Category Archives: Breakfast

Carrot Cake Breakfast Muffins

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Veronica

These are the best tasting wholesome muffins I’ve ever made. Made with whole wheat flour, honey, apples, carrots & walnuts, they are not only good for you but have a very moist and tender crumb (this surprised me) and are really delicious (this surprised me too). They are so good, in fact, that I replaced my dinner with them tonight!

[OK, fine. Here’s the full disclosure. I meant to only have one as a snack (I baked them in the afternoon) and it was so yummy, I nabbed another. And another. Then I had to break one apart to take a picture of the inside so I figured I may as well eat that one too. By then I no longer wanted dinner!]

I plan to store them in the freezer and pop one or two into the microwave on busy mornings. I think they’d be wonderful with a cup of black coffee.

Carrot Cake Breakfast Muffins
Recipe adapted from An Edible Mosaic
Makes 12 large muffins

Muffins
2 eggs
1/3 c canola oil
1/4 c 2% milk
1/2 c honey
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 large finely shredded carrots
1 large or 2 small sweet apples, peeled, cored, and finely chopped (I used Fuji)
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Glaze
1 oz Neuchâtel cheese (low-fat cream cheese)
1 1/2 tsp honey

Preheat the oven to 350F and put paper liners in your muffin pan.

Beat together the eggs, oil, milk, honey, and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Lightly stir the wet ingredients into the dry, then fold in the carrot, apple, and nuts. Fill the muffin tray (the batter will come up to the top and mound in the center) and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

To make the glaze, warm the Neuchâtel in the microwave, then stir in the honey. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cooled muffins with a fork, or put it into a Ziploc bag, cut the corner, and squeeze it over the muffins while sweeping the bag back and forth.

Nutritional Information (per muffin): 224 Calories, 11g fat, 37mg cholesterol, 225mg sodium, 29g carb, 3g fiber, 4g protein

I very finely shredded the carrots so they're hard to see, but I promise they're there!

16 Comments

Posted in Breakfast, Lighter Fare and tagged apple, Breakfast, carrot cake, muffins. Bookmark the permalink.

Easy Apple Cider Doughnuts

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Veronica

Am I the only one who thinks things like apple cider & pumpkin pie are fall treats and aren’t meant to be enjoyed after Thanksgiving? Kind of like wearing white after labor day, it shouldn’t be done? I’m sort of hoping I am the only one who thinks this way, because otherwise this wonderful recipe won’t be tried in time and will be long forgotten when fall rolls around next year.

If you have the ingredients on hand, I urge you to make these before the official fall eating season has turned to Christmas eating (for me, that means the apple cider and pumpkin are replaced by egg nog and chocolate…lots of chocolate). They are simple so you could even serve them on Thanksgiving morning without over-taxing yourself. And the sugar buzz will get your long day of cooking off to a nice start.

Easy Apple Cider Doughnuts

recipe courtesy of Marina C.

1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmet
1 cup apple cider
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
2 cups baking mix (such as Bisquick–I used some generic stuff)

Preheat oil in deep fryer to 375 degrees F. (I just filled a skillet half full of oil and heated it. Be sure to check the temperature with a candy thermometer.)

Beat egg, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider and vanilla together. Add flour and baking mix.

On floured surface, knead dough several times and roll to 1/2-inch thick. Cut with donut cutter (I used a large & tiny biscuit cutter, or you could use a glass & a pop cap or use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke a hole). Drop into hot oil & cook until golden brown, turn, and cook the other side until golden brown. Keep the candy thermometer in the oil and adjust the heat on the burner as necessary to keep the temperature steady. You don’t want to let the oil get too hot or it will burn the doughnuts before they have a chance to cook in the middle. Don’t forget to cook those donut holes as well! Waste not…)

Drain on paper towels. Frost or roll in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. I mixed 1 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon for the coating.

Serves 18-24

5 Comments

Posted in Breakfast and tagged apple cider, doughnuts, easy. Bookmark the permalink.

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Veronica

Sometimes it’s the simplest recipes that are the best! I made mine with blueberries and they were so good, I didn’t even need any syrup!

Best Buttermilk Pancakes
from smittenkitchen.com

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or slightly less table salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon extra for brushing griddle (I’ve made these pancakes with and without the butter mixed in, and can say with confidence they work either way. They’re just richer with it, of course.)
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen and thawed (optional)
1. Preheat an electric griddle to 375°F, or place a griddle pan or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons melted butter, and whisk to combine. The batter should have small to medium lumps.
2. Test the griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If the water bounces and spatters, the griddle is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush the remaining 1/2 teaspoon butter onto the griddle. Wipe off the excess with a folded paper towel.
3. Using a 4-oz. ladle, about 1/2 cup (for a 6-inch pancake), pour the batter in pools 2 inches apart. If you wish to make blueberry pancakes, arrange a handful over the cooking pancake, pressing them in slightly. When the pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around the edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. If any batter oozes or blueberries roll out, push them back under with your spatula. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.
4. Repeat with the remaining batter. You can keep the finished pancakes on a heat-proof plate in the oven at 175°F. Serve warm.

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Posted in Breakfast and tagged best, blueberry, buttermilk, pancakes. Bookmark the permalink.

Black Rice Pudding

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Veronica

This stuff is just amazing. I adore it! The coconut milk and sugar makes it a little heavy on the calories, but I justify the splurge by reminding myself that the black rice is chock full of antioxidants, even more than blueberries!

Commonly served for breakfast in parts of Southeast Asia, this dish also makes a great dessert. Chinese black rice, sometimes called forbidden rice, works well, but if you live near a Southeast Asian market you can use this same method with the more traditional Thai black sticky rice.

If you can’t find any kind of black rice, substitute brown rice (not quick-cooking) — it will result in a thicker, light-colored pudding but will still be delicious.

Black Rice Pudding

Printable recipe

1 cup black rice
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1 (13 1/2- to 15-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk, stirred well

Bring rice, 3 cups water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to a boil in a 3 to 4-quart heavy saucepan, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered with a tight-fitting lid, 45 minutes (rice will be cooked but still wet). Stir in sugar, a scant 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 1/2 cups coconut milk and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thick and rice is tender but still slightly chewy, about 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool to warm or room temperature, stirring occasionally, at least 30 minutes. Just before serving, stir pudding and divide among 8 bowls. Stir remaining coconut milk and drizzle over pudding.

Recipe source: Gourmet, December 2005

7 Comments

Posted in Asian, Breakfast, Sweets, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged black rice, Breakfast, dessert, pudding, recipe, vegan. Bookmark the permalink.

Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Veronica

I ran across a recipe entitled “Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles” on Joy the Baker’s blog and immediately knew I was going to have to try it. Bacon caramelized with brown sugar and stirred into waffle batter?? Oh yeah, I’m there. But if the title isn’t enough to convince you, I will impart a portion of her blog (which I heartily agree with):

“These waffles need to be made now, tonight, first thing tomorrow morning, or whenever you get hungry… now? They’re that good.”

Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

For the Bacon
10 slices of bacon
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with non stick cooking spray and line with foil. Arrange bacon in a single layer on the baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with brown sugar. Place in the upper third of the oven and bake until sugar is caramelized and bacon is brown and crispy, about 10 to 15 minutes. (I used some super thick, big bacon slices so I only used five and had to cook them 20 minutes.) Remove from oven. Immediately remove bacon slices using a pair of tongs. Work quickly or they will stick. Place them on a cutting board (not paper towels, they’ll stick!) to cool before chopping. Once cool, chop the bacon into bite size bits and set aside.

For the Waffles

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups buttermilk

*If you don’t eat bacon, try adding 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon to the batter. Yum!

Set up your waffle iron on a level surface and turn on to preheat.
In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and brown sugar. Whisk to blend. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold. Once almost fully incorporated, add the bacon bits. Stir. Try not to over mix the batter or the waffles will become tough. It’s OK if a few lumps remain in the batter.

Cook according to your waffle machine instructions.

Recipe source: adapted from Joy the Baker

Serve with real maple syrup and strawberries. And a side of fried eggs & more bacon if your cholesterol count could use a little boost.

3 Comments

Posted in Breakfast and tagged bacon, brown sugar, waffles. Bookmark the permalink.

Impossibly Easy Vegetable Pie

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Veronica

Maybe I’m not the best judge of the quality of meals since I’m on an endless diet and I tend to think anything edible is good, but I really do favor this quiche-type dish and I end up making it a lot b/c it’s satisfying and low in calories (about 200 calories per 1/6th of the whole recipe). Den likes it too and as far as I can remember, he enjoyed it when he wasn’t on a diet (he ate it w/o complaining, anyway), so it’s probably safe for dieters and non-dieters alike.

This is my original version (based on a Betty Crocker recipe off their website), but I came up with this one for our dinner tonight b/c I found some sad looking leeks in the fridge that needed to be used in a jiffy and we didn’t have any milk. Using chicken broth made the meal even more low-cal and worked great!

Broccoli-Leek Vegetable Pie

3 leeks, sliced (white part only)
2 cups brocolli florets
1 cup cauliflower florets
1/4 of a red pepper, chopped (I’d use more for color but this is all I had left)
1-2 cups 2% shredded cheddar cheese
4 whole eggs
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray. Mix the vegetables with the cheese and spread in baking dish in an even layer. Whisk the remaining ingredients together in a bowl until smooth and pour over the vegetables. Bake 45-55 minutes, or until egg mixture is set in the middle and a knife comes out clean when inserted near the center.

Orange Biggie Buns

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Veronica

Marina recently posted a recipe for her “Orange Bitty Buns” and I could neither resist making them ASAP, nor the impulse to turn those “bitty” buns into giant-sized monster rolls so that I couldn’t even call them by their intended name when I was finished with them. Sorry, Marina, but I’m all about BIG when it comes to fat and sugar. :)

I’m going to post the recipe as Marina originally intended since I’m sure they will turn out better for you that way. Doing it my way (rolling out a large rectangle of the dough, layering on the filling and rolling the whole thing up to slice with floss/thread, like cinnamon rolls), was messy and difficult and didn’t make the rolls very pretty. Course, they tasted divine and the glaze covered up the ugliness so who cares? Either way, they’ll be great!!!! I think I actually like them BETTER than cinnamon rolls, even Aunt Becky’s (which are the best cinnamon rolls in the world). I hope you like them too.

MARINA’S ORANGE BITTY BUNS

Biscuits:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk

Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened (1 teaspoon per biscuit)
1 cup and 2 tablespoons orange marmalade (1 1/2 tablespoons per biscuit)
1/4 cup brown sugar (1 teaspoon brown sugar per biscuit)

Icing:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon butter, softened
2 tablespoons cream cheese
Dash salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons orange zest

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Biscuits: Combine dry ingredients for biscuit. Cut shortening into dry mixture. Add buttermilk and blend. Roll out biscuit dough on floured waxed paper until about 3/4 of an inch thick. Cut with a round biscuit cutter as if you were making biscuits. You’ll get approximately 10 to 12 biscuits. Roll out each individual biscuit until it is 5 inches in diameter and 1/4-inch thick.

On each biscuit, layer butter, marmalade and brown sugar. Roll up each biscuit and slice into 3 pinwheels of equal size. Place rolls in 2 (7 by 7-inch) baking pans. (You can also use other dimensions of pans. The key is to keep the rolls close together). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before icing.

For Icing: Mix powdered sugar, orange juice, butter,
cream cheese, salt, vanilla, and orange zest until smooth. Drizzle over rolls.

Makes 3 Dozen