Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone!  I know, it's been a quiet week here at Addicted to Recipes.  We went on a little vacation, which meant that the blogging went on vacation too :-)  I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things - and am back today with this week's edition of Throwback Thursday!

This is a great breakfast / brunch - and perfect when you have a house full!  Link to the original recipe in the title below.

Baked Egg Cups

PS, have you voted for me yet?  Would you ,could you? I've been selected to participate in the Melt Magazine Recipe Challenge, and if I win, my recipe for Fresh Spring Rolls will be published in the next edition of the magazine!  Head on over here to vote for Fresh Spring Rolls!

Breakfast Cookies

Yes, you read that right.  Breakfast Cookies! Here at Addicted to Recipes, I'm a big cookie lover, always have been, probably always will be.  Y'all also know that I also love muffins.  But I've been into shaking things up a bit, and decided I wanted to try some breakfast cookies.  I saw some for sale at the grocery store the other day, so I took the little flyer about the cookies, read the ingredients, did some research, improvised, and this is what I came up with.

Breakfast Cookies

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used natural peanut butter)
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup oats
1/2 cup coconut (I used medium shredded)
1 cup (combined) of flax seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds, raisins, cranberries, pitted/diced dates

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, beat together the peanut butter, honey, butter, egg and vanilla.

In a second bowl. combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, oats and coconut.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing just to combine.

Fold in the seed and fruit mixture.  Spoon onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes, remove from oven and cool slightly before moving to a cooling rack.  Store in an airtight container. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

VERDICT:
I love these, perfectly easy grab and go snack, especially for my work morning.  I can't send these to school or daycare because of the peanut butter, but we can take them to work.  The kids like them too...which is great for a "healthy" cookie!

All-American Breakfast Nests

Breakfast has always been my favourite meal of the day.  Before kids, I LOVED going out for breakfast.  For us, it was part of a leisurely weekend, sleep in, go for breakfast, head to the market or wherever the day took us.  Now that we have kids...going out for that lovely, leisurely breakfast is  faded memory.  That's OK though, we have those wonderful memories and are busy making new ones with our brood!

Because I like breakfast, and I get tired of the waffles/pancakes/French toast routine (love them all, but this girl needs a break!) - I was thinking about the Baked Egg Cups that I've made previously, but this time I wanted to substitute bacon for the ham and add in some hash browns too.  There isn't a recipe that I followed, I just winged it.  Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

Hash browns (diced or shredded, I used diced)
Bacon (I used turkey bacon)
Eggs
Cheddar cheese, grated
Salt
Pepper
Red Chili Flakes

Preheat oven to 400F.

Take a muffin tin (regular-sized), spray with cooking spray.  Line the of the bottom of the muffin tins with hash browns (somewhere between 1/3-1/2 cup).  Don't overfill.  If you are using shredded hash browns, press them into the bottom and sides of the cup.  I used the diced, and just lined the bottom of the muffin cups.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Reduce oven to 375F.

Put some grated cheddar cheese on top of the hot hash browns.  Line each of the muffin cups with bacon (essentially placing the bacon around the inside edge of the muffin cup), crack an egg and pour it on top of the hash browns/inside the bacon.  Add salt, pepper and chili flakes to taste.  Put in the oven and bake for 14-18 minutes, or until the eggs are done to your preference.  Remove from oven and carefully remove from muffin tins.  Enjoy!

VERDICT:
We quite enjoyed these.  It was nice to have the classic breakfast all in one cup - the hash browns, the bacon and the egg.  And easy to put together - thinking a good brunch idea for when we have company!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares

Here is another Pinterest find, this time from Gingerbread Bagels - her blog post spoke to me...healthy, breakfast, EASY.  And not a muffin, are you surprised??!  Ha!  I am searching for good breakfast ideas, particularly for me, so that I DO eat breakfast each morning during the morning mayhem. I need my breakfast to be quick and easy...especially with a baby and a Kindergartener in the house!

This time, we are trying out Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares.  I think these will be a hit, especially for the grown ups in the house. We shall see!  Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large mashed banana
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, combine the vanilla, milk and egg, whisk together.

Add the liquids to the dry ingredients, mix together.

Add the mashed banana and peanut butter and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a prepared 8x8 baking pan (greased).  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or unti the bars are done.

Allow to cool and cut into squares.  I made mine into 16 squares.

VERDICT:
I feel like I say this a LOT, but these were a HUGE hit, especially with the 5 year old.  I think I have found a way to get him to eat oatmeal for breakfast, and an quick and easy breakfast for me!  Partner these with a smoothie or with some yogurt and fruit, and I think it's a great start to the morning.  Yay!  We shared these with our babysitters too (two teenage girls) and they both really liked them as well.  Double yay! I am inspired to try some new combinations for us.

Strawberry Cream Crepes

A few weeks ago, I wrote a guest post for my friend Kim over at Cups by Kim.  If you didn't get a chance to see the recipe, I thought I would share it with you now!

Having never made crepes before (can you believe it?!), I decided to make  “Strawberry Cream Crepes” for my family for our Saturday morning breakfast. Nice change to our usual pancakes / waffles / french toast.  I did take the extra time to make the crepes over a few days (made the batter on Thursday night, made the crepes on Friday, and served them on Saturday) - and I am really glad that I did. Made for a mellow Saturday morning enjoying a lovely sweet breakfast before the busy-ness of Saturday kicked in.  Here are the recipes I used:

Strawberry Cream Crepes

Crepes – Source – Company’s Coming Desserts

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup water

2 cups flour

4 tablespoons cooking oil

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

Beat eggs in a large bowl until they are frothy.  Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.  Cover and store in fridge for a few hours to overnight (I stored overnight).  If you find the batter is too thick when you go to cook the crepes, add milk to thin it (I didn’t need to).  Pour approximately ¼ cup of the batter into a greased, hot crepe pan (I used a frying pan).  Tip the pan to swirl the batter all over the pan bottom (do this quickly, the crepe starts to cook the moment the batter hits the pan).  Remove from the pan when the underside starts to brown.  Cool and stack with waxed paper between each crepe.  If you aren’t using the crepes right away, wrap them in plastic and store in the fridge or into a freezer bag. 

Cream Cheese Filling - Source – Company’s Coming Desserts

1 package cream cheese, softened

¼ cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

Beat cream cheese, sugar and sour cream well. 

Strawberry Sauce

2 lb strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced

In a medium sized pot, put the washed, sliced strawberries.  Add a smidge of sugar (yes, just a smidge!).  Warm over medium heat until the strawberries start to break down, forming a chunky strawberry sauce.

Putting it all Together:

When you are ready to use your pre-made crepes, bring them out of the fridge (or freezer).  Use a pancake griddle to slowly warm the browned side of the crepes to your desired serving temperature.  Spread the cream cheese filling on the unbrowned side of the crepe and roll.  Top with the warmed strawberry sauce, a dollop of whipping cream, and serve!

VERDICT:

This was like having dessert for breakfast.  It was such a nice treat!  My husband and I both really enjoyed these crepes, and are already planning for our strawberry-banana ones tomorrow morning.  Our oldest son isn’t much of a cream cheese fan so we had to modify his slightly to just crepes and strawberries.  He still wasn’t as “in love” with the breakfast as we were (he prefers fluffy pancakes) but he did clean his plate.  I am really happy that I made the crepes the day before, so all we needed to do was warm, fill and roll in the morning – quick process and we all got to eat together!  I will be making this again!

Scrumptious Sunday #10 - Features

Another week of FANTASTIC recipes...you make it so hard for a girl to pick features!  Before we get into them, I just wanted to THANK YOU for linking up in my weekly party!

If you are featured this week, please grab a button!

<a href="http://iamaddictedtorecipes.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w519/AddictedtoRecipes/addictedbutton.jpg" width="200" height="177" border="0" alt="I was featured, I was Featured by Addicted to Recipes"></a>

Alrighty, here are my features for this week:


Breakfast-On-The-Go from Lady Behind the Curtain

Pesto Pasta Stuffed Tomatoes from Hot Eats and Cool Reads

Cheesecake Burritos from Dishing with Leslie

The Crazy Brownie from Mandy's Recipe Box

And because it's Mother's Day this weekend, it just wouldn't be complete without these beautiful Mother's Day Cookies from Lizy B!

Congratulations everyone!

These features will be linked on my Facebook page, on my Pinterest page, and (new!) I will be tweeting too! Thanks again for coming to my party!

Reminder, Scrumptious Sunday Link Party #11 will open on Saturday evening at 8 pm PST and will run until Wednesday evening.  I look forward to seeing what you bring to next week's party!

Apple Brown Betty Muffins

Apparently I've been on a muffin kick lately.  Well, I do love muffins, and they are easy to eat, especially when you have a baby in one arm/attached to your hip :-)  I know, I should put him down, but he gets so so SO upset, and he's my baby.  It'll pass...I'm already seeing signs of that, at least he'll go to my husband more often (though I am still the favourite).  Plus, they aren't babies for long...I need to get as many cuddles in as I can!

I have been reorganizing my old recipe binder, it was time to buy a new heavy-duty binder and retire the old one.  So that's been one of my projects, as well as adding more tags to the recipes for ones that I haven't yet tried from the collection.  I found the recipe for these Apple Brown Betty Muffins that I clipped from Appeal Magazine in 1998 but never made...and decided now was the time to make them.  Here is the recipe:

3 medium sized apples, peeled and chopped
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Grated peel and juice of 1 large lemon

Topping:
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.


In a small bowl, combine apples, oats and buttermilk, let sit for 10 minutes to soften the oats.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a third bowl, combine eggs, oil, vanilla, lemon peel and lemon juice.  Add this mixture to the softened oat mixture and stir well.  Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.

Fill greased or lined muffin cups 3/4 full.

Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over the muffins.

Bake 16-22 minutes, cool in pan before transferring to a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

VERDICT:
These were very tasty muffins.  Tasted so much like apple crisp, a family favourite in our house!  And I loved the hint of lemon in them as well, nice touch :-)  The muffins didn't last long, so that should speak to how much we liked them!

Guest Post with Debbie Does Creations

Guest posts are fun! 

Debbie from Debbie Does Creations asked me to write a guest post for her "Recipe of the Week" for this week - she asked me to share my current favourite recipe...please head over to her blog to read all about it. 

Thank you Debbie for the opportunity!

Carrot Pineapple Raisin Bran Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

My son's preschool held their Easter party this week and each family contributed a little something to the "Easter Buffet".  Originally I wrote down that I would bring "something sweet" with good intentions to make some fun Easter treat, but time got away from me (we re-did our oldest son's room this past weekend...and our house is still a mess!) so I opted to go for something a bit healthier but still with a little sweet.  I decided on an old favourite of ours, and one that is always popular with the kids, Carrot Pineapple Raisin Bran Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing.  Hey...it's Easter, we needed a little bit of carrot!  And it turned out that one of his classmates (and teacher) were both celebrating their birthdays this week, so a cake was brought to the Easter party - I'm glad I changed my "something sweet" choice...imagine all those 4 and 5 year olds after a tonne of sweet?!

And, since it is Easter I did feel the need to dress the muffins just a little.  Off to the Dollar Store and I found the cutest little chicks that were the perfect size for mini-muffins.  Here is the recipe, slightly adapted from Company's Coming - Muffins & More:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup natural bran
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup crushed pineapple and juice
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts (I didn't add the walnuts this time as my son's classroom is a nut-free zone)

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine flour, brown sugar, bran, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Stir together well, and make a well in the centre.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs until frothy.  Add in oil, carrots, pineapple, juice, raisins and walnuts.  Add to dry ingredients, into the well.  Mix, but only to moisten.  The batter will be lumpy.  Fill lined or greased muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes (regular sized muffins) or 10-11 minutes (mini muffins).  Cool on wire rack.  Frost if desired.

Make 12-14 large or 24-30 mini muffins.

Cream Cheese Frosting (from Company's Coming - Desserts)

4 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups icing sugar

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, butter and vanilla.  Beat well.  Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy.  Spread over muffins.

VERDICT:
These are delicious muffins.  Nice and moist, and a nice blend of "stuff" inside.  Not overwhelming with too much carrot, pineapple ot raisins.  And the cream cheese icing, which is optional but a nice a way to dress them up a bit, is always so so so good!  My son and I enjoyed cleaning off the spatula and mixing bowl when we were done icing the muffins    :-)

Featured!

What a pleasant surprise to visit a fellow foodie's blog and see the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake featured!  It continues to be a hit in blogland! 

Have you given the recipe a try yet?  We had it again last weekend, but with blackberries this time...and again, it was YUM!

This week it has been featured by Miz Helen's Country Cottage at her Full Plate Thursday!  Thanks Miz Helen!
           

Have you joined me on Facebook yet?  Would love for you to do so!

I've Been Featured, Again!

OH MY GOODNESS!  A third feature on the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake!  This is amazing!  Thank you Inside BruCrew Life for featuring the breakfast cake as one of her "Fab 5" for this week!  I do hope your kids love it as much as my son does!





Be sure to check out her blog, as well as the other blogs who have featured the cake.  They all do great work!  Here's a picture of of the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake...just to tempt you again!

I've Been Featured!

What an exciting morning for me!  It looks like the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake is a popular recipe - with good reason, it is VERY yummy!  I just found out that my breakfast cake was featured on another link party/blog! 

My oldest son was sitting with me when I read the news, and his response was "That's my favourite recipe in the whole world!".  Cool!  Thanks so much to Things that make you say "Mmmmm"!  Please check out Karen's blog here:



Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake

Yes, you read it right...cake for breakfast!  I've mentioned before that we are a house that eats a LOT of pancakes, french toast and waffles, and I am still trying to shake up our mornings by adding a few new breakfast recipes into the mix.  This weekend I decided to go with a Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast cake.  I saw it on Pinterest and it looked good enough to try!  I adapted the recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen.  Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Zest of one large lemon

7/8 cup + 1/2 tablespoon sugar*

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups + 1/8 cup flour**

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups fresh blueberries, washed

1/2 cup buttermilk

*Extra 1/2 tablespoon is for sprinkling on top

**Extra 1/8 cup is for tossing with blueberries

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. 

In a separate bowl, mix together 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.

In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with 1/8 cup of flour.  Fold the blueberries into the batter.

Grease a 9 inch square baking pan.  Spread the batter into the pan, batter will be thick.  Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of sugar on top of the batter.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until done.  Allow cake to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.  Serve warm.

VERDICT:

This was a wonderful change to our usual.  Our 4 year old told me that it is his favourite, even more than ribs (and the kid LOVES ribs) - so that is saying a lot!  He ate more than half the pan!  (sure hope he doesn't get a tummy ache later).  DH and I both enjoyed the cake too, especially since it is served warm.  It's a keeper! And I bet raspberries or blackberries would be tasty in this too.  Oh YUM...I can't wait for berry season!

Baked Egg Cups

Breakfast at our house is quite boring, I am happy eating my oatmeal with raisins and our oldest son likes to have pancakes, french toast or waffles.  Every.Single.Day. Not kidding!  So I have been trying to "shake it up" a bit to save myself from endless pancake flipping (one can only get so creative with pancakes!) and I have found a few new recipes to try.  One of my former co-workers made something like these for us at work one morning, which everyone enjoyed.  I totally forgot about them until I saw a photo of something similar come across my Pinterest screen, so of course I had to add them to my list to try.  With my mother-in-law visiting this past weekend, we had my Mom over for brunch on Saturday (neither my Dad or father-in-law were in town), and I made them for everyone.  Adjust the quanitites based on how many people you are serving, I'm going to include the numbers I used on Saturday.  Here is my adaptation of the recipe:

9 eggs
9 slices of deli meat (I used Schneider's Country Naturals Ham)
Shredded cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice)
Diced green onions
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400F.  Spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Lay a piece of ham in each muffin hole, creating a ham cup. Crack one egg per muffin hole. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs cooked.  Remove from oven, top with green onions and cheese.  Enjoy!

VERDICT:
This is a SUPER EASY recipe and a great way to change up breakfast.  We served these eggs with hashbrowns, toast and cantaloupe and the meal was well received by everyone!  Next time I might try to add a few more veggies to the egg cups, maybe some peppers (or whatever I happen to have in the fridge), maybe some fresh parsley, and maybe a different cheese. Yum!