breakfast

Banana Bread Muffins

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

I like almost any banana bread recipe. And Stuart likes to buy extra bananas with the intention of letting them get too ripe, just so that I can make banana bread.

I have tried many different recipes, and this one is our favorite. It uses a combination of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour.

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I’d purchased a bag of whole wheat flour for something (can’t remember what) and we hated it. So then I thought, “Great, what do I do with these three pounds of flour?!” I’d found an all whole wheat banana bread recipe… didn’t care for that. And then we tried this one. It’s mostly all purpose flour, but with just a bit of whole wheat flour. It’s enough whole wheat flour to give the bread some body, but not enough to make the loaf dry and mealy. Adding in cinnamon chips or chocolate chips gives it a little extra sweetness.

I prefer pouring my banana bread batter into either mini loaf pans or into muffin pans because it’s easier to grab on the way out the door than slicing off a piece out of the loaf pan.

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Note: This recipe makes 10 muffins or 7 mini loaves. Doubling this recipe will yield enough batter for a full bread loaf.

Banana Bread Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • 2 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
  • 3/8 C sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4 C whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 C all purpose flour
  • chocolate chips, cinamon chips, nuts (optional)

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Stir in the melted butter (make sure it’s cooled slightly so it will not cook the egg). Stir in sugar, vanilla, and half to all of the egg (this will depend on how big your bananas are, I only used half of the egg). Add in baking soda and salt. Mix in flours.
  3. Pour two heaping tbsp of batter into each greased or lined muffin tray. If using nuts or chocolate/cinnamon chips, put five into each muffin and gently fold into batter with a small spoon. (I find that folding them into the batter before pouring ends up with all of them at the bottom of the bowl)
  4. Bake 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Note: If you are doubling the recipe, the loaf pan will take an hour to cook. Mini loaves will still only take 20 minutes.

*This recipe is adapted from Katherine at http://www.katherinemartinelli.com/blog/2011/over-ripe-banana-heaven/*

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Chorizo Gravy

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Once upon a time, in our first year of marriage, Stuart was craving a Southern classic: White Sausage Gravy and Biscuits. But I didn’t have any traditional sausage. I did the best I could with what I had – chorizo. It wasn’t technically a white gravy anymore, but it was pretty awesome!

Last week’s Mexican Monday (tomorrow’s post) involved chorizo so I had some leftover and decided to remake this gravy.

The seasonings in the chorizo give the gravy a light orange color and adds tons of extra flavor. Most sausage gravies have a lot of pepper in them, but I don’t add any additional seasonings – the pork takes care of that for me.

Chorizo Gravy

Ingredients:

  • 3 links Mexican chorizo, casings removed
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 C 2% milk

Steps

  1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, brown chorizo, breaking up with a wooden spoon. Once cooked through, use a slotted spoon to remove the chorizo and put on a paper towel lined plate.
  2. Using the fat in the pot, make a rue with 2 tbsp flour. Whisk.
  3. Whisk in milk. Continue to stir over medium-low heat until milk thickens into a gravy – about 5 minutes.
  4. Stir in cooked chorizo and serve atop biscuits.

Chroizo Gravy 3

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French Toast

~ lk529 ~ 6 Comments

Now, before you open this blog post with a preconceived notion of French Toast, I must warn you, Alton Brown would probably smack me silly for calling this breakfast dish French Toast. But, this is the French Toast that I grew up on, and so did Stuart! French Toast

You do not need fresh stale bread (oxymoron much?), you do not need to make it the night before, and you do not need to turn on the oven! What you do need are eggs, milk, vanilla, and sandwich bread. I like to sprinkle cinnamon sugar over top before eating too.

Before getting married, we had to go through Pre-Cana. One of the workbooks they had us talk through included a chart for chores. We’d agreed that Stuart would always make breakfast and I would tackle dinner. But then I became a “semi-professional chef” (Stuart’s words) and I knew I had to learn the breakfast world too. I haven’t tackled eggs yet, but I am a pro at waffles (our friends little boys have indicated they are the best they’ve ever had) and pancakes. I typically leave the French Toast to Stuart, as his father is the French Toast maker in their family too, but last weekend I stood at the griddle while he went on a run.

*Note: These amounts are all eyeballed. I prefer to use more milk in the egg mixture than my husband does. 

French Toast

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 C milk
  • pinch of salt
  • 8 slices sandwich bread
  • butter for greasing

Steps

  1. In a bowl wide enough to fit a slice of bread whisk together eggs, vanilla, milk, and salt.
  2. Melt butter over a hot griddle, or in a skillet over the stove.
  3. Dip bread in egg mixture, flipping to coat both sides. Place on griddle and cook until browned.

French Toast We always argue about syrup – my family and I like to keep our syrup in the fridge while Stuart and his like to heat it up. What’s your preference?

Blueberry Bars

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

It’s PCS (permanent change of station) season here in the military community and a lot of our friends are packing up and moving on to their next great adventure.

I recently made these Blueberry Bars for a going-away party. We were celebrating after an indoor soccer game, and in retrospect I probably should’ve chosen cherry pie filling instead of blueberry because they wear red as a team. But, it’s July and July is National Blueberry Month. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

Blueberry Bars

Ingredients:

  • 1 C room temperature butter
  • 1 3/4 C sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 C flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 can blueberry pie filling, or whatever flavor you desire!

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add in eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Beat until combined. Mix in the dry ingredients until combined.
  3. Spread all but 1 1/2 C of batter into greased 9×13″ cake pan. Spread the pie filling on top and then spoon on the remaining batter.
  4. Bake 40 minutes.

*This recipe is adapted from Alicia at http://www.everydayhomecook.com/2011/08/fruit-squares/*

Blueberry Bars Blueberry Bars

Update May 2017: While this electronic update is occurring end of January 2018, these updated photos are from May 2017! Wow. I made these bars for a church picnic and they were a huge hit. These blueberry bars are incredibly easy to assemble and perfect for bringing to any potluck. You can change the filling with your favorite pie flavor or a fruit that better fits the season.

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A dusting of powdered sugar never hurts!

bb bars (sugar)

Mini Cinna-Crescent Rolls

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast. Not the slave in the kitchen home made cinnamon rolls, the pre-made refrigerated dough in a can kind. My brother and I actually still prefer them to the “real thing”. Now that I’m “all grown up” and married, I still buy them! 

Before going to sleep last night, my husband was already looking forward to cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Unfortunately we didn’t have any. But I wasn’t about to disappoint! I had a can of crescent rolls so I decided to wing it. The experiment was successful so now the photographs won’t be going to waste! A blog post has been born. 🙂

Mini Cinna 1 Mini Cinna 2 Mini Cinna 3 Mini Cinna 7Mini Cinna 4 Mini Cinna 5

Mini Cinna-Crescent Rolls

Ingredients:

  • 1 can crescent rolls
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 C powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp + 1 tsp milk

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9″ round cake pan.
  2. Unroll crescent dough, making a rectangle out of two crescents. Over lap and press the seam together. Repeat making a total of 4 rectangles.
  3. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon.
  4. Top each rectangle of dough with a good heaping tablespoon of the brown sugar cinnamon mix. Roll along the longest edge. Cut into 1-2″ rolls. Place cut side down in cake pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes.
  5. Make frosting by whisking the powdered sugar and milk. Add more milk 1/4 tsp at a time if needed. Drizzle frosting over Mini Cinna-Crescent Rolls.

Mini Cinna 6