Spinach and Egg Breakfast Sandwich

The Spinach and Egg Breakfast Sandwich was born out the desire to eat spinach quiche, but have it cooked in less than 15 minutes.  It wasn't hard making the filling creamy and cheesy.  It's the bread that makes the sandwich.  In the photo above, I used a leftover French bread roll.  Honestly, that was too hearty for such a creamy tasting filling.  I recommend you try a croissant with yours.

SPINACH AND EGG FILLING
Serves 1

• 1 teaspoon butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons half-n-half or whole milk
• 3 tablespoons blanched spinach, chopped
• 2 tablespoons grated Harvarti or Parmesan, any white cheese you prefer
• salt and pepper to taste

In a small fry pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add eggs, half-n-half and spinach. Scramble until eggs are solid, remove from heat.  Top with cheese and season to taste.  Warm a sliced croissant and fill'er up!

This breakfast sandwich will keep you going until lunch.

Cinnamon Apple Muffins

This Cinnamon Apple Muffin recipe is super easy to pull together.  It doesn't take long to bake them up.  They taste SO GOOD with juice, hot tea and coffee; not too sweet but just right. Full of soft, sweet apple bits and the cinnamon just makes them hard to stop eating.  Top half the batch with a little brown sugar and oats and they're a fun snack to kill off the late afternoon munchies.  Treat yourself to a batch.  Bake a batch for your workmates.  They will love you for it!

HERE'S ALL YOU NEED

• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 medium apple, cored, peeled, small dice

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Optional topping:

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon oats

HEAT OVEN 400ºF.  Grease bottoms of 12 medium muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.

In a small bowl, beat milk, oil and egg. Stir in diced apple. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Make a well and pour in wet ingredients.  Stir slowly just until flour is moistened--batter will be lumpy. Do not over stir.

Use a 2-inch scooper to divide batter evenly into muffin cups.  Should fill cups 2/3 full.  Sprinkle with brown sugar-oat topping if you want.

BAKE 18 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.  Immediately remove from pan.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.

Lucky Leaf® Apple Galette with Maple Cream

Krista G. representing Lucky Leaf® gave me two full-size cans of Lucky Leaf® Apple Pie Filling and Strawberry Pie Filling as well as a Lucky Leaf® cook book—which contains contest-winning recipes that were tested and approved by the Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen.  She asked me to test the recipes out in my own kitchen, and tell her (and others) what I thought.

From the Lucky Leaf® cook book, I followed the idea of their Blueberry Galette with Lime Marscarpone Cream to create this Apple Galette with Maple Cream.  Why didn't I just make the Blueberry recipe?  Well, I didn't have the blueberry filling, nor the lime, whipping cream, or mascarpone cheese.  I did, however, have on hand, without any special trips to the store, the can of Lucky Leaf® Apple Pie Filling, cream cheese, half-n-half, and grade B Maple sirup.  So I went to work!

The Lucky Leaf® recipe called for one rolled refrigerated unbaked pie crust.  I didn't have one of those either, so I quickly stirred up my own.  It took me a whole 5 minutes to make enough dough for two crusts.

HERE'S THE QUICK & FLAKY PIE CRUST

• 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons salted butter, COLD, cut into cubes
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons ice cold water

In a food processor, pulse the cold butter cubes and flour, for about 5 seconds.  DO NOT cut the butter into the flour until pea size clumps form.  That's too much.
Through the top feeder add the ice cold water, blend until dough ball forms and pulls away from the sides.  Transfer to lightly floured surface.  Use just enough flour to keep your hands from sticking to the dough but try not to work it into the dough; form a ball then flatten evenly to cut into half.  Wrap one half of the dough in freezer bag and store in frig or freezer for next time.

With the remaining dough, dust rolling pin with flour and roll dough to make a 10-inch circle or close enough.  You might notice my rolling is not perfect, but it won't matter in the end.  You'll see.

NEXT! YOU NEED...

• 1 (21 ounce) can Lucky Leaf® Apple Pie Filling
• 1/2 tablespoon half-n-half or milk
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• cinnamon to sprinkle over crust

Heat the oven to 400ºF.

Using your best baking sheet, take a cold stick of butter and rub a generous 10-inch baking area on the sheet.  Use your rolling pin to lift up crust and lay over greased baking area.

Spoon out half of a 21 ounce can of Lucky Leaf® Apple Pie Filling into the center of the crust, leaving a 2-inch border.  Fold edges of pie crust over filling, pleating as necessary, leaving center of filling exposed.  Brush edges of crust with milk and sprinkle crust with brown sugar and cinnamon.

BAKE for 25 to 30 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden.  Cover loosely with foil the last 10 minutes of baking time to prevent over-browning.  Remove and cool on baking sheet for at least 10 minutes. The cookbook says 30 minutes, but I wanted to eat it warm.

WHILE THAT'S BAKING, GET OUT...

• 1/4 cup half-n-half
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon Maple sirup

In a one-cup food processor or with an electric mixer, beat cream, cheese, sugar and sirup until blended and smooth.

BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP! (that's the oven timer going off)

You See?  It didn't matter that my raw pie crust wasn't perfectly round.  Now for the moment of truth.  How does Lucky Leaf® Pie Fillings score?

To be very honest with myself and you, Lucky Leaf® Apple Pie Filling is surprisingly fresh tasting.  I was glad to feel the apple slices had a firm texture, as if I had baked with fresh apples. The apple glaze that adheres the whole dessert together was clean and had a naturally sweet flavor, not overly sweet at all.  I was worried at first bite that it would taste like a can or be masked with corn syrup icky-sweetness.  That wasn't the outcome at all! Shoo!  I could keep eating ;D  I did wish that I had added nutmeg or cinnamon to the filling, just because that's what I felt like tasting.  The filling tasted of fresh apples only.

The crust was flakey, just as I had expected. It held the filling in very well without being tough. Yeah!!!  Just as I was finishing the slice above, I realized I forgot the Maple Cream!  So for the sake of Simple Daily Recipes and all loyal readers, like yourself, I went back for another slice.  It was a small sacrifice, but it had to be done.

NOW WITH THE MAPLE CREAM...

This was my Sunday breakfast.  Tasted GREAT with fresh, hot coffee.  The Maple cream was good, but it did not take the dessert to a whole new level or anything.  For the calories, I'll skip it next time and just enjoy another slice.

Would I buy Lucky Leaf® Pie Filling in future? Yes, because they DO NOT use high-fructose corn syrup in their product.  The 8 ingredients on the can were real ingredients.  It has a fresh taste and it's a delicious time saving product.

I'm definitely baking this again with the other half of the can and pie crust.  It makes 4 to 5 servings, but that won't last long around my house.

Simpler Crispy Waffles Recipe

I've written another waffle recipe before that involved whipping egg whites until they're stiff then folding them into the batter.  The results made a crispy waffle but it sure was A LOT of arm work.  I tried another waffle recipe this week that called for less whipping using whole eggs.  Yeah!  This recipe produced a much crispier  waffle that had snap.  It was just as creamy in the center and they held up well to reheating in the toaster.  SOLD!!!

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES
Makes 12 4-inch waffles.

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup neutral tasting oil
• 1 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat waffle iron.  Beat eggs with hand beater until fluffy.  In a separate bowl, beat remaining ingredients together until smooth.  Stir in fluffy eggs.  Pour up to 1/4 cup batter over each 4-inch grid.  Bake until waffle iron indicates the waffles are cooked.  Remove waffles carefully and place on cooling rack to keep them dry and crisp.

Top with your favorite syrup or fruit spread.

Creamy Biscuits

FINALLY! I found a recipe that produces my kind of biscuit, i.e. thick, creamy, moist, can be stuffed with eggs & bacon or left floating on a plate of down home white sauce.  I baked up Kelly's Perfect Buttermilk Biscuit recipe over at Sass & Veracity, except I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I used sour cream.  These biscuits came out beautifully and my folks were scrambling for seconds.  Thank you Kelly!

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick COLD butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 3/4 cup sour cream or buttermilk

Heat oven to 450ºF.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Add cold butter cubes, and using your fingers tips, pinch and rub the butter through the flour until the mixture looks like small crumbs.  This doesn't take long and using the blender makes for more dishes to wash.

Add the sour cream and stir lightly with a fork just until a soft dough forms.  Knead it in the bowl with your hands about 15 times.  Do NOT overwork the dough.

Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it's about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.  You can do this with a rolling pin if you prefer, but the dough is easily managed with your hands.  Choose a biscuit cutter (or a glass, jar, or can) that is 2-3 inches in diameter and cut as many biscuits as you can from the dough.  Repeat the process with scraps until all dough is used.

For biscuits with soft sides, place them into a ungreased 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan.  The cozier the fit the better. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until medium golden brown.

Now For the Down home White Sauce (Gravy!)

• 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

• 3/4 to 1 cup warm milk
• salt & pepper to taste

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, warm bacon drippings then whisk in flour until smooth.  Cook flour for up to 2 minutes, whisking constantly.

Slowly whisk in warm milk, constantly whisking to eliminate lumps.  Use up to 3/4 cup milk.  Allow sauce to come to a simmer, season with salt and pepper to salt, whisking to prevent burning.  Lower heat if necessary.  If sauce is too thick, add more milk 2 tablespoons at a time until you have the consistency as you like it.  The sauce with thicken as it cools.

If you make the sauce ahead or need to keep it warm, pour it into a warm bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow the plastic wrap to touch the top of the gravy, pushing out all the air from the bowl.  This will prevent a skin from forming on the top.  Use the microwave to reheat on medium power for 30 seconds up to one minute.

The bacon shown in the picture above was made on another day.  Follow my Oven Fried Bacon recipe to have bacon on hand, ready to eat anytime you want it.

Spicy Cheese Grits

Completely Budget Friendly - as low as $0.08 per cup for breakfast.  Creamy & delicious- like eating mashed potatoes - Grits are my new favorite breakfast food!

Grits have been around FOREVER.  We don't hear too much about them.  I guess it's because they're not sexy enough.  Growing up, the most I ever heard of them mentioned was on the TV show, Alice, when Flo would bark at Mel, "Kiss My Grits!"

Anyhoo. In an effort to change up my breakfast routine and seek out foods that are good for us but have gone out of fashion, I took notice of quick grits.  There weren't any "slow grits", so I'm guessing grits are grits?

Not having ever cooked grits before, the first time I naturally followed the instructions on the back of box.  That produced very bland results.  I was not impressed but I was inspired.  Since then, I've tossed in different types of cheeses, smoked gouda, cheddar, monterey jack, goat cheese, but have come to enjoy jalapeno jack the most.  I've tried a dash of herbs, oregano & basil.  And the other day, I went the other direction and tried cinnamon, brown sugar and a couple of raisins.  (That was not a good direction for me.)

HERE'S THE EASIEST & TASTIEST GRITS, so far

• 1/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 tablespoons grits
• dash of salt & fresh ground pepper
• 1 ounce jalapeno jack cheese

In a small sauce pan, heat milk and water over medium heat until it begins to boil.  Add in the grits, salt and pepper, stirring well.  Simmer on low heat 5 to 7 minutes covered or until thickened, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat, pour into serving bowl, then add cheese.  As soon as it's cool enough to eat, it's time to chow down.

The grits swell and soften into one cupful of breakfast.  I tend to pour my grits into a coffee mug and eat them on the go.  Grits are more filling than I thought they'd be and keep me going up to lunch.  They fulfill the desire for a hot breakfast and as I mentioned earlier, it's like eating mashed potatoes for breakfast.

Now I ask you, what could be more comforting than that?

Bran-Craisin Muffins

As far as bran loaded muffins go, these are pretty good, especially the next day. Like a Fruity Banana Bread, the muffins become softer, more moist, the longer they sit out on the counter in a storage container.

I'm trying to mix up my breakfast regimen and try new-old classics.  I've never eaten Malt O'Meal or hot cereal products other than oatmeal.  From my local grocer, I picked up a box of oat bran hot cereal and a dollar box of grits.  Until last week, I had never eaten grits. Side note and next post, I lurv grits!  I can't believe I've been living without them all this time.  Okay, back to these here muffins.

Another product I picked up for the first time was fig flavored yogurt; I found it at the foodie mart.  I did not enjoy eat it by itself, but I immediately imagined it going into a dense breakfast bread in place of buttermilk or sour cream.  So I went to searching for muffin recipes and found just want I needed.

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

• 1 1/2 cups oat bran cereal
• 1/2 cup craisins
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup pecan pieces
• 3/4 cup boiling water

• 1 egg from a happy chicken
• 1 cup fig yogurt or plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup oil

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Heat oven to 400ºF. Grease the bottom of a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a large bowl, mix the oat bran, craisins, pecans and boiling water.  Allow to sit a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, beat together the egg, yogurt and oil.

In a separate bowl, stir together the remaining dry ingredients.

First, add the egg mixture to the moistened bran mix and stir well.  Second, add the dry ingredients and fold into the wet ingredients.  Do not overstir; allow the flour to become moist as you fold the ingredients together.

Use a 2 inch scooper to fill 12 muffin cups, divide batter evenly among the cups.  BAKE about 20 minutes, until golden brown.  IMMEDIATELY remove from pan, allow to cool on wire rack.

I love eating my work

Simple Pumpkin Yogurt, Breakfast or Dessert

Have you ever heard of pumpkin yogurt?  It's a first for me.  I'll tell ya, at first taste, my mind had to do quite a bit of undoing to all it associates with pumpkin and yogurt.  But the two are very good together, especially when they've had time to get it on after a long night in the frig.

Now, I didn't make this recipe up.  Kim invited me to a local cooking class put on by the Texas Ag Extension office.  This was one of the treats I tasted and thought, "Hmm, how could I make this better?"

HERE'S ALL YOU NEED

• 2 cups nonfat French vanilla yogurt (I prefer Stonyfield Farm Organic, it's not overly sweet)
• 3/4 cup pumpkin from the can
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

• crumbled granola bar for topping

Homemade Whipped Topping

• 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

First, get out a medium bowl, mesh strainer, and a cheesecloth or tea towel. Line the strainer with the cloth and set on top of the bowl.  Place the yogurt in the cloth, cover and refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Place the thickened yogurt into a medium bowl and add the pumpkin, sugar and spice.  Stir well and allow the flavors to come together at least an hour or better, overnight.

Now, you can stop right here. Sprinkle the pumpkin yogurt with granola and have a lovely, healthy snack or holiday breakfast treat.

OR you can keep going and make a creamy dessert?

Using an electric mixer to whip up the heavy cream on a high speed until it starts to thicken, add in sugar and vanilla.  Continue to whip until soft peaks form.

For a light creamy touch, just add a dollop of whipped cream to the top of your yogurt.

For full on I don't care about the fat calories, line the bottom of your serving dish with whipped cream, layer on the pumpkin yogurt, top with a dollop of whip, then finish with sprinkling granola on top.

Banana Smoothie Breakfast

Have you ever tried Yoplait's Original Banana Cream yogurt? Blended in a drink blender with a sweet, brown spotty banana, and 1-cup of low fat milk? Oh, YUM!

.

.

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

My picky eating daughter asked if we could bake muffins together. We just happen to have the ingredients for these tasty little bites. They've made great snacks for us and they keep getting better with each day. My daughter has eaten more than any of us. I don't mind, they're healthy eats.

HERE'S ALL YOU NEED

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup applesauce or oil
• 3/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup healthy egg substitute or 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven 400F degrees. Spray mini muffin pan with nonstick spray.

Stir together the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. In a separate medium bowl, stir together the remaining dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Use a small scooper (holds 1 tablespoonful) to measure out dough into mini muffin pan.

BAKE 8-10 minutes. Immediately remove from pan to cooling rack. After they've cooled completely, store in a one gallon freezer bag. I highly recommend baking them a day ahead.

Bagels, Bananas & Honey

I love blogging about food. After slaving to get the right picture to make your mouth water, I get to eat the subject.

I discovered this week the delightful combination of cinnamon raisin bagels, cream cheese and honey. Not too much honey, just a light drizzle. I use the banana slices to sop the honey left on the plate. The potassium boost is just extra points.

This is a great breakfast! It's habit forming. Go try it!

Simple Apple Muffin Recipe

Right before bed, I got the idea to make something special for my husband to eat on his long commute into work.  I had a small, Gala apple on the counter and just enough roasted pecans to make muffins. So, that's what I did.

This apple muffin recipe is not sugary sweet.  The chopped apple and roasted pecans give the muffin a little chew, without making it feel like an energy bar.  I went light on the cinnamon and nutmeg.  I was taking into consideration someone's stomach that is awake at four o'clock in the morning.  At that time of in the morning, the tummy needs a little something easy, full of goodness, but not too heavy, and doesn't distract from the first cup of coffee.  Am I over thinking this?

Here's the Simple Apple Muffin Recipe

Wet ingredients:

• 3/4 cup low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Dry ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 small apple, peeled, cored & chopped
• 1/2 cup toasted pecans

Preheat oven 400F degrees. Grease bottoms of muffin cups.

In a small bowl, whisk the wet ingredients.  In a medium bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together and make a well in center of bowl.  Pour in wet ingredients and slowly stir together until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Do not over mix the batter.

For the mini-muffin pan, I used a small (1 teaspoonful) scooper, for uniform muffins.  This recipe made 24 mini-muffins plus 2 regular size muffins; or 12 regular muffins.

Bake the mini-muffins 10-12 minutes.  Bake regular size muffins 18-20 minutes.

Next Page »