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Posts tagged ‘egg’

May 1

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Farmers Market on Saturday, Whole Wheat Pancakes on Sunday

Dear Sunday mornings: I love you.

I’m excited to share the recipe for these whole wheat strawberry-banana pancakes, but first I want to tell you about Saturday.  Saturday mornings have quickly become my favorite time of the week.  Now that the sun is rising early (yay!) I wake up on my own around 5:45 am.  I grab a quick snack like a banana, make my bed, do a little quick cleaning up, and head out for a crisp 7 AM run at the trail.

After a solid 4-6 miles, I wipe of my face and start driving to Starbucks.  Usually the line is a bit long but it’s worth the wait.  ”Yes, hi!  I’ll have my double tall soy latte today please, Thank you!”  At about 9:00 am I arrive at Merchant’s Square, between the College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg.  I grab my re-usable tote, my half-full latte and make my way through the crowd to the Farmers Market.  The market isn’t for everyone, it’s busy, people bring their dogs, there’s live music.  I feel right at home.  Here are my top 3 tips for making the best of a trip to the Farmers Market:

  1. Arrive Early – beat the crowd, get the good stuff!
  2. Be Friendly - get to know your venders, be a preferred customer
  3. Ask Questions – wondering where the strawberries are coming from? How to cook brocollini? What that funny looking vegetable is? Ask!
Here’s what I managed to bring home this weekend: Asparagus, spring onions, fresh spinach, 2 quarts of first-of-the-season strawberries, hydroponic tomatoes, and local eggs.
Anyway, all of this inspired me to make today’s breakfast: fried eggs, whole wheat pancakes topped with strawberries.  I’ve expirementd with whole wheat pancakes in the past, and these are my favorite so far.  Have at it!
Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes
recipe adapted from: No Fear Entertaining 
Dry Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon (optional)
Wet Ingredients:
1 medium/small mashed banana
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
4 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
Directions:
In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.  In a medium bowl whisk together the wet ingredients.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until just moist.  Cook on a griddle or non-stick frying pan.  Serve with sliced fresh strawberries, maple syrup, fried eggs, or whatever sounds great to you.
Don’t Forget: Mother’s Day is just around the corner :)

Feb 7

Quiche on Sunday

I’ve made an important decision.

Now that I have weekends, I’m going to cook something special on Sundays.  Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, I just want to make a habit of taking time to cook enjoyable meals.  It is a relaxing way to try new recipes , it will be my “me time”.

This weekend I made vegetable quiche, more on that in a minute.

Have you noticed anything different about the blog?  I’ve spent the last month or so playing around with different themes and tossing around ideas.  The site is still a work in progress, but you will find more organization and a larger focus on nutrition, rather than cooking.  No worries though, I’ll still be sharing plenty of recipes!

At the top of the page, you can navigate through the links to learn more about the blog, access interesting food and nutrition blogs, and see what my favorite healthy food of the moment is.  Please let me know your thoughts on the updates, I want this site to be as useful to YOU as possible!

Now on to tastier things…

So I had my mind set on quiche this weekend for some reason.  Not the “quick-throw-together crustless-quiche thats more like baked scrambled eggs for dinner” that we normally have.  I wanted real quiche, with lots and lots of vegetables, melted cheese, and crust – whole wheat crust!  I followed this recipe.

I wish I was better at making pie crust, but I just haven’t mastered it yet.  Luckily, it’s not something I make very often and I found this at the grocery store:

I have to say, it was pretty good! Don’t worry, I’m not kidding myself.  Just because it is whole wheat doesn’t make it so called health-food, it is a pie crust after-all.  I started out by pre-baking the crust for about 15 minutes in a 400* F oven. Then I chopped all my veggies and sauteed them with some dried thyme. (Tip: add the garlic last so it won’t burn!).  The recipe I followed called for sweet onion, bell peppers, zucchini, and garlic.  It really reminds me of spring.  Maybe thats why I was craving it….

The other thing that really drew me to this recipe was that it called for 2 egg yolks, 2 egg whites and non-fat milk.  In my opinion, heavy whipping cream is only good for one thing, whipped cream!  I don’t need my quiche to be that heavy.  I actually ended up using 2% lactose-free milk, because they were out of skim at the store, and I’m okay with that.

I also used Mexican blend cheese because it’s what I had.  Use whatever you like best. And yes, I put the store bought crust in my pretty pie dish to make it look homemade.

We paired our Sunday quiche with a small side salad of romaine and cherry tomatoes and some grapes.  It was the perfect Sunday morning! I can’t wait until next weekend!

Question: Do you eat differently on the weekend than you do during the week?  Do you tend to indulge a little more, like we did?

Sep 27

4 Comments

Birthday Treat: Cinnamon-Sugar Apple Muffins

It is officially Autumn. The temps have dropped to the 70′s and it’s cloudy and raining here.  I finally feel like I can start to indulge in fall foods. This year I’m trying not to over do it with the fall favorites too soon. I still want to enjoy these things come November.

I never crave apples in winter, spring or summer, but as soon as September hits, they are all I think about.    Eating an apple only seconds after it has been picked is quite the experience.  Have you ever been apple picking?  When I worked at Husted’s Market in Michigan, we would have bins and bins and bins of apples!  Working there in the fall, was awesome.  Cider made on location, apple picking, pumpkins and gourds everywhere, hay rides, and of course homemade donuts!

When I first started working at the Market I was about 15 years old.  Making donuts seemed like the coolest thing in the world.  We had this little machine in the back room called a Donut Robot.  We made up the dough, poured it in the machine and went to work.  There we several different varieties including, chocolate, plain, cherry, and pumpkin.  But my favorite was the cinnamon sugar.  So good when dunked in hot cider!

Even after leaving my job at Husted’s I’ve made a point to go back for the fall treats every year.  But this year I won’t be able to make it back to Michigan until at least Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow is my 25th birthday,  so I’ve decided to make muffins that taste like cinnamon donuts.  Why not!?  I’ve never been a big fan of cake.  I dunked these in some hot caramel flavored tea and it brought me right back.  Almost just as good!

If you have been following my blog at all you might already know that I am a huge fan of muffins.  They are kinda my go to treat when I want to bake.  I’m also a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies, but I have no self control with those, so I stick with muffins!  This recipe is really really simple.  I use it for most of my muffins, just add and delete the flavorful things.  This time I added cinnamon and chopped MacIntosh apples then topped with brown sugar and diced walnuts.  If you want to play around with different versions, leave those ingredients out.

Cinnamon-Sugar Apple Muffins

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup canola oil

1 large egg

at least 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

2 medium apples, chopped

brown sugar and diced walnuts for topping, optional

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease or line muffin tin.
  2. Stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  3. In a 1 cup liquid measuring cup, measure 1/3 cup canola oil.  Add egg to the oil.
  4. Add soy milk (regular milk works fine too) to the oil and egg until you have 1 cup of liquid.  Whisk together until combined.
  5. Stir oil mixture into dry ingredient, until just combined.  Don’t over mix, you may still see some floury spots.
  6. Stir in chopped apple, just until evenly distributed.
  7. Scoop into muffin tin.  Should make about 10 muffins.
  8. Top each muffin with about 1 tsp of brown sugar and 1 tsp walnuts.
  9. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean, and tops are slightly golden.
  10. Let sit for a few minutes, before moving to a wire rack to cool.

Hope you enjoy! Happy fall!

Jun 21

Father’s Day Strawberry Shortcake

Happy Belated Father’s Day to all the wonderful dad’s out there!

I happened to be lucky enough to have the weekend off and was able to go back to my hometown, Portage to see my parents and wish my dad a happy Father’s Day.  Before leaving Saturday morning, I got up a little early and made some whole grain honey biscuits to bring with me (recipe below).

On my way home, I stopped and picked up some of the very last strawberries of the season.  They were nice and ripe and perfect for shortcake.

To prepare the strawberries for shortcake, start by removing the stems and slicing into a bowl.  Add some water, not too much, just enough to cover about 1/3 to 1/2 of the berries.  Sprinkle in sugar to taste.  I added a little more than I meant to, but hey, it is dessert after all!  Smash the berries just a little to release some of the juices.


Strawberries this good deserve homemade whipped cream.  So instead of picking up some cool whip, I grabbed a pint (2 cups) of heavy whipping cream.  Making homemade whipped cream is actually quite simple, takes 5 minutes with an electric beater, and tastes 100 times better than anything you can purchase.

Start by placing your beaters and a glass bowl in the freezer for about 5 minutes.  The colder these are, the better this will work.  When ready, pour the cream in the bowl and using your hand mixer, whip until the creams just begins to thicken.  At this point, add in 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.  It is helpful to have these pre-measured.  Continue to whip until you have soft peaks (when you dip the beaters in and back out a peak will form and start to fall over on itself).  Make the whipped cream right before you are ready to eat it for best results.

To prepare the shortcakes, place a biscuit in a bowl, or on a plate, and break it into a few large pieces, top with strawberries and juice, the whipped cream, then more stawberries.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the end product because we were too busy devouring our treat, which we enjoyed for Father’s Day breakfast!  Blueberries made an excellent addition!

Honey Whole Grain Buttermilk Biscuits

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour*

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2-1/2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter

3 Tbsps honey

1 large egg

3/4 cup buttermilk, plus a little extra**

Sugar and cinnamon for topping

*you can use regular whole wheat flour here if you would like

**Buttermilk substitute: add 1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to just under 1 cup of milk, let sit 5 minutes


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter.  Cut the butter into chucks first to make this task easier.  The flour mixture should look crumbly.

4. In a small bowl combine the honey, egg and 3/4 cup buttermilk  Add to dry ingredients just until moistened.

5. Pour onto a lightly floured surface and work it until it all comes together.  Press it lightly into a 9 x9 inch square.

6. Using a glass (I used a wine glass) or a sharp cookie cutter press into circles.  The sharper your object is the higher and fluffier your biscuits will be.

7. Brush the tops with buttermilk, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutritional Benifits

Whole grains! from the whole wheat flours

Fiber! from the whole grains and the fruit

Calcium! from the cream

Antioxidants! from the fruit

Vitamin C! from the strawberries

You can still make healthy choices and enjoy dessert.  Yes, this recipe does have saturated fat from the whipped cream, but in moderation that is okay.  The nutrition facts for cool whip don’t look so bad at first, no fat, not much sugar.  But after looking at the list of ingredients, I prefer the homemade stuff! Taste better too!  The first 3 ingredients in the cool whip are water, corn syrup, and hydrogenated vegetable oil (trans fat).

Food should be enjoyable!