Gingerbread Waffles

I was looking for something fun and easy for Christmas morning and came across this recipe. Unfortuately, I didn't have enough time to make it Christmas morning (had breakfast casserole at my parents house so no worries), so I made it earlier this week.

Here are my trusty helpers:


I had a lot of the ingredients on hand because I had wanted to make gingerbread men. Also, did not happen. This recipe not only had ginger and molasses, but also some canned pumpkin. Hey, anything to get Andy to eat fruits or vegtables!



The waffles turned out ok. Honestly, the biggest issue was that they didn't come out of the waffle maker crisp on the outside. They were kind of chewy. Eating them wasn't so bad though.

Sausage Balls

My mom and I always make these at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think my mom follows the recipe very closely as listed on the sausage package, but I do not. Below is how I usually make them:

1lb sausage (type doesn't matter, I usually use the sage version)
16oz block of cheese, shredded (I usually use sharp cheddar but you can use whatever)
Bisquick mix (I never measure how much I use)

Combine sausage and shredded cheese in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit our until room temp (about 30 min). This makes it easier to mix. Add bisquick (about 1/3 cup at a time) and mix together by hand. I add bisquick until it starts to look crumbly and gets hard to mix in. Shape into balls (I use a cookie scoop to make them all roughly the same size). Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Sausage balls can also be frozen uncooked. I put wax paper between layers in the pan, to keep them from sticking together. Cook frozen sausage balls the same, except cooking time might be longer.

Overnight French Toast Casserole

Our family go-to holiday dish has to be Overnight French Toast.  This has been a family favorite for well over ten years.  While I may make minor alterations as to seasonings or amount of caramel on the bottom (I have problems sticking to a recipe!) the basic recipe remains the same.
I do not have the source for this recipe.... I'm not taking credit for it myself.  If you know the source, please let me know and I will document it!

Overnight French Toast Casserole

BOTTOM:
1tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
Middle:
1 loaf  French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups milk
6 eggs
4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon salt
TOPPING:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions
 In medium sauce pan combine ingredients for bottom layer and bring to a slight boil for 3 minutes.  Remove from stove and pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt. Place bread cubes in a  In a large bowl,  Pour egg mixture over bread. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the top.
Cover and bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Turn pan over onto a foil lined baking sheet (otherwise the caramel can harden in the dish making serving difficult). Serve with maple syrup if desired.  The recipe says it will serve 12, but not if your family eats large servings! It feeds my family of six without leftovers.

Christmas Carrot Cake (?)

I asked my daughter what she wanted for Christmas morning breakfast, expecting her to answer waffles, and she said, rather matter of factly, 'Carrot Cake.' So, carrot cake it was. I used this Cooking Light recipe that I've made several times before (it was actually my girl's first birthday cake). I added half whole white wheat flour since it would be our breakfast and all, but followed everything else.

The cake is better chilled, so I made it the night before while doing my Mrs Clause duties of helping Santa set up a train track.

I can't eat that much sweet for breakfast and still have good energy for the rest of the day, so I had a bowl of miso soup after a few bites of cake.

Whole-wheat pancakes

My other new thing besides being vegan is this idea of "real food". Found another blog where they have challenged themselves to eat only real food. Real food is defined as no processed food and includes no white flour and no white sugar. Seems pretty strict to me. At any rate, on saturday mornings, I usually make pancakes or waffles and this past saturday, I made this recipe. It was suppose to be banana pancake, but I hate banannas. I just left them out.

This recipe uses white whole wheat flour. I think that is kind of cheating, but I believe you can't use straight whole wheat flour because it won't work. Not enough gluten, I think. But the white whole wheat flour worked well, so I could probably use it again.

The kids always help me make breakfast. Here it is, not even 7:30 and darth james has already showed up.



I use a cast iron griddle I put on the stove top. It always seems to make the pancakes a little burnt, but Mark really likes it that way.



If I remember, I make an "J" and an "A" for my kids. I don't always remember, so I get in trouble.



These were ok. Definately not as delicious as those made with white sugar and white flour, but the same texture as Trader Joe's whole wheat pancake mix. I ate mine with maple syrup and that helped. I forgot to take a picture before I started eating them!

Baked Oatmeal Squares

I used to eat oatmeal every single day. Then one day I got sick of it. However, I am always on the lookout for new oatmeal recipes. I decided to check out the blog the person I blog stalk, blog stalks and found this recipe for baked oatmeal squares. This recipe appealled to me for two reasons. One, it says you can also use it as chewy granola bars and two, it is vegan and we are thinking about going vegan. (are you shocked? You tell people this and they are just shocked. It will probably just be a 10 day challenge, but people don't listen. They are too shocked)

I made it just as the recipe stated, except did not use organic brown sugar. And took pictures as they are on that blog. You can tell my camera is not as good. Oh well.

First your combine dry ingredients:


Blend your wet ingredients until smooth:


Mix the two together:


I made mine the night before and let it sit in the fridge:


Baked it:


Then ate it. I topped mine with unsweetened almond milk (what is the deal with sweetened almond milk? I will have to figure that out before I go vegan)


This was really good and I liked it. Unfortuately, could not use it as granola bars, but still a good recipe.

Random - Breakfast Soup

This is totally weird, I 'll be the first to admit.

I've been eating Miso Soup for breakfast for the last couple of weeks. With the cooler weather and all, I'm just not feeling a cold smoothie first thing in the morning. I'm also craving something savory. So, I'm going with the cravings and making a big pot of soup on Mondays and then re-heating it each day and stirring in miso into my bowl before serving.

This version of the soup has the following vegetables:

• Daikon Radish
• Carrots
• Kale
• Celery
• Onions
• Ginger

My kids, however, are eating oatmeal. I usually make steel-cut oats that I soak the night before. It both shortens the cooking time and may even make them more digestible (see this link). I top their bowls with almond milk and cinnamon.

A little pathetic

I told you I am a blog stalker, right?

I started making some smoothies to try to get Andy to eat fruits and vegtables. He doesn't, we tried it, didn't really work. But these smoothies are quite delicious, so I started making some for me. For breakfast. I made Orange-Carrot Smoothie one day:





And avacado-orange smoothie another:



Very healthy, not very filling. Good for breakfast before running with Jenny when we are just going to go to the bagel places afterwards. Maybe I should make them bigger? Not sure...

Hoska

5 to 6 cups flour

1/2 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp grated lemon peel

2 pkg active dry yeast

1 C milk

2/3 C water

1/4 C butter

2 eggs

almonds

In a large bowl thoroughly mix 1 1/2 cup flour, sugar, salt, lemon peel, and yeast.

Combine mile, water, butter in a saucepan. Heat until liquids are very warm. Gradually add to dry mixture and beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Add eggs and 1/2 C flour. Beat at high speed for 2 min. Add addition flour until dough is stiff. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 min. Cover with plastic wrap and towel and let rest for 20 min.

To make large braid, divide into 4 equal pieces. Roll 3 pieces into ropes 14 in long and braid together on greased baking sheet. Tuck ends under to seal and divide remaining pieces into 3 equal pieces to roll into 9 in ropes to braid. Place small braid onto large braid, tuck ends under to seal.

Cover loosely with wax paper brushed with oil and top with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. When ready to bake, remove and let stand for 10 minutes. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes for large braid and 25 minuted for small braids.

Breakfast Challenge

I really feel breakfast is a waste of time. I either eat something that is not really filling, but healthy, or something that is filling but is so unhealthy I feel sick for hours. Either way, lunch is more my speed. At any rate, what are your favorite breakfasts? I am especially interested in your extra special Christmas morning breakfasts!

I take it back, I do like coffee!