Archive for Bread and Breakfast
Whole Wheat Blueberry Streusel Muffins (plus a little project announcement)
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A few months ago when I went to my friend Tracy’s Shelf Reliance party, I ordered a big can of freeze dried blueberries for an excellent price. I love having those blueberries on hand – and they work perfectly in these Blueberry Streusel Muffins.
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard or soft white wheat)
1/3 cup sucanat (you can use brown sugar or honey if you prefer)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup blueberries, fresh, frozen or freeze dried
Mix dry ingredients together well. Add egg, butter and milk, stirring until all ingredients are mixed. Gently stir in blueberries. Scoop batter into 12 paper lined muffin tins. Sprinkle with Streusel Topping and bake in a 400° for 20 minutes.
Streusel Topping:
3 T. sucanat or brown sugar
1 T. butter, softened
2 T. chopped nuts (optional)
This is one of those easy recipes that your kids can help you make. I feel like it is super important for you to get your kids into the kitchen with you so that they can learn the basics of cooking.
In fact, you wanna know a little secret? I’m frantically working on a (big) new ebook/curriculum that guides you in depth through teaching your kids to cook. I hope to have this project finished in the next few weeks (months?) so that you can have it when the new school year begins – hopefully?!
Anyway – now you know. I’m not sure why I didn’t tell you earlier – it’s too much fun to keep a secret! I’m super excited about this and hope to create a resource that will be helpful to all. I’ve even “borrowed” some little girls to help make the book a little more well rounded. :)
This may be one of the most fun projects I’ve ever worked on – combining two of my favorite things in the world: kids and cooking. Stay tuned for more information about this book as I get closer to finishing it. And if you hear me squealing at any time during the next few weeks, it’s because I really am having that much fun with this project.
Yeah, that little darling in the above picture is cute enough to make all of us squeal. ;)
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Coconut Flour Banana Muffins
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been having so much fun playing with this Gluten Free/Dairy Free Muffin recipe! We’re on the home stretch of the Gluten Free Experiment we’ve been conducting at our house (more on that soon), but I guarantee you we’ll continue to make these muffins and all the fun variations I’m coming up with whether we’re gluten free or not. What a healthy little muffin (that just so happens to taste like cake).
Coconut flour is high in fiber, high in protein, making it a wonderful addition to your diet. I find coconut flour at Tropical Traditions or Amazon. I’m so in love with this stuff that I might just write a post all about it someday soon.
I don’t recommend substituting whole wheat flour in this recipe. Coconut flour and wheat flour are not created equal. If you want a Whole Wheat Banana Muffin recipe, check out this one! We love it!
Coconut Flour Banana Muffins
1/2 cup Coconut Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
6 eggs
4 Tablespoons Coconut Oil, melted
1/4 cup honey
2-3 ripe, mashed bananas
1/2 cup nuts (optional)
Mix all ingredients together, then pour batter into a well greased (or paper lined) muffin pan. Bake at 350 for 15-25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.
I never put nuts in muffins because 5 out of 6 of us don’t care for them in our baked goods. How ’bout you? Are you a nutty kind of person? (I really mean to ask if you like nuts in your muffins…not if you consider yourself to be nuts, but feel free to answer according to how you’re feeling today.)
Mini Crustless Breakfast Quiches
Posted by: | CommentsYou know how I mentioned that we go through a lot of eggs at our house? Six dozen last week to be exact. This week I was able to get my hands on 11 dozen farm fresh eggs and I am so very excited. It’s obviously the simple things in life that make me happy…proven by the fact that having 11 dozen eggs available this week for my cooking pleasure has made me almost giddy.
What do we do with all those eggs you ask? Well, there are six of us, five are male and four of those five male people can’t seem to get enough food right now. We also have extra people eating at our house quite often, so our six turns into eight or more on just about any given day. I bake a lot, so I stir them into whatever I’m baking. We easily go through an entire dozen for breakfast if I’m making scrambled eggs or a casserole, and more than a dozen if I make crepes. These Coconut Flour Muffins are incredible…and they take up quite a few eggs. And, I often put eggs in our smoothies or “milkshakes” for added protein and nutrients. (Again, let me reinforce that we ONLY eat them raw if they are organic, free range, farm fresh…otherwise I’m afraid of them.)
If I have lots of eggs available to me, I go for it and I don’t hold back! Eggs are brain food. I pay between $2.00 and $2.50 for a dozen farm fresh eggs, depending on my source. For the quality of eggs I’m getting, I consider this to be a great price. So even though we go through a lot of eggs…what an economical source of nutrition!!! How else can I feed my family an entire meal for just over $2.00??? (Okay, yes, they eat fruit and stuff with their eggs…you see my point though, right?)
If you haven’t tried our Easy Breakfast Casserole, please go get yourself some eggs and try it. It’s the simplest little breakfast casserole I’ve ever made and my family eats the whole pan. Actually…they don’t eat the pan. Hungry boys though they are, they do have their limits.
I have now adapted the Easy Breakfast Casserole recipe to become an easy, make-ahead Mini Crustless Breakfast Quiche recipe. You can make these and serve them fresh, or you can bake them the night before and re-warm them in the oven the next morning for breakfast. You can even bake them and freeze them to have available for future grab and go meals. You can make them for lunch or brunch. These little quiches are super versatile!
Mini Crustless Breakfast Quiche
12 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup shredded cheese (I use white cheddar, but you can use whatever cheese you want!)
Begin your quiches by whisking together the eggs, cream, salt and cheese in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle in any “add in” ingredients you wish (a total of 1 cup of add-ins). Stir them around with a fork. Scoop mixture into 24 well buttered regular sized muffin tins. Bake in a 350° oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the middle of each quiche doesn’t jiggle.
Add In Ideas:
Cooked sausage (I have a wonderful recipe for turkey sausage here.)
Chopped ham
Chopped and cooked bacon
Leftover baked potatoes, cut into chunks or shredded into hashbrowns
Sauteed veggies
Raw spinach
Cooked chicken
Taco seasoned meat
Obviously, you can cut this recipe in half to make 12 regular sized muffins sized quiches!
I’m curious, just because I’m fairly certain some of you might be shocked about our egg consumption…how many eggs does your family go through in a week?
This recipe is gluten free! I’m planning to add this little Gluten Free button to all of the Heavenly Homemakers recipes that are naturally Gluten Free, so you’ll know with one quick glance!
Gluten Free – Dairy Free Muffins
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I think this is the recipe I’m most excited about from all my gluten free recipe experimenting last week!!! Cher left this recipe in the comments section in my Gluten Free Experiment post and since I had all the ingredients on hand, I gave them a try. (Cher, I’d like to give you a BIG hug!!!)
Upon first glance, it seems that there would be too much liquid in these, making for a really runny batter. But nope…it’s just right. I mixed them up, baked them, then held my breath: Would my kids like them? They smelled good…they looked good…but would they taste good?
Oh. My. Muffin.
EVERY boy in my house scarfed these up…my pickiest son exclaiming, “Mom! These taste like CAKE!”
It’s only been a week, but I think I’ve made three batches of these already. We all love them.
Gluten Free - Dairy Free Muffins
6 eggs
4 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1/2 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Coconut Flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Add-In Ideas:
1/4 cup chocolate chips (we use either these gluten free/soy free/dairy free chocolate chips or we make our own)
1/2 cup fresh berries
1/4 cup chopped, dried fruit
Mix all ingredients together, throw in an add-in if you’d like, then pour batter into a well greased muffin pan. Bake at 350 for 15-17 min. Makes 12 muffins.
By themselves, these muffins are awesome…but with chocolate chips. Oh my!
With both Coconut Oil and Coconut Flour in these, you would think they would have an overpowering coconut flavor. You can taste a bit of coconuty-goodness, but it’s not strong. Read this post explaining about the differences in coconut oils – try expeller pressed coconut oil if you don’t like the taste of coconut!
So where can you get Coconut Flour? I usually get mine from Tropical Traditions, but just saw this great pack of Coconut Flour at Amazon and decided to snatch it up. I think we’ll be making a lot of these muffins in the future…whether we remain gluten free or not. What an EXCELLENT little healthy muffin!!!
And stay tuned, because there just so happens to be a Tropical Traditions giveaway coming up on Thursday that includes a lovely bag of coconut flour!!! :)
Have you ever baked with Coconut Flour? I’m hoping to figure out more Coconut Flour recipes. It’s super good for you! What add-in ideas can you think of for these muffins?
Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping
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I wanted something cinnamony for our Christmas Brunch (the invented word is pronounced: sin-uh-money; not to worry, cinnamony has nothing to do with sin or money, it’s all about the smell and taste of Christmas). I also wanted to use my homemade vanilla. So I played just a little bit and came up with Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping. I made mine with a mini muffin tin, but you can use a regular sized muffin tin instead if you prefer.
These muffins are very simple to throw together and will make your house smell just like Christmas while they’re baking. That’s because they’re cinnamony. :)
Vanilla Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sucanat (you can use brown sugar if you want)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil
3/4 cup milk
Cinnamon Crumb Topping
6 T. sucanat/rapadura (dehydrated cane sugar juice) or brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 T. butter, softened
Stir together flour, sucanat, baking powder and sea salt. Add egg, vanilla, butter and milk. Mix until ingredients are combined. Scoop into paper lined muffin tins. (24 mini muffins or 12 regular sized muffins) Mix together Cinnamon Crumb Topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of each muffin. Bake in a 400° oven for 15 minutes (mini muffins) or 20 minutes (regular sized muffins).
These Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping go perfectly with Easy Breakfast Casserole. I also think the cinnamony-ness would taste great with Warm Vanilla Soother.
Up next during our Christmas Brunch: a great giveaway from Tropical Traditions. Then, to add to our cinnamony pleasure…Gingerbread Cookies. Not only are they cinnamony…they’re gingerlicious. And full of molassessness.
You never knew our Christmas Brunch would be so full of new vocabulary words did you?
(Be sure to leave a comment again on this post for another chance to win one of our great Christmas Brunch Presents!)
Easy Breakfast Casserole
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I’m so excited you decided to come over for the beginning of our Christmas Brunch!! I appreciate you taking time out of your final busy days of holiday preparations to join us.
I’m sure you don’t mind…I didn’t vacuum before you all came over. I figured we’d probably make a mess of the Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping anyway. I’ll have one of the boys sweep later. (It’s all a part of Our Chore System after all.) The Vanilla Muffin recipe will be coming up later on during our brunch, so be sure not to miss it. Today, we’ll be starting with an Easy Breakfast Casserole recipe.
I used to think that making a Breakfast Casserole was a big deal, difficult, complicated and tricky. It seems that the recipes I found called for ingredients I never had and they always overwhelmed me.
One day a few weeks ago, I had an abundance of eggs and a few leftover ingredients from other meals so I decided to experiment. What do you know? You can build an egg casserole with just about anything. Quickly. Inexpensively. Without difficulty. I am very excited.
Here’s the beauty of this recipe: You can build your breakfast casserole however you want. This recipe has a few “base ingredients”, then you stir in whatever “add ins” you want…then you top it with cheese…then you bake it. It doesn’t get much easier than that! (And did I mention that this recipe is Gluten Free?!)
Easy Breakfast Casserole
8 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup shredded cheese (I use white cheddar, but you can use whatever cheese you want!)
Begin your casserole by whisking together the eggs, cream and salt. Pour the ingredients into a 9×13 inch casserole dish. Sprinkle in any “add in” ingredients you wish. Stir them around with a fork. Top casserole with cheese. Bake in a 350° oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the middle doesn’t jiggle.
Add In options:
Cooked sausage (I have a wonderful recipe for turkey sausage here.)
Chopped ham
Chopped and cooked bacon
Leftover baked potatoes, cut into chunks or shredded into hashbrowns
Sauteed veggies
Add anywhere from 1/2 cup to 2 cups of any of these “add ins”. You can use a different sized casserole dish, you’ll just need to adjust the bake time. The thicker your casserole, the longer it will take to bake.
Thanks again for coming over for our brunch! Remember to leave a comment so that you’ll be included in our giveaway for lots of wonderful presents! Please feel free to mingle for a while. I’ll soon be whipping up a Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting for our Gingerbread Cookies. You’re welcome to come into the kitchen and help if you want. I may even let you lick the beaters!
Homemade Healthy Poptarts
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Yay…the promised poptart recipe!!
I truly don’t like boxed poptarts…blech. But these I DO like…which is why I hesitate to even call them poptarts. Can we call them Delightful Little Jelly Pastries? Maybe we could call them Flaky Fruity Melty Yumminess?
At our house, I suppose I’d have to call them “Gone“. Or “The Empty Plate“. They don’t last long. :)
For the crust, I found that using the same recipe I use for my Homemade Pizza Pockets and Mini Apple Pies works the best. Buttery and flaky…and oh so easy.
Homemade Healthy Poptarts
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup melted butter
1 cup plain yogurt
About 5 ounces of 100% fruit jelly or jam – any flavor you like!
Begin by mixing the flour, salt, butter and yogurt. If you want to soak this dough overnight to break down the phytic acid and make the grains more digestible, go for it. Just be sure to soak the dough on the counter overnight, not in the fridge, or the dough will be terrible to work with! (The recipe will work with or without this step.)
Knead the dough just a little bit to make it nice and workable. Roll out the dough on a large, well floured surface. Use a knife to cut the dough into the desired poptart size you would like. I tried to cut mine into “normal” poptart sizes. But nothing I ever do is very normal so I came out with a nice variety of sizes.
Place about a 1/2 teaspoon of jelly on 1/2 of the dough rectangles (squares?).
Spread the jelly around, leaving the edges free.
Find a second square or rectangle or thingamajigger that matches closely
with each jellied one. Place it on top and use a fork to seal the edges.
Lay each poptart in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Bake in a 350° oven for about 25 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned.
This recipe makes around 15-20 poptarts, depending on how big you make them.
I have found that making them ahead of time and then putting them in our toaster oven to re-heat makes for a very fast and popular breakfast! These CAN be frozen as well. Bake them first, let them cool and the freeze until you’re ready to re-heat and eat!
Is it just me, or is it more than a little bit tempting to reach through the screen to lick the jelly oozing out of that poptart?
Edited to add: Many of you who are new to this site are commenting that while this is a healthier poptart, this isn’t necessarily a healthy breakfast. Sure, good point. I totally hear what you’re saying. This was a reader requested recipe. Many are taking baby steps toward better nutrition and working their way “out of the box” when it comes to feeding their families. If you’re looking for a healthier variety of Poptart…this is your recipe. If you’re looking for a special treat for your family…here you go. If you’re looking for a well balanced diet…don’t eat these Poptarts for every meal. :) (Want to see my menu plans to know how I feed my family regularly? I’d love for you to click over and take a peek!! Maybe you’ll even find more recipes you’re interested in!!)
Whole Wheat Hot Dog Buns
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve admitted it here before: I love me a good beef hot dog. Do I love them because they are so very good for us and so highly nutritious? I wish. But, at least I’ve been able to find some from our local meat farmers that are better than regular dogs from the store. I also often buy Shelton Turkey Franks from Azure Standard.
I had perfected my whole wheat hamburger bun recipe, but never took the time to make the dough into hot dog buns. In the past when I’d tried to make hot dog buns (from other recipes), they turned out as big as a baseball bat and about that heavy. (We’ve already talked about how none of us want our buns to be heavy.) This time, when I tried to make hot dog buns, I focused on making the buns small. The smaller the buns, the better…right? :)
Using this whole wheat hamburger bun recipe, I rolled out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut the dough into circles using a wide mouth jar. A wide mouth jar isn’t going to make a very big circle, and you might think that the bun isn’t going to be big enough…but keep in mind that these rolls will rise and we do not want a bready bun. No indeed.
Take each circle and roll it up gently…
Almost finished…
And…done. Look at the cute little unbaked hot dog bun. Kinda makes you wish you were a hot dog so you could lay down in there and take a nap, doesn’t it?
Put all the cute little rolled buns in a baking dish.
Bake the buns for about 25 minutes at 350°. If they aren’t golden brown, leave them in there just a little bit longer. I kinda think it would be fun to bake the hotdog right into the bun, but I haven’t tried it yet. And just for the record, I don’t really wish I was a hot dog, no matter how inviting these buns look.
Carefully slit the buns open at the top with a knife and pop in a cooked hotdog.
Add all your fixin’s and you’ve got a tasty hotdog on a bun that has just a little more substance than the airy ones we find at the store, but they aren’t so bready you feel like you’re eating all bun and no dog.
So what do ya think? Should I try baking the hot dog right into the bun to make a sort of “pig in a blanket”? I think my kids would enjoy that surprise. Although since these hot dogs are made from beef or turkey, can we still call it a “pig in a blanket”? Sometimes life just throws us these difficult questions, ya know?
So humor me will ya? Are you a hot dog lover or not? Am I the only weird one who really appreciates eating real, whole foods…but still likes the occasional hot dog? :)
Pancake and Sausage Muffins
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Here’s what you need to know if you ever send me a recipe request: I do get around to it eventually. I don’t even remember WHO emailed this idea to me, but I do know that it was MONTHS ago. It went on my list…the long, long list of reader recipe requests, post ideas, questions to be answered. But see, lookie…here it is! I finally got a round tuit!
The original suggestion (from the reader who shall remain nameless, not in an effort to protect her privacy, but because I have misplaced the note with her name) was to use this Corn Dog Muffin idea, but do a breakfast Pancake – Sausage Muffin instead. Brilliant!!! After experimenting and making these last week and watching my family devour them in about five minutes, I did have to ask myself why I took so long trying this idea.
Now, we don’t do much pork at our house, but I do have this killer turkey sausage recipe . I make it up in big quadrupal (or more!) batches, cook it up, then freeze it until we’re ready to eat it. Having cooked turkey sausage on hand for recipes like this one is a huge life saver!! So easy! If you choose, you could use sausage links instead, making the muffins like these Corn Dog Muffins. Instead, I just stirred cooked turkey sausage right into the batter:
Pancake-Sausage Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cups milk or buttermilk
2 eggs
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 pound cooked turkey sausage (or nine sausage links, cut in half)
Real grade B maple syrup
If you want to soak your flour overnight to break down the phytates to aid in digestion, mix the flour and cultured buttermilk in a glass bowl, cover and let it sit on your countertop for 12 hours or so. The next morning, mix the remaining ingredients in and bake as directed below.
If you don’t soak the flour ahead of time: Mix dry ingredients together. Add milk or buttermilk, eggs and melted butter. Stir in browned turkey sausage.
Pour batter into 18 buttered muffin tins. (I don’t recommend paper muffin liners for this as it will stick.) Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are lightly browned. Serve with a lovely drizzle of maple syrup!
This is a great recipe to bake up ahead of time, freeze, then pull out and rewarm in the oven or toaster oven at breakfast time!
Now, don’t wait months to try this like I did. This recipe is SO easy and my whole family LOVED them!! You can never have too many easy breakfast recipes!
Whole Wheat Banana Bread and Muffins
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Did I ever tell you about the time I almost forgot to put the bananas into my banana bread?
I have these finer moments in my kitchen from time to time. They mostly happen while I’m trying to cook and talk simultaneously. If I’m talking on the phone while mixing up a recipe, I tend to leave out key ingredients. Or add the same ingredient twice. It’s ridiculous. I think it’s crazy that I can usually multi-task quite well…but I can barely have a conversation with someone while I cook. Duh. Just be glad I type these posts after I’m finished cooking. Otherwise, these recipes would just be plain scary.
And so, because I care too much not to share, here’s a handy baking tip: When making Banana Bread or Muffins, be sure to add the bananas. The final product tastes much better this way. I’m nothing if not helpful.
Whole Wheat Banana Bread and Muffins
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup mashed over-ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mash bananas, or puree them in a blender. Mix mashed bananas, honey, melted butter and eggs into flour mixture.
For Bread: Spread batter into a well buttered bread pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
For Muffins: Spoon batter into 12 buttered or paper lined muffin tins. Bake in a 400° oven for 20 minutes.
Speaking of finer moments in my kitchen…did I ever tell you about the time I made a lovely lasagna ahead of time so that I would be all ready for my company that night? Because, you see, it’s great to be prepared when you’re having company. Oh, and it also helps to get the lasagna out of the fridge and BAKE IT at dinner time. Being prepared doesn’t help at all if you don’t actually bake your lasagna. Yeah, dinner was a little late that night.
