Baptism Egg Bake

Isabelle's baptism went really well and the food turned out perfectly! My coworker gave me her recipe for an egg bake, which was great, but I of course, wanted to try to add my own personal touch on it and added some more spices, it was very tasty! There is only one piece left and I made a large pan, so I'll see if I remember to take a picture and add it to this post before I eat it!

Julie's Egg Bake with Tiffany's Twist

~serves 8-10

Ingredients:

    -8 slices of bread, diced

    -1 pound Jimmy Dean sausage, brown and broken up

    -2 cups shredded cheddar cheese ( I used sharp cheddar)

    -1 small can slice mushrooms, drained (I diced them up)

    -1 dozen eggs

    *-1 can cream of mushroom soup

    *-1 cup milk

    *-1 tsp. yellow mustard

Spices I added:

1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

(you could use garlic salt and skip the kosher salt and garlic powder if you'd like too, it tastes just as good)

Beat eggs until foamy, add soup mixture (*) and mushrooms.  Layer bread, sausage and cheese in 9x13 pan. Pour egg mixture over. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake @350 for 45 minutes. Let stand for 10 min.

French Toast Strata

I have been slacking on my blogging duties, for good reason though, our little girl finally arrived! I have been cooking, but just haven't found the time to post and take pictures along the way. I'll post a few recipes this week, but they might not all have pictures, as we ate them before I could get a picture! I have been testing out recipes for Isabelle's baptism and found this delicious recipe for French Toast, yum! It was a hit and I will for surely be making it for her baptism next weekend!

 

French Toast Strata with Berry Sauce
1 1/2 Loaves French Bread
18 eggs
1 cup Milk (eyeball it)
1 cup Maple Syrup
A splash of Vanilla
A dash of Cinnamon or nutmeg. Whatever suits you.
1 pkg Cream Cheese
Fresh and/or thawed Frozen Berries of your choice

Mix together eggs, milk, syrup, vanilla & spices

Cut the French bread into medium sized cubes, use 1/2 of them to layer the bottom of a large casserole dish**. Slice the cream cheese into cubes and arrange on top of the layer of bread. Use the remaining bread to form another layer on top of the cream cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes until they are thoroughly covered. Use the back of a wooden spoon (or just go ahead and use your hands!) to gently press the bread down into the pan and egg mixture until it is all covered and gooey.

Cover and let it sit for a couple of hours, or even better, overnight.

Sprinkle your berries with a little sugar. If they are fresh, smash them up just a bit to release some juices. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to serve the strata.

Bake the strata at 350 for 45 minutes. Check center for doneness. It should be firm, like French Toast. Not runny.

Hashbrown Crust Quiche

 I must say, you know you found a good recipe when you and your husband eat the WHOLE thing for dinner! It was very tasty and the perfect meat-free dish for Friday. It was also pretty easy to make, the only thing I would have changed, would have been to let the hashbrown crust get a little more crispy. I was worried it would get cooked even more once I added the eggs, but it didn't. It was still delicious and will be a repeat recipe at our household. My picture is horrible, I took a quick one with my phone before eating, but since we ate it all, I didn't have time to take another. :)

 

Loosely based off of a Paula Dean Recipe. 

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3 cups, shredded frozen hash browns, thawed and drained
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 3/4 cup of cooked zucchini (Paula used cooked ham)
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Gently press the drained hash browns between paper towels to dry them as best as possible. In a 9-inch pie plate, toss the hash browns with the melted butter into the plate. Press them into the bottom and up the sides to form a crust. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and starting to crisp.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. When the hash brown crust is ready pour the egg mixture over it and return to the oven.
Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for about 30 minutes until the quiche is light golden brown on top and puffed.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

I love lemon poppy seed anything, so I decided to try a recipe for a lemon poppy seed bundt cake since I need to bring a breakfast bread to a staff retreat this weekend. I found this recipe on all recipes.com and although I can't sneak a taste until Sunday, it smells delicious. It was super easy to make! The only thing to note is that you have to soak the poppy seeds in milk for two hours prior to cooking. I came down with the flu during our retreat and never tried it, but I'll let you know once I am feeling better how it tastes.



Ingredients:
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/4 cup milk
1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla

pudding mix
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
Directions:
1.  Soak poppy seeds in milk for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
2.  In a large bowl, stir together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in water, oil, and eggs. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape bowl, and beat 4 minutes on medium speed. Blend in poppy seed mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3.  Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Blueberry Banana Bread

I have a slight obsession with banana bread. I decided to use my banana bread recipe and add a twist, fresh blueberries. It was delicious. I suggest you give it a try. Our blueberries were starting to wrinkle, so we threw them in the freezer with our brown bananas to save for a day of baking. With this cool fall weather we are already having, I decided it would be the perfect day to turn on the oven and bake. It was a nice treat for breakfast this morning.

Blueberry Banana Bread

1 1/2 medium sized bananas (as ripe as possible)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup soft margarine

2 T. milk (I used soy milk)

1 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp soda

1 cup blueberries

Mash bananas, set aside. Blend sugar and margarine in bowl until smooth, add egg, beat until smooth. Add milk and banana blend until smooth. Add dry ingredients into banana mixture until well blended. Grease/flour loaf pan. Fold blueberries into the batter. Pour batter evenly into pan. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

BoGo-Two for One

Okay, so this isn't my best post, but they were good so I had to pass it on. Are you every looking for a quick, easy, and healthy breakfast? Or a refreshing taste on water? You have come to the right place! I made this simple breakfast toast this weekend when I was too lazy to make something more time consuming. We simply toasted some wheat bread, spread a little Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb cheese, and add some avocado...YUM! My husband also added some scrambled eggs, but I passed on those. We had a lot of cucumbers popping up in the garden this week, what to use them for? I tried to get creative and I added them to a pitcher of water with a little lemon juice and some chopped mint leaves. YUM! It was a nice refreshing drink for summer and has a subtle flavor.

Broccoli and Cheese Omelet muffins

I made these yummy omelet muffins when Pat's parents were in town. They were tasty and kind of fun to eat. I never would have thought to make omelets using muffin tins, but was happy Gina from Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes thought of it.  We didn't have any cheddar cheese on hand, which I think would have made it even more flavorful. Next time, I would add a number of different ingredients to try and find my favorite omelet muffin combination. You could put leftovers in there and it would still be delicious. This is a good recipe to have on hand for company, they are easy to make and good for you, only 2 points for those of you Weight Watchers followers. Enjoy!

 

Broccoli and Cheese Omelet Muffins

Recipe Compliments of Gina's Weight Watcher's Recipes

• 4 cups broccoli florets
• 4 whole eggs
• 1 cup egg whites
• 1/4 cup reduced fat cheddar ( I skipped this, since I didn't have any on hand)
• 1/4 cup good grated cheese like pecorino romano
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and fresh pepper
• cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°. Steam broccoli with a little water for about 6-7 minutes.
When broccoli is cooked, mash into smaller pieces and add olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Spray cupcake tin with cooking spray and spoon broccoli mixture evenly into 9 tins.

In a medium bowl, beat egg whites, eggs, grated cheese, salt and pepper. Pour into the greased tins over broccoli until a little more than 3/4 full. Top with grated cheddar and bake in the oven until cooked, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately. Wrap any leftovers in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator to enjoy during the week.

French Toast Bread Pudding

Another great and easy recipe from Cook Yourself Thin Faster. We made this for breakfast yesterday and I have to admit, I didn't fully follow the recipe. It says to refrigerate overnight, but I made it immediately. It still tasted great. We even added some frozen strawberries to it for extra flavor, it was delicious. A must try! I realize  I need to take better pictures, as the pictures never seem to do the dish justice! Trust me, it is good and I highly recommend putting strawberries or some type of fruit in it, even thought it already has mashed bananas, it gives it extra flavor!

French Toast Bread Pudding

Cooking Spray

4 c (about 8 slices) whole wheat bread

Cut into 1 inch cubes (put in your baking dish and set aside)

In bowl mix:

4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

Mix Well then add:

2 Large eggs (one at a time)

2 egg whites (one at a time)

¾ c lowfat milk

3 tbs pure maple syrup

½ tsp vanilla extract

Zest of 1 orange

(Mix well and pour over bread, refrigerate overnight)

1 tbs confectioners' sugar, for garnish

375º let sit for 15 minutes after taking out of refrigerator, bake for 30-40 minutes.

Eggs Italian Style

I was sick of our regular weekend breakfasts of pancakes and smoothies or breakfast sandwiches and smoothies. So I went to my trusted "Cook Yourself Thin Faster" cookbook and found this recipe, it was different and delicious! It was really light, but was actually enjoy to fill us up!

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
4 half-inch polenta slices from a ready made polenta log
8 half inch tomato slices
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 t. chopped fresh rosemary
4 large eggs

SERVES 4 (we halved the recipe)
Calories: 159, Fat: 9g, Sodium: 435mg, Sugars 2g

1. Heat half of the oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add the polenta and cook until crispy, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a plate and keep warm. Add the tomato, and season with half the salt and pepper, and all of rosemary, and cook until the sugars in the tomatoes begin to slightly caramelize, about 30 seconds per side. Set aside and keep warm.

2. Add the remaining oil to the pan and crack the eggs. Season with the remaining salt and pepper, cover, and cook until the yolks are just set and the whites are opaque, about 2 minutes.

3. To serve, place the polenta on each plate, top with 2 tomato slices, and slide an egg over the tomatoes. It won't be a perfect fit, so place the foods on an angle for a pretty presentation.

Oatmeal, Yogurt, Chocolate Chip Muffins!

On the weekend, I have gotten into the habit of making blueberry pancakes and smoothies for breakfast; however, we had that yesterday and I wanted to try something new. I wanted to make some sort of oatmeal muffin and use up ingredients that are in our fridge that we need to use before we go to my cousin's wedding this week/weekend. So I went to my trusty friend, google.com, and searched for oatmeal yogurt muffins and found a good recipe, but I made a few changes. This recipe calls for pecans, dates, and raisins, but I just used the raisins and added chocolate chips. I also used yogurt instead of sour cream and they were delicious! The best part about these muffins is that you will more than likely have all of the ingredients on hand in your pantry! I suggest you give them a try. I also used this one large muffin pan and two small 12 muffin pans to make these.

Oatmeal, Yogurt, Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from Cooks.com
2 c. oatmeal 
2 c. sour cream (or plain yogurt)- I used Vanilla Yogurt
2/3 c. melted butter
4 eggs
2 c. brown sugar
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Combine oatmeal and yogurt (or sour cream). Stir in melted butter, then eggs and brown sugar. Mix together dry ingredients and stir in. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins.

 2. Bake 375 degrees, paper lined or greased muffin tins, 20-25 minutes. Makes approximately 2 dozen.

Carmelized Banana Loaf Cake

I feel like I am getting ahead of myself here, I am in the honeymoon stage of this blog so I find myself daydreaming about what I can cook or bake next and add to the blog. While my stomach thanks me for my persistence and excitement, I fear that in time my wallet will not! So forgive me if I start off strong with multiple recipes a week and eventually tapper off to my actual two new recipes a week resolution. I could blog every night because I do cook every night, but once I find a recipe I like, I find myself making it frequently, which probably won't interest my readers as much. We will see how it goes, but I must stick ot my two new recipes a week, so you can count on that! I do need to know that I am doing this for others too, so if you think of it, click the Follow button on the right-hand side of this screen. That way you'll get updates when I update my blog!

I don't know about you, but maybe one of my biggest weaknesses, besides candy and diet coke, is banana bread. My favorite thing to do is find a great banana bread recipe and add to it to make it my own. I usually can be found adding chocolate chips or chopped walnuts, but when I came across this recipe in Rachel Ray's Magazine (amazing by the way), I couldn't wait to try it! This is by far THE BEST BANANA BREAD I have made!

By: Silvana Nardon

From: Rachel Ray Magazine December

• 6 Servings
• Prep 35 min
• Bake 55 min

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 large bananas
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, in 1 piece
• 1 large egg plus 1 large egg white
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Don't leave the sauce behind! Be sure to serve all the gooey caramel from the baking pan.

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325°. Grease a 5-by-9-inch loaf pan. Trim both ends off each of 3 bananas to fit crosswise in the pan; reserve the ends. Halve the long banana pieces lengthwise; peel and transfer to a plate.
   
   

2. In a large, heavy skillet, bring 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons water to a boil, without stirring. Cook until the water has evaporated and the mixture starts turning amber. Remove from the heat and swirl in the butter with a fork. Add the long banana pieces cut side down and cook over low heat for 1 minute; transfer to the prepared loaf pan, arranging them crosswise, cut side down. Drizzle the remaining caramel on top.
   
   

3. In a medium bowl, mash the banana end pieces to equal 1 cup (add more banana if necessary). Mash in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Beat in the whole egg, egg white and vanilla.
   
   

4. In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the banana mixture and oil; whisk until blended. Scrape the batter over the bananas in the pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes; invert the cake onto a platter and let cool completely.

Photo How-To:

• 
  Invert the loaf pan and use the bottom as a guide to trim the bananas to fit
• 
  Halve the bananas lengthwise, cutting from the center in each direction to prevent cracking.
• 
  Add the butter to the bubbling sugar as soon as an amber spot of caramel appears.
• 
  Use a fork to mash the banana ends and sugar until almost smooth with some lumps remaining.