Easy Autumn Breakfasts! French Toasts, Pancakes and Waffles

I told you all last week that I'd post a great Pumpkin French Toast recipe, sorry I couldn't do it. Soooo instead of just one, I have 3 recipes for you!!! I love y'all.

First up: Pumpkin French Toast. I found a pin on the ever so great Pinterest for Pumpkin French toast. How easy is that? Made some for my son's breakfast and he DEVOURED it!



Ingredients
About 4-6 slices if bread- your preference-whole-wheat or white
1/2 cup milk (almond, dairy, soy- i used vanilla soy milk)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
3 tablespoon of sweetener of choice- (I used maple syrup)
1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spices (or a 1/2 tsp worth of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves)
a pat of butter or coconut oil (for that brown flavorful crust!)
A pinch of salt

Directions:
Allow bread to dry out on a plate overnight.
The next morning, or whenever you make this, mix all ingredients except for the butter/coconut oil and the bread. Pre-heat skillet or griddle to medium heat. One piece of bread at a time, soak the bread in the pumpkin mixture per side until the bread feels slightly spongy. Cook in skillet for about 3 minutes per side. If you're making a lot, preheat oven to about 100C-200F and add the  cooked french toast to a sheet pan or any oven-proof dish. Repeat until you're done! Top with whatever you please! We topped with maple syrup. I also love fruits, or confectioner's sugar!


Next, these are pumpkin pancakes I made using annie eats recipe. I added pecans, and just used 3/4 cup of whole wheat white flour from King Arthur's Flour. HEAVENLY and it freezes quite well!!!



Last but not least, my favorite recipe from this weekend- Sweet Potato Waffles with Homemade Blueberry Glaze!!! YUMMM! Found this recipe from the Mayo Clinic. I Made a few changes to my taste. Enjoyed by all!

Ingredients

For the syrup
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
6 tablespoon honey
Pinch of ground cinnamon

1/3 cup peeled and diced sweet potato, or 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup 1% milk (or any milk of you choice)
2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
Directions

To make the syrup, in a saucepan, combine the blueberries, lemon juice and zest, honey, , and cloves. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the berries burst and the juices are slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Frozen berries may take slightly longer to thicken. Set aside and keep warm.

If using sweet potato, bring a small saucepan half full of water to a boil. Add the sweet potato, return to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until very tender, about 10 minutes.  (I roasted a large sweet potato for 45 minutes)  Drain and puree in a food processor or mash with a potato masher until smooth. Set aside. If using pumpkin puree, reserve.

In a small bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, sweet potato puree, coconut oil, egg brown sugar. Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined.

Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 225 F. Preheat a waffle iron. Spoon or ladle about 1/2 cup batter into the waffle iron, depending on the size of the iron. Spread evenly and cook according to the manufacturer's instructions. If the batter thickens, thin with a little soy milk. Transfer the waffle to the baking sheet in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter to make 6 waffles. Serve topped with the syrup.

ENJOY!!!!!

Cheeseburger Bacon and Mushroom Frittata

I've seen frittatas in cookbooks and all over many food bloggers blog posts. I've been intrigued, but at the same time a bit sick. Why? Because I hate eggs. Yes, people I am not big on eggs.


Ever since I was a little girl I've hated eggs. In my baby book, under least liked foods, my mother put eggs.


Don't get me wrong, I love eggs in most food. Like salads, in most to all Asian dishes featuring them. When they play the starring roll I can't do it. WHich why I don't make omelettes, spanish omelettes, basically anything where egg is the main ingredient. Some desserts I can't eat. I have to omit the egg whites because I read it's where the 'eggy' taste comes from. Where the yolk is rich, buttery, a lil salty, just damn perfect.

 Yes, I am eggist.

I can appreciate fresh farmed eggs. This summer, I ate a soft boiled egg and did not rush to the bathroom. That was because the egg was laid that morning. I thought that I found a solution my egg-hate. So I only bought eggs fresh farm the local turkish/farmer's markets and the yolks so beautifully gold made me smile. Cookies, muffins, and any thing I cooked with eggs became 100% more fantastic.


Then I got cocky and thought I'd finally make a frittata when I saw the recipe for Cheeseburger Frittata on the beautiful site She Wears Many Hats. I quickly added it to my Cozi weekly meal plan to try immediately. I am happy I did because it was delicious! Cheesy, mushoomy, bacony, and eggy goodness. My mind was getting the better of me and I realized, the next time (yes, there will be a next time), I will use half whole eggs and the rest just egg yolks!

This recipe is so easy, and you don't have to use mushrooms if you don't want to! Just load on the cheese and bacon for this easy one 'pot' dinner! It's low cab, and has an amazing amount of protein to get those muscle growing and very filling!


Cheeseburger  Bacon and Mushroom Frittata
Adapted from She Wears Many Hats
Makes one 10" pie pan.
She says aa 9" will work, adjust cooking times if using different size. I used my quiche pan....no I've never made a quiche :)

Ingredients
8-12 ounces ground beef
1/2 teaspoon salt plus more, divided
1/2 teaspoon chili powder, plus more, divided
1/4 teaspoon pepper, plus more, divided
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, plus more, divided

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium-large onion, chopped
10 large eggs OR 5 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks if that's how you want to roll
3 tablespoons milk (1/4 cup if you split eggs)
4 ounces (about 2 cups) cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
8 slices of bacon
6 cremini mushrooms, sliced


Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Butter or coat with cooking spray pie pan. (I used a 10" pie pan for this recipe, but a 9" deep dish should work as well.)
Brown hamburger with a few pinches/dashes of chili powder, salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté onion with a pinch of salt and pepper until translucent. Do this in a non stick skillet if you can.
Beat together eggs, milk, 1/2 of shredded cheddar cheese, and 1/4 teaspoon of each: chili powder, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Evenly distribute the browned hamburger on the bottom of the pie/quiche pan, then top with sautéed onions.
Pour the egg mixture over the top of hamburger and onion. Top with remaining cheese.
Bake in 400°F oven for 18-20 minutes until set.



Enjoy!!!!!!

Grilled Brioche, Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sammich.

Simple, delicious sandwich.

Usually I put tomatoes on this sandwich, but the tomatoes 'round these parts are hard has rocks.

How's your weekend been? Mine has been stressful. My little man, who has asthma, had a nasty attack. It started of with a bit of wheezing and coughing, then come Friday evening he got a full fledge attack. Saturday morning I had to rush him to the hospital as he was literally struggling to breathe. He was more than happy to to go to the doctor so he and mama could use the hard as rock tomatoes as a baseball and play catch outside. Seriously, those tomatoes are that hard. 

Anywho, the doctors hooked my baby up with some medication and he had X-rays done and was diagnosed with RSV. He's been diagnosed this many times. He was born premature and has always had issues with his lungs. It's tough on  him as well as me. I blame myself for everything. What I could have done, what I shouldn't have done. Luckily, I have supportive friends, an amazing husband and my son's grandparents are gifts from God. I swear, my son isn't just lucky to have them his life, I am, too.

My son was released with a trunkful of meds and he's doing well. I promised him he didn't have to go to preschool for the rest of the month, and he was more than happy with that. Hopefully he'll forget I said that hehe.

Last night I needed comfort food not just for me, but him also. Lil man was starving. He even regretted refusing bacon for breakfast! So I made some burgers and oven roasted fries. My normal burger hating son gulped them up after I assured him that mommy never puts onions in her burgers. Just salt, pepper and love. Check out this article in the Washington Post for tips on making the perfect burger. It's super simple. I made mine in a skillet, as it was too cold and I was too lazy to fire up the grill. It's all about the condiments, so I made my own spicy ketchup. THAT had onions so I omitted that from his. Twas good simple eatin'! I cut some potatoes up into matchsticks,let them sit in water and vinegar for about 1 hour. Dried them completely added salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven. Simple delicious grub!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052200352.html

Now, let's get to the real reason you're here. The awesome breakfast sandwich I made. As you guys may know, I made my own bacon! Thanks to a link David Lebovitz posted last month, I was inspired to make my own bacon. Diana from Dianasaur Dishes made it look so simple and I love the video, too. I had to make this immediately. The next day I ordered my cure and waited only 2 weeks! That's great as I live in Germany and it wasn't expensive at all! 

It was done curing Thursday night and my goodness it was amazing. I was hooked luckily I didn't cook the whole lot that night; though I really wanted to. I was telling a friend that I need something amazing to go along with this bacon, and what popped in my mind was an amazing sandwich I made for myself this Mother's Day- Grilled Brioche, Smokey Bacon, Tomato, Herbs, and Egg Sandwich. It was so delicious and I thought I'd do something simple with my first batch of homemade bacon. Though it wasn't smoked bacon, it was still delicious. Perhaps I will try smokey bacon this summer when we purchase a smoker...hint hint Papa with Some Flavor ;-) So I wanted this sandwich to be even more special, so I made my own Brioche to go along with it. I searched Food Buzz for a recipe and happened across Brian's site, A Thought for Food which had an article for Basic Brioche. The photos looked amazing, and the directions simple and to the point. So I had a happy little project on my hands. 

The bread turned out perfectly, and good for me that there were two loaves because the first was eaten in 5 hours!!!

It doesn't matter if you have homemade bacon or bread, you must try this sandwich. Most bakeries carry Brioche! It's a delicious, buttery, sweet egg bread that is almost like an airy cake! My daughter's favorite bread and mine. And a nice pack of smokey bacon is just as perfect!! So please, try this sandwich. Your family will love you for it!

Here's the first time I made it using store-bought brioche, store-bought bacon and seasonal tomatoes!

Grilled Bricohe, Bacon, Herby Scrambled Egg and Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

A loaf of Brioche

Bacon (as much as you want to use on your sandwich)

Eggs (how much you want)

Heavy Cream/Milk/Half n Half/Water

Herbs of your choice

Course Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

Tomatoes (if they are in season in your area) Sliced

Butter

Cheddar- Shredded (I used Cathedral Cheddar or you can find organic cheddar- it's awesome trust me!)

Directions

Fry your bacon to desired crispness in a cast-iron skillet or any heavy bottom skillet.

In the meantime, in a bowl, add eggs, 1 tablespoon of heavy cream or liquid of choice per egg, herb and salt and pepper. In a nonstick skillet, melt butter on high, once the butter is melted, decrease heat to low. Add egg mixture and allow to sit for 30 seconds then lightly stir. stir every minute or so until done to your preference, but be sure to know eggs cooks after their removed from the heat. So remove sooner than later!

Now slice your bread if not pre-sliced, then add Bacon

Egg

Cheese

Then top with another slice. In another skillet, preferably a non-stick, 'grill' your sandwich just until cheese melts.

EAT!

Hope you enjoy this as much as my family does!!!

Still have some leftovers? Try these Turkey Dinner "Pasties"

So yesterday was my 27th birthday! A friend told me that since my age and birth date are the same it's my Golden Birthday! Never heard of that, but I thought I'd  try to make it special.

The night before I was brainstorming what to do with the leftovers. Turkey salad, turkey soup, turkey pot pie, turkey sandwiches, etc etc ran through my mind. All sounded amazing, but I wanted something different. So remembering back to a post I read on an online expat forum I visit, a girl asked about how to make the perfect cornish pasty (the 'a' sounds like the 'a' in cat). Cornish Pasties orginates from Cornwall, England and is also known in Michigan, USA. It's an amazing dough typically made with lard or suet as the fat and filled with steak and vegetables, and the pastry is crimped all pretty-like. I did not have any lard as I planned this last minute. I thought maybe I could do butter and shortening, but I was all out of shortening as well. Luckily I had 4 stick of butter in the freezer! Instead of using steak and veg, I used some leftover Thanksgiving sides and turkey and thought I combine those and made a bacon gravy, and leftover compound butter.  I also SUCK at crimping. Something I will continue to practice at, but for now,  pinching and a fork will do!! So these are not traditional pasties hence the quotation marks! It was fun making my first meat pie, though!



They tasted amazing I only wish I had made mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes to complete it!!!

If you don't have time to make the pastry, use puff pastry dough. This dough can also be used for pot pies!!! If Santa buys me pots I will use this dough recipe. It's so delicious, buttery, and flaky! nomnom

Turkey Dinner "Pasties"
Pasty Dough adapted from Emeril Lagasse
 
For the Short-crust Pastry:


2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon salt

7 ounces cold butter ( shredded frozen butter)

1 egg yolk

12 tablespoons cold water (more as needed)

Filling
3 cups worth of leftovers- i used turkey (white and dark meat) stuffing, cranberry chutney, and vichy carrots

About 3/4 cup of gravy of choice- I made bacony-herb gravy. Recipe follows

Herbs of your choice- i used fresh thyme, sage, and chives

Compound butter- optional

Bacony Sage Gravy
2 tablespoons bacon fat

4 tablespoons flour

1 cup hot chicken/turkey stock

salt & pepper

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon dried sage

Directions

Sift the flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl

Add the butter. Using your fingers, 2 knives, or a pastry blender, cut the butter and lard into the dry ingredients until mixture resembles fine crumbs.

 In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and water together

Add to the flour mixture

 Mix quickly, but thoroughly, until mixture just comes together to form a dough.

 Knead briefly until pastry is smooth with no cracks; the trick to making this delicate pastry easy to work with is kneading it just enough so that it can be rolled out and manipulated without breaking but yet retains its lovely crumbly texture. Press into a flattened disk shape and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight before proceeding.

Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and unwrap. Allow to soften slightly, then place on a lightly floured work surface and roll the pastry to a thickness of 1/4-inch. Using a small plate or saucer as a guide, cut out 6 (6-inch) rounds. (Scraps may be combined and reformed if you cannot get 6 rounds out of the first batch.)

 Stack the pastry rounds onto pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper (with pieces between each round to keep them from sticking together) and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

Filling & Gravy

First prepare gravy by mixing fat and flour in a small saucepan. Cook over medium low until mixed well and a little browned. Add hot stock slowly whisking vigourously until smooth. Mixture will thicken as it cooks. Add salt and pepper, heavy cream and sage. Allow to cool.

 

Make filling using whatever herbs, sides, and meat you want. Make sure its about 3 cups worth!

Add gravy and mix

 

Assemble

Remove the pastry circles from the refrigerator.Place the pastry circles on a clean work surface and place about 1/2 cup of the filling in the center of 1 side of the pastry. Add a knob of butter if you like!

Using the beaten egg, brush the edges of the pastry and then bring the unfilled side over the filled side so that edges meet.Press edges together to seal and then crimp using your fingers or a fork.

 Repeat with the remaining turnovers and then transfer to a baking sheet. Brush the tops of the turnovers with the remaining egg and then cut several slits into the top of each pastry.

 Bake for 20 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown around the edges. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and continue to bake until the pasties are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

The Husband enjoying. He says he looks goofy here hehe

Of course I made myself cake. Well more like Peanut Buttery Chocolatey Cupcakes with....a Peanut Buttery Chocolatey Drizzle...

When I am sad I need Bacon.

I hate TDYs. Duh, what spouse wants their other half gone for long periods of time....I know.

Right before these 'business trips', I cry randomly. I feel so depressed that I get incredibly lazy and immobile all of the sudden and it sucks. The good thing for great blogs that I follow is that I am able to read through all your blogs and leave blog post length comments (sorry!). The bad news for me is that I think a certain "Osama Bed Linen"  is hiding in the ever so growing mountains of dirty laundry in my laundry room!! And all of this is right before my husband leaves. 

But you know what dear readers and friends, I usually get through it alive and well. Well, I have to. When he's out the door, reality bitch-slaps me in the face and I have no choice but to get to work! A better schedule is set for the children (and my sanity),even more time is spent at playgrounds and indoor parks, and my cooking creativity goes through the roof! I focus even more on the children's palates which is most certainly a challenge, but it helps me learn new ways to get them to eat a lot healthier. 

My husband's been deployed for weeks and months at a time many times before, but this time, I do not feel so confident. I am utterly terrified. I have been quite depressed for the past 2 weeks, trying to stay brave, but everything brings tears to my eyes. Is that pathetic? Maybe. Normal? I'd like to think so. During the last big deployment, I only had 2 children who were 2, and an infant, and I was terrified then. Fortunately I made it out a stronger person. This time I have 3 children who are 5, 3, and 1! Will I make it out at least alive? Hopefully! If I don't blog or update my Facebook page call me! 

So during times pathetic pessimism (try saying that Sylvester the cat!), I desperately need comfort food. My comfort food of choice tonight? Bacon. Bacon Pancakes to be precise! These are so simple and crazy delicious! Sweet and smoky at its finest!

Bacon Pancakes, like Blueberry Pancakes but only it's Bacon

Ingredients

Use my Pancake recipe

-8  slices of bacon roasted and chopped

Your choice of topping- I used real  Maple Syrup

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F

on a shallow roasting pan (even better one with a rack) place bacon on. 

Pop into the oven for 10-12 minutes or until crisp!

oven crispy!

Crumble or chop/ leave about a tablespoon for garnish if desired.

Spray griddle or skillet with spray or butter, then set heat to medium heat. Scoop out about a 1/2 cup of pancake batter of each pancake on your griddle, and spread into a flat circle gently. Sprinklea handful of bacon on. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until a mass amount of bubbles form over the top. Flip, cook for another 2 minutes. Repeat until batter and bacon is gone!

Drench maple syrup and garnish with leftover bacon (if desired).

That not only helped me feel better, but put a huge smile on my whole family's face and I predict many easy breakfast dinners in the future. Thanks for reading my sad ramblings.