Hash

This is the meal I was talking about that allowed me to get to eat Hollandaise Sauce at a restaurant, and so I had to make it at home. It's great for leftover meat and potatoes, just fry up some veggies and add potatoes and shred the leftover meat. Ham, chicken, pulled pork, you name it, it works. I haven't listed quantities of ingredients because it really depends on how much leftovers you have. I just eyeball it and go from there, but I usually end up making it in a stock pot because my normal large pot isn't big enough. We eat this for dinner, but the restaurant served it for breakfast.

Ingredients

Oil

Onion, diced

Bell Peppers, diced

Mushrooms, diced

Hot Sauce

Worcestershire Sauce

Potatoes, cooked and cubed

Meat, cut into bite sizes pieces or shredded

Salt

Pepper

Steak Spice

Hollandaise Sauce

Directions

~In large frying pan or pot, heat oil and add onions, season with hot sauce & Worcestershire Sauce and cook until translucent

~Add in mushrooms and bell peppers and continue to saute

~Add in potatoes and meat.

~Stir gently and allow to heat through.

~Season with salt, pepper, steak spice and addition hot sauce or Worcestershire to taste.

~Serve with Hollandaise Sauce to top

Enjoy

Blackberry French Toast Bake (dairy free)

The place I got this recipe from called it bread pudding and stated they served it for dessert. I wanted french toast however and the recipe looked no different than what ingredients would go into an overnight french toast casserole, so it became breakfast.

We had a surplus of blackberry-like berries and so I had a day of figuring out ways to use them up. This was the first method of the day and it turned out pretty great. I did increase the fruit and decrease the sugar content however. I was expecting to need to put some butter or maple syrup over the top of it, but it was absolutely unnecessary. The only problem was because it needed to be dairy free, I had to use soy milk/almond milk instead of cream / half and half. It wasn't a big deal, but there was just a little bit extra liquid that sat in the bottom because it wasn't as thick of a custard. With the leftovers we just scooped the bread out of the excess moisture, put it in a container and microwaved it the next day and it was great. Not soggy at all.

If you don't want to go dairy free / low fat, check out the original recipe at A Spicy Perspective. Otherwise, just substitute any milk / cream product to a total of five cups. So skim milk, coconut milk, whole milk, whatever works for you.

After eating this, I got to thinking and as great as this was, I tend to have a surplus of sweet breakfast recipes in my arsenal, simply because while I love bacon and fried potatoes, etc. I hate eggs. Omelettes, bennies, scrambled, I can't do it if it's an egg dish. French toast on the other hand, while it has eggs, it is baked into bread, so is more liked a baked good and there is no resemblance to egginess.

So this thinking resulted in me thinking up what I'm going to do next with this recipe. Savoury bread pudding! Some green peppers, onions, mushrooms, maybe some ham or bacon crumbled in and omit the vanilla / cinnamon / nutmeg and replace it with some italian seasonings or poultry seasonings. The poultry would make it very much like my Mom's stuffing however. So we'll see how it goes.

A couple of hints with this recipe though, the recipe I found called for good quality, bakery bread. This was a spur of the moment thing though and I only had two half loaves of sandwich bread in the freezer and it worked just fine. It was even good that it was frozen, because the fluffiness can make it hard to cube, and cutting it frozen worked great.

Also, as for the sugar, I'm thinking it might be good to divide the sugar up and do 1 C. white, 3/4 C. brown or some combo like that. Just to try it out for next time.

Final also...while this may fit in a 9x13 baking dish, I have a bigger casserole dish that I used. It's not as long or wide as it's kind of oval shaped, but it's deeper and it worked well for this. I don't know the exact volume of it, but I just use it when I'm concerned that something might puff up in a 9x13 and spill out.

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 lb Bread, 1 inch cubes

1 1/2 C. Blackberries

1 Nectarine, cubed

1 C. Blueberries

5 C. Milk (see note above. I used 4 C. Almond milk, 1 C. Fat Free Vanilla Soy Milk)

8 Eggs

1 3/4 C. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg

1/4 Tsp. Salt

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F

~Place bread, fruit and berries into baking dish and toss to evenly distribute

~Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk until frothy.

~Pour mixture over bread and fruit

~Bake for 1 hr, 15 min. Centre may still look moist, but not soggy

~Let stand for 10 min.

Enjoy

Thick & Fluffy Pancakes

Pancakes have really been important for us in our house. So much so that I almost can't appreciate them because I've eaten them for dinner too many times. While most households have soup and grilled cheese, a hot dog, order a pizza or pick up a burger when there is no food in the house, we haven't been able to do that because of dietary restrictions. So, enter the pancakes.

While we make waffles from scratch ALWAYS! Pancakes have been a different story. Probably partly because we make them for dinner when we are in a hurry or because we make them up the cabin (the first day there we always have pancakes) and we don't have tubs of flour, etc. sitting up there. It's just easier to take a box mix.

Now for us, pancakes aren't thin little white things that are loonie size and flavourless. Pancakes are supposed to be thick and filling and have a lot of flavour. We achieve this with the pancake mix (there is only one brand we're allowed to buy and one type in that brand) by always adding the eggs, oil and milk to it. Not just the water that some mixes brag you can get away with doing. Not worth it.

But we have to sub out the milk for soy milk. Vanilla soy milk to be precise, and wow! The vanilla adds so much flavour and the thicker soy milk makes the pancakes puff up all that much more. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but one time one of the neighbourhood boys stumbled and said these were better than his mom's (and they were from a box mix). Big oops. But they are great.

Why I'm saying all this is because we ran out of pancake mix. All available boxes had migrated up to the cabin and never returned. I suggested we just make some from scratch and that idea was shot down. I guess the recipe that had been used before for scratch wasn't so good and it really flopped. This recipe did not. They were thick and amazing and very similar to the famous mix pancakes we've always made. I think we may have just cured the box pancake mix obsession in this house, because I've been asked 'have you printed out that pancake recipe.' Success!

This recipe was very similar to what we are used to, it just lacked a bit of sweetness, but it didn't lack flavour. So not a big deal. Later in the afternoon after making them for breakfast I commented about this lack of sweetness and I hadn't been doing the measuring of ingredients. The one that was told me there was no sugar in this recipe. I pulled up the recipe and noticed that there was in fact sugar. What I'm trying to say is these are still very good pancakes without the sugar. It's not necessary. I think we'll try them with some of the sugar next time, but we probably won't use the whole amount I'm going to list because really, they were just fine without and who wants to add sugar if it's not necessary?

Note to myself: TRIPLE THIS RECIPE FOR 4 PEOPLE & A DOG if you don't want to just squeak by with barely enough batter. Doubling was the perfect amount if you scrapped the bowl, but we like to have a bit more wiggle room if people want an extra one. And yes, the dog gets a pancake. Mind you it's probably more blueberries than pancake, but it's still a problem because she's on grain free kibble because of allergies, but she ends up wanting pancakes. Someone gave a piece to her once and now she's hooked. You can't eat your pancakes and not give her one small one and have a clean conscience. She'll make sure of that.

Recipe from allrecipes.com

Serves 2

Ingredients

3/4 C. Milk (Vanilla Fat Free Soy Milk is amazing)

2 Tbsp. White Vinegar

1 C. Flour

2 Tbsp. Sugar, optional

1 Tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 Egg

2 Tbsp. Butter, melted

Oil

Directions

~Combine milk and vinegar in a medium bowl and stir once to mix. Allow to sit and sour for five minutes

~Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, powder, soda & salt) in a separate bowl.

~Whisk eggs and butter into milk.

~Add the dry ingredients into the wet and whisk out the lumps

~Head skillet or griddle and spray with oil or cooking spray

~Pour batter onto griddle and wait until bubbles appear and start to pop in the batter. 

~Flip

~Cook until golden brown

Enjoy

Coconut Granola

I finally bought coconut oil. I've heard 'wonderful' things about it (that I can't help but roll my eyes at) but we'll see. I really like it as a lotion though. Just by itself. No perfumes, no chemicals, just coconut oil. It smells amazing and it leaves your skin feeling great. I'm definitely going to cook with it. But I won't be taking x number of tablespoons of it a day or whatever advocates of it are currently doing. It is still a fat. Maybe it is a better fat, but that doesn't mean you can consume it without consequences. Everything in moderation. So I will be using it as a butter substitute for some things. Which is a good thing, because I don't actually use butter because of it being a dairy product. So I'm always using margarine which isn't real in the slightest.

First up on the coconut oil recipes is this granola. Very tasty. The batch isn't going to last very long I don't think. But it is a little sweet, not too sweet but if you don't like sweet granola then it would seem sweet. But that may just be because I only had sweetened coconut on hand, so that might play into it.

Recipe from Shutterbean

Makes ~ 5 Cups

Ingredients

3 C. Rolled Oats

3/4 C. Nuts, chopped  

3/4 C. Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

1/3 C. Coconut Oil, melted

1/4 C. Maple Syrup

1/8 C. Brown Sugar

1/2 Tsp. Salt

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F

~Combine the first five ingredients in a large bowl. Stir well to evenly coat the mixture.

~Sprinkle brown sugar and salt over mixture and toss to coat.

~Spread mixture onto a rimmed baking dish or cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and crisp. Stirring every so often.

Enjoy

Hearty Raspberry & Orange Pancakes

I struggle with pancakes and because of that I'm kinda scared of them. Give me yeast doughs or pastry any day, but not pancakes. But, I'm trying to slowly get over my fears. Unfortunately it's not working so well. As you can see these are a bit dark on the outside. The funny thing I find with pancakes is I rarely have ever eaten a golden pancake like you see in magazines. I don't know how they do it, but I've never managed it, nor has my Dad who loves his perfect pancake. I think it all has to do with the type of pan you use. So I'm going to blame this one on the pan. The good thing though is while they don't look all that appealing they actually are. They look black and burnt, but they never seem to taste like that, and these ones are full of amazing flavour inside.

These are very heavy pancakes due to the greek yogurt and whole wheat flour in them, kinda like my Yogurt Waffles. One of these (and a few bites of a second one that I shared with Kona) was plenty. Top it off with some butter and some lemon curd and you are good to go.

One other thing, I know that it kind of defeats the purpose of putting dairy yogurt and soy milk in this, but for some reason I believe vanilla soy milk (even the fat-free variety) makes thicker and more flavourful pancakes. Try it and see (even with Aunt Jemima mixes it makes it taste home made).

Adapted from Baking Bites

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 C. Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda

1/4 Tsp. Salt

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 Egg

2/3 C. Plain Greek Yogurt

1/2 C. Vanilla Soy Milk

1 Tbsp. Orange Juice

1/2 Orange, zested

1 Tbsp. Butter, melted

1 C. Raspberries, fresh or frozen & thawed

Directions

~In a medium bowl, combine flour, powder, soda, salt & sugar. Mix and set aside.

~In another medium bowl, whisk together egg, yogurt, milk, OJ, zest & butter.

~Pour dry ingredients into wet and stir until combined.

~Preheat a griddle or skillet and grease lightly.

~Scoop batter into hot pan (if too thick and doesn't spread, gently spread with the back of a spoon), and sprinkle top with raspberries. 

~Cook until brown and then flip and again cook until brown.

Enjoy

Green Citrus Smoothie

Here you have a green smoothie, without all the typical green smoothie ingredients. Yup, that's right, no spinach. You read that right. This smoothie contains just enough tart and just enough sweetness in every sip. Typically my smoothies usually end up being pink or purple because of some form of berries being added, but this one avoids that all together and really it's green so that's all the encouragement I need to make it. One suggestion, we keep all of our fruit at room temperature, so this smoothie ended up being pretty room temperature by the time we served it. If you aren't up for that, add a bit of ice into the mix before blending.

I found this recipe in a local grocery store's flyer but it can also be found on the Thrifty's website.

Makes: 3 - 1 Cup servings

Ingredients

4 Kiwi, peeled
1 Orange, peeled & chunked with pith removed
1 Banana, peeled and chunked
Zest of 1/2 Lime
Juice of 1/2 Lime
1 1/2 C. Vanilla Yogurt (or plain)
1 Tbsp. Honey

Directions

~Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth.

~Pour into glasses and serve.

Enjoy

Cinnamon Buns

Haha, if you look at the labels in which I've classified this recipe under you'd be laughing too: Dessert & Breakfast! Anyway, moving on...This recipe is one I always use, and by always I mean the one or two times a year I feel the need for cinnamon buns. Sorry, let me clarify, I feel the need for cinnamon buns more than once or twice a year but I can only justify them on those few occasions.

I wasn't as stuck on my last batch of these as I usually am, but ironically everyone else who tried them said they were the best ones yet. The only thing I did different was use my KA instead of hand kneading these. The recipe really was written to be made all by hand from mixing with a whisk to kneading by hand for ten minutes. I decided to speed it up a little this time and so these will be the directions I share because that will be how I make these in the future.

I am going to warn you, these do not taste like Cinnabon which is kinda unfortunate in a way because I like Cinnabon, but I guess it's probably an okay thing that they aren't so sickly sweet right??

The source for this recipe amazingly enough is my middle school home ec. teacher. Yes folks, I actually do use a recipe from that class (actually I use a couple of them still). This recipe though is the reason why yeast doughs never scared me like so many people I know. I always knew that if you could make a cinnamon bun work out and rise you could make a simple loaf of bread work.

Makes 12 Rolls (every single time, no matter what I do I always get 12 and if I double it I still get 24 exactly without fail)

Ingredients

Dough

2 1/2 - 3 C. Flour

2 Tsp. Yeast

1/4 C. Sugar

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1/4 Butter, softened

2/3 C. Hot Water

1 Egg

Rolls

Dough

1/2 C. Brown Sugar

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

2 Tbsp. Butter, softened

1/4 C. Raisins or walnuts (optional)

Oil

Icing

1 C. Icing Sugar

1/4 C. Butter, softened

1 Tsp. Vanilla

water or milk (very little)

Directions

Dough

~Combine 1 C. of flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Stir.

~Add butter, hot water and egg. Beat with paddle attachment for 1 minute or until thick and elastic.

~Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that leaves the side of the bowl.

~Knead for 5-10 minutes (by hand) or less if using a stand mixer.

~Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

~Meanwhile in a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.

~Roll dough into a 12" x 10" rectangle on a floured surface.

~Spread dough with butter (like you're buttering toast) and sprinkle with the sugar mixture and raisins or nuts if desired. 

~Roll dough up tightly starting at the 12" side. Pinch the ends to seal.

~Cut roll into 12 - 1" pieces either with a serrated knife or dental floss (ideally).

~Place rolls into a greased baking dish (all 12 will fit in a 4 x 3 arrangement in a 9"x13" pan or for a better placement use round pans to give each roll a bit more space to expand)

~Brush rolls lightly with oil.

~Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for a couple of hours on the counter or overnight in the fridge.

~Preheat oven to 375 F and bake cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes (or until lightly browned).

~While baking, mix icing sugar, butter and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add a small amount of milk or water and whisk out any lumps. If too thick, add more liquid. If too thin, add more icing sugar until you reach desired consistency.

~Spread icing on slightly warm cinnamon buns.

Enjoy

Raisins

No Raisins (so much prettier and much tastier this way!)

Basic Waffles

I have two confessions:

1) I didn't actually make these. I assisted (I guess the correct term would be prep-cook in the food world) my Dad because these are his 'special waffles' and I wanted to share this recipe with you because they are absolutely amazing (fluffy and light and everything a perfect waffle should be). Plus, I wanted to get all his hints and tricks for my own future reference (the ones that aren't written in the cookbook).

2) I haven't allowed myself to open my laptop for several days because I have found an internet black hole that is even deeper than Facebook, food blogging or even Pinterest. You say that's not possible, but it is. It's called travel planning. And I'm not just talking about finding an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. No, I'm talking full blown, three months backpacking through Europe planning. Basically I'll go search out one piece of information and hours later find myself cross eyed and my browser running at a snail's pace because I have so many windows open because this or that hyperlink sounded important. Yup, at least food blogging or Pinterest is largely about the pictures and the name or description of the item. ie. it's quick reading / looking. But with travel, you actually have to read the fine print, etc. etc. It's just been easier these last few days to avoid my computer. Instead I've been sticking to web browsing on my phone, because the tiny display ensures that I don't hang around too long.

Back to the food.

This recipe is from The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking, edited by Charlotte Turgeon. It's one of those cookbooks from the 80's that is 800 pages long and has 3 recipes per page and 1 picture. You guys all know what I'm talking about. Well, most recipes we wouldn't dare try in it (some are a bit bizarre to say the least and the rest are just trying to make the ordinary housewife into culinary goddesses of the exotic), but this waffle recipe we come back to time and time again and don't even think of changing any of the ingredients. It just works as it is (except we use soy milk instead of regular milk).

Makes 6-8 waffles

Ingredients

2 C. All Purpose Flour

3 Tsp. Baking Powder

3/4 Tsp. Salt

2 Tbsp. Sugar

3 Eggs, separated

1 3/4 C. Milk

1/2 C. Vegetable Oil

Directions

~Set out two large bowls and sift the flour with the baking powder, salt and sugar three times (sift it first into the largest of the bowls if there is a bowl size discrepancy, 2nd time into the other bowl and the 3rd time back into the largest bowl).

~In the above bowl that is not holding the flour mixture, beat the egg yolks until frothy. Then stir in the milk and oil. Pour into flour mixture and beat with hand held mixer until smooth.

~In a third bowl (medium size), beat egg whites until stiff peaks form then fold into the batter. Don't stir, gently fold and don't over mix.

~Pour enough batter onto your greased and preheated waffle iron and bake according to manufacturer instructions.

~Serve immediately after pulling from the iron (if they sit, they'll loose their crunchy exterior which makes these waffles shine.)

Enjoy

Nutella Stuffed French Toast Sandwich

Are you the type of person that likes to eat your french toast with syrup or do you prefer ketchup? I have to admit that even though I don't eat ketchup on anything, I do like it on my french toast. I'll save the syrup for my pancakes or waffles. Unfortunately, french toast is not something I eat all that often and so I have been known to forget that I like the ketchup combo best and instead smother the bread in syrup. Only then does somebody decide to pull out the ketchup and remind me of my mistake.

Well, with this combination you do not need ketchup (it would actually taste pretty awful if you did use it) and you can get away with no syrup (unless you really want a sugar high). Instead, I just add a bit of butter to the top surface to give it a bit of moisture, and it's perfect.

I've never actually made this recipe with the strawberries before and I almost missed my chance this time. I had the sandwich all ready to dip when the basket of berries caught my eye. I quickly disassembled my sandwich and sliced a few berries to add, and I'm so glad I did.

Usually I make this on my griddle or frying pan but today I decided to use the trusty George Foreman Grill which has become sort of an obsession of mine as of late. It worked great because I didn't have to fret about flipping the sandwich to cook the other side. Which usually results in the top and bottom slices of bread detaching from each other due to the nutella thinning out from the heat and becoming slippery, resulting in a lovely mess of goop. Yup, if you have a grill, please use it. Otherwise, I wish you the best of luck and my thoughts are with you...but that shouldn't stop you from trying this though. The goop still tastes fabulous.

On a side note, try drizzle your finished sandwich with the blueberry sauce that can be found here.

I originally found a recipe for Banana Nutella French Toast on the back of a loaf of whole wheat D'Italiano bread. This is essentially the same idea but with strawberries added in. And if you are anti-Nutella or unfortunately can't eat it because it contains milk, I guess you could settle with making this with Peanut Butter.

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 Eggs
2 Tbsp. Milk

1/2 Tsp Vanilla

4 Slices of Bread

1/4 C. Nutella

4 Strawberries
1 Banana

Directions

~Preheat a grill (or a griddle / frying pan).

~Crack eggs into a dish large enough to accommodate for the size of the bread.

~With a fork, gently whisk the eggs, adding in the milk and vanilla as you go.

~Lay out the bread and spread the nutella on each slice.

~Peel the banana and half ways down the length of it, cut it in half. Thinly slice each half lengthways into thin slices (avoid slicing into rounds as they just slide around when the sandwich is heated)

~Wash, de-stem and thinly slice the strawberries.

~Arrange the strawberries and banana on top of two of the slices of bread, then place the other two slices, nutella side down on top (essentially making a peanut butter & banana sandwich, minus the PB)

~Place the sandwich in the egg mixture, and flip to coat each side.

~Cook sandwich until both sides are golden and the egg is no longer runny & raw.

~Serve with a dollop of butter, or a dusting of icing sugar and whip cream.

Enjoy

Raspberry Pancakes

I know that every person that spends any time in the kitchen has that one fear. Be it pastry, yeast breads, or pancakes. Yup, I'll make bread a few times a week and if I had a need for a pie I wouldn't have a problem with making one. But pancakes, those are my nemesis. Pancakes are my Dad's specialty. The first day that everyone is all together at the cabin is always pancake day. Now I've never seen him make pancakes from scratch though. He always buys that Aunt Jemima Buttermilk Pancake Mix (I am not being compensated for this, and all opinions are my own) and adds eggs and oil and vanilla soy milk and then more pancake mix. His batter looks like paste as there is no measuring going on, just dumping things in (or so it would appear). I know a double batch is never enough, usually he ends up tripling or quadrupling. Anyway, if we have company they always take their first bite of pancake and you can see them thinking how can this taste like this, it comes from a box? Wanna know the secret? Of course you do. It's the soy milk. Vanilla, fat free soy milk. Even though it's fat free, it is still a million times richer, creamier and vanillaier than regular milk. Resulting in the best buttermilk pancakes (minus the buttermilk) that you could ever image. Then to top it off, they're cooked on a gas stove on an ancient old cast iron griddle (instead of the electric griddle we have at home). The end result is a pancake that looks like it's burnt to snot, but actually doesn't taste one bit charcoaled.

My dad even got one of the neighbourhood kids in a jam because he got the poor kid to confess that the pancakes were better than the ones his mom made. Of course that didn't go over so well with her.

So you can probably see why pancakes are my nemesis. I could count on my one hand how many times I've tried to cook pancakes and I could also tell you how many times I've wrecked them (those numbers would be equal). I either end of having them raw in the centre, or like shoe leather they are so tough because I'm trying to avoid the rawness. Yup, not good.

Today I decided to tackle them though, and while they weren't raw or tough, they were slightly burnt (and you could taste it because electric heat and teflon is not as forgiving as a flame and cast iron). All-in-all though, I was pretty happy and I will be making these again, probably with some slight adaptations (such as the addition of some lemon zest and a bit more lemon juice). The original recipe was intended to be a raspberry streusel pancake, which sounds amazing (plus it had coconut oil and coconut milk in it, yum), but I didn't go that route. When I have a chance I might make the original recipe just as it was written, but for today I decided to change things up and go raspberry lemon (you know it's my fave right?) instead.

Please check out the original Raspberry Streusel recipe at Baking Serendipity (who got it from Two Peas & Their Pod), as it still does look truly awesome and mine has been adapted a bit from the original.

Makes ~10 pancakes (1/3 C. batter each)

Ingredients

2 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

Pinch of Salt

2 C. Vanilla Almond Milk

2 Eggs

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/2 Tbsp. Vanilla

1 Tsp. Lemon Juice

Zest of 1 Lemon

1 C. Raspberries

Directions

~Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, powder, soda & salt) in a large bowl.

~Add in the wet ingredients (milk, eggs, oil, vanilla and lemon juice) & stir.

~Wash & smash raspberries with a fork then fold berries and lemon zest into batter. (It's okay if the batter is slightly lumpy.

~Scoop batter (I used a 1/3 C. measuring cup to transfer the batter) onto a hot and greased griddle or skillet.

~Flip when bubbles in the centre burst.

~Cook the other side until it is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts
Per 1 Pancake
Makes: 10 (1/3 C. Batter) Pancakes
Calories: 160
Carbs: 29g
Fat: 4g
Protein: 6g

Yogurt Waffles

According to the original recipe, these were supposed to be very light and melt in your mouth. I didn't find that, but then again I decided to switch things up a bit and makes these a little bit healthier by using part whole wheat flour and greek yogurt instead of plain yogurt. So they were pretty dense and a little chewy on the outside. But because of this, unlike with normal waffles, I felt full after eating them. And by full, I mean I couldn't even think of eating anything else for a long, long time. There ended up being a lot of protein in these, so that would be the cause of my 'fullness.' Or it could be that the batter was not liquidy like the normal waffles we make. Instead it was like paste it was so thick.

I really enjoyed these, I made them on a morning that it was only myself at home, so I had nobody else's opinion on them, but I don't think everyone in the house would like them. Primarily because they are 'different' from the waffles that we have eaten for so long. So, not 'bad' just 'different.' Typically our waffles are light and incredibly fluffy and you could eat about a half dozen of them because they are just like eating glorified air. These ones are the exact opposite. So, instead of eating one of our old recipe that was enough waffle to fill the entire waffle iron, these ones that I made, I stretched the batter thin and ended up with smaller waffles. Which was a good thing in the end. I strongly encourage you to make 6 waffles out of this recipe. You could (if you're using the same size round waffle iron as I am) really get only 4 normal sized waffles out of this, but don't do that to yourself, seriously. Go for the 6.

This recipe came from Bake-aholic.

Makes: 6 Smaller (or 4 Normal Size) Waffles     [Go for the 6]


Ingredients

1 C. All Purpose Flour

1 C. Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tbsp. Sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp. Baking Powder

1/2 Tbsp. Baking Soda

1 3/4 C. Non-Fat Greek Yogurt

2 Eggs, separated

3 Tbsp. Butter, melted

Directions

~In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, powder and soda. Set aside.

~In a medium bowl, whisk yogurt, egg yolks and butter together. 

~Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a few strokes to form a (very) lumpy batter.

~Preheat waffle iron.

~In another medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

~Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the batter. (They don't fold well, because of how thick this batter is, but try your best to get them fully incorporated into the batter.)

~Cook waffles according to the instructions for your waffle iron.

~Top with whatever toppings you desire.

Enjoy

Nutrition Facts

Serves: 6

Calories: 253

Carbs: 32 g

Fat: 7 g

Protein: 13 g

#1 Breakfast - Raspberry Nutella English Muffin

So, this is why I had to put the lemon curd english muffin as #4 on my breakfast countdown list. Simply because I couldn't help but compare it while eating it to this out of this world treat that I for some reason call breakfast.

Have I told you that I'm a little obsessed with nutella? And by a little, I really mean I don't consider my day worthwhile if I haven't eaten some form of nutella. I know, I know, it's probably not the best thing for me to be eating daily, and in the morning for that matter, but really if this is the worst thing I'm eating / doing on a daily basis then I consider myself okay. Anyway, this was the creation that got me eating and loving breakfast. I used to just eat breakfast because I had to, and I usually consumed as little as possible, simply for the reason that I never found any breakfast foods worth eating. Sure, I like waffles and pancakes, but those were never a before school / work breakfast in our house. I went years without eating a slice of toast or a bowl of cereal, because while I didn't dislike either of them, I didn't love them and for that reason alone, I didn't find them worth eating. And don't even get me started on the atrocious thing called eggs. Then last summer everything changed. I can honestly say, that I have loved eating breakfast every morning now for almost a year. All thanks to this amazing idea I had last summer when our berry bushes were overflowing with fresh raspberries. I couldn't tell you what got me thinking of this, but all I can say is I'm glad I did because it is absolutely pure bliss. I actually made an amazing torte that tasted very similar to this awhile back. Yes, my breakfast tastes the same as my dessert (that's why I like breakfast now obviously.)

So, last September, the fresh berries dwindled away and I was stuck with a predicament. In the end, I started using frozen raspberries. All I would do would be microwave them to defrost them. But, because frozen berries just don't have the same flavour as fresh, I ended up over defrosting them and heating them just until they started to mush down into a sauce. Now, there was some good flavour. No sprinkling of sugar required for these heated raspberries. They make a perfect sauce all on their own.

If you're not someone who enjoys breakfast, give this a try. Sure, you could find something healthier to eat than nutella, but if it gets you eating breakfast, that's all that really matters isn't it? Trust me, you won't be disappointed with this. It is absolutely heavenly and you just have to try it. So, without anymore fanfare...

#1 Breakfast: Raspberry Nutella English Muffins

Simply toast your English Muffin. Top with Nutella and then with either fresh or frozen (microwaved to heat until saucy) raspberries.

Enjoy

Lemon Raspberry Breakfasts

For the continuation of the lemon curd series, I had intended to share with you the 2nd Best Breakfast Ever. Until I realized that there was something else that edged this breakfast off of the silver medal podium. The thing was, it was basically the same breakfast with only one slight change. What I've decided now to do is share with you all three of these breakfasts that are fighting for the title of 2nd Best Breakfast.

But what about the #1 Breakfast you ask. Well, I can't do the big reveal before I do the countdown...

There is no recipe for these breakfasts, they are simply guidelines and suggestions. The only thing you need is to get yourself some lemon curd. Now you could just go and buy some for $5 for a measly little jar or you could make your own according to this simple recipe that can be found here.

#4 Best Breakfast:   Lemon Raspberry English Muffins

Simply toast your English Muffin, spread the lemon curd and top with raspberries (for all these I used frozen raspberries that had been defrosted in the microwave and so they mushed into a sort of sauce. Fresh would be just as good.)

#3 Best Breakfast:   Lemon Raspberry Buttermilk Pancakes  

Do the same thing as above. Prepare your pancakes, then top one with curd then raspberries and the other raspberries then curd (trust me, try doing this different order. You get a completely different flavour for each, and I can't tell you which one is better.)

#2 Best Breakfast:   Lemon Raspberry Waffles

So with this one, top first with butter. Then just as you do with the pancakes, top part raspberry then lemon, and the other as lemon then raspberry. (Oh yeah, and that is a nutella covered banana on the plate as well.)

Okay, so I just want to give a bit of reasoning for why these ranked as they did. While I thought the English Muffin would be excellent, I was actually kind of disappointed when comparing it to the waffle. The flavour wasn't as full. The pancake was much better, but the pancakes are pretty sweet and flavourful and I felt like the pancake itself was competing with the curd/raspberry instead of complimenting it. So, as good as it was, I still wanted some good maple syrup on my pancakes. The waffle on the other hand was different. While I normally eat syrup on my waffles, I had no regrets when I topped it with lemon and raspberry. It was just absolutely perfect, and I have to admit I cleaned out the frozen waffle supply in the freezer pretty quickly. 

Now, we've counted down to #2, but the question still remains. What is my #1 breakfast? You'll have to check back later for the reveal.