Avocado Bacon Omelet

A healthy omelet that is quick and easy for any morning. Tasty and only takes 10 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1 tbsp milk/cream/etc
Herbs if desired
1/2 diced avocado
1 tbsp crumbled bacon (I used the stuff in the jar)
1/4 c Parmesan or mixed hard Italian cheeses
1/4 - 1/2 c vegetables if desired or on hand

Servings: One good healthy breakfast

Instructions:
Scramble the eggs with the milk, and herbs if your using them, as much as you like. Want a fluffy omelet, scramble the heck out of it. Want a dense omelet, scramble less. Pour the egg into a ~8 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Let cook a minute or two and then sprinkle the bacon, cheese and avocados on half of the omelet. Add the extra veggies if your using them.

When the bottom is cooked flip half the omelet over the other half, let cook. Then flip the whole thing and let the other half cook through to make sure all egg is cooked and cheese is melted.

Eat hot and steaming!

Nutritional Information: 450 calories, 23g of Protein and while it does have 33g of fat, it is healthy fat, it pretty much all comes from the avocado.

Recipe From: Made it up, used it a few times just decided to write it down and look at the overall nutritional values

I have made these numerous times, just thought I would take the time to write it down and talk about nutritional content. Super easy, tasty and healthy.

You can really use any cheese you want, if you want to make this in a California fashion use Monterrey Jack. But I wanted to cut calories and hard Italian cheeses have fewer than most soft cheeses. I keep some grated in the fridge at all times, toss it on all sorts of things and no salt needed because the cheese has plenty.

You can add extra vegetables if you have them on hand, but I don't like most vegetables in my eggs but green and red peppers would add some crunch if your so inclined. Use herbs as you see fit, basil goes well, so does garlic and Italian herbs.

Baked Spiced Pumpkin Mini Doughnuts

Little pumpkin treats for breakfast! Moist, tasty and easy. If you don't have a mini doughnut pan, just use muffin cups and only fill them 1/4-1/3 full.

Ingredients:
For the doughnut holes:
220g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
½ tsp ground gloves
Pinch of salt
1 egg
75ml vegetable oil
100g brown sugar
185g tinned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
120 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating (optional):
130g granulated sugar
2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Servings: 48 mini doughnuts or 18-20 holes

Instructions:
Spray the mini doughnut pan or 18-20 holes in a muffin/cupcake tin (depends on whether the muffin tin is for normal-sized or huge muffins). Pre-heat the oven to 175°C.

Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a medium-sized bowl and mix together.

Lightly beat the egg in a large bowl (I actually used 2 small organic eggs), then add the oil, brown sugar, pumpkin, milk and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. Gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined (like with muffins, don’t over-mix!).

Divide the batter between the muffin holes or moulds (don’t fill them too much – these will puff a little bit as they cook) and bake for 10-12 mins until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you cook these the night before, by morning they will be moist from all the pumpkin, you can just roll them in the sugar and it will stick. The original recipe has you dunk them in melted butter and then roll them. I thought the extra calories wouldn't add all that much and this method worked just fine for me. However you need to do this right before you serve these doughnuts or they will just absorb the sugar and wont look as cute.

Recipe From: Sharkyovengloves


These came out nice and moist and quite good. Honestly I would like to try some glazed and some with spiced pumpkin cream cheese. I think I will be later with some of the left overs. Before you toss these in sugar, I think they would even freeze well so you could make a big batch and then same some for later.

Quick and easy to make, tasty and over all healthy.

Banana Zucchini Cranberry Almond Bread

Healthy, flavorful and goes together in less than 20 minutes, this zucchini bread will satisfy all of your cravings without all of the guilt.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar**
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
2 cup bananas, mashed (3-5)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cus all-purpose flour
2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup slivered almonds
**I subbed 1/2 cup splenda for baking

Servings: 2 loaf pans

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch bread loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light yellow and frothy. Add oil, apple sauce, brown sugar, white sugar, grated zucchini, bananas, and vanilla; blend together until well combined. Stir in the flour, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the cranberries and nuts. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool in the loaf pans on a wire rack before removing and serving.

Recipe From: AllRecipes.com

I made quite a few modifications from the original recipe in order to make this more flavorful and make a few healthy improvements. I exchanged most of the all purpose flour for whole wheat, cut out most of the oil and replaced it with apple sauce, cut out a lot of the sugar (which you wont miss) finally I added extra zucchini and banana to keep it all moist and pack in some extra flavor.

I made a few tweaks with the spices but that will all be up to personal taste in this recipe and can be modified as you like. Don't have pumpkin pie spice? Add in nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice, cloves etc. Prefer walnuts to almonds, make the switch. Don't like craisins, use raisins. But I would recommend keeping some sort of sweet dried fruit in there or bump up the sugar a little bit (unless your going to slather this in cream cheese and then you wont notice).

Homemade Yogurt and Paneer Cheese

Well I had a WHOLE GALLON of milk go sour on me here in Texas. So, I tried to find a use for them since I knew they weren't bad, just sour. So searching the intertubes I came across making yogurt and making paneer.

If you know me, you know I don't let milk go to waste so I proceeded to make both. I had previously made paneer that resulted in a delicious ricotta, but left something to be desired as paneer (recipe for the delicious ricotta to be posted when I am sure I can recreate it). So I made attempt #2 at paneer and it came out as, well, paneer. I am not thrilled with the concept of paneer itself. Tasteless cheese. Smothered in Indian Sauces it is heavenly, but it's not because I find the cheese itself lick-the-plate-clean-delicious. The yogurt making however is an endeavor I think I will recreate, perhaps on a more regular basis if this milk-going-sour phenomenon continues (now the third time I have found separated/soured milk).

First the success.



Yogurt from soured (not spoiled) milk
Recipe and accompanying video from About.com

~6 cups milk (I think I used 2% milk, but it doesn't seem to matter)
6 oz yogurt with active cultures

Heat milk slowly in a saucepan. You do not want it to boil. Heat the milk to 180 degrees. You are supposed to keep it at this temperature for 30 minutes but I just turned the heat off at this point then after ten minutes turned the burner back on for just a minute so it maintained 170 degrees for a while. Then you have to let it cool to 115 degrees. I just left it on the counter.

I was worried at this point because it looked a bit curdled. But I proceeded anyway. Once it had cooled to 115 degrees I added the yogurt with the active cultures. It was a vanilla flavored and sweetened yogurt. Then set it in a 110 degree oven overnight. Eight hours seems to be the ideal time. I had the oven on earlier so it was just slightly warm and I set the tupperware inside on a towel and walked away. In fact Dave had to remind me about it in the morning so it was probably 12 hours.

Many sights said it is important not to wiggle or disturb the yogurt during this time. My guess is heed their advice. I took it out and it still looked a little separated, like there was too much whey in with the yogurt. Many homemade yogurts sound like they are much thinner than what you get at the store. Well, I had cheesecloth already from the paneer so I poured off what whey I could and strained more out with the cheesecloth. Since I forgot the yogurt draining on the counter, it strained longer than I would have wanted, but this yielded a deliciously creamy, thick greek style yogurt. It has a mild tart flavor, but nowhere near as acidic as when you buy just plain, unsweetened yogurt in the store.



This is so yummy, I am really considering making it again despite the added work compared the yummy yogurts I buy in the store. (PS Try Almond milk yogurt. I loved it and have found a recipe on how to make that into yogurt too! I would just use bought chocolate almond milk, it's like a desert in a glass!) All I have to do now is add a little fruit or sweetener to it and I will devour it. Many sites suggested using it for smoothies. Maybe if I hadn't strained the yogurt, that would be a good use, but strained this is going to be kept simple to enjoy the lightly tart creaminess. I never thought homemade yogurt would have come out so successfully. Especially when I saw mine curdle, I was figuring I was going to get ricotta again (see below).

Yields about 2 cups of delicious yogurt



Paneer - meh.

The first time I attempted to make paneer I used this recipe and I successfully made a really delicious ricotta. Almost marscapone like in texture and flavor. It was delicious but with the price of milk I know I would not make it soon because I am not that big a fan of ricotta. In my opinion mass-store bought ricotta needs to be cooked to bring out the cheesy flavor. My homemade version of ricotta though had a million uses, just like marscapone.

1 quart buttermilk
2 quarts 2% milk

Boil the milk. Once boiling pour in the buttermilk and stir till solids form. Pour into a cheesecloth strainer and drain the liquid. Let the cheesecloth hang until desired firmness is achieved. My original "problem" here was the cheesecloth bag I used the holes were too big so curds and whey were draining out. But what I did end up with, as I keep raving was delicious ricotta.

Anyway, back to the "successful" paneer. It really was a success. I did make paneer, albeit a little crumbly. Unfortunately I also did not salt or flavor it in any way. If you like paneer, by all means, give this a try. I just like tastier cheeses.

1/2 gallon soured skim milk
1/4 cup lemon juice

Boil on the stovetop. Once boiling, add the lemon juice. (Maybe you should salt the water if you want the cheese to be salted?) The curdles are what you want to keep. The cheesecloth I bought again had too big of holes so I triple folded it. Then I poured in the curdles and whey into the folded cheesecloth over a big bowl. Once mostly drained I tied the cheesecloth and hung it over a bowl to drain for an hour. It took less than that to reach the consistency of paneer. Mine was a bit crumbly, but I think I could have pressed it into a block if I cared to. I just crumbled it over a butternut squash salad (recipe to come).

Now this only yielded about a cup of cheese, but my guess this is partly due to the use of skim milk. The yogurt was at least 2%.

And unfortunately, I forgot ricotta is usually made from the whey after making cheese and I poured all but a cup for baking with down the drain - doh! I doubt I will try making paneer again. I have successfully done it, but the ricotta and yogurt results were so much better I think I will stick with them.

No pictures at the moment. I will try and add some tomorrow. I have to get out of bed in order to take pictures and I have been sick most of the week - almost didn't even use the soured milk - I have sequestered myself to bed in order to try and get to work tomorrow. Although I do still have that sultry smokers voice going for me. Ok, it's not that sultry on me, I am just looking for any bright side. Yogurt! That is my bright side out of all this. Exceeding expectations is always good when cooking and this yogurt did just that. Enjoy!

Bacon n’ Beer Pancakes

The perfect combination of beer, bacon and maple syrup for a very indulgent weekend breakfast. This recipe may have replaced all other pancake recipes for me!

Ingredients:
8-10 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and diced
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg, whites and yolk separated
1 12 oz. bottle nice beer (I recommend something like Newcastle or a nice amber beer – this is definitely not a recipe you can use a cheap beer with because you can taste the beer)
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
syrup, for serving

Servings: ~8 Pancakes

Instructions:
Cook your bacon how ever you want. I cooked mine in the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes, but you can easily pan fry it. Set aside to cool, then dice (I used kitchen scissors and just cut it up into confetti).

Whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, the beer, and the vegetable oil. In a small bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy and add them to the beer mixture.

Gently whisk the beer mixture into the flour mixture, until just combined. Fold in the diced bacon. Heat a large pan over medium-high, until hot. Grease your pan with either non-stick spray or butter. Scoop 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake and cook for 2-3 minutes, until bubbling on one side. Flip the pancake and let cook until golden.

Serve with a little butter if you want and lots of good quality maple syrup.

Recipe From: http://crepesofwrath.net/2011/01/31/bacon-n-beer-griddle-cakes/

Jason loves, bacon, beer and breakfast almost as much as he loves lasagna, pizza and sandwiches. So when I saw this recipe up on Crepes of Wrath I knew I had to try it, I just had to wait 3 months for Jason to come home again. I had assumed that this recipe would be novel and interesting, I didn't think it would be fantastically awesome! This is a great breakfast treat, the beer is flavorful but not overpowering, the bacon blends with the beer and the maple syrup perfectly. I don't know that I will make normal pancakes ever again.

These were, fast, easy, super tasty and the perfect breakfast indulgence.

Make sure to use good beer, we went with Sam Adams Boston Lager which was perfect for this. Don't go too pale or it wont mesh with the maple syrup and don't go too dark or it will over shadow everything else. Stick with red to a light dark and I think you will have the optimum flavor.

Blueberry Coffeecake - my go to blueberry breakfast recipe

Anytime I come home with fresh blueberries I make this recipe, however, it does not require fresh berries. I love this coffeecake so much that I have tried no other. In fact I turned this into a fabulous blueberry crumble recipe just by putting an inch of blueberries below this recipe and baking it. Light, fluffy, stays moist for days if you can resist eating it only in the morning. Warning, if you don't eat this within a few days you should store it in the fridge. I have had the last slice go bad with the blueberries generating an off flavor during the summer months.

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter (or shortening, but I always use butter)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg, large
2-3 cups fresh or frozen (drained) blueberries, I like a lot of blueberries in mine so I use 3 or 4 cups!
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

Heat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9" spring form pan. Blend flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, milk, and egg. Do not over mix, just till it all comes together. Stir in the blueberries and try not to pop them (unless you want the batter to be blue). Spread the batter in the springform pan. I spray the pan with cooking spray and have never had a problem with it releasing. Now make the crumb topping by cutting the 1/4 cup butter into the remaining sugar, flour, and cinnamon. It should resemble crumbs and yield a good texture if you don't cream the butter, but cut it in. Bake for 45-50 minutes and enjoy! Dave and I usually eat a quarter of the coffeecake each day for breakfast until gone.



The recipe is from a cookbook I copied many years ago and do not have the name of. Here is the original recipe if anyone can identify the cookbook (Mom? Dad?).
UPDATE: Betty Crocker's Old Fashion Cookbook (Thanks Mom)

Peach Breakfast Scones

Modified Simple Scones from Allrecipes.com, as if scones weren't really simple to make. These are nice and crispy on the outside and soft and tender inside. I added a bunch of frozen peaches and some pomegranate liquor I needed to use up, but substitutions are what scones are all about.

Simple Scones



2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar (I used 3 tablespoons since the pomegranate liquor was sweetened)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, cubed
2 cups frozen peaches, chopped
6 oz. yogurt (or sour cream)
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and in food processor pulse until it resembles coarse meal. (I also use two butter knives to cut the butter in. Just don't smear it in, it helps make these flaky.) Add the yogurt, egg, and peaches and mix until incorporated. Either form a circle and cut into triangles or just drop dollops onto a parchment lined baking sheet or nonstick baking pan. Bake 15-17 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on the counter to room temperature.

Substitute any fruit, any spices, any citrus. My favorite combination is dried cranberries with orange zest and if you are feeling naughty, add some white chocolate chips. The more fruit you cram them with, the healthier they are for you, right?

Hawaiian Bread

A new twist old fashioned banana bread. This bread combines coconut, pineapple, macadamia nuts and bananas to make a moist loaf of bread with a variety of textures and flavors that all blend together to make an excellent bread.

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup coconut, toasted
2 bananas, mashed

Servings: Makes 2 loaves (16 Slices)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour two 9x5" loaf pans.

Combine flour, soda, sugar, salt, and nuts in mixing bowl, and blend. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Bake at 350, for 1 hour

Nutritional Information: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1616824

Recipe From: http://www.food.com/recipe/chris-hawaiian-bread-257940

I was looking for "authentic Hawaiian" desserts for Supper Club and found that other than Hupia, no one has much of anything! So then I broadened my horizons and found this recipe online. I thought it sounded fairly "Hawaiian" with the pineapple, macadamia nuts and coconut and decided to give it a go.

It turned out to be a fantastic experiment. I modified the original recipe and toasted the coconut because I think it gives it a richer flavor. I also replaced half the oil with apple sauce for a healthier option. The bread came out moist and delicious without all the extra fat. If you wanted to cut a few more calories I think you could easily cut out another 1/2 cup of sugar or bake this with Splenda and the recipe still wouldn't lose anything as the sweetened coconut adds a bit of sugar itself.