Homemade Egg (McMuffin) Sandwiches

I can't even remember the last time I shared a recipe-yikes! This has been one of my favorite go-to breakfasts since Jensen was born. It takes less than 2 minutes to make, who doesn't have that kind of time? Added bonus: it only has two major ingredients! That's my kind of recipe!

See how easy that is?! I love it! You can add cheese too, I'm just not much of a cheese person. The only thing that would make this tasty little sandwich better is bacon. We don't buy bacon frequently, it goes too quickly in our house, but if we ever had any leftovers, I'd toss some on top! This sandwich is also easy to eat one-handed, while breastfeeding. That's a huge deal right now!

Breakfast Burritos

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was spent hanging out at home, which is our favorite way to weekend. 

Saturday, we had family movie night. After Cole went to bed, Josh surprised me with a game night. We played LIFE, I didn't know they made a new, fancy version, where everything is electronic. There were some parts we liked better, but other parts, you just can't beat with the original. I kicked Josh's butt! Forgive me for bragging, but he usually beats me at board games, so this win is especially fulfilling. Oh and the Patriots beat the Ravens. GO PATS!

Sunday was spent commissary shopping, napping, eating leftovers, photo editing, and watching the Golden Globes. My sister-in-law finally announced she's pregnant, and I am so excited I don't have to keep it a secret anymore. Congrats Beth and Dan! I love that we get to be pregnant together!

Now for the burritos! I can't tell you how many different breakfast burrito recipes Josh and I have tried. It's not like it's a difficult concept, but every version we tried seemed to be missing something, and didn't taste right. Even worse would be one of us liking it, but the other hating it. We decided one more try before giving up, and I'm so glad we tried again! These breakfast burritos are perfect for us. They are easy to make, didn't take long, Josh can spice his up, mine can stay mild, and best of all? They reheat like a dream! 

We used shredded hash browns, but I think any kind of hash brown would work well. When we reheated them the next day, I preheated the oven to 350, and baked for 20-25 minutes. If you don't have a breakfast burrito go-to, I highly recommend this one! 

National Doughnut Day AND Photo Friday!

What better way to start the weekend than with a couple of tasty doughnuts! Josh had a mock PT test this morning, so naturally when he came home to shower, I had a couple doughnuts waiting for him, I'm a great wife that way. Glad the mock went good, Josh!

For the doughnuts, I followed this recipe, and used a chocolate glaze that consisted of 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 3 Tbsp. soymilk, and 1 c. powdered sugar. Mix and dip warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven doughnuts, let cool a quick (okay, not so quick) minute, and enjoy!

In other news, Photo Friday is back! I decided that this time, instead of having a specific photo for a particular day, I'd make a list and pick whatever appeals to me.

Day 1: Toes. It's June! It's June, and it has been beautiful here! Beautiful enough to walk around barefoot, which is one of my favorite things to experience. I hope the sunny days keep up, after seeing this photo, it occurs to me that I'm in need of a tan. Pasty feet for the win!

Day 2: Recent purchase. When my dad was still in town, we went to a wine and brandy tasting, but the place was also a small Christmas and souvenir shop. Since Dad bought us a bottle of brandy, naturally, he couldn't leave Cole out. Solution: a very cute Noah's Ark puzzle!

Day 3: Shadow. My little Peter Pan was one tough cookie to snap a photo of. He was as excited as I was for a little Vitamin D!

Day 4: Fun. Cole and I have summer weekdays filled with fun ahead of us. I felt like we were in a bit of a rut, and came across a few pins for summer schedules, it was just what we needed! We were having a "Wet & Wild Wednesday" and Cole had a blast!

Day 5: Sun. Did I mention it's been sunny?! It's also been pretty rainy too...in the afternoon. As long as we get outside in the morning, before the afternoon showers start, we're solid. 

Day 6: Refreshing. I gave Cole one of the chocolate doughnuts. You can tell he liked it by the chocolate on his forehead and eyebrow (and everywhere the cup is blocking). I've never seen him enjoy milk as much as he did this morning.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend, make doughnuts!

Baked Doughnuts

Who doesn't love doughnuts?! I had been looking for a good doughnut recipe for a while and came to the conclusion that I didn't want to fry anything (1. I don't have a fryer, 2. I don't want to just fill a pot up with oil, and 3. I hate how oil splatters and gets everywhere, oh and I guess 4. it's not the healthiest choice, can you tell where my priorities are?!). A baked doughnut just seemed like the way to go.

I've made them a couple times now and decided that glazed is my preferred topping over powdered. Usually I like either, but making powdered doughnuts was such a messy undertaking, at least the way I did it. I think next time I'll try cinnamon-sugar.

Adapted from Ina Garten & Always with Butter

Ingredients:

2 cups AP flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 large egg

1 1/4 cup milk

2 Tbsp. butter, melted 

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp milk

Powdered:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray doughnut pan with cooking spray. Mix dry ingredients and slowly add in wet until well blended. Fill doughnut pan 3/4 full. Bake 17-20 minutes or until the doughnut springs back after being poked.

Glaze: Mix powdered sugar and milk together until smooth. Dip the tops of the doughnuts in glaze. Top with sprinkles.

Powdered: Dip entire doughnut in butter and then in powdered sugar.

If you don't have a doughnut pan, don't fret. Hop on over to Top With Cinnamon, Izy is brilliant. She not only has a great recipe for baked doughnuts, that I may love more than the Barefoot Contessa's, but she also has a nifty solution for doughnut pan-less people. Hopefully next time I make her doughnuts I'll actually remember to photograph my finished product...

French Toast Sticks

I've been in a breakfast rut lately and wanted needed to try something new, but something I knew my family would love. Enter the french toast stick. It's simple and has 6 ingredients, who doesn't love that?! Kristin (of Iowa Girl Eats) even includes how to freeze leftovers, if you have any, we didn't!

Slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:

5 slices Texas Toast

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 Tbsp. melted butter, slightly cooled

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray generously and set aside. Cut bread slices into thirds, then set aside. In a large shallow dish, whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, vanilla, and cinnamon. Dunk bread sticks into batter, let excess drip off, then place onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes, pull out of oven and spray the tops of the French Toast Sticks with non-stick spray, flip the sticks, and bake for additional 8-9 minutes. Enjoy!

To freeze: Let French Toast Sticks cool then place onto a baking sheet and freeze in the freezer. Transfer to a freezer bag or container when hard. To reheat, microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Photo Friday

Here we are! It's finally Friday and you know what that means...

In case you forgot, I shared in my Loving Lately post that I wanted to try a Photo A Day Challenge and these are my first 6 days:

 Day 1: 9. Bonus points if you know what episode this is from (and yes I watched and waited for the right time to take this picture).

 Day 2: Apple. Do you remember in junior high, making omelets in Home Ec.? I was kind of a weirdo back then and decided I wanted to try something different and that's how this wonderful concoction came about. Now it's the only way I eat my omelets. Recipe below.

 Day 3:Shoes. I finally received my bridesmaid shoes! Hope you like them Beth!

 Day 4: Lines. This is a picture of one of our radiators.

 Day 5: Orange. One of my favorite things here in Germany are the orange rooftops.

Day 6: Low angle. There are actually two trees here, they're sort of jumbled together.

So what do you think so far?!

Apple Omelet:

half of an apple, chopped (I used golden delicious)

1 Tbsp. butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2-1 tsp. brown sugar

dash nutmeg

2-3 eggs, beaten

salt 

pepper 

cajun seasoning

In a pan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Stir to combine. You just want the apples heated through, about 3 minutes. Prepare omelet like normal.

Biscuits and Gravy

I'm a breakfast food person. I like the rebellious nature of breakfast food, you know like, "I'm breakfast food, but I like being served at night!" That kind of thing.

Growing up, my mom made the best biscuits and gravy. It always felt like a special day when she made it. We loved it so much we started having it on Christmas morning, a tradition I've continued with my own little family. It's so simple too!

Ingredients:
1 pound Jimmy Dean sausage (we get regular)
1 can refrigerated biscuits
milk
flour 
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven according to biscuit instructions. Once oven is preheated, pop the biscuits in (bake like normal). Start browning the sausage, drain if necessary. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, flour, and spices*. Add milk/flour mixture to sausage (your heat should be on low-medium). Depending on how runny you like your gravy, you may need to add more milk/flour. When you've reached your ideal gravy thickness, serve on biscuits and enjoy!

*For every 1-1 1/2 cups milk, add 1 tablespoon of flour.

Can you feel it?

Autumn is in the air. I've woken up a few times in the last week to a chilly house. I haven't had to put socks on yet, but I refuse to until at least September. I'm ready for cooler weather, but I won't give into winter that easily.

People seem more pleasant in the fall, maybe it's because they aren't miserable from the temperature (high or low). It's simply my favorite time of year. I love the weather, the colors, the apparel, the football, and the food.

I could've sworn I posted this recipe a while ago, but when I went to make it a few days ago, it was nowhere to be found. Well, it's here now! I had been in search for a great banana bread, and thanks to allrecipes.com, I found my go-to.

Ingredients:
Bread
4-5 ripe bananas (I've used 3 in a pinch and it tasted fine)
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Topping
2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 5x9-inch loaf pan. 
2. Mash 2 bananas in a bowl with a fork, set aside. Place remaining 2 (or 3) bananas in a separate bowl with 1 cup sugar and beat the bananas and sugar until creamed and fluffy. Add melted butter, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and stir the flour mixture into banana-sugar mixture. Fold in mashed bananas. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and tap the pan on the counter several times to remove any air pockets. Stir 2 teaspoons sugar with cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top of the loaf.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 37 minutes, rotate and bake addition 37 minutes until bread is golden brown on top and set in the center. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Feel free to add nuts to the mixture, we don't because Cole likes to eat this with us and he doesn't eat nuts yet.

"Apple" Cinnamon Quinoa

 
It's been a while since I dipped my toes into the the quinoa pool. I was in a bit of a breakfast rut and needed something a little different. I rinsed and prepped my quinoa like normal, but instead of using water to cook it in, I used apple juice. In case you haven't noticed from my drink recipes as of late, I am obsessed with apple juice right now. It's just a great base for so many things!

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
coconut oil
2 cups apple juice
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
pinch of sugar (optional)

Rinse quinoa. Make sure you rinse in cool water for at least 2 minutes with a fine mesh strainer. On medium heat, melt a little coconut oil, add drained quinoa and cook for about a minute so any excess water evaporates. Add apple juice and cinnamon (and sugar) and cook covered for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for a few minutes. Remove lid, give it a good stir and serve. Easy peasy!

Palacinkas

When I was growing up, there were few things that could make me wake up early on a Saturday morning: bowling, cartoons, and palacinkas. The first two weren't even a guarantee.

My neighbor, Elaine would make this tasty breakfast item and invite us over. Palacinkas (pronounced pala-chink-uhs) are the Slovakian version of crepes, but way more fun to say! The trick to this dish is to eat them hot off the skillet. If you're wanting a nice sit down, together meal with the family, you may want to try a different recipe.

When Josh and I were visiting Omaha before we made our move to Germany, I begged for this recipe. I thought it was some secret family recipe and I was prepared to barter if I had to. Instead, Miss Elaine kindly dropped it off to me and wished us a safe journey. Well that was easy.

Somehow, with all the moving we've done since arriving here, I misplaced that sacred recipe. A few weeks ago I was going through a box of books looking for something to read, and I found it. I've been wanting to try it ever since, but I was nervous because I've never made them before and I didn't want to mess them up, especially since Josh had never had them before.

Josh called to let me know that he had to work late last night and I thought this was the perfect time to try them. I get a little anxious when I try new recipes with Josh. If he doesn't like it the first time, we probably won't try it again. So, if I mess them up, he'll never know. But this is something I've tried and know can be good, if I do it right. No pressure.

I'm totally going to toot my own horn on this one. These palacinkas turned out fantastic! Josh got home shortly after I had finished eating so I whipped him up his own plate. He raved about them, and said we'll definitely have these again soon!

Palacinkas:
1 1/2 c. flour, sifted
1/3 c. sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
milk

Beat all ingredients together, adding milk last. I added about 1 1/2 cups milk, you want the batter to be on the thin side. Heat a skillet to medium-high heat, melting butter (or using cooking spray) in the skillet. Add about 1/2 cup of batter to the skillet. Move the skillet around to coat the bottom of the pan. When the top has a dry look, flip it (the edges curl a little too). The other side will only need a few seconds. Remove to a plate.

You can spread anything on your palacinkas. Jam, marmalade, fresh fruit with some cream cheese. I keep it simple: a little butter, syrup, roll it up (I recommend only adding syrup to the side you start the roll on, otherwise it gets messy), and sprinkle with a little powdered sugar. Voilà.

Cole loved it too, he pigged out and ate an entire one by himself (I kept his plain). What's great about this recipe, is you can make it the night before and refrigerate it until you need it. We had leftovers and got to enjoy more palacinkas this morning!

Quinoa Cereal

I should start this post off by saying that I've never tried quinoa before. Having said that, there is a box of quinoa in my cupboard that's been there for a couple of months. I've been wanting to try it, but I haven't found the right recipe, until today. A few days ago I was on Pinterest trying to find a quinoa recipe that I'd actually try and I came across this recipe and I gotta say, it didn't disappoint.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups skim milk
• 1/2 cup rinsed quinoa
• 2 teaspoons honey (the recipe called for maple syrup, but I didn't have any, so I improvised)
• Pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• Sliced banana

Directions:
Bring milk and quinoa to a boil in a small saucepan.
Simmer, covered, until most of milk is absorbed, about 14 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in honey, cinnamon, and raspberries.
Top with bananas. I drizzled a little extra honey on top.

Pumpkin Muffins

First, happy Halloween everyone! Second, I'm hoping to share some photos later of Cole in his costume. It's going to be great, so make sure to keep a look out! Finally, I hope you try these delisch muffins! I found the recipe on Big Red Kitchen and fell in love immediately. I am obsessed with recipes that only have a handful of ingredients, and this one?! This one only has two.

Sorry for the weird lighting, I only took a few pictures before I had to try these guys out!

Ingredients:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz) of pumpkin (100% pure)

Directions:

Mix, add to cupcake liners, bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Sprinkle on a little powdered sugar if you so choose. 

Josh asked that next time I try adding some chocolate chips, if you know my husband at all, it's pretty amazing for him to say there will be a next time (kind of a picky eater) AND to add chocolate (not a chocoholic), wow. Just wow. If this recipe gets the stamp of approval from Josh, you know it's good! Oh and I read that this is a Weight Watchers approved recipe too. Happy baking!!!

French Toast

I absolutely love french toast but for some reason I was never able to master it, until now. I found a recipe on allrecipes and I finally found my perfect match! Who knew that all I needed to add was a little flour? It makes all the difference. I don't know if it's the pregnancy or what, but I am obsessed with confectioners sugar. French toast is perfect for confectioners sugar if you didn't know.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon white sugar
12 thick slices bread

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, slowly whisk in the milk, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth. 
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat. 
3. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. Serve hot.
4. Enjoy with your favorite toppings!  

Grapefruit and Scrambled Eggs

I am by no means a chef, and pre-pregnancy it was a well known fact that my patience level ran on the low side; so being pregnant and trying to find a nice, healthy meal that's quick and easy to make seems almost impossible.

Scrambled eggs are easy enough and who can’t cut a grapefruit in half?! Really quick, and very easy-perfect! Add your favorite morning time beverage and voila!

 

Josh's Homemade Donuts

Ingredients                          

1 can plain Pillsbury biscuits              

                                               

Glaze (rough measurements)

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1/4 cup Milk 

Directions

Preheat deep fryer to 375 degrees

To make donuts:

Punch out holes in the middle of the biscuits and roll into balls or cut into fourths

Place in deep fryer turning to brown evenly

Take out once golden brown

To make glaze:

Combine powdered sugar and milk until creamy texture (may need to add more or less of either ingredient)

Pour glaze over fresh donuts let cool for a couple of minutes and enjoy!