Breakfast Pizza

I love "to do" lists. When I worked in an office I never left for the night before writing out a "to do" list for the next day. Now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, I still write myself "to do" lists to make sure all of my chores and other things actually get done. This morning I added "update food blog" to me list, and since I get great pleasure in crossing things off my list, here I am with some new posts!

I'll start with this breakfast pizza from Amanda's blog. All I can say is, wow. Wow. This pizza was freaking awesome! I loved the way the eggs reached a sort of over-easy texture in the oven, and when I cut into a slice of pizza the yolk oozed all over making a delicious sauce to dip my crust in. Mmmmmm. I used turkey bacon to cut down on the fat, and used more eggs than the original recipe called for because I wanted to make sure that each slice would have some egg. We had this for dinner and enjoyed every bite, but it would also be a really unique addition to a brunch table.

Breakfast Pizza

1 homemade or store-bought pizza dough
6 strips bacon
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 cups grated mozzarella
4 eggs
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons minced chives
olive oil, for brushing

Preheat the oven to 500F or follow package instruction.

Fry bacon strips over medium-high heat until crisp. Cool on a plate lined with paper towels. Crumble. Set aside.

Dust your baking sheet with cornmeal and stretch dough to fit. Sprinkle with Parmesan, mozzarella, and bacon. Crack eggs over top and season and season with salt and pepper. Brush the exposed crust with olive oil.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until eggs are cooked through and crust is golden brown. Sprinkle chives over top.

Applesauce Bread

Every Sunday, I make a loaf of quick bread for Joe to eat during the week for breakfast. I usually just use a Pillsbury mix, because Joe really likes them, but every once in awhile I'll make something from scratch. This Applesauce Bread is one of my favorite loaves to whip up. It's easy and fast, and doesn't require any special ingredients. It's dense and soft and sweet. I always make two loaves and either freeze the second for a later date or serve it to guests (or eat it myself!). Definitely give this one a try! (The below recipe is for two loaves. The only thing I suggest is keeping an eye on the cooking time - the recipe says to bake for 80 minutes, but mine were done in 60.)

Applesauce Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups applesauce
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Beat together eggs, sugar, and oil. Blend in applesauce, and then sour cream or buttermilk. Mix in flour, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon. Stir in raisins. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 80 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Cinnamon French Toast Bowl-a-Rama

Since I was enjoying my Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 cookbook so much, I decided to purchase her newest book, Hungry Girl 1-2-3. I was especially drawn to this book because it features a whole section of crockpot recipes, as well as a section of meals and treats you can make in the microwave. I decided to go the microwave route for the first recipe I tried from the book and made Cinnamon French Toast Bowl-a-Rama for breakfast. This is essentially a French toast bake that you make in a mug in the microwave. It's big and warm and filling and delicious! I love that it feels indulgent when it's totally not. The whole mug has only 228 calories and 21.5 grams of protein! Not only was it a decadent and sweet way to start the day, it kept me full for hours. The only changes I made were to use sugar-free french vanilla creamer in liquid form, since that's what I had on hand, and to reduce the amount of Reddi-wip and add a little more syrup instead. Make this for your breakfast tomorrow!

Cinnamon French Toast Bowl-a-Rama

2 tsp Coffee-mate Sugar Free French Vanilla creamer
2 tbs fat-free cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 no-calorie sweetner packets (I used Splenda)
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute
2 slices light white bread
1/4 cup Fat Free Reddi-wip
1 tbs sugar-free pancake syrup

Combine powdered creamer with 1/4 cup hot water in a bowl and stir to dissolve. Add cream cheese, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sweetner and stir until mixture is smooth and free of lumps. Add egg substitute and stir. Set aside.

Toast the bread and tear into cubes. Spray a large microwave-safe mug with nonstick cooking spray. Add bread cubes and top with the vanilla-egg mixture. If needed, stir gently to ensure that bread is thoroughly soaked. (I added the bread to the bowl with my egg mixture, stirred it all up and added everything together to the mug.)

Microwave for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes, until just set. (Make sure your mug is big! This puffs up a LOT while cooking, but then deflates down once its done.) Allow to cool slightly.

Fluff mixture gently with fork. Top with Reddi-wip and drizzle with syrup. Enjoy!

228 calories, 3 g fat, 671 mg sodium, 31 g carbs, 6 g fiber, 6 g sugar, 21.5 g protein

Oatmeal Insanity

I've been a fan of Hungry Girl for years. I get her daily emails and seek out her television appearances, but I never bought any of her books. I was certain that I would never make anything from them and they would just collect dust. Slowly, however, I felt the urge to buy the books creeping up. My friend Lauren has a few and has made several delicious recipes from it, so I started to get tempted. What really sent me to Amazon, though, is the fact that I was getting really bored with my breakfast of Special K and my lunch of toast or frozen waffles. I wanted a variety of healthy and easy meals to choose from for breakfast and lunch, so I purchased Hungry Girl 2oo Under 200 (and her newest book, which should be shipping this week) and I'm so glad I did! I've already made a few things and have many more bookmarked. I did have to make a trip to the store to purchase some of her most used ingredients - I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Flatout Wraps, Egg Beaters, etc. - but many of the things used I already had. I chose Complete and Utter Oatmeal Insanity for my first recipe because it called for pumpkin, and I love me some pumpkin. This oatmeal is so, so good! It's sweet and hearty and comforting - plus the serving is huge! I left out the Reddi-wip because I didn't have any, but I don't think you need it. If you're looking for a unique and delicious breakfast treat, this is it!

Complete and Utter Oatmeal Insanity

1 packet plain instant oatmeal
1/4 cup Fiber One cereal (original)
1/4 light vanilla soymilk (I used skim milk)
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons Fat Free Reddi-wip (I omitted)
1 tablespoon sugar-free pancake syrup
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
5 sprays I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray
1 no-calorie sweetner packet
Dash salt

Place all ingredients except Reddi-wip in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Add 1/4 cup water and stir. Micrwoave 45 seconds, then mix well. Microwave for an additional 30-40 seconds. Allow oatmeal to thicken before removing from microwave. Add Redd-wip and stir well.

Waffles!

For Christmas this year my wonderful bosses gave me a ton of cooking and baking stuff - including a waffle iron. I very rarely cook breakfast, but Joe and I couldn't let our winter break slide by without breaking in the waffle iron and today we finally got the chance to use it. Nothing fancy our first time out of the gate - I used Aunt Jemima pancake and waffle mix. Joe fried up some turkey bacon while I manned the waffle iron. I found that overfilling the iron just a tad made the best waffles - nice and full and fluffy. Joe's waffles were plain and topped with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream. I put chocolate chips in mine and ate them topped with a little margarine and sugar-free syrup. Mmmmm....

Roger enjoyed watching us make waffles - and protected Joe's whipped cream!

Incredible, Edible Egg (Beaters)

Joe and I both really like having breakfast for dinner. It's funny because I basically never make breakfast for breakfast, but in the evenings we love to have pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc. So when I saw this recipe for ham and cheese strata on Julie's blog I thought it would be fun to try out for dinner. I'd make a baked egg dish only once before, for an Easter brunch, so it felt experimental. I made several changes to original recipe. I used a carton of Egg Beaters instead of eggs and subbed Swiss cheese for the Gouda. I also left out the sun dried tomatoes (Joe doesn't like them) and the chives (neither of us like them). I baked this for 35 minutes at 375 degrees, as my oven gets very temperamental and sets off the smoke alarm if you try to cook anything above 375. I really liked this dish, I was picking leftovers from the pan as we were cleaning up, but Joe wasn't too thrilled with it. I think I'll keep it on hand as a brunch dish to serve for company, but Joe and I may be sticking with plain old omelets for breakfast for dinner :)

Ham and Cheese Strata

1 carton of Egg Beaters (equivalent of 8 eggs)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 cups Italian bread cubes (1 inch)
6 ounces Virginia ham, cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 1/2 cups)
6 ounces Swiss cheese, cut into 3/4-inch dice (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup coarsely grated Cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 450°. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk, salt and pepper. Stir in the bread until evenly moistened, then stir in the ham and Swiss cheese. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and pour in the strata mixture. Sprinkle the Cheddar cheese on top. Bake for about 20 minutes, until puffed and golden. Let cool slightly, sprinkle with the remaining chives and serve.

Very Berry Muffins

It occurred to me not long ago as I was browsing other cooking blogs that lots of women make nice breakfasts for themselves and their husbands on weekends. I for one never make breakfast. Ever. I'm usually at the gym on weekend mornings, and I prefer to eat lightly during the day, so breakfast has never been my meal. This Sunday however I decided to take the day off from the gym and seize the opportunity to make breakfast. It is SO hot here this weekend that I knew I wouldn't be making anything big or heavy so when I saw these muffins on Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings I knew they would be perfect. All I changed was the name - my bag of frozen berries had blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. That makes four berries, so I'm titling them simply "Very Berry Muffins." I discovered that strawberries do not mash well, so I ended up chopping them into little pieces. These muffins were delicious. Nice and sweet and perfect warm with a dab of butter. My only complaint was seeds - the seeds from the berries got stuck in my teeth. But that didn't make me stop eating them, and DH had no complaints at all - he had three. I'm deeming my foray into the breakfast world a success.

I should also mention that this will forever be known as the recipe that blew the microwave. When I turned on the microwave to melt the butter I was met with sparks and crackles and almost-fire. So long, microwave. Not sure what happened (and I know is wasn't the fault of the muffins) but Joe is out buying a new one as I type.

Very Berry Muffins

4 tbsp butter (melted and cooled)
1 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar(plus additional for sprinkling)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (thawed and divided)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup berries and milk and mash well. In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar; add egg and beat well. Gradually mix in dry ingredients by hand. Mix in berry/milk mixture, followed by remaining berries and mix until just combined.

Using two spoons pour batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each chamber 3/4 full. Sprinkle top of muffins with sugar. Bake for 22-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I got nine standard size muffins.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

I've had this recipe bookmarked since I saw it in the November 2007 issue of Cooking Light. Unfortunately that issue somehow got buried beneath a stack of books on my nightstand and I only rediscovered it a few weeks ago. But it was perfect timing, since I unearthed the magazine in the same week that Joe told me he needed something to bring to a retirement potluck party at his school. The potluck was an all day affair and I figured there would be plenty of desserts and main dishes but not as many breakfast treats, so I decided to make these peanut butter and jelly muffins. I made them in my mini muffin tin since they were going to a crowd, but I also made 6 regular sized muffins for Joe and I to try. These are very good! Not to sweet and the perfect combination of peanut butter and jelly flavor. I could have stood to put a little more jelly in the mini muffins, but the full-sized ones were just perfect. Joe said all the muffins disappeared quickly at the potluck, so I guess other people enjoyed them too. I'll definitely make these again, especially since they were so easy - you only need one bowl! It's almost as simple as making a sandwich.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (about 3 1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup egg substitute
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/4 cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 400°.
Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugars, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Fill each cup half full with batter. Spoon 1 teaspoon jam into each cup. Spoon remaining batter on top to cover jam. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

Yield
1 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 185(28% from fat); FAT 5.8g (sat 2g,mono 2.3g,poly 1.2g); PROTEIN 5.2g; CHOLESTEROL 5.6mg; CALCIUM 113mg; SODIUM 288mg; FIBER 1.6g; IRON 1.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 29.4g

Cinnamon-Walnut Coffee Cake

The hotel I stayed in on my most recent business trip had several stores on the ground floor, one of them being a Williams-Sonoma. During the breaks in our meeting, my co-worker and I spent our time in the Williams-Sonoma, and I felt inclined to buy something. Okay, I felt inclined to buy MANY things, but in my attempts to be budget conscious, I purchases only their Food Made Fast Baking cook book. Every recipe in there looks amazing, and I was dying to try some out. Joe was going away for the weekend with his brother, so I asked him to choose something from the cookbook for me to have waiting for him when he got home on Sunday and he chose this cake. It turned out great and smelled wonderful while baking, plus I was quite pleased with the pretty cinnamon swirl in the center. I did think it was slightly dry, but I don't think coffee cakes tend to be super moist. Next time I think I will try it with pecans, as I'm not a huge walnut lover. But I will definitely make this again!

Cinnamon-Walnut Coffee Cake

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoon orange zest, finely grated (I omitted this)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan (I used a 9-inch round). In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter, sour cream, eggs, orange zest, 3/4 cup of the sugar and the vanilla until blended. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until smooth.

In a bowl, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the cinnamon and walnuts. Spread half of batter evenly into prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with half of walnut mixture. Top with the remaining batter, spreading it evenly, and sprinkle with the remaining walnut mixture.

Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes (mine took 35). Let cool slightly in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

A few months ago we got new neighbors next door, and we've slowly been getting to know them. They invited us over for brunch tomorrow, and although I was told not to bring anything I always feel the need to bring something, so I decided to try the Williams Sonoma Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins from Annie's blog.

The muffins didn't disappoint! They were easy to make and taste just as good as bakery muffins. The cinnamon sugar topping really makes the muffin! I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't change a thing, although next time I will make significantly less topping, as I ended up throwing out most of the melted butter and cinnamon sugar mixture. Thanks, Annie, for introducing this great recipe! I can't wait to share these tomorrow with our neighbors.

Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins

Ingredients

7 Tbs. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the topping:

2/3 cup sugar

1 Tbs. ground cinnamon

6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease 9 standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray; fill the unused cups one-third full with water to prevent warping.To make the muffins, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well until pale and smooth.In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture in 2 additions, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each three-fourths full. Bake until the muffins are golden, dry and springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins and let stand until cool enough to handle.

To make the topping, in a small, shallow bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon. Put the melted butter in another small bowl. Holding the bottom of a muffin, dip the top into the melted butter, turning to coat it evenly. Immediately dip the top in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, coating it evenly, then tap it to remove excess sugar. Transfer the muffin, right side up, to the rack. Repeat with the remaining muffins. Let cool completely before serving.

Makes 9 muffins.