Pancakes for Dinner?

I think so!

Omelette

I had some heirloom tomatoes and an avocado that needed to be used up fast. Sounds like a yummy omelet to me!

I was really hungry, so I used 3 eggs in this omelet. This was so fresh and vibrant that I had to share it, no matter how simple it is!

I smothered the omelet in salsa, and then had an amazing lunch.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe

In part of my quest to use up my pantry ingredients, I am trying to avoid buying cereal for breakfast. I decided to turn some plain oatmeal into cookies. I started off with a "Oatmeal Raisin Cookies I" recipe (of which there are many), but decided to tweak the recipe slightly.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Crisco
• 1/3 Cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Cooking
• 2.5 cups Shaws brand Quick Oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup raisins

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Cream together Crisco, sugars until smooth, then add eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda) and slowly mix into the wet mixture.
4. Stir in oats and raisins.
5. Drop large spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes* or until browned. (*Because the cookies are so thick)
   

Makes 18 large cookies.

The cookies didn't flatten that much. Maybe next time I make them I'll press the cookies to get a flatter, disk-like shape.

They’re thick and warm and delicious. Maybe I needed a bit more liquid because they didn't seem to be spreading out too much and stayed very thick. That being said, they made great breakfast bars!

We ate a few as they came out of the oven, so I couldn't get a picture of them all!

Corn Meal Mush

When you are about to move across the country, you start trying to find new ways to use all of the items in your pantry. In an attempt to use up some more corn meal, I decided to try the "Corn Meal Mush" recipe.

I cut the recipe in half, and then added some honey to help give the mush some more flavor. It took a total of 3 minutes to cook, and was actually pretty good. There isn't too much texture, but adding some nuts or fruit would help it out.

Keith says that he would eat it again, so this "gruel" is a winner!

Waffles with Rhubarb Sauce

Now, I'm perfectly content to just eat strawberry rhubarb sauce plain, but it makes a great topping for waffles and pancakes. I am a fan of bisquick, as it makes so many breakfast tasks almost brainless.

Preparing for breakfast!

The waffle iron we have makes small crevices, which isn't ideal for a lot of toppings. However, the resulting crispy waffles are delicious. The problem is that the iron doesn't have a built in timer. It will beep when it is up to temperature, but you have to set an additional timer to know when the waffles are done. I used setting #4 for 3 minutes with the bisquick batter.

When I make pancakes, I have a bad habit of eating some while I'm cooking (so then I end up not sitting down to breakfast!) Since there are fewer waffles, it was hard for me to not start nibbling on them before I had put on the rhubarb sauce!

Yum!!

Bisquick Biscuits

A while ago I made my own batch of bisquick, which actually was really good. This is something that I will do more in the future, but in the period before my defense I decided to buy a batch of real bisquick so that I would be able to have biscuits whenever I wanted.

This biscuits are so easy, just mix and milk, and they are delicious and fresh. These aren't close to buttery southern biscuits, but they serve a different craving.

Sometimes I'll add chocolate chips to them. This time I added a little bit of salt and honey to a single batch. Since there are no raw eggs, I add these ingredients to taste to the dough.

What a yummy and easy breakfast!

Cranberry Muffins

Last fall, I received some cranberries with my organic vegetable delivery. I didn't know what I wanted to make, so I placed them in the freezer until I had an idea.

I decided that I wanted to try to make muffins with items that I had in my fridge. I searched for recipes, and then ended up taking components from each to combine them into the recipe that I'm sharing with you today. The recipe makes ~20 medium sized muffins.

I'd never seen the inside of a fresh cranberry before. Wow they are sour! And I double checked, cranberry seeds are edible, and there are no pits in them, either!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter (salted)
  
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
  
• 1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup non-fat yogurt
• 1/2 cup orange juice
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup chopped fresh or frozen cranberries (8 oz bag) ~2 cups whole. some finely chopped, others just cut in half
  
  
  

Instructions

• Cream butter, sugar, and apple sauce, eggs and vanilla. Stir in yogurt
  
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices and slowly stir into the wet mixture.
  
• Stir in cranberries
  
• grease muffin pan and pour batter in until the cups are half full.
  
• Bake at 350 degrees C for 20-25 min until muffins are done.
  

These muffins are SUPER moist, but this shouldn't be a surprise because of all of the wet ingredients that went into them (I think I should have left out the OJ). Maybe next time I should add some more flour... I will be back to tweak this recipe some more in the future.

French French Toast

"Accounts differ as to the origins of the Luftwaffle. It is agreed that it began as a fulling and nutritious breakfast served by the brothers of Zeta Psi at MIT. The staple of the Luftwaffle is a Belgium waffle with a German flag stuck in its center. It has also been known to include French toast, German sausage, and an English muffin." -Keith

For Keith's birthday he requested his favorite breakfast (French toast) but with a special request. He wanted me to place a french flag ON the toast. I was more than happy to deliver! I suppose that this is a variation of a Luftwaffle, but I'm instead calling it French French toast.

For the French toast, I made a loaf of homemade challah. I skipped the braiding and egg wash since I would be soaking them in eggs the next morning! The egg mixture for this breakfast had 4 eggs, some milk, vanilla, cinnamon, a dash of allspice, a tiny amount of nutmeg and some brown sugar.

The only critique I got from Keith is that next time I should slice the bread thinner.

Egg Breakfast Sandwich

I pride myself with cooking delicious breakfast sandwiches. Part of my secret is that I use brown sugar sausage, but in the sandwich I'm going to show you today I stuck to the basic egg and cheese on a bagel.

For the bagel I like to choose either an everything bagel or a honey wheat variety. I think a bit of sweet and salty is what makes a bagel sandwich scrumptious.

Before cooking the eggs, I toast the bagel. If I'm feeling like making the sandwich less healthy, I will butter the bagel. This is a step that I frequently skip.

I cook the eggs over easy, I like bursting the yolk when I cut into the sandwich. When the eggs are cooking I season them with salt and pepper (if I'm using butter on the bagel, I usually then skip the salt.) I like to use cheddar cheese or a mexican cheese blend.

I place the bagel on a foil covered tray and then toast it until the cheese has melted. (Tip: placing some cheese between the two eggs will help keep them from slipping.)

Cut the bagel in half and enjoy!

Classic Apple Dishes

Today I am going to tell you about the two apple dishes I make the most frequently: Apple Pancakes and Applesauce.

Growing up, my dad would make us apple pancakes on Sunday mornings. This is something that I have always loved, and therefore made, but more people are not used to considering apple pancakes. Next time you're cooking breakfast, chop up some apples and add it to your pancake batter. I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Apple Pancakes

I love homemade applesauce more than I can explain. This is where all of the remaining apples from our apple picking ended up! I was hoping to get pink apple sauce, so I stewed all of the apples with their skins still on (and then fished the skins out after the sauce was done.) The pluses: no pealing apples, the minuses: fishing out the skins. I'm hoping to get a potato ricer soon to help make this process easier!

Fresh, homemade applesauce.

So we are now at the end of the fall 2010 apple picking adventure. I cannot wait until this fall so I can find more apple dishes to share with you!