breakfast blogger

I know it seems like all I eat for breakfast is big and sweet and or gooey and more than likely filled with oh so delicious fat! I think if I really ate that way all the time, I would have already had my first heart attack.
This is a more accurate example of my normal everyday breakfast. I figure if I eat well during the week, I can let loose on the weekends and have some fun with breakfast without TOO much guilt. I call this Super Oatmeal!

You start off with 2/3 cup of oatmeal, add 1/2 cup all bran cereal, 1/4 cup 7 grain cereal, a pinch of salt and about 1 1/2 cups water.

Throw it all in a pot and let it bubble away on medium heat until thick and gooey. When I’m feeling particularly wild and crazy, I’ll add in a handful of raisins or dried cranberries.

A little handful of brown sugar and VOILA! Super Oatmeal! It has almost zero fat, low sugar (until you throw your brown sugar on top!) and about 90% of your daily required fiber intake. Add a piece of fruit and some juice or milk and you are good to go!

MMmmmMmmmMm FIBER-LICIOUS!!!

Burp!

Super yummy breakfast step one:

Make french toast batter (egg, a snosh of milk and cinnamon) and throw a few handfuls of mixed frozen berries with a bit of orange juice into a pot and bring to a soft boil.

Step two:

Dip bread of choice in batter and cook on griddle until golden. Don’t forget to take advantage of griddle space and throw on some bacon or turkon.

Step three:

While toast and berries are a’cookin, whip up some cream cheese, a little drizzle of milk and a little powdered sugar until desired sweetness is reached. Beat the living b’jesus out of it until it’s fluffy and creamy delicious.

Step four:

Assemble in this order. Important! Do not deviate from plans!!

Lay 1 piece of toast on plate, smear desired amount of cream cheese goo on toast (the more the better). Spoon on a good dollop of hot reduced berry sauce on cream cheese. Add one more piece of toast. Top with more cheese goo, more berry sauce, an orange slice and generous amounts of whipped cream. Serve with bacon or turkon on the side for a little salty contrast. Repeat until stuffed beyond capacity.

Burp!

I think we can all agree that a breakfast is usually better when you don’t have to cook it yourself. Let me offer example: Last Sunday.

I will never regret getting involved with a man that can cook. After being chased from my kitchen a few dozen time for wanting to help prep, I conceded and allowed him full control of the kitchen and my camera. This is what I was given to blog:

Step one: Get stuff. Namely eggs, good mozza cheese, chorizo sausage, fresh baby spinach, chopped red, green and yellow peppers and some buttuh.

Step two: Beat eggs and chop stuff up.

Step three: Heat pan, give sausage and peppers a quick little sizzle to release oils and flavors. Set aside.

Step four: Slap some buttuh in pan and add beaten eggs. Sprinkle spinach on top. Let cook for a bit on lowish heat. Add sausage over half and mozza cheese on top of that. Flip non sausaged half over sausaged half. Cook until cheese melts.

Step five: Serve to loved ones.

(Be sure to explore the EXTREME stringability of a good mozza cheese. Please be sure to stretch with caution!! I was stretching a forkful to maximum arm length and it snapped and hit me in the eye and went up over the back of my head!! Delicious but dangerous!)

Not only did I not have to cook it, but it was super delicious to boot. The spicy chorizo added just the right amount of heat to the omlette and with the crunchy peppers, soft gooey cheese and super nutrient rich spinach, it covered all of my breakfast needs.

Now if I could only get out of doing the dishes after….

After a enchilada feed 2 nights previous, I found that I had a bit of a surplus of leftover black beans in my fridge. Now I’m a big fan of the delicious little high fiber bean beasties, so why not add them to breakfast. So I did. May I present: spicy egg and black bean breakfast wrap.

I beat up some eggs and mixed in some chili seasoning, chive, salt and pepper and some other spicy stuff and made a spicy scramble.

I pan fried the beans to warm them through and threw the eggs, beans, some old cheddar cheese ( and by old I mean aged. I have issues with moldy cheese) and a splat of hot sauce in for good measure into a nice whole wheat wrap.

Add that to the book du jour and it was a most satisfying and fiber rich mid week breaky.

*Burp!*

 If ever there was a use for milk that wasn’t going to be drank in time, it’s making a batch of sunday morning crepes.

 For a change, I had my whole little family home for breakfast this morning, so a nice big breakfast was definatly on the menu. I sent my man and the boy child out on a mercy run for coffee, cream cheese and whipped cream while I prepared the crepes.

 Now for those faithful readers out there, you know crepes are my thing. Since I was a young lass, I was always in the kitchen with my father on saturday or sunday making crepes. After so many years, I have gotten a feel for the batter and can’t even remember if there even was a recipe anymore. I will share with you, as best I can, how to make them.

I start with about 2-2.5ish cups of flour, about a tablespoon of baking powder, a goodly pinch of salt and about 3/4 of a handful of sugar. Mix in a big bowl. In another largish bowl beat 4 eggs and about a litre of milk and a splash of vanilla. Add to flour and whisk to get the lumps out. a few little lumps are ok though.  It should be fairly thin, like a cream soup. I like to let it sit for a bit on the counter, or even overnight in the fridge is ok. Be sure to skim the frothy junk from the top before cooking. It’s personal choice if you want to add some melted butter to the batter. Butter never hurt anything!

 Now there is a lot of crepe cooking devices out there, but I’ve always used just a large frying pan. A little cup of melted butter and pastry brush are needed beside the pan too. I keep it on the stove top so the butter stays melted. A quick brush on a hot (med-high) frying pan and you are ready to pour in your batter. Pour in about 3/4 of a ladle full and twist and turn the pan to coat the bottom. There should only be enough batter to make a thin layer in the bottom. You can just pour off the excess. The batter should stick if the pan is hot enough, if it doesn’t, turn up the heat. Let cook for about 30 sec or until it starts to go light golden. Now some of us can flip by just flicking the pan, I strongly suggest using a flipper. Only a few seconds more on the other side and off to the plate in the warming oven. (just turn on your oven as low as it goes). Then repeat, repeat, repeat… This makes a fairly large stack, enough for 4-6 people comfortably, possibly more. I always make a large batch for snacking on.

 Then the fun; filling and topping! There is no limit but your imagination. You can make them sweet with fruit fillings, jams, cottage cheese, my childhood fav of butter and sugar, butter lemon juice and sugar, maple syrup, fried bananas and rum, etc. Or savoury with scrambled eggs, ham, greens peppers and onions, cheese, seasoned meats, etc.

 This morning was homemade strawberry and blueberry compote with cream cheese and whipped cream. The compote was nothing but a couple handfuls each of stawberries and blueberries, a couple tablespoons of sugar and a little splash of fresh OJ, cooked slow and low until it reduces.

 We had a nice assembly line set up on the table. My son perfers his with butter and sugar and a little maple syrup. 4 crepes later, he rolled himself from the table.

Myself, on the other hand, prefers something a little more. I started with some nice soft cream cheese, threw on a dollup of the berry compote and rolled it into a nice tight bundle, then repeated 2 more times.

Topped off with more fruit sauce and whipped cream and served with a glass of sparkling orange juice and a coffee, it was a perfect lazy sunday breakfast.

And just like magic…

*POOF* they’re gone!

*burp*

What better use for leftover mashed taters than pancakes. Making fried mashed potatoes for breakfast is pretty good too, but I was in the mood for tater cakes this morning.

Once again, my trusty bag of Krusteaz pancakes mix come to the rescue. I added 1 part leftover mashed taters to 1.5 parts Krusteaz pancake mix and added just enough water to make a thick batter.

The potatoes tend to soften up and spread when they cook, so I made the batter a little on the thick side. I also threw in some chives, parsley and paprika for a little interest.

They are also really good plain, or I think they would go well with cheese chunks in them too. MmmmMmm cheese. Everything is better with cheese.

I then added far too much butter to my griddle and slapped on my cakes. I’m usually trying to cut corners on fat and such, but there is just something about tater cakes that screams crispy edges! Take note of the fat bubbling around the edges. Sometimes it must be done! And so it was. And they were golden and crispy and perfect, and they were glad and rejoiced.

Now tater cakes are great on their own, but I’m more of a full meal deal type of person when it comes to breakfast. There happened to be just enough room for a couple strips of turkon on the griddle and a mess of scrambled eggs with cheese. There was even some grape tomaters left on the counter from one of the last pickings I will get form my plants this year too. And so there was breakfast, in all it’s potato pancaked glory.

Just incase you feel that there was one needed, here is an…

EXTREME BREAKFAST CLOSEUP!!!

Burp!

Being as obsessed with breakfast as I am, I’m always on the lookout for new breakfast ideas. This morning’s inspiration was sitting on the counter in the form of a loaf of banana bread. French toast is a personal favorite and I’ve tried the cinnamon-bun french toast so “why not make a banana bread french toast?” I asked myself.

I quickly whipped up a typical french toast batter of a couple eggs, a snoosh of milk and a little cinnamon and soaked a couple pieces of my homemade banana bread. I then went about cooking it like the usual french toast.

While my toast and a couple slices of turkey bacon where working their magic in the frying pan, I thought about what to top it with. Somehow the usual butter and maple syrup didn’t seem right so I whipped up a little something different.

I happened to have some beautiful local picked Okananga cherries…

…and some plain goat-milk cheese in the fridge still and decided to make something light and fluffy to top it with. I threw the cherries, cheese, a tablespoon of powdered sugar and a little cinnamon in the food processor and sent it for a whirl.

The mixture tasted alright, but because of the dryish crumbly nature of the goat cheese, it wasn’t the consistency I was looking for. I happened to have some cherry yogurt onhand and after a good dolup of that, it was beautiful and smooth.

By the time my topping was done, so was my banana bread french toast so I went to the plate. Topped with a couple of the most perfect cherries I could find and a fresh sprig of mint from my own chocolate mint plant outside, it was done!

I’ll admit that the banana bread was pretty dense and heavy for a summer brekkie, but the light and bright tasting cherry shmoo on top helped to balance the whole thing out. I think it just might become a favorite breakfast in my house.

And for those with a hankering for some divine banana bread:

• 1 Cup butter
• 2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 6 mashed bananas
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 3 Cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans and set aside.
3. Mash bananas and set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar together and add eggs and vanilla.
5. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
6. Alternate adding mashed bananas and flour mixture to the butter and sugar mix until combined.
7. Pour batter into loaf pans and bake for 50-60 min or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Allow the bread to sit for a few minutes before removing from pans to cool.

Note: Recipe freezes quite well but is so delicious that it probably won’t last long enough to freeze.

Enjoy!

ahem…*sings*

“When your pancakes are dry, give something greasy a try.. Sausage Pancakes! (OOOooooo sausage pancakes)

When your griddle is hot and your batter is not.. Sausage Pancakes! (Oooo sausage pancakes)

With a flip, and a little dip, it’ll be a hit, you’ll never wanna quit….Sausage Pancakes!”

If I could think of how to end that darn tune I would, but Mommy brain has struck again in all it’s maternal glory. Of course this is a blatant rip off of Peaboy’s Bacon Pancakes, the man is a breakfast genius, how can one as humble as me compete.

I simply cut up some cooked turkey sausage, poured my batter on the hot pan, arranged the sausage bit in a nice even manner, flip and voila! *sings* Sausage Pancakes!

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Crepes. One of my all time favorite breakfast goodies. They have always held a soft spot in my heart. From before I can even remember, crepes have been a special weekend breakfast treat. I can recall a time from before I could even see over the counters, where I would stand on a chair beside my father and help him makes crepes. I don’t know that there has ever was a actual recipe written down on paper somewhere, only a strange built in knowledge of how to make the perfect batter no matter what size the batch. Even now I’m teaching my son the fine art of crepe making, and he just passed the 2 year mark.

Like I said, there is no recipe I use and I don’t use any special pans or tools. All I need is my batter, a large hot frying pan and a little melted butter.

I’ve even gotten so skilled over the years as to be able to turn my crepes without a flipper. And on those days where I feel like showing off, I can even flip them left handed. I’m so good it hurts some days.

The other morning I woke up and decided it was a crepe morning. There is just something in the air on those mornings, an almost inaudible voice calling out for them to be made and who am I to ignore the voices in my head.

In our home, serving crepes with just butter and sugar inside was the standard. It still remains my favorite way to eat them. Sometimes with a little maple syrup over them. This particular morning called for something a little different though. Bananas.

After cooking up a big stack of crepes, I cut up a couple of not quite ripe bananas, the kind where they are still a little green on the ends and have no sugar spots, and threw them in a frying pan with some brown sugar and butter. Once things got all bubbly and gooey, I threw in a good jigger of one of my favorite spirits, Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum.

I would have flambed it, but I didn’t have the tools needed and it just seemed like more work than I was willing to put forth. I ended up serving them with the banana rum sauce over top, with a little fresh whipped cream and cinnamon.

For me, crepes are a sweet affair, but for my partner, the savoury side was more his style. He had his with some black forest ham, scrambled eggs and cheese inside.

I had a bite and had to admit that they are just as tasty with something savoury as they are with something sweet.

Burp.

Well looky here, Az in fact has NOT passed away in her sleep. I know it’s been a while but I could never leave BB. The boys need a woman’s touch around here.

I had been forced to take an unexpected hiatus in order to move at the last minute. Life happened, and it happened fast, but the important thing is that I’m back!! And with me I bring….*drum roll*

Cream of Wheat sticks!

All my life I’ve always enjoyed my cream of wheat a little on the thick side. I enjoy being able to cut into it with my spoon, carefully carving away at it from the outside in, making a little CoW fortress to hold my precious supply of jam and butter till I break down the walls and let ot oooze all over.

I was an only child. I have too much imagination sometimes.

Anywho, I got thinking one day, and wondered if it was possible to make CoW so thick, that it can be cut into shapes. So off to the stove I went, with a trusty box of CoW in hand.

I made it like I usually do, but just added more till my spoon started to bend and shake under the pressure. I almost got an arm cramp from stirring it was so thick, but the pain meant it would work!

After it was cooked, I grabbed a platter, my offset spatula and a little butter and poured the CoW in the middle of the platter. Using the spatual grease with butter I spread it out till it was about 1/2- 1/4 inch thick.

After a brief chill in the fridge to set up a bit, I decided to have a little fun. Sticks may be fun, but nothing beats using a cookie cutter sometimes. And so I did. It all cut easy once it had chilled a bit. And they held their shape great!

As I was looking at my lucky CoW charms, I sat in quiet reflection for a moment. These are good, but there is always something that makes food better… FRYING IT! SO out came the frying pan and some butter.

Now you have to admit, CoW has never looked sexier than is does now. The crisp, hot, fried outside holding in the soft, creamy wheaty goodness inside just makes me start droolin’ a little. Served up with some maple syrup or warmed up jam for dipping, they bring a new twist to the standard CoW breakfast!

I, of course, had to add some other breakfasty things to make sure I had a nice balanced breakfast, but they are just as delicious on thier own as they are with eggs and the like.

*burp*