Category Archives: Breakfast

Please, let me start by saying, you must start making your own pancake mix as it is easier than driving to the store and spending a couple bucks on premade mix. AND…. it’s way healthier and taste better. I learned this the hard way…. (click here)

Ingredients:

• 5 cups flour
• ¼ cup baking powder
• 4 TBSP Sugar
• 1 TBSP salt

Mix ingredients together and store in a glass container. Once a cozy Saturday morning comes your way and you decide to use your mix, make sure you have milk on hand to make you mix and lots of butter not only for the skillet, but for the top of the cakes before you drench the cake in real maple syrup.

This sounds so good right now, I want to make them right now even though it is 10:30 at night. I’ve been crazy hungry lately and for anything. Don’t know why, but last night I ate three ice cream Oreos, Skittles, Swedish fish, and an entire bowl of popcorn; I even reheated the leftover kernels to see if the would pop. They did and I drenched them in butter and devoured every last kernel. Can’t tell you why, but this has been my evening the last two weeks which may be why tonight pancakes sounds delicious. I wont make them, heaven knows I don’t need them, especially late at night while the rest of the family is sawing logs.

 

I normally make granola to have on hand and send with my husband for breakfast throughout the week. I send him with berries and milk, or berries and yogurt so he can have a variety with his granola. Although lately he has wanted something else and is worn out on cereal; I normally will send him with breakfast burritos as an alternative but because they require more eggs I wanted to think of something different this time around.

 

I decided I would make an “egg bake” since I could use it throughout the week rather then make something every night to help save on time. He has also been trying to eat completely different as he wants to lose a few pounds before our trip in two weeks. This being said, I am pretty limited when it comes to his “diet” because he likes to take extreme measures; no dairy, no carbs, no sugar… Well if you haven’t known, most things have carbs and sugar. He finally said he was willing to let me simplify recipes to a healthier version eliminating refined sugars.

 

I used what I had on hand and came up with this “breakfast bake” that sounds so original. J There are so many “breakfast bakes” as I’m sure everyone else is unsure what to call it, as am I.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• ½ onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• ½ yellow pepper diced
• ½ red pepper diced
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 8 large eggs
• 1 ½ cup coconut milk
• 1 tbsp flour
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Corn tortillas
• Shredded cheese (optional)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet combine turkey, onion, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms and cook through. While that is cooking, in a 9×13 greased pan lay down corn tortillas to cover the bottom, overlap so that you have a good thick layer on the bottom as a crust.

(I started making little burritos, don’t do this, the corn tortillas fall apart)

(Just cover the entire bottom with a thick layer of tortillas and lay mixture on top)

 

In a small bowl whisk eggs, milk and flour and add salt and pepper. Turn skillet off and add egg mixture and mix.

 

Dump the mixture on top of the tortillas. Lay another layer of tortillas on top of the mixture over lapping to get that thick “crusty” layer. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 30-40 minutes until egg mixture doesn’t wiggle anymore.

 

This has lasted all week long for us as I send it with the hubby and my son and I eat it in the mornings as well.

 

This morning is Labor Day Sunday. We decided against going to church this morning, I haven’t been feeling too well the last couple days and decided we should take it easy. I wanted to make a quick breakfast and went to my Caprese Egg Bake; super simple yet looks incredibly fancy.

I actually made this last year on Christmas morning for 15 people. I bought cherry tomatoes and sliced in half, added fresh mozzarella and diced it into small pieces. Everyone LOVED this meal and it was quick and easy for a large group.

 

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Half and half (milk)
• Fresh Basil
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Mozzarella Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mean while in greased ramekins add eggs. I add two eggs per ramekin to make them more filling. A top the eggs add shredded mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes basil and spinach. Top with a little more mozzarella cheese and add roughly 1 tbsp half and half.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned and eggs are fully cooked. Serve with fresh fruit.

I really try and stick to delicious food but my health radar has gone off quite a bit now that we have a little one, and cancer has been running rampant in both of our families lately. It seems like a never ending cycle. My motto is delicious food; if it tastes healthy than it may taste like cardboard. I am not interested in that, and we all know my husband will not eat something that isn’t tasty.

My husband works two jobs right now being that it’s tax season. I honestly hate this time of year, we never really see one another and for most of the week he barely spends time with our son. It is hard on me, but I know he is doing it for a good cause and to help support us. I must say I am very grateful I am able to stay at home. I know it is really hard on him not being able to spend time with me and especially our son as he is quickly growing like a bean sprout.

In the midst of cooking, cleaning, trying to sell the house, raise little man, take care of my husband and somewhere in there manage to pull myself together; I try and have snacks around the house that are tasty, not store bought but easy to keep around. My husband is a runner; he gets up early in the morning and runs five miles while I remain in a deep, cozy sleep. When I say early, I mean 5:30 early. He needs a boost to get him going in the morning and after he runs, we have a ravenous on our hands. He needs to eat all day long. And believe me, you want him to, otherwise you get a cranky man on your hands. He has low blood sugar so we need to keep this man fed. In the morning before he runs he drinks our spinach shake that is actually very yummy. I am very big on texture and the simple game my mind plays on me. Spinach? Come on, this sounds terrible, I don’t like spinach unless it’s in a salad. I can hear the noise rumbling in your head right this very second. But wait a minute, this truly is delicious. It tastes like Odwalla super food. Get the recipe and test it out yourself. I blend it very well to make it smooth. It tastes like whatever fruit I use at the time. The whole family actually loves it. I had to withhold from my husband what I actually put in it to get him to try it, once he said he liked it, I let him know what all I had threw into this concoction and he was shocked.

Anyway, you can get the recipe for my spinach shake but in the mean time he also loves to grab-n-go with these peanut butter breakfast cookies. He took them to work and he is such a sweet man, yes he is, he raves about my cooking to coworkers and they always ask him what he has in his lunch that day. Well these breakfast cookies became such a hit that not only was he sharing them with everyone at work they all asked for more. I do like to spoil them now and again and send some baked goodies to brighten their day. The best part was that he had told them all how healthy they were and some even said that they taste better than normal peanut butter cookies that are not healthy for you. So trust me, relax, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a breakfast cookie or two.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (coconut oil or applesauce)
• 1 cup Honey (sugar)
• 3 eggs
• 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup of peanut butter, preferably all natural or almond butter
• 2 cups brown rice flour (all purpose flour works as well; make sure it’s unbleached)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups rolled oats
• Chopped pecans or mixed nuts
• Sunflower seeds
• Flax seed
• 1 cup coconut (optional)
• Chocolate chips (optional) I don’t add these as it takes away from “healthy” and I simply don’t prefer them

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment, silicone baking mats or nonstick spray.
2. In mixer beat together butter (applesauce or coconut oil), honey and peanut butter for 2-3 minutes or until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat in vanilla.

1. Whisk in the flour, baking soda, salt and beat well. Add rolled oats. Stir in the nuts, raisins, coconut, and chocolate chips.

1. Drop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. They don’t spread out much so you can keep them pretty close.
2. Bake the cookies for 8-12 minutes (I prefer 9 minutes). The longer you bake the cookies the more crisp they will be.
3. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. (They freeze well too, not that they will last long enough to freeze but you can try)

I must say I made these on Monday and by Thursday they were completely gone. Now normally I make them once a week on Sunday and they last the whole week. This time however while I was painting our bathroom on Wednesday with a girlfriend, I didn’t have time to make lunch and heated up leftover Lentil Soup. By the time 4pm rolled around, I realized we had been munching all morning and early afternoon on these breakfast cookies that they had quickly disappeared.

**I make these often and I make them all different ways using the options above; applesauce, coconut oil, different nuts, chocolate chips, almond butter, etc. but prefer the original list above the most.

As you’ve heard me say many times I make homemade granola. It’s so yummy I make it every week. I got the original recipe from my sister but don’t follow the amounts at all. It’s not the type of recipe you really need to follow exact amounts on. If you want it more chewy and clumpy, add more honey. If you don’t want it very clumpy, add less. Pretty simple! :)

Ingredients:

• 8 cups oats
• 2 cups bran flakes
• 1/2 cup Oil (either EVOO or Vegetable)
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 cup coconut
• 2 tbsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• almonds, pumpkin seeds, pecans,etc
• flax seed
• cranberries, golden raisins

Preheat oven to 375

In a large bowl combine first 5 ingredient and mix thoroughly. Add remainder of ingredients except cranberries and cater to your taste when you choose to add nuts. Omit adding cranberries or raisins until the last 10 minutes of baking to keep them from burning. Grease a 9×13 pan and dump in mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes and stir thoroughly, bake an additional 15 minutes until light brown.

**Note: I scoop out the granola while still warm to keep it from sticking to my glass pyrex pan making it terribly difficult to clean. I have a plastic container I use for cereal and have a measuring cup I keep in there at all times to make it easy for scooping. :)

I absolutely love this with Vanilla Coconut milk. Adds a great sweet twist to cereal.

 

I mentioned earlier in my peanut-butter-breakfast cookies that I started making a spinach shake that my whole family drinks. I compare it to Odwalla Super Food. It’s full of Spinach (which you can’t even taste), fruit and carrots. I started adding carrots because once they are juiced they are pretty sweet. If you are like me at all, Spinach as a drink sounds absolutely terrible, almost as if you are being punished. Shouldn’t spinach be solely for a crisp salad, you want me not only blend spinach but to mix it with fruit? The battle of the mind gets me most of the time when it comes to something that may disinterest my taste buds. Once I tried this I was actually beyond shocked not only how much I liked it but the fact that it was worth repeating on a daily basis.

Spinach Shake:

• 2 cups Spinach
• 2 large organic carrots
• ½ cup blueberries (I use frozen)
• 2 apples
• 1 orange (peeled but with skin on)
• 2 bananas
• 1 cup Coconut milk

Blend together all ingredients until smooth. I do not take the skin off of the apples nor do I take the skin off of the orange, the peel yes, but not the skin. The longer you blend, the smoother the texture. You may also use a food processor.

Sometimes I add orange juice with the coconut milk. I use coconut milk for a lot of things due to my husband being lactose intolerant. The vanilla coconut milk adds more flavor as well. I also switch the fruit around. I’ve used pineapple, mango and peach.  You can honestly use any veggies or fruit you want. I store this in the fridge in a large mason jar. We drink this every morning with breakfast and my husband drinks 8oz before he works out to give him an energy boost. Even my little blueberry enjoys this and will devour it; if he could have it all day long he would.