breakfast – Page 2

Homemade Zucchini Bread

July 27, 2016

I had my very first piece of zucchini bread at a place called Bread Winners in Dallas. As one can assume by their name, they have pretty great bread. If you are ever in Dallas, I would highly recommend going for brunch. Not only is their menu amazing, but they serve you a nice warm basket of bread (that includes their delicious zucchini bread) when you sit down.

But up until then I had absolutely no interest in making or tasting zucchini bread. No offense to all the zucchini out there, but putting it in bread didn’t sound all that appealing. If you haven’t had zucchini bread before, you may feel the same way I did. And like Bread Winners did for me, I hope I can change your mind!

So what makes zucchini bread so good?

Cinnamon.

Nutmeg.

Zucchini.

Oh yeah, the zucchini actually serves a purpose (other than making you feel like you’re eating something healthy…serving of vegetables – check!)! It makes the bread super moist and soaks up all the wonderful flavors from the cinnamon and nutmeg.

Because I had never made zucchini bread before, I did a lot of research of various recipes around the internet. What I didn’t like about most of them was that they included raisins or cranberries and large pieces of nuts. Hard pass on both of those.

In the end, I pretty much adapted my banana bread recipe, swapping out the banana for shredded zucchini and adding in coarsely ground walnuts instead of whole ones.

Once I had shredded the zucchini and ground down the walnuts, the rest of the batter came together in no time. But I can’t say the same thing for the baking. “Quick” breads like this may save you time because you don’t have to let them proof, but they still take a long time to bake. One loaf took a little over an hour in my oven (which is notoriously inconsistent). It may not take as long for you, but I would recommend setting your timer to 50 minutes, and checking it every 5-10 minutes after that if it’s not done.

But it was well worth the wait! I couldn’t help but cutting right into this loaf and having a warm slice with my coffee on Sunday morning. It was delicious! There is absolutely no zucchini flavor (does zucchini have flavor?), but instead tastes so warm and rich thanks to the cinnamon, nutmeg, and walnuts.

Actually, this would be a great recipe to make in the Fall and Winter now that I think about it.

If you make this bread, tell me how you like it or if there is anything you would change. Also, if you live in Dallas and are familiar with Bread Winner’s Zucchini Bread, you will have to let me know how this stacks up! It’s been a while since I have been there.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:58]

Brown Butter Blueberry Banana Bread

June 22, 2016

This Brown Butter Blueberry Banana Bread post is brought to you by the letter B. Actually, it’s brought to you by gigantic container of blueberries on sale at Trader Joe’s. Last weekend when I was out grocery shopping I picked up 2 lbs of blueberries because they were “a good deal”. Once I got home I realized I had no idea how I was going to use all of them! I could have made blueberry muffins, but I looked around my kitchen and saw 3 brown bananas on my counter, so blueberry banana bread it was.

To make this banana bread even better, I decided to brown some butter to add to this batter. Not only because I love alliteration, but also because brown butter is delicious. It’s even more delicious than regular butter. When butter browns, it gets this toasty, nutty flavor that really adds so much flavor to whatever you put it in or on.

It also helps that browning butter is very easy! All I do to brown butter is melt the butter in a sauce pan on medium heat and then let it simmer until it turns a nice amber color, like you see above. It only takes about 5 minutes to get the it perfectly brown.

So I added the brown butter to the batter and once it was all mixed I folded in the blueberries. To prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom, I tossed them in some flour first before mixing them in. Then I poured the batter to a loaf pan lined with parchment so that I could easily remove the loaf from the pan when it was cool.

The bread took about an hour to bake, then I left it out on the counter for another hour to cool before I sliced into it.

I have to admit that I am not really a banana bread person, so maybe I am not the best person to judge this bread. But I did eat the small end slice and was pleasantly surprised! The crust on top was a tad crunchy, and the bread in the center was pillowy soft. The banana flavor was subtle (because I only used partially browned bananas, not completely browned bananas) and was perfectly complimented by the nutty brown butter flavor and the tart blueberries.

The true test for this banana bread was taking it in to work. Between the co-worker whose wife is in culinary school and the other at-home bakers like me, we seem to always have some home-baked goodies in the kitchen. Which means that I have some very spoiled and picky co-workers when it comes to baked goods. I knew that if someone tried this and didn’t like it, word would spread and I would be left throwing half a loaf away at the end of the day.

The good news was the bread was gone by 10 am. Which means I can safely assume that it was a hit. Actually, I don’t have to assume…people came by my desk to tell me they had a piece and loved it.

So if you love banana bread you will love this recipe! If you kinda like banana bread, even you will probably really like this recipe. If it can win over someone like me who it not generally a banana bread fan, it must be pretty stinkin’ good.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:48]

Crumbly Coffee Cake Muffins

May 30, 2016

I have been completely under estimating coffee cake these past few years. If I am in the mood for a sweet and decadent breakfast I would much rather have a donut, croissant, or muffin. And what is so exciting about a fluffy cake topped with a generous helping of sweet and crunchy streusel? Um, how about everything!? Okay, it may not be exciting, but boy is it delicious! Sometimes I forget that simplicity can still be delicious.

To me, the best part of any coffee cake is the super crumbly, crunchy, sweet, and salty topping. There isn’t really a trick to streusel topping, you can just about as much sugar, cinnamon, and salt you want to suite your taste. Except I would recommend that you don’t forget the flour, like I did in my first batch of muffins. The flour holds together the little crumbles of streusel so they stay in tact on top of the muffin. Without the flour, my first batch just melted down into the muffin. Don’t get me wrong, it was still delicious, but not really coffee cake material. On the second round I remembered the flour and the streusel turned out perfectly!

I know I have talked a lot about the the topping, but it is the contrast with the light and spongy cake beneath that makes it such a classic. I like to lightly season my cake with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to compliment the top.

You could definitely make this in a square pan as a cake and it would be just as good. But I like the muffin size because it is so much easier to transport (since I bring most of my baked goods to work) and I think the topping to cake ratio is a bit better since it doesn’t all fall off when you cut into it.

Buttery, sweet, and delicious. Perfect to accompany your morning cup of coffee.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:36]

Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Egg Casserole

May 25, 2016

I have probably eaten more eggs in the past 6 months than I have in the last 6 years. I may be exaggerating a little, but not by much. Since changing up my diet at the beginning of the year to be more protein and fat rich, I have had to learn to enjoy more egg-filled breakfasts. Something that did not come easy to me. At the beginning of my first Whole 30, I reluctantly ate eggs for breakfast just about every morning thinking that all I had to do was get through those 30 days, then I could go back to my oatmeal or yogurt. Well, guess what. 5 months later I am still eating eggs for breakfast.

While now I appreciate the nutrition and energy they give me to start the day, they can still be a little boring. I am always trying to find new ways to cook them, finding inspiration everywhere from blogs to the Trader Joes. The latter is exactly where the inspiration for this recipe came. I was rummaging through their meat section reading the back of every label trying to find a sausage that didn’t have sugar in it when I came across this sun dried tomato and basil chicken sausage. From there the wheels started turning and eventually I decided that a sun dried tomato and basil egg casserole would be a great new way to eat my eggs in the morning.

Can you tell I do all my shopping at Trader Joe’s? I promise, this isn’t a sponsored post, it’s just that it’s where about 80% of the food in my kitchen came. Of course, the sun dried tomato and basil chicken sausage is the muse of this dish, but I am pretty certain you can find a similar sausage flavor at almost any store. For some additional flavor and to add some veggies to this egg casserole, I also added some peppers and onions. To make it easy on myself, I used the fire roasted peppers and onions, but you could also saute up your own and they would be great!

I first sauteed up the sausage then added it to the bottom of a baking dish along with the peppers, onions, and sun dried tomatoes. I poured over the eggs then topped it off with some freshly chopped basil.

The egg casserole only took about 30 minute to bake. I know it’s completely cooked through when the egg on top is no longer runny. Once it’s out of the oven I like to let it cool for a bit before I cut into it. Hot eggs can just fall apart when they are cut into.

What I love about an egg casserole like this is that it’s an easy breakfast or brunch option to make for a large group, or it can be made in advance and eaten throughout the week, which is exactly what I did. It fed me for a week and I didn’t get sick of it. The flavors in this are wonderful if not a little bit unexpected. It tastes decidedly Italian thanks to the basil and peppers, but eggs and Italian food aren’t two things I normally put together. Fortunately, it totally works! How could sausage and eggs not work?

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:34]

Roasted Strawberry and Rosemary Scones

May 20, 2016

Leave it to me to find breakfast inspiration from a drink. Last week we had friends in town which is all the excuse I needed to indulge in a fancy cocktail. We took them out to one of our favorite restaurants that is more of a speak-easy bar than a restaurant, so you can probably imagine how great the drinks are. I can’t even tell you what I ordered except that it had muddled strawberry and a rosemary sprig. I would have never thought to put the two together before, but they were delicious! As I was taking my first sip I immediately thought that this would make a great scone or muffin recipe. Minus the gin, of course.

I didn’t just want this to be any old strawberry scone, so along with a hint of rosemary, I roasted the strawberries for an extra, unexpected flavor. Roasted strawberries are just a little bit sweeter, softer, and since the juice has had a chance to cook out, they mix in perfectly with the scone dough so that it isn’t too soggy

The rest of the scone recipe is pretty basic, almost like a biscuit dough. Cubes of butter are cut into the flour and sugar and then mixed with milk, an egg, and some vanilla. I have ruined a few scone recipes before by over mixing the dough, so now I know that it’s okay if the dough is a little lumpy. In fact, it’s preferred. All those little lumps of butter will melt and make the scones light and flaky!

Right at the end, I mixed in some chopped up fresh rosemary leaves and the roasted strawberries. Typically I roll out the dough and cut it into rounds, like biscuits (0r you could cut them into wedges). In an attempt to be a little rustic (and because I was lazy), I just dropped spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet. And then because they looked a little too rustic once baked, I camouflaged them with a drizzle of strawberry glaze made with the reserved strawberry juice and some powdered sugar.

I will admit, I was a little nervous about the rosemary in a sweet and fruity scone, but it just worked! Normally I pair rosemary with garlic so I think of it as a savory herb, but now I know it doesn’t have to be.

But if that doesn’t convince you, you can just drop the rosemary all together and just make these roasted strawberry scones, instead. They will still be delicious!

Also, if you haven’t signed up for Yummly, I would highly recommend it! It’s a great way to find and collect recipes. If you are on Yummly, I would really appreciate it if you “Yum” my recipe,by clicking that little orange button.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:33]

Homemade Acai Bowl

February 17, 2016

Acai-Bowl-15title

Have you guys had an acai (a-si-ee) bowl before? They are all the rage in California, I’m told. I was pretty late to the game on this food trend, having my first acai bowl just a couple months ago. We have one (ONE!) place you can get an acai bowl here in Charlotte and I don’t even think you can call it a food truck. It’s more of a food trailer? Food cart? Well that is where I had more first acai bowl and it was just okay. For $10 I expected it to be amazing. It wasn’t.

Acai Bowl-18

Then I was back in my hometown, San Diego, late last year and finally had a proper acai bowl. And it lived up to it’s outrageous price. Yes, it is a glorified fruit bowl, but it’s delicious, filling, and oh so good for you.

So since I can’t get a decent acai bowl around here, I decided to figure out a way to make my own at home. It’s actually quite easy if you can get your hands on some acai puree.

Acai Bowl-1

What you need to make your own acai bowl is this little packet of goodness – Sambozon Acai Berry pack. You can find this in the freezer section of your local Whole Foods, health food store, or Amazon (in bulk). I prefer the unsweetened packs, but they also sell sweetened packs, too.

This next part is as easy as making a smoothie. I ran the packet under some warm water for a few seconds, then broke the frozen block of acai up into smaller pieces and dumped that into a blender. I added some almond milk and honey, then blended it until it formed a thick puree. Something about the same consistency as frozen yogurt.

From here, you can make it your own. I personally like to add a little almond butter, lots of fruit, and a touch of granola. If I don’t have fresh fruit, then I will toss on some frozen berries and banana slices. Chia pudding would also be good on an acai bowl.

Acai Bowl-17

The best part about these acai bowls is that they are a part of any healthy and nutritious breakfast, but can also be a light lunch, post-workout snack, or dessert!

I hope you give these a try! Or let me know what your favorite acai bowl toppings are!

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Chocolate Chip Whole Wheat Muffins

November 2, 2015

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a muffin recipe, hasn’t it? I was all about muffins back in the day. It is definitely one of my favorite breakfast food items to make because you get so much bang for your buck. Make one easy batter, fill it with what you want, and you end up with a dozen delicious muffins. Whenever I have to bring a breakfast food for a large group, I make muffins.

Which is exactly how these came about! For Sunday School this past week, I volunteered to bring breakfast. I wanted something crowd-pleasing, but also a bit healthy. So I balanced the chocolate chips with whole wheat and bran flour in the muffin. Life is all about balance, right?

I started with my basic muffin batter. I replaced some of the all purpose flour with whole wheat, and added in a touch of bran. Just a touch, because bran flour can throw off the texture of these whole wheat muffins. But for some extra crunch on top, I mixed together a little strussel topping with bran flour, sugar, and butter. I crumbled that on top and let it bake until golden brown.

These definitely have a bit of a bran, whole wheat flavor. But the chocolate chips add enough sweetness to make you forget you are eating something mildly healthy. If you don’t like the flavor of whole wheat, just reduce the amount by half and replace with AP flour. It will be diluted enough that you will barely taste it, but still get some of the benefit of the whole wheat.

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Pumpkin Spice Granola

October 16, 2014

Because it’s October, and the leaves are starting to change and fall to the ground. Because Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner. Because I can’t get enough of Fall and never want Winter to come.

Because of all that, I am adding pumpkin spice to everything. First cookies. Now granola. I can’t tell you when or where it will end.

And granola it just wonderful in and of itself. Even without the pumpkin spice. You can have it for breakfast with milk or yogurt. As a snack on its own. Or over a creamy bowl of ice cream. Pumpkin spice granola just makes that much better.

If for some reason you don’t like granola or pumpkin spice, just make a batch of this granola and give it to a friend. While it slowly bakes, it will fill your home with the wonderfully warm scent of Fall.

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National Pancake Day

September 26, 2014

I think children are like pancakes. You sort of ruin the first one, and you get better at it the second time around.
– Kelly Ripa

Happy National Pancake Day! I wanted to share some of my favorite pancake recipes with y’all since they are definitely my favorite breakfast food. I will be celebrating the day after National Pancake Day with a nice tall stack of my own.

Chocolate Hazelnut Pancakes

Peach Ricotta Pancakes

Sugar Free, Gluten Free Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

Protein Power Pancakes

Gingerbread Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes

And even though this is National Pancake Day, there is no sense in discriminating against international pancakes.

Dutch Baby (Pancake) with Berry Compote

Whole Wheat Crepes

What is your favorite type of pancake?

Mini Protein Blueberry Muffins

September 4, 2014

I have made more than a few muffin recipes. Okay ten. Not including this one.

I like muffins, okay?! They can as healthy or as unhealthy as you want. They are fairly fool proof. And who doesn’t like a good muffin. Definitely a crowd pleaser, which means they are great to take into work or to your friend who just became a new mom. Which is who these muffins were made for.

A friend of mine ended up having her baby this past weekend (Labor Day weekend, how fitting), so I wanted to make her something healthy, yummy, and no-fuss to eat this week since she will have her hands full!

I won’t go into the muffin basics, since I have done that plenty of times in other posts. But one trick I wanted to share with you, was to toss your berries in flour before mixing them into the batter.

Doing that will ensure that they don’t sink to the bottom of the muffin tin. Nothing is worse than getting a muffin and all the berries are all stuck to the bottom.

This recipe is a bit different than my basic muffin batter in that I added protein powder to it and used even more Greek yogurt to bump up that protein factor. I also used substituted half the flour for whole wheat flour.

I have never had a baby or been a mom, so I can’t tell you what to eat after giving birth. But I would think that a new mom would want to be eating healthy, and if they are breastfeeding, they need to keep their energy up. I think these muffins will be perfect for my friend, since she can just nibble on one of these minis whenever she has a hand free.

What other food items or meals would be great to make for a new-mom?

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Maple Bacon Breakfast Rolls

August 29, 2014

Sure, I could tell you that these breakfast rolls were inspired by the maple bacon donut my husband had on his trip to Portland. But do I really need to explain myself? I don’t think so. So I felt like dousing a bacon-filled sweet roll in maple-spiked cream cheese icing. So what? It was delicious!! I regret nothing.

I started with a basic cinnamon roll/sweet roll dough, rolled out to roughly the size of a large baking sheet, then sprinkled with candied bacon bits, brown sugar, and pecans. To make the candied bacon, I cooked up some diced bacon, then added a little maple syrup and brown sugar to form a glaze. I didn’t add any butter to the filling like you might with a cinnamon roll because the bacon has enough fat. As the bacon cooks even more and brown sugar melts, it forms a sweet and salty filling in the rolls.

Please don’t judge my roll organization. I realize that I made two critical mistakes: 1) the pan is too small and 2) the rolls are not placed for optimal baking. But oh well…they all taste the same in my mouth.

Moving on.

After rolling the dough up and cutting into about 2 inch rolls, I placed them in the pan then let them rise until they were pretty much over flowing from the pan (see above).

While the rolls baked, I whipped up a batch of maple icing. I started with a fairly standard cream cheese icing but substituted part of the milk for maple syrup until I reached the optimal maple flavor.

See that bacon peeking out? Yum, right? All these need is that icing….

There we go.

Drooling yet? Just me?

My husband and I wasted no time digging in. Even though he is not a breakfast nor sweets lover, he loved these rolls! I think it was the bacon. Most sweet rolls can be too sweet (for some…definitely not me), but the bacon really rounds out the flavor and adds just enough saltiness to balance out the sweetness.

Ok, I have to stop looking at these pictures because I just can’t handle it anymore. As the kids say these days….I can’t even!

Hope you all have a wonderful National Bacon Day!!

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Peach Ricotta Pancakes

August 22, 2014

No matter how old I get, pancakes will still be my favorite breakfast food. They are simple and sweet and remind me of Saturday mornings watching cartoons as a kid. Even though there is nothing wrong with plain, unadulterated pancakes, they might be my favorite breakfast food to experiment with. A great foundation to add whatever sorts of flavors I like. And being that it is summer and peaches are in full supply here in the South, it seemed like an obvious choice to me!

This also seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a ricotta pancake recipe. A ricotta pancake batter is very similar to normal batter, except that part of the milk is replaced with ricotta cheese, making the resulting pancakes very creamy. Once the batter was mixed, I folded diced peaches directly into the it.

I poured about 1/4-1/3 cup of batter onto a griddle heated up to 375 degrees. Once the pancakes formed bubbles on top, I flipped them over to cook the other side. Each side took about 2 minutes.

For me, pancakes aren’t complete without butter and syrup. But syrup just didn’t seem right for these pancakes. So instead, I sprinkled a bit of powdered spiked with nutmeg and cinnamon over the top.

The powdered sugar adds the sweetness that you would get from the syrup and the cinnamon and nutmeg are the perfect compliment to the peaches.

The pancakes themselves are creamier than normal pancakes, thanks to the ricotta. But they are still supper fluffy! With the peaches mixed directly into the batter, it ensures that there is a little piece of peach in each bite.

What is your favorite pancake flavor? Or do you prefer the basics?

[yumprint-recipe id=’39’]

Dutch Baby with Berry Compote

July 13, 2014

It’s fair to say that breakfast is my favorite meal to cook. Scratch that. To bake. As long as I can make a breakfast using eggs, milk, flour, butter, and sugar, I can whip up just about anything. The lesson here is, if you like breakfast baked goods, always have the aforementioned ingredients on hand.

Which is how this lovely breakfast came to be. I wasn’t feeling my typical Greek yogurt and berry breakfast so I took a quick inventory of my pantry/fridge and decided to whip up a personal sized Dutch Baby. A Dutch Baby is commonly referred to as a pancake, however it more closely resembles a popover. The batter is extremely thin and it is baked until the Dutch Baby puffs up to form a dome over the pan.

The picture above shows the Dutch Baby about 30 seconds after it was removed from the oven. It has already deflated quite a bit, but as it does, it creates the perfect little vessel to hold anything from a little lemon juice and sugar to a triple berry compote.

I chose the latter (I needed to get in those fruit servings). To make the compote, I put about 1/2 cup of frozen berries (fresh would work just as well if not better) in a sauce pan with a little lemon juice and honey and simmered them until the berries softened the juices were released.

This may sound or look like an intimidating recipe, but it is much easier than you think. Probably easier than normal pancakes. It doesn’t require any babysitting, flipping, or stacking. Just pop the skillet in the oven and check back in 20 minutes.

And when it comes to fillings, I like to take a crepe frame of mind. The traditional recipe just calls for a bit of lemon juice and sugar, but I think you could fill this little baby with anything. Like a fried egg, Neutella, strawberries and whip cream. The world is your oyster.

The recipe below is for two servings, but can easily be halved or multiplied to serve more or less people (I halved it to make it for just me).

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Chocolate Hazelnut Pancakes

May 19, 2014

If the good people over at Neutella can convince us that their chocolate-hazelnut spread makes for a delicious addition to a nutritious breakfast (because toast is sooooo nutritious), then I can convince you that these chocolate hazelnut pancakes make a well rounded way to start your morning.

Except we all know that this is pretty much dessert for breakfast. Which I am totally okay with, by the way. Life is too short NOT to have dessert for breakfast at least once and a while.

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Gluten Free and Sugar Free Pancakes

May 9, 2014

I really like to reward myself with some little indulgences on weekends. But what I love even more is to indulge myself while still being healthy. One of my favorite indulgences to give a healthy makeover are pancakes because they offer a variety of ways to experiment and are relatively fool proof. To make these pancakes gluten free, I combined 3 different “flours”. Buckwheat flour, almond flour, quinoa flour (which is just dried quinoa processed until fine like a flour).

To make them sugar free, I just used a banana and a little stevia. You could also use apple sauce, honey, or brown rice syrup if you don’t like the banana flavor. I mashed up the banana and mixed it in with milk and eggs before adding it to the dry mixture. I like my batter on the thicker side, but you can always add more milk to make it thinner and thus result in thinner pancakes. After a quick flip on the griddle, I had myself a nice stack of healthy pancakes. The perfect fuel for my Saturday runs.

But I didn’t just stop with making the pancakes healthy. I also decided to make my own “syrup” using strawberries, water, and a little honey. Boy was that stuff delicious!

And I didn’t feel at all guilty about drenching my pancakes in it either.

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Baked Strawberry Donuts

April 30, 2014

When I was a kid, my dad would always take me to get donuts on the weekends. Something about a donut just brings me back to simpler times when your only weekend responsibility was to play outside and maybe do a little homework. Oh, and not worrying about counting all those calories.

Now, weekends are full of chores and errands, and of course a little fun here and there. And just like when I was a kid, I think weekends are a time for a little treat. A little reminder of being a kid again.

What I love about making (and baking) donuts at home, is that they are just about the same recipe as a muffin just shaped in a circle. You can make them as healthy or unhealthy as you like. This weekend combines a little bit of both. The batter is made with whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt, but they also have 2 layers of icing.

I glazed the donuts first in a vanilla glaze made with confectioners sugar and milk. Then I dipped them into a strawberry icing made with pureed strawberries and confectioners sugar.

I also mixed strawberries into the batter for some extra strawberry flavor. Strawberry jam could instead be mixed into the batter for a more concentrated flavor.

Other than the excessive icing, these donuts are a far cry from the ones I had from a child. They are baked, not fried, and use much more healthy ingredients. It almost makes this childhood favorite guilt-free again. Almost.

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