the milk by at least half. Maybe one less egg...

...maybe bake the crumble recipe into cookies? *grin 

Blueberry Bran Muffins

This spring my maternal grandmother, and last of my four grandparents, passed away. Fortunately, four years ago she had the foresight to give each of her children and grandchildren a small photo album STUFFED full of her recipes, as a Christmas gift. She wrote a lot of the recipes herself on 4x6 cards, and my aunt and cousin (that I know of- maybe others helped too) wrote some of them. Copies were made so that each recipe didn't have to be handwritten twenty-something times, but its really cool to have Grandmom's recipes in Grandmom's handwriting. *grin

This recipe for bran muffins is one such recipe. I knew it made "like a million" muffins, which meant I could make one batch and freeze it, providing warm breakfasts for a few months to come.

This batch actually made 67 muffins, which is really a ton, LOL. They are sooo yummy straight out of the oven! And they're almost as good reheated in the microwave, straight from the freezer!

Ingredients & Instructions

2 cups Kellogg's All Bran cereal

2 cups boiling water 

Mix these together in small bowl and set aside.

In a very large bowl mix

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 generous cup Shortening (I used margarine because I discovered my shortening was rancid)

5 cups Flour

1 1/2 tsp Salt

4 tsp Baking Soda

4 Eggs

1 qt Buttermilk* (well shaken)

Then add small bowl of soaked All Bran and mix well.

Add 4 cups dry All Bran and 1 can drained blueberries. Fold in carefully and scoop mixture into sprayed muffin tin. Bake at 375* for 20 mins.

The notes say to call my mother if you have any questions on the recipe. That made me laugh!

* My parents never bought buttermilk, ever. When a recipe calls for it, my mom would sour the milk by putting the required baking soda into the milk, as soon as she started the recipe so it had time to turn sour. My husband follows Alton Brown's advice on just about everything, and he sours milk with apple cider vinegar. So when I made these, I poured my quart of milk and added 4 tbsp of the vinegar and let it sit while I mixed everything else together. It works just fine!

Twist & Shake!

Or rather, a New Twist on an Old Shake!

I have posted THIS basic shake before, which I frequently have for a quick and mobile breakfast. (meaning, I can eat it while doing other things)
It has evolved to become more like this:

• approx 3/4 cup frozen berries (or 1/3 cup peanut butter and 3 ice cubes)
• 1/3 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 packet chocolate instant breakfast powder
• 1 cup milk

 But yesterday my cousin posted this recipe on facebook...

• 1 cup of whatever milk you use
• 2 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa
• 1 banana
• 1 1/2 c. of rolled oats/quick oats /whatever oats you have
• 1 scoop protein powder (I used vanilla cause that's what I had on hand )
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• Then add ice to the consistency you want

So I tossed in 3/4 cup oats into my shake this morning! Today I only used blueberries and blackberries, and with the oats it really tastes like a pie or a cookie! Also the oats give the added benefit of extra fiber, and this breakfast will stick with me longer, making me feel less hungry and snacky before lunch. And its a pretty darn healthy breakfast!

Breakfast Cookies!

Since my kids are back in school, I need filling, nutritious and QUICK breakfast ideas! Today, I gave these cookies a try! The cookies are breakfast-sweet but not candy-sweet. My son and I really liked them. My daughter, not so much - but she didn't like the craisins. Maybe next time I'll leave it out?

I stuck with her original recipe, except for my own edits, LOL. For one thing, I didn't have walnuts on hand, but I did have a big bag of almonds! Rather than attempting to chop them, I stuck them in my blender, along with the craisins, to make them both smaller and less noticeable, for picky eaters, haha.

Also, I used 1/3 cup craisins because I had that, and no raisins.
And a tip I learned? Flatten the cookie when you put it on the pan to bake! The first pan, I didn't know if they would spread so I gave them plenty of space. I don't think they spread even a millimeter! So the second pan I fit more on, and flattened them so they might bake a little faster. Between the flatter cookie, and my elevation (she's east of CO and I'm pretty sure 4,700 feet is higher than anything east of CO) it only took me about 18 mins to bake, rather than her 30-35mins.

Blueberry Muffins from Scratch!

This was my yummy Mother's Day Breakfast!

They look like bran muffins, but they're not. Its just dark from the blueberry pie filling they used! *grin

Like many things my husband makes (if there's a recipe involved) it comes from Alton Brown. Its in Good Eats 2: The Middle Years for those who wonder. If you want to look it up online the episode it comes from is "The Muffin Man Method". The substitutions involved came from the fact of that's what we had on hand.

And here's the recipe...

7 oz sugar

1/2 cup veg oil

1 large egg

1 cup plain yogurt (he used vanilla because that's what was in the house)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp orange zest (he forgot this part)

12 1/2 oz all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 heavy pinch kosher salt (regular old salt in this case)

8 oz fresh blueberries (used about a half a can of blueberry pie filling. Worked really well too!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the blueberries. Stir mixture for a count of 10. Add 1 cup blueberries to mixture and stir 3 more times. Reserve the 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Using a #20 ice cream scoop, add the mixture to greased muffin pans. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of berries on top of muffins and press down lightly. Place into the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down on tea towel to cool completely. Serve immediately or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

The link to the original recipe on the Food Network's website can be found HERE!

A twist on french toast!

Here is another recipe from THIS website. This one is easy to find, click on step two and every single time I've visited, this is the first recipe shown! Its called Croissant French Toast. The recipe says you can use a loaf of french bread instead of croissants, and that's what I did - mostly because French Bread is cheaper!

So here's the process....

 and the finished product...

the edits...

I added an egg because the first egg cracked somehow inside the box so I hurried and flipped the box over the bowl and think I got about half an egg... so I had 3 and a half, lol. I left out the sauce because I was totally out of berries. *sniff... That extra half an egg had a LOT of batter left over and I really hate to throw away food so I ended up making 9 bread "sandwiches", instead of the four croissants it says. So all the berries went inside the sandwiches! LOL!
Also, if I make it again, I will half the butter/oil they cooked in. Or use a large electric skillet instead of my frying pan. That was waaay too much.

and the mixed reviews....
I thought it was just fine. It would be super tasty with whipped cream, like when I get berry covered waffles at the diner? lol. And I bet it would have been dreamy with the sauce.
Both of my kids told me it smelled "amazing" and "like heavenly deliciousness" but when they started eating, thought the berries were too sour and the sandwiches were yucky. sad!

My husband thought it was a "good different", and pretty much felt exactly how I did about it.
So if you're looking for a new idea, its worth a try! But no one in my family is going to request it often.

Baked Oatmeal

I have no idea where I first came across this recipe but I have been interested to try it for a couple months now. Today I had a kiddo with a cold and was looking for something quick and warm for dinner, "but not soup", because the sicky didn't want soup. I found this great recipe for Baked Oatmeal on Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog and gave it a shot!

I took her advice, perused the comments for additional ideas, used her exact recipe and sprinkled cinnamon all over the top before baking! We had canned peaches, so I used that.

I have to say, I loved it warm out of the oven with the peaches. I also liked it reheated, and I really liked it cold! Cold was a lot like a cookie or granola bar...I did not put milk on mine. My husband tried it both warm with peaches and a little milk, and cold, and liked it both ways. One of our kiddos only liked it with milk, and kind of a real oatmeal-y consistency. The little sicky didn't like it much, but I blame the cold. *smile
We'll use this recipe again, but we'll half it next time. It is really filling, and there's a lot of leftovers!  

Waffles!

This recipe comes straight out of the Betty Crocker cook book, except tonight I remembered a variation! The recipe I have is this:

2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk (or soured milk)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp shortening or vegetable oil

Heat waffle iron. Beat eggs, beat in remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour batter onto hot waffle iron, bake about 5 minutes, remove carefully.
Makes about eight 7-inch waffles

But! You can also toss in a soft banana! or tonight's version- 1/4 cup of apple sauce!
We have a small Belgian waffle maker (two squares - size) and it takes 4.5 minutes to look like this:

Healthy Morning Muffins!

Okay so my favorite stranger-blog Meg (mentioned before) asked for ideas on feeding children during the summer. I know I've got one kid who is constantly claiming hunger (and her jeans are adjusted as tiny as they'll go!) so I was alllllll over these suggestions! One of her readers, Ariel, listed this recipe that was totally worth a try since I had everything in the house!
~~~~~

Healthy Morning Muffins

1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I personally like a little bit more, and I add 2 tsp. cinnamon as well)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (or veg. oil)
1 large egg
1/3 cup skim milk
4 medium carrots, shredded
1 ripe banana mashed up
Preheat oven to 400
Coat a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, b.s., b.p., nutmeg, (cinnamon) and salt until blended.
Stir in oats and raisins. Add oil, egg, milk, carrots and banana and stir till blended.
Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup batter...Bake for 20-23 minutes or till toothpick comes clean out of the center.
Serve warm or at room temp.

I add in about 2 tablespoons of wheat germ....just for kicks!
I want to try some variations of this recipe...like shredded pear, ginger and dried cranberries sounds good to me! Let me know if you try anything new!!
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*however, another reader responded that they use the same recipe BUT! she halves the brown sugar content, drop the raisins and throw in another banana. I had five bananas that needed used, and no raisins (tho I do have craisins) so I was totally good with the fruit change. Besides, I am truly trying to improve my eating so nixing sugar is a really good thing. Oh, and I used 1% milk because that's what we have.

Here's what they look like!

My thoughts?
They are drier than I expected but they are sweet and good.
This is a fabulous breakfast!
It totally smells like autumn in my kitchen (which is my favorite season).
I just wish it would come completely out of the muffin cup...next time I'll use foil cups. Will that make a difference??
Also, I think these would freeze well and can be taken out as needed, which is a great thing!