28 Mar 2014

Eat This: Banana Pancake Oats

by | posted in: food | 3

banana pancake oats

This breakfast reminds of two of my favorite morning meals.  Pancakes at Guglhupf in Durham, NC.  And oats in the Bay Area of California with my Dad.  Let me tell you about them.

There is a little bakery/café in the central part of Durham that I still crave their pancakes.  Ask my husband: they serve the best most amazing, perfect textured pancakes EVER.  I wish I could get their recipe.  The pancake plate comes with apples, butter, and syrup.  At most restaurants, I have to ask my server for my syrup because the pancakes just need help.  I rarely have ever used all the syrup at Guglhupf.  They don’t need any more.  I can devour the plate and be completely satisfied by the rich goodness that I inhale on my fork.  Then I want to go home and recreate them – but have yet been able to.  My husband is sitting here beside me making up an ode de Guglhupf.  Funny man I live life with.

The Bay Area of California.  With so much going on – its a place I’ve only been to once but would love to explore more of – and most directly north of there in the wine country of Napa.  But as I look at pictures of the Bridge and the Bay, it pulls me and calls me to travel there to explore all of its goodness.  One such goodness is the breakfast I had. I don’t remember where we went, but the oats were amazing.  This was really before I started eating oats on a regular basis.  I grew up a Life Cereal girl.  A whole tray of goodies came out with a big steaming bowl of oats.  Bananas, raisins, syrup, brown sugar, all to create your own bowl of goodness.  I thought to myself oatmeal could be fun!

Well, thinking about these two delicious breakfasts helped me create this mornings bowl of oats.  Oats are a healthy and inexpensive way to feed your whole family in the morning.  This recipe serve 2.5 (Eli doesn’t eat quite a whole bowl yet.)

Print
Banana Pancake Oats
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakast
Cuisine: Oats
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3
 
Banans, brown sugar, oats, and syrup - yummy concoction for breakfast
Ingredients
  • 1⅓ cup whole oats
  • 1⅓ whole milk
  • ¼ cup water
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • 2 T brown sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon sugar
  • ½ banana, pureed
  • 1 banana
  • Maple Syrup
  • Chopped pecans, optional
Instructions
  1. In a medium sauce pan, bring the oats, milk, and water to a boil and let cook until done.
  2. Halfway through cooking, add in the salt, cinnamon sugar, brown sugar, and pureed banana.
  3. When done, spoon into bowls, top with sliced bananas and maple syrup. If desired, add chopped nuts.
 

 

19 Feb 2014

Eat This: Broccoli, Cheddar & Bacon Quiche

by | posted in: food | 0

Broccoli Cheese and Bacon Quiche

Love having women over to live life with me, eat girly food, and be creative. This was the scene at our dining room table the weekend of Thanksgiving.  I had some sweet girlfriends over to celebrate creativity and enjoy getting to know one another.

With any girls’ brunch, I think some egg dish is customary, right?  Well, as I am cooking through Jenna’s blog, I came across this one.  My learned lesson from this: read the instructions.  I figured eggs cook fast, so it can only take about 30 minutes, right?  Wrong.  The quiche didn’t get done for an hour and I would have known that had I read the directions.  But, during the waiting time, we stood around in the kitchen and talked.  So, it was worth the wait – when we all dug in and enjoyed the savory goodness for breakfast.

Print
Broccoli, Cheddar & Bacon Quiche
Author: 
Recipe type: Brunch
Cuisine: Eggs
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
Delicious easy egg quiche perfect for a weekend brunch.
Ingredients
  • 1 Pillsbury pie crust
  • 6 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
  • 1 large head broccoli, use the florets
  • 3 eggs, I used Great Day Farm eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 4 slices bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped
  • salt
  • pepper
  • garlic
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Press your pie crust into a pie pan. Set aside.
  3. Cook broccoli just until done - about 4 minutes.
  4. In a pourable dish, mix your milk, cheese, eggs, bacon, and seasonings.
  5. Place cooked, cooled and drained broccoli in the bottom of your pie.
  6. Pour your egg liquid over the top.
  7. Bake until set, about an hour.
  8. Take a pretty picture.
  9. Eat.
Note: You can really use any cheese you want to in this, I suppose.  I used Monterey Jack.  Sharp Cheddar would also be delicious!

13 Feb 2014

Breakfast Ideas for your Valentine

by | posted in: food | 0

Valentines Day Breakfast

The most important meal of the day is breakfast right?  And one of the best holidays is Valentine’s Day, right?  Then why not combine the two and serve a delicious themed breakfast on Valentine’s Day.  I’m glad that it falls on a Friday this year, my Mister’s day off.  That way we can all linger over the breakfast table a little while longer.  Here are three recipes that you can whip up in no time flat for your Valentine. Enjoy every moment of the day!

Strawberry Pancakes (I actually served these for dinner tonight).  I used Rachael Ray’s Strawberry Pancakes recipe from her magazine.  Things I would change: chop your strawberries more fine.  Use less of them.  Or puree them and lower the milk amount.  They were TOO moist.  But, they had great flavor!

Strawberry Pancakes

Heart in the Hole.  I made this yesterday for my little Valentine for lunch.  So quick and easy.  I used Great Day Farms’ organic eggs because they taste amazing and I know are healthy for my family.  Just put some butter in a heated skillet, cut out a heart shape (with a cookie cutter) of the bread, and drop the egg in.  Let it cook until your liking.  How runny do you like your egg?

Heart in the Hole

Strawberry Nutella PopTarts.  I made the smores version of these last week at a friend’s house and we gobbled them up.  Tomorrow morning I’m taking some fresh strawberries, mashing them with a fork, already made pie crust, a cookie cutter, egg wash, and delicious creamy nutella.  Amazing pop tarts await me!  Yay!

Strawberry Nutella Poptarts

See…three easy breakfast ideas.  And thanks to my friend Liz for the picture of her cute thrifted coffee mug.  Perfect morning to use that!

27 Jan 2014

What Oatmeal Taught Me About Marriage (Cinnamon Raisin Honey Oats)

by | posted in: food, marriage | 0

cinnamon raisin honey oats

Just for disclosure sake: I have permission from my husband to share this story. He said he learned a lot from it early in our marriage and he wants to make sure that others learn the same lesson for the good of their marriage!

We had probably been married three months or so and having oatmeal most of those mornings. I had always cooked my whole oats in the microwave. I figured that’s how you did it. I hit the button for 1.45 and let them do their thing. Mister gladly ate them and never said anything about it so I thought they were fine. Well, come to find out, he didn’t eat them that way. One morning he said something to the affect of I don’t like my oats cooked this way. I want them cooked longer and less sweet. I probably burst into tears when he said that. Why cry over oats?

I had been doing them wrong all that time and he was just now telling me? Some of you are probably saying what a sweet husband, not to make a big deal out of the small and eating them because he loves his wife. That’s a great response and that’s exactly what he did. But, that wasn’t good for me. You see…I want to please my husband, especially in the kitchen. I love to cook and I want people to love to eat what I cook. So, after I got done crying, I asked him how he wanted them and have tried since to make them that way. Yes, its a little more work, but it pleases him and he eats them and never comments on them anymore except to say “Thank you, can you make these every day this week?”

Moral of the story: if your spouse does something that irritates you or doesn’t please you, you may want to find a gentle way to tell them how you would like it. Marriage is for the long haul – you might as well be happy in the little things! Philippians 2.3-4 is a great verse for our marriage. We read it on the night we got engaged. So applicable! What I wanted to know is how to please my husband in the little things: how to fold his shirts, his socks, hot to cook his oats, make his bed, etc. I want to do these things to please him. If I don’t know, how can I please him?

Wives, ask your husbands what would please him? Make every effort to do these things. Husbands, please be honest with your wives! And thank her for cooking your food for you!

 

Print
Cinnamon Raisin Honey Oats
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2-4
 
Simple, lightly sweet morning oats
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups uncooked oats (plus a handful)
  • 1½ cups water
  • 1½ cups whole milk
  • 1 T raw honey
  • 1 tsp cinnamon sugar mixture
  • ⅔ cup raisins
  • milk for serving
Instructions
  1. Heats all on a stove top until boiling, stirring constantly, until desired doneness.
  2. Put in a bowl
  3. Top with milk
5 Dec 2013

Breakfast Tacos

by | posted in: Arkansas, food, Uncategorized | 0

breakfast taco salsa

We don’t own chickens, nor do I ever plan on it.  Might be nice to walk out and get fresh eggs every morning, but I’d rather rely on a company like Great Day Farms eggs – local, natural, gorgeous, and absolutely healthy and delicious!  I heard there company at the AR Women’s Bloggers event here a few months ago – and loved their story, their company, and now go to Wal-Mart to buy my eggs!  If I’m going to feed my family, especially my young boys, I want them to be the best eggs they can be!

My plans starting out Tuesday was to make a different type of taco for taco Tuesday, but with small children, plans change almost immediately.  So, I had delicious eggs in my fridge and opted for a breakfast taco.

What you need:

great day farm eggs

Great Day Farms eggs – I scramble mine mixed with half and half and pepper, with butter for the pan (gives it more flavor) – and salt the eggs when they are almost done cooking

seasoned cooked black beans (I use garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, and some Cuban seasonings)

Rotel

Corn

Sharp cheddar cheese

Flour tortillas

Avocado

salsa

Super yummy, inexpensive, and delicious and healthy!

 

12 Oct 2013

Pumpkin French Toast

by | posted in: food, Uncategorized | 0

When the husband is gone, its a good idea to tantalize him to come back home if you send him delicious pictures of pumpkin French toast. Really – I did send him a picture and he said I was mean. I’ll make these again for him.
But, these are perfect with a topping of real maple syrup and whipped cream.

Pumpkin French Toast
Pumpkin French Toast

Serves 2-3 (depending on how hungry you are)

6 slices of day old bread (I used Panera’s Honey Wheat)
3 eggs
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 T sugar
1 T light brown sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
cinnamon and allspice to taste
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
butter to cook with (gives it much more flavor than Pam or others sprays)
syrup, butter, whipped cream for topping

6 Jun 2012

Brinner: Baked Country Omelet

by | posted in: food | 1

Sausage, eggs, potatoes, cheese…need I say more?

1 box au gratin potato mix

1 lb sausage

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained

3 cups HOT water

1/2 cup HOT water

6 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Chop  onion.  Dump potatoes into a bowl and cover with HOT water before you begin cooking the sausage.   (Set aside the powder cheese packet, you’ll need that later.)

Cook sausage and onions together until done. Drain.  Drain potatoes.  Mix potatoes, sausage mixture, green pepper, mushrooms, and seasonings.  Dump into a greased 2 qt casserole dish.

in a medium bowl, add 1/2 cup HOT water with the au gratin cheese packet.  Stir till completely mixed.  Add in the milk and 6 eggs.  Whisk.  Pour all over the sausage mixture.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350.  For the last 10-15, top with cheese.

**The only thing I would do differently next time is stir my mixture better.  Some of the potato slices didn’t get cooked well enough and some got crispy because they were sticking out on top.  I loved the rustic nature of this dish, and oh so comforting.

17 May 2012

Strawberry Buttermilk Pancakes

by | posted in: food, Uncategorized | 1

The taste of summer – at breakfast!

I went strawberry picking the other week, got about 6 lbs and was exhausted.  That’s what being pregnant will do for you.  Well, I had some left and they were just about to be gone (meaning, they were going bad) so I wanted to use them up.  So, I woke up one morning and thought I’d look up a recipe.

I tweaked one I found on the internet and came up with these.  Light and fluffy, perfect with some added berries on top and some real maple syrup.  This batch made 10-12 pancakes depending on how big you want them.  Enough for the hubs to have some leftovers the week I’m out of town.

Enjoy the fresh summer taste!

  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 3/4 cups sliced strawberries 

Mix dry ingredients, then wet ingredients and combine.  Spray griddle pan and cook the pancakes (I used 1/4 cup to scoop out the batter) over medium heat until bubble form around the edge of the pancakes.

Enjoy warm with butter, syrup, or whipped cream, and if you are a strawberry freak like me – more strawberries!

17 Dec 2010

Apple Cider Pancakes with Sugared Apples

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 0
On this ice-y morning, I woke up early and immediately thought of pancakes. I had been thinking about them for days but thought today is the day. I didn’t really want to brave the roads due to the slush and ice, but proceeded. I saw a jug of Trader Joe’s Spiced Cider on my counter and that was my inspiration, so I headed to my little netbook and plugged away into the world wide web.
Here we go:

1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups vanilla yogurt
1 cup apple cider
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Combine wet. Mix dry. Gentle stir the two together. Keeping griddle pan on medium low heat, make pancakes using a 1/4 cup scoop and cook until done.
Before you start making the pancakes, get the apples cooking:
2 cripp lady apples
4 tsp unsalted butter
2 heaping T brown sugar

Slice apple thin and stir into butter and sugar. Keep on low and let cook until all the pancakes are done.

Top with cool whip, apples, maple syrup, whatever you fancy.

28 Nov 2010

Taste of Valle Crucis: The Ham Shoppe

by | posted in: food, Uncategorized | 0
Tucked in between Blowing Rock, Boone, and Linville Falls, is a quaint little cafe (restaurant is further down the road) and dessertery that serves big sandwiches, and big everything else.
My friend, Tracy, recommended this place to me, she didn’t even know if it was still there.
Friendly employees, well-packed on the weekends, and fast service. Fresh baked bread, too.