French Toast

E & I have two different ways of making French toast. Sometimes we will just buy a bag of cinnamon swirl bread and use a plain egg batter to make it; it turns out pretty good. We also have a Better Homes and Garden Cookbook with a simple French toast recipe. We used that recipe today, since we had all of the ingredients at home.

Ingredients:

• 4 beaten eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 TBSP. sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 8 slices of bread (we just used wheat bread that we had leftover; it probably wasn't thick enough, but it was free!)
• 2 TBSP. butter

Directions:
1) In a shallow bowl, beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon & nutmeg.
2) Dip bread slices into egg mixture, coating both sides.
3) In a skillet or a griddle, melt 1 TBSP of butter over medium heat.
4) Add half of the bread slices and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
5) Repeat with remaining butter & bread slices.
6) Serve with syrup (and I like to add butter & powdered sugar too... yummy!)

Blueberry Banana Muffins

We had some leftover ripe bananas and some frozen blueberries, so I used this recipe (awkward title, in my opinion) and made up a batch. We used frozen blueberries, and we substituted shortening for butter. They turned out good. Today I procrastinated homework and cover letter writing by cooking and baking. Oh well; we all need a mental health day sometimes :)

Berry Breakfast Smoothie

I've been trying to get in the habit of eating more fruit. They also say that blueberries & flax seeds are good "cancer fighters." I don't know if it's true, but I also call this my anti-cancer smoothie :)

This recipe serves 1 person (using a pretty big glass).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. (more or less) orange juice
• 1 TBSP of ground flax seed (I buy a bag of flax seed and then grind up about a week's worth in my mini Cuisinart. Then I refrigerate the ground flax seed)
• 1 banana (peeled & sliced)
• 1/2 c. yogurt (if you want to be super healthy, use Greek yogurt. But then you will probably want to add some honey to this recipe. Also Greek yogurt is usually $$$, so I just use plain or vanilla yogurt most of the time; gotta stay on a budget)
• 1/2 c. frozen blueberries
• 3-5 frozen strawberries
  
• MONEY SAVING TIP: I used to buy a bag of "Mixed Frozen Berries" instead of measuring out blueberries & strawberries separately. Then I noticed that I was paying almost $4 for a 12 oz. bag of mixed berries. And a 16 oz. bag of frozen blueberries or strawberries is around $3.25.
  

Directions:
1) Put ingredients in a blender

2) Blend (on a high speed) until all of the ingredients are mixed together

3) Enjoy!

Other helpful note: Check your teeth after eating this; blueberries like to get stuck between your teeth....

Banana Muffins

We finally used our wedding mixer this weekend; I think that some people get married just so that they can get a Kitchenaid mixer. It's like a rite of passage :)

E & I had been intimidated by ours, but it wasn't as complicated as we thought it was going to be.

We used my mom's banana muffins recipe. Yummy!

The recipe is supposed to make 36 muffins, but I probably overfilled the muffin cups, because we only got 28 out of the recipe :)

Ingredients:

• 3 3/8 c. flour
• 2 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 c. shortening (we used Market Pantry brand - it was cheap; we have subbed unsalted butter in the past, and using the shortening made all the difference)
• 3 eggs
• 3 bananas (peeled & sliced) (we used SUPER ripe bananas)
  
• 1 c. sour milk (to make milk sour: add 2 TBSP of vinegar or lemon juice to milk; wait a while for the milk to thicken, and then it has soured)

Directions:

1) Put ingredients into mixing bowl in the order given.

2) Beat on medium speed with a mixer for 2 minutes.

3) Fill muffin cups 2/3 full

4) Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes on the center rack.

5) To know if they are done: either do the toothpick test or (this test is easier for me) if the center of the muffin springs back when touched, they are done.

World Class Belgian Waffles

E & I got a waffle maker as a wedding gift. I LOVE waffles. E didn't love them as much as I do... but then on his birthday weekend, I used my mom's recipe and made some Belgian waffles for him. He is now a waffle lover.

With our waffle maker, this recipe makes between 5 and 6 waffles. And if you buy some strawberries & whipped cream and some bacon and/or sausage, you will have an even better breakfast :) It's also a lot cheaper to make these at home than it is to go out to one of those expensive breakfast places. And you don't have to change out of your pjs or wait an hour to be seated in the restaurant (the good places usually have long waits on weekend mornings).

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3 TBSP. sugar
• 1 pckg of rapid rise yeast
• 3/4 tsp. of salt
• 2 c. warm milk (110 degrees) - luckily we got a digital thermometer as a wedding gift :)
• 3 lg. eggs separated
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 2 tsp. of vanilla
• Pam spray
  

Directions:
1. Beat the egg whites until they are fluffy
2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients in the order listed, except for the egg whites (but DO add the egg yolks).
3. Mix until just blended.
4. Fold in the egg whites.
5. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. (We heated our oven to 200 degrees and then turned it off. Then we put the bowl in the oven with a kitchen towel over it and left it in there for 30 minutes.)
6. Spray your waffle iron with Pam and pre-heat it.
7. Pour 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the mix onto the iron (or follow the waffle iron's instructions).