This Week's Compromise

I just haven't felt like making anything special for breakfast for the last few days. I made a batch of yogurt Tuesday night (using this method, except I don't recommend adding the fruit at the end - it gets too runny). So for the past couple of days, we've had yogurt for breakfast. Grace and I like it with a little cereal on top (my current favorite is the Aldi brand of crunchy granola raisin bran). Henry's had his with raisins. Madeline bypasses the yogurt.

So, it's not perfect, but it's a good compromise.

Asparagus Sausage Frittata

I forgot to post about yesterday morning's breakfast. I had about 8 stalks of asparagus from the garden. I washed then broke them into bite sized pieces. I steamed them in an 8" stainless steel frying pan with a minced clove of garlic, maybe a little over a tablespoon of olive oil and about 2 tablespoons of water. I let that go for about 3 minutes. Then I added about 1/2 c. of leftover cooked sausage, and let the water cook off with the cover off.

While that was going on, I mixed 6 eggs with about 1/4 c. parmesan cheese (not from the can), maybe 1/4 c. cream, some salt and a little basil. When the water had evaporated, I added the egg mixture to the frying pan and let it cook about a minute, until the edges were starting to set. Then, I topped it with cheddar cheese and let it cook in a 400 degree oven for 12 minutes, until set.

It's supposed to flip nicely onto a plate for an elegant presentation. Unfortunately, I have some kind of genetic abnormality that makes it impossible for me to flip frittatas or roll out pie crust or cookie dough. So, it wasn't beautiful, but it tasted very, very good.

I adapted this from How To Cook Without A Book, one of my favorite cookbooks.

Waffles

Today we had waffles for lunch. I haven't been doing waffles too much lately, because they've been sticking to my waffle iron. I generally use this recipe except 1 1/2 time the amounts. This time, I used about 1/2 c. of coconut oil instead of the oil amount for the recipe. The waffles didn't stick, but they fell apart too easily. I used all brown rice, too. Next time I think I'll try 1/2 rice and 1/2 something else.

This is my brand of waffle iron. I really like it, because it's fun for the kids to have sticks to dip into sauce or syrup. With just the rice, they didn't stay stick-like.

To accompany the waffles, we had strawberry sauce from the freezer, maple syrup, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Yum.

Here's the chocolate syrup recipe I used:

1 c. water
1 c. evaporated cane juice
3 T. butter
1/3 c. cocoa powder*
1 t. vanilla

Boil water and cane juice together 1-2 minutes for simple syrup. Add cocoa and butter, stirring hard until smooth. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Store in refrigerator.

This batch didn't get very thick. Sometimes I add a little coconut oil to help it thicken up. But then, it seems to be too thick. I think this will get thicker as it cools.

*The original recipe called for 1 1/4 c. cocoa powder, but that was way too much for my tastes.

Mexican Breakfast Pizza

I wish I would have thought of this one yesterday in honor of the Cinco de Mayo. I browned some ground pork and seasoned it. (1 t. cumin; 1/2 t. thyme; 1/2 t. sage; 1 t. salt; 1/2 t. pepper; 1/8 t. cayenne pepper per pound) Then I scrambled up a couple of eggs.

I set some tostada shells on my pizza pan, and put some sausage, eggs and cheese on each one. (less sausage & eggs, more cheese for the littler ones). Put it in the oven until the cheese melted and voila! Mexican Breakfast Pizzas. (Isn't that a nice international sentence!)

I served it with homemade salsa, and we were good to go.

I enjoyed it and the kids seemed to like it, although Gracie would have preferred no eggs at all. It kept me full all morning.

Oh, I should add that we had quite a bit of sausage left over. I'll have to do something with that over the weekend. Maybe a frittata.

Cottage Pancakes

Ha! I'm posting on my breakfast blog.

I wanted to make pancakes for breakfast this morning, but I hadn't prepared them the night before. I generally use Sue Gregg's Blender Pancakes method, which I'll post about another time. Today, I used a different recipe from Sue Gregg's Breakfast cookbook - Cottage Pancakes.

Here's the recipe:

4 eggs, separated
1 c. cottage cheese (or kefir)
1/2 c. flour (I used rice flour)
1 T. olive oil or melted butter (I used coconut oil)
1/2 t. vanilla
1/4 t. salt

Beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside.
Beat egg yolks until light. Blend in remaining ingredients. Fold egg whites into batter.
Bake over moderate heat.

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I had a little trouble gauging when to turn these. They were definitely fluffy, but also substantial. She suggests serving with fresh fruit topping, but I didn't have anything for that. I served them with maple syrup. I think I preferred them plain. They weren't too sweet, but they still had a nice taste. And, the kids liked them. Henry generally doesn't like pancakes, so it was nice to see him have seconds.

Plus, I liked that these were more protein based, rather than grain based. This made about 10 4" or so pancakes. We had 1 1/2 leftover, which Daddy can have for breakfast.

Since she mentions kefir as a substitute, I might try this with drained yogurt sometime.