Brunch/ RECIPES

“Toad In A Hole” Breakfast

I had never made these before, but when I had my mastectomy, my friend, Sharon, came from Chicago to stay with me for a week. She was a nurse to me, and loved all over my girls. While she was here she made this “Toad In A Hole” breakfast a few times. It has become a favorite of ours. It is so fast and easy, and quite filling for each person, if I add fruit to the plate. It makes me miss my friend every time I make it. Everyone should have a friend like her– I love you, Sharon!!

It is my middle child’s birthday weekend. I did not have the energy to throw a party, so we took the money we usually would spend for a party and had a “double-date dinner, manicures, and spending- spree- at- the- mall” birthday night out. We were with my daughter’s friend and her mom, Carma, who is a great friend of mine. It was a super fun night out, ending with Caramelicious Frappucinos (decaf of course)– my girl thought she was old enough to drink coffee–she isn’t! Hers sat untouched, despite the fact that she tasted mine and was convinced she liked it and was old enough to have one of her own!

We had my daughter’s friend spend the night. We have a breakfast tradition of pancakes and eggs anytime we have a sleepover. Again, my energy was not great, so instead of pancakes I decided to make “Toads In A Hole” The kids loved them, and it only took minutes!

Toad In A Hole

6 slices bread

6 eggs

butter

salt

pepper

~Cut out a circle in each piece of bread.

~Melt some butter, and brown the round cut-outs on both sides until toasty brown.

~Melt more butter. Add slices of bread with holes cut out.

~Crack an egg into each bread.

~Flip when set.

~Season with salt & pepper

Brunch/ RECIPES

Oatmeal Fully Loaded

**Guest Post by Julie from Color Chic

Growing up I remember my Grandma cooking the best oatmeal, creamy delicious with lots of brown sugar & butter and always served with buttered toast! Not sure if the health benefits of the oatmeal balanced eating all that butter, but it sure was good! This morning I decided to make a healthier version of Grandma’s Oatmeal– Oatmeal Fully Loaded! Of course you start with Quaker Oats:

Put in a pan and cover with cold water, cook until soft (sorry but I don’t measure, just add water about 1/2″ above oats). If it doesn’t look like you have enough water you can always add more:

Once cooked add apples, currents, pecans, coconut, and brown sugar, Stir it in and cover for a few minutes:

The heat from the cooked oatmeal will soften the fruit just enough to make it perfect!

Top the cooked oatmeal with nonfat plain yogurt and sprinkle with cinnamon, top with just amount of warm milk that suits your taste!

Of course serve it with buttered toast, sparkling water with a splash of OJ and French Press!:

All that color and texture makes for a perfect breakfast!

Julie is an interior designer with a passion for all things colorful!

Visit her at Color Chic.

**Thank you, Julie, for this awesome post. I love oatmeal and man would I love to be sitting there at the above picture and chatting with you over its yumminess!

Brunch/ RECIPES

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls As A Christmas Gift?!?

Yes, Homemade Cinnamon Rolls are exactly what our neighbors and my husband’s co-workers got for Christmas! I made a quadruple batch, which made 12 pans of 6 rolls. With rising time it took most of the day, but I was able to get a lot done around the house in between batches. I only had one mis-hap, but despite that, I had a blast! I cranked the Christmas music and kept thinking about how great it was to have energy and feel good!!

I got the idea when I was at our local Dollar Tree and I spotted foil pans with lids. They came in packs of 3 for $1.00! I knew they would look pretty tied with ribbon or even with a sticky bow slapped on the top. They carry 2 sizes, the smaller size is 4 for $1.00. They would be a great size for fudge or small cookies.

I found the Cinnamon Roll recipe at AllRecipes.com. They are called “Clone Of A Cinnabon” and were rated 5 stars and had 3, 943 reviews! They were the highest rated cinnamon roll on the site, and they were full of sugar and butter, so I knew they would be good! They also use a bread maker, which I liked, but in the reviews, there are alternative directions if you do not have a bread maker.

Speaking of a bread maker, this is where my mishap came in. Cinnamon roll dough is a bit thick, which made my bread machine complain a little bit. It rattled and shook itself right off my counter, and took my eggs with it! I love how the dough stayed in the machine, safe and sound. This is one tough machine, I’ve had it for 12 years and it survived the fall.

Finished pan. Ugh, lighting. I hate taking pictures at night in artificial light! Not my cup of tea..

Tied with wire ribbon, also from the dollar store. The star tags are from Micheals.

I was really pleased with how the rolls tasted. This recipe is for sure a keeper for when I want a sugar splurge!

“Clone Of A Cinnabon”

Ingredients

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, melted
4 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Brunch/ How-Tos/ RECIPES

How To Make A Simple Omelette

I was in the mood for an omelette but needed a bit of inspiration. I watched the Jamie Oliver video below, and using his technique I made myself an omelet and it was sooo good!

Even though it is early November, my tomato plant is still producing tomatoes, and I have a pepper plant that is still going, too.

I chopped 1/4 of a tomato and 1 small orange sweet pepper, briefly sauteed them in some olive oil, and set them aside to use as filling for my omelet. I also shredded some cheddar cheese. It was by far the yummiest omelette I have ever eaten!

How To Make an Omelette

Basic Omelette

1 tablespoon butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons water

salt/pepper

~beat eggs and water in a bowl, just until mixed, not too frothy.

~add a bit of salt and pepper, to taste

~heat butter in the pan over medium heat. Add eggs.

~gently push eggs from edge of pan towards middle while still runny

~tilt pan to fill in gaps

~cook until set on bottom and slightly shiny on top.

~fold over, slide onto plate.

~enjoy!

{see filling ideas below}

Omelette Filling Ideas

Omelette Fillings

cheese, {swiss, cheddar, feta, etc}

onions or green onions

bell peppers

mushrooms

meat {ham, bacon, sausage, chicken, turkey}

asparagus

tomato

fresh herbs

feta cheese

peas

carrots

broccoli

avocados

salsa

{make sure your toppings are prepared ahead of time, as omelettes cook quickly}

Brunch/ RECIPES/ Sides

Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

***This is a re-post from last fall. Enjoy!

I found this great recipe at Kitchen Stewardship.

I have made it TWICE this week and I really love it. It is a “dump all ingredients into one bowl in no certain order and stir” recipe, so it takes minutes to whip up. It is super moist, makes the house smell like fall, and fills up little tummy’s when they need a snack. Another great thing about this recipe is that it has a few different options to make the original recipe healthier. Love that!

Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

1 ½ c. sugar ½ t. cinnamon

2 eggs ½ t. nutmeg

¼ t. baking powder 1 2/3 c. flour

1 t. baking soda ½ c. oil

¾ t. salt ½ c. cold water

½ t. cloves 1 c. pumpkin (about half a 15 oz can)

Mix all ingredients together. Put in greased loaf pan or muffin tin. Bake at 325 degrees.

Bread (one loaf) = 75-90 minutes
12 Muffins = 45 minutes
24 Mini muffins = 25 minutes

Cost: about $1.50 !!!

Get this…I was at my neighborhood natural market this weekend and they were selling freshly baked pumpkin bread for $7.99 a loaf! That’s just craziness!! They were skimpy little loaves, too. I walked away smiling to myself, thinking about how I can go home and whip up a generous loaf of my own pumpkin bread that would be just as healthy as theirs!

To make my loaves healthier, I cut the sugar down to a cup, and used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2/3 cup unbleached white flour. Next time I will try honey instead of sugar and applesauce instead of oil. I also want to add some dried cranberries (got that idea from those crazy $7.00 loaves at my market:))

Easy Ways to Make It Healthy:

Level one: decrease the sugar by 1/4 or even 1/2 cup (1 c. sugar total)
Level two: use half whole wheat flour
Level three: make the “oil” melted butter or applesauce

One Bowl Pumpkin Muffins Healthy Remake

3/4 cup honey ½ t. cinnamon

2 eggs ½ t. nutmeg

¼ t. baking powder 1 2/3 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. baking soda ½ c. melted butter or coconut oil

¾ t. salt 1/4 c. cold water

½ t. cloves 1 c. pumpkin (about half a 15 oz can)

1 Tbs molasses

Baking Change:Only bake muffins for 30 minutes – honey browns faster!

Both recipes call for only a half a can of pumpkin. I wondered what to do with the other half, until I saw how quickly my family ate up the first loaf. I made a second loaf the very next day. You could double the recipe and freeze a loaf. I knew we would be home quite a bit this weekend and I love to have something yummy baking in the oven, so I made the loaves on separate days.

Oh, one more thing…make sure your spices are not dated and tired. I could not believe the difference in my 2 loaves, the first one I made with spices I know have been in my cupboard since last fall, and although the texture was awesome, I wondered, “if the spices were happy, would taste any different?” For the second loaf, I went to my market where they sell spices in bulk (you can help yourself to whatever amount you need and they charge you by weight). DO THIS IF YOU CAN, the second loaf was AMAZING! I love the buy spices in bulk option. Lately, I have been buying a small amount for whatever recipes I am going to make in the next week or two. I did this for 2 recipes that I make all the time, chili and chicken curry, and both recipes tasted like they had a makeover, when all I did was buy super fresh spices. It is very economical, and so very worth it!

Brunch/ RECIPES

Hearty Whole Grain French Toast

I am eating this right now as I type–mmm-mm–good!
It is easy, it is filling, and it is a favorite here in our home.
The recipe is easily adjusted according to your needs. I use one egg per piece of bread. I like knowing if my girls eat 2 pieces, they have had 2 eggs and 2 pieces of whole grain bread. I’ll throw some sliced fruit on a plate, and it ends up being a well-rounded, very filling breakfast.

Hearty Whole Grain French Toast
12 Slices Whole Grain Bread (I used Sara Lee Hearty and Delicious 100% Multi-Grain Bread)
12 Eggs
1/4 C. Milk
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Butter
100% Real Maple Syrup

Beat eggs, milk, vanilla & cinnamon. Heat griddle, add a pat of butter. Quickly dip both sides of bread into egg mixture and put onto heated griddle. Cook until golden on both sides. Serve with butter and syrup. Freeze any leftovers, reheat in toaster.
This post is linked to:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday @ Blessed With Grace

Brunch/ RECIPES

Whole Wheat Honey Banana Muffins

These muffins are GOOD! They are moist, have great texture and are 100% healthy, with no refined flour or sugars. To make the muffins lower in fat, replace half of the oil with unsweetened applesauce. I used whole wheat pastry flour, which is ground more fine and makes for a lighter, fluffier muffin.
The recipe was originally posted on Recipezaar, and given to me by my friend Joy (who is also responsible for passing on the waffle recipe on my blog–she knows how to find the good ones!)
This recipe makes a lot of muffins, which I love, but can be halved easily. The recipe states that it makes 24 regular sized muffins. I was able to get 4 mini loaves and 120 mini muffins out of one recipe. The muffins freeze well, and are great for breakfast or a quick snack. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Honey Banana Muffins
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp wheat germ (optional)
2/3 cup olive oil (I’d like to try coconut oil)
1 cup honey
4 eggs
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I used 6)
1/2 cup hot water

1. Stir together dry ingredients
2. Beat oil and honey together; add eggs and beat well.
3. Add bananas and beat to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with hot water; mix well after each addition.
5. Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups; bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and test done.
6. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

{*thanks, Joy!}

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