After {another} week of traveling for work, I was definitely ready to eat a home cooked meal. Of course, I found myself once again barely having any food in the fridge, but I did manage to throw together something really yummy this morning - Peanut Butter Berry French Toast! I'll bet most of us already have the ingredients on hand to make this.
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Happy New Year! Hope everyone's 2013 was amazing. I love setting goals for each year, so I will write about my 2014 goals shortly. But first- I had to share this delicious egg dish that I made last week.
I have always wanted to make a strata- for those of you who haven't made one either, a strata is an egg, bread, & milk concoction. I have read about different versions of strata- savory, sweet, with meat, with veggies, this is a really versatile dish. After my meat overload during Christmas, I knew that I wanted to make my strata with lots of vegetables. You guys- if you resolved to eat more vegetables this year, this is a great way to sneak some in! I love oatmeal, so when I read that Bob's Red Mill hosts an annual contest called "Spar for the Spurtle" I knew I had to create an oatmeal recipe and enter. The contest winner will represent Bob's Red Mill at the 20th Annual Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship in Scotland this October. Sounds amazing, right?
Fun fact: according to Wikipedia, a spurtle is a Scottish kitchen tool used to stir oatmeal or soup. Who knew? I am so excited to share this recipe with everyone, this is a super easy breakfast and it's perfect on a warm summer morning. Last year I started seeing overnight oatmeal mentioned on various blogs and recipe sites. I was intrigued- oatmeal that you don't cook? I didn't understand how you could simply refrigerate oatmeal overnight and have it taste good the next morning, It seemed odd to me.
I finally got motivated to try overnight oats when I was browsing through an overnight oats series on The Yummy Life- a recipe blog I read regularly. I used the basic idea from the Yummy Life to come up with an overnight oats recipe of my own- and it is now a favorite in my household. Believe it or not, my husband Matt even asks for this oatmeal, it is that good. I don't recall Matt EVER asking me for yogurt or oatmeal before this, let alone both together. Plus it's super convenient to just grab a jar out of the fridge in the morning. I love making pancakes on the weekend, and use my Bob's Red Mill mix all the time. I like making a pumpkin pancake after I've made a pumpkin recipe that doesn't use the whole can of pumpkin- this is a great use for that little bit extra. I usually make one big pancake instead of flipping a bunch of little ones- and top my pumpkin pancake with peanut butter & honey. Here is what I used for this: Ingredients (for one): 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Pancake & Waffle Mix 1 egg white 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, or more to taste 1/4 cup canned pumpkin 1/4 cup water (or more) Combine all ingredients in a bowl & mix well. Start with 1/4 cup water, add more if needed. The texture should be thick, but pourable. Pour mixture into a pre-heated skillet that's been sprayed with cooking spray. Cook over medium heat until bubbles start to form on the pancake, then flip and cook until done. I usually eat a banana every day with my workweek waffles. When I have a few bananas left at the end of the week, I get excited to make this delicious baked oatmeal. I love making this on Sunday, then I can start my Monday with the leftovers.
Ingredients: 3 bananas 2 cups rolled oats 1 egg 2 T brown sugar 1 t baking powder 1/4 c chocolate chips 1 1/2 c water Mash up bananas in a bowl- I use a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients & mix well. Pour into a 8' square baking dish coated with cooking spray. I also line the dish with nonstick foil for easy clean up. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cut into 4 pieces & serve with your favorite topping. I use Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter. Sometimes on a cold morning, there is nothing better than a big bowl of hot oatmeal. It's possible to make good natural oatmeal in the microwave- don't cave and buy the flavored packets! Here is my method:
1/2 cup rolled oats 1 cup water 1 banana milk big spoonful peanut butter honey Place a ripe banana in a bowl, mash it up well with a fork. Mix oatmeal and water in the bowl. Make sure your bowl is big enough, it will puff up in the microwave. Set the timer for 3 minutes, keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't boil over. Once the oatmeal is cooked, mix in a healthy splash of milk, a big spoonful of peanut butter, and sweeten with honey. Breakfast is served. This is my current go-to breakfast. I seriously eat this almost every weekday morning. When I was searching for something healthy, filling, and quick to eat in the morning, I once again turned to the "Eat This, Not That" book series- the obsession continues. The waffle recommendation in the book is Van's 8-Grain Waffles, they are found in the natural/organic section of my grocery store. I top my waffles with Smucker's creamy peanut butter, a sliced banana, and local honey. I use what may be an excessive amount of peanut butter, but it makes me happy so I'm fine with it.
I eat local honey because my sister Rachel heard that eating local honey can somehow alleviate allergy symptoms. The idea is that eating the honey gets your body accustomed to the local pollen. I have no idea if this is true, or if it is even working, but with the sinus problems I have I'm willing to try anything. Fall is here, and a warm, hearty breakfast is perfect for this time of year. I had a LOT of apples in the fridge from picking apples at Strites Orchard a few weekends ago, so I put them to use in this dish. I've always shied away from making steel cut oats because they are time consuming to cook- but with the convenience of the crock pot this was a cinch. It's definitely a make again.
The recipe I used is from The Yummy Life. I made the recipe as listed except I used water instead of milk in the crock pot, then just added a splash of milk in my bowl. And of course no breakfast of mine is complete without a big scoop of Smucker's Peanut Butter. |