Omelette Quesadilla and Wrap

Once again life became crazy busy, and I was forced to put my blog posts on hold. Long story short - I carried twins for another couple. At 28 weeks, I was admitted into the hospital for Pre-eclampsia with severe features. My only severe feature was high blood pressure, but it was high enough that I had to remain in the hospital until I delivered. You can read more about it here. On top of that, I was also taking a college English course on-line. Life is now getting back to normal after the twins were born and my English course is winding down.

I'm excited to get back in the kitchen. I have some fun ideas I'd like to start doing. Almost a year ago, I received my grandma's old recipes, like old as in - handwritten on recipe cards. I'd like to dedicate a post each month to making something from her collection of recipes. Also, I am continuing to make a baked good once a month for a year as part of my daughter's mission trip fundraiser. I'm hoping to dedicate a post to this as well.

Today I have two delicious and satisfying breakfast ideas. Yeah... my last post was a breakfast item too. So what? I like breakfast, okay? I made these dishes vegetarian, but feel free to add ham, bacon, or sausage or get wild and add them all! Like I've said before, I like making dishes that allow you to get creative - add or subtract any ingredients you want.

Omelette Quesadilla
1 serving

2 eggs
Olive oil
Handful of veggies - I used onions, peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Shredded cheddar cheese
2 Soft tortilla shells (large size)

Add a bit of olive oil to a frying pan. Scramble the eggs either with or without the veggies. I chose to saute mine after the eggs were scrambled. Shake some salt and pepper on the eggs as they scramble. Once the eggs are done and the veggies are softened, transfer them to a bowl. Set bowl aside.

Place one soft shell tortilla in the frying pan. Sprinkle on some cheese. Take the eggs and veggies and scatter them over the shell. Sprinkle on some more cheese and top with another soft shell tortilla. Cook over a medium heat for a few minutes or until the bottom shell is a golden brown. It's important that you don't cook it too fast or over a high heat. The cheese won't have time to melt and flipping it will make a mess - trust me on this one. Once cheese it melted and the shell has reached a nice golden brown, flip the quesadilla and cook another few minutes.

Now for the wrap...

Prepare the eggs and veggies the same as above. Place one soft shell tortilla  on a plate. Sprinkle cheese down the middle of the shell - not too close to the edges. Place the eggs and veggies over the cheese and fold the shell. Check out this link to see how to fold the shell. Heat it, seam side down, over a medium-low heat for 5-6 minutes. Flip and heat for another 5-6 minutes.

Egg Benedict Breakfast Pizza

The.Best.Breakfast.Pizza.Ever.... seriously!

What you'll need:

1 tube of pizza crust
4 eggs, scramble
Canadian Bacon, deli ham or cubed ham
Salt and pepper
1 cup Cheddar Cheese
1 cup Mozzarella Cheese

Hollandaise Sauce:

4 egg yolks,reserve egg whites for pizza
1 stick of butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 - 1/2 tsp black pepper

To prepare the sauce:

Melt one stick of butter in microwave. In a separate bowl, add 4 egg yolks. Set the unused egg whites aside. We'll scramble the whites later. Add lemon juice, paprika and pepper to yolks and whisk until smooth. Slowly whisk in melted butter. Whisk together until well combined. Set aside.

Pizza:

Preheat oven for whatever the crust calls for.

Unroll the pizza crust. Press the crust to your desired thickness on a greased baking pan. Spread the sauce on the pizza crust. Scramble 4 eggs along with the 4 egg whites set aside from the Hollandaise sauce. Add scrambled eggs and ham to pizza, and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Top the pizza with cheese. I also suggest adding some veggies - onions, peppers, mushrooms, etc.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Banana Blueberry Muffins

Banana Blueberry Muffins (adapted from: The Live-in Kitchen)

7 tbsp butter
1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
2 or 3 overripe bananas, smashed

Crumble topping:

3 tbsp butter, cold
1/2 cup flour
3 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare a muffin pan with muffin/cupcake cups.

I followed Lindsay's instructions on how to brown the butter:

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. It will melt, froth, and begin to crackle. The crackling will subside and the butter will froth again and begin to brown. Remove from the heat when the butter solids become a medium brown color and the butter smells slightly nutty. Immediately pour hot butter into a small bowl to prevent further cooking and burning. 

In a small bowl, stir together milk, eggs and vanilla. Add the melted butter to the milk mixture. 

In another bowl, hand-mix together flour, sugar and baking powder.  Make a flour well by making a hole in the middle of the flour. Pour the butter mixture into the hole and gently fold it all together. Mix by hand to avoid over mixing. Gently stir in smashed bananas and blueberries. 

Pour mix into the prepared muffin cups. For the crumbly topping, combine butter, flour and brown sugar. Squish the ingredients together with your fingertips. Sprinkle the topping on each muffin.

Bake muffins for about 18-20 minutes. To get a nice lift on your muffins avoid opening the oven for at least 10 minutes. Muffins are ready when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Snickerdoodle Scones

I've got Snickerdoodle stuck on my brain lately. It's just that it is such a wonderful combination. Wonderful I tell you.

The best part of eating scones are when they are still warm enough that the butter pieces burst a little in your mouth with each bite.

Scones
2 cups flour         
2 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I actually did not measure this, I just added what I felt was good)
1 ½ sticks of cold unsalted butter, diced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup cold heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Sugar Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
butter, softened

White Chocolate Frosting
1/2 White Chocolate Chips
1 tablespoon shortening 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or baking mat.

Butter 'em

Combine the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Stir together. Add diced butter to the bowl and use a stand mixer to mix (on a low speed) until the butter is in pea sized pieces, about 6-7 minutes. Combine the cream, vanilla and eggs in a measuring cup and slowly pour into the butter/flour mixture. Mix just until everything is incorporated. Don't over mix.

Sugar 'em

Grab the dough and roll it out (shake some flour on the dough if it’s sticky). I rolled my dough to a generous thickness. These puppies don’t rise much, a little less than twice the size of the uncooked dough. Use a cute cookie cutter or cut the dough into a traditional scone (triangle) shape.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon. Spread butter on each uncooked scone. Put the scone butter side down into the sugar/cinnamon and press gently, evenly adding sugar/cinnamon to the scone.

Get ready to bake 'em

Put the scones on the prepared cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes. Check scones at about 15 minutes. Place scones on a baking rack to cool. 

Cool 'em

In a measuring cup or bowl combine chocolate chips and shortening. Place in the microwave for 45 seconds or until stirring makes it creamy. Careful not to burn. Spread chocolate on scones or place in a ziploc bag to make zigzags on top of the scones. I started out using the ziploc bag trick but blew a huge hole in the bag. Just call me Hulk. 

Drool a little

Eat 'em

 Enjoy!

Not-so-traditional Eggs Benedict

This past summer my husband and I went to San Diego. We stayed in a hotel just minutes from the beach and within walking distance of many awesome delicatessens and restaurants. My favorite restaurant was Mona Lisa Italian Foods... oh mama mia! If you go, you must try the lasagna. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Absolutely the best I have ever had. Ever. But today we aren't talking about that kick butt lasagna. It's all about Eggs Benedict today.

Our hotel in San Diego served breakfast. I had yet in my life to ever try Eggs Benedict. We had it three times that week! Yeah, it's that good and also we were too lazy to go any further outside of the hotel for breakfast on those three days. Don't worry though. We absolutely checked out some great coffee shops too.

My husband is now a die-hard Eggs Benedict fan. Seriously, so much, I think he could eat it daily for the rest of his life. The Hollandaise sauce has a boat load of butter... that's explanation enough. The guy loves butter. But if we're honest, who doesn't? I admit though, and some won't agree, I have a limit.

Pile ham on baked biscuits

Needless to say, we've made this dish many Saturday mornings since our San Diego trip. The husband has become somewhat of a Hollandaise sauce master. Don't tell him because his head will swell, but his sauce is better than mine.

To spice up this recipe, I decided we should try a new approach. I'm so glad we did. We loved it. We will still make the traditional style Eggs Benedict with english muffins but this new recipe will definitely be entered into our food rotation too.

Pile over-easy eggs on biscuits and ham

Biscuit Eggs Benedict

Tube of Pillsbury biscuits (8 count) I used flaky layers but regular biscuits will work too
8-10 eggs
thinly sliced ham (I used 2 slices per biscuit)
salt and pepper

Hollandaise Sauce

4 egg yolks
1 stick of butter
4  cap fulls of lemon juice*
5 shakes of paprika*
5 shakes of black pepper*


Instructions on making the sauce (written by Jeremy, the husband):

Start by separating the egg yolks from the whites and reserve them in a bowl.  Next melt one stick of butter in the microwave for about 1-1/2 minutes, be sure to cover as it will splatter.  Combine the paprika, pepper and lemon juice with the egg yolks and whisk until smooth.  Finally mix the melted butter with the rest of the ingredients slowly while whisking them together.  Pretty easy and simple compared to a traditional method while achieving a very similar results.

Pour on the sauce

Cook the biscuits according to the tube's directions. Cook all eggs over-easy or however you like your eggs cooked. Salt and pepper the eggs while cooking. When biscuits are fully baked, add ham to top of biscuits. Place the eggs on ham. Pour Hollandaise sauce over the eggs. Warm in oven for a few minutes, if needed.

Just look at that sloppy goodness!

 **Love Jeremy's measuring method haha

Banana Jam

I was introduced to banana jam by the mom of my daycare kids, Jackie. She knocked this one out of the park. I begged her to share the recipe and she said YES! So here it is:

This, my friends, is ooey gooey toasty warm flavorful goodness!

Banana Jam

3 bananas, sliced very thin
1/3 cup water
1 cup sugar

Cook sugar (yes, sugar only) over medium heat until the sugar mostly melts and turns light brown. Add water. Adding the water may make the sugar hard, but don't panic. It will gradually dissolve. Add bananas and cook over low heat until there are little to no banana chunks.

Put jam in canning jars. If you don't have any canning jars, don't stress. Just put the jam in some tupperware containers and refrigerate. No worries on expiration dates... you'll go through it fast!

Jackie also brought us Thomas English Muffins. A limited edition... banana bread. Oh, I'm telling you these little delights are amazing. I topped my toasted english muffin with peanut butter and banana jam. Because of the banana bread english muffin and the banana jam, you might think the banana flavor would be overpowering, but it really isn't. It was a perfect blend of peanut butter, banana and english muffin.

Puff the Magic Pancake

Know what I love?  Making something that's pretty easy but that looks AMAZING and totally wows your guests.  That's what this German pancake will do.  As the pancake bakes in the oven, it slowly puffs up.  Children and even adults will have fun checking in on it and seeing how big it expands.  As you take it out and let it cool, it settles down into a unique shape.  Its pretty fun to make...and pretty delicious too!

German Pancake

From Chop Chop Mag

Ingredients:

1 T unsalted butter

1 T olive oil

6 large eggs

1 c milk

1/2 t vanilla

1 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c toasted wheat germ

1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Add butter and oil into 10 inch ovenproof skillet and put skillet in the oven while preheating.  Stir eggs in large bowl until light and frothy.  Add milk, vanilla, flour, wheat germ, and salt.  Stir until well blended.  Remove the skillet and swirl the butter/oil to coat the bottom and sides.  Pour the batter into the skillet and return to oven.  Bake for approx. 20 minutes - it will get very puffy and golden brown.  Cool briefly and add toppings of choice (fruit, nuts, whipped topping, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, CARAMEL, heck...we even thought that this could be a lunch/dinner item and you can add meat/potatoes/veggies/gravy to it...endless possibilities!).

If you make this - please share a pic on the Caramel Living FB page!  Its fun to see the final characteristics.

It's Meal-Plan Thursday

Welcome to our new segment "It's Meal-Plan Thursday".

I swear by meal planning. It has saved me time and money at the grocery store. I started doing it about 3 years ago and haven't stopped. I shop on the weekends and I would much rather be doing something else besides roaming the grocery store aisles for hours while deciding what to feed my family.

What I do: I have a saved spreadsheet in Excel. I enter what I want to serve for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I have an abundance of something (like noodles or ground turkey), I plan a meal that will include that item. I print it out. On the back I title a column for each grocery store section I will visit (ex: diary, can/box, meats, fruits/vegetables, etc). I look through the cupboards/freezer/refrigerator and add whatever I need to buy.

I will plan on posting a new meal-plan every Thursday. I am sure I will miss a few here and there. If /when that happens feel free to revert back to an old one (find it under "TAGS" on the right side of this page). I am only posting dinner ideas. Tip: making extra = lunch for the next day (reduces eating out) :)

I hope this will be helpful and I would love to hear feedback from you. Give it try and please drop a note to let me know if it's working out for you.

Here is our first meal-plan (followed by a few recipes)!!

Chili

• 1 lbs. ground beef/turkey
• 4 cups of tomato or V-8 juice
• 15 oz. can light red kidney beans
• 3 large tomatoes (or 15 oz. can of diced petite toms)
• 1 cup fresh mushroom
• 1 large onion
• 1 green pepper
• 1 tbsp. chili pepper
• 1 tbsp.  garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat, I don’t chop the meat up too much. I like bigger chunks of ground meat in my chili. Add browned meat (you don’t necessarily need to brown the meat before adding it to the pot… I just choose to), juice and beans to the crockpot or stewing pot. Cut up the veggies, add them to the pot. Add chili pepper and salt/pepper. Stir together. 

Crockpot = 4 hours

Stewing pot over medium-low = 30 - 45 minutes.

Tip: add more or less juice depending on your desired consistency

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

• 1 lbs. linguine, fettuccine or spaghetti noodles (for a healthier option try whole grain)
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 15 oz. Bertolli Garlic Alfredo Sauce (I hope to one day give you a homemade recipe)
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 small onion
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms
• pepper to taste
• 1 large tomato

Prepare skillet with olive oil, warm oil for a few minutes over medium heat. Slice raw chicken into strips, add to skillet and tend to it occasionally. Slice veggies (minus tomato), steam broccoli until tender and add to skillet once chicken is fully cooked.  Stir in sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes. 

Serve over cooked noodles and top with diced tomato. 

Click here for the Maid Rite recipe 

Scramble Omlet

·      

• 8 eggs
• ¼ cup milk
• 2 tbsp pancake mix
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

Whisk eggs, milk and pancake mix together. The pancake mix adds a bit of fluff to the egg. Chop up veggies.  Add olive oil to skillet, begin warming over medium heat. Add egg mixture to warmed skillet. Pour veggies over eggs, dash with salt and pepper and scramble the mixture until eggs are completely cooked. Reduce heat to warm and cover top of eggs with cheese, cover the pan to allow cheese to melt.