Breakfast toasted cheese

This morning was day two of cleaning out the fridge and using up some odds and ends. I had fried up a bunch of bacon for last night's dinner and for some odd and amazing reason had some left over. I didnt feel like cooking up a whole ordeal of a breakfast this morning for the hubby since he is the only one eating...so I came up with this. I was thinking of just a fried egg sandwhich for him then the goofy foodie in me turned the light on...lol.

So a quick gather of eggs, bread, margarine, bacon, cheddar and American cheese and we had breakfast. Hubby likes his yolks runny (yuck lol) so I fried the egg first then started piling everything on. It got rave reviews from hubby and my kids (who were disappointed they only got to lick the plate).

I hope you let your imagination fly and have fun in the kitchen. Enjoy and I hope you liked it.

Banana sour cream waffles

The weekend is here my time to cook something a bit special. The hubby could eat sausage and eggs or bacon and eggs every day but I get tired of making the same thing time after time. So the weekend is my creative time. My time to spend a bit more time in the kitchen, a time to try new recipes that are a bit more labor intensive or something that you would like to sit and savor more than a weekday meal.

Today's plan was to make banana sour cream waffles with either bananas foster topping or sweetened strawberry compote. I slept in a bit longer than expected....so it turned out to be just banana sour cream waffles..lol. I didn't hear any complaints though from the hubby! Oh they made the house smell wonderful!! Not quite as good as banana bread but ohhh so close! Nothing better than a house that just fills your senses with the smell of food cooking!! Now that is comfort to me any day!

These waffles have a strong banana flavor that comes through but not over powering at all. They would make a nice base for any topping and I could even see them being used as the bread for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or if you are adventurous a peanut butter banana and marshmallow sandwich...I however am NOT that adventurous...lol

This is an incredibly easy recipe that takes no time to whip together and would be a lovely weekday breakfast that your family would love.

So enough of me rambling on...let's get in that kitchen and get cooking!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg - separated (beat egg white until stiff)
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter - melted
1 medium banana - mashed

Directions:

Heat waffle iron per manufacturer's instructions.

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. Set aside.

In separate bowl, whisk together egg yolk, sour cream, milk, butter and banana. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients, stirring just until blended. Fold in beaten egg white.

Pour batter from cup or ladle onto center of hot waffle iron. *If the batter seems a bit too thick you can add a bit more milk to it to loosen it up a bit. I kept mine thicker as my waffle iron is a Belgian waffle iron with the deeper grooves so it handles the thicker batter. One thing to remember with this batter that I totally flaked on..is the sugar content of them from the banana. I normally just oil a paper towel and grease my waffle iron and well it wasn't enough. I don't normally like using cooking spray but didn't have time to melt some butter to grease it but the cooking spray worked well.* 

Bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. Remove waffle carefully.

I know I didn't plate it pretty for the photo but once the waffle iron gets hot and cooking it's hard to stop especially when the hubby eats them almost faster than I can cook them...lol They cook up nice and crisp and are nice and light as well. I hope you give them a try. Enjoy everyone...and enjoy being in that kitchen!

Peanut butter cream cheese & banana stuffed french toast

Uhmm mmm hmmm mee mee mee....ok so I will spare you from me singing one of Elvis' songs today lol. But like Elvis the hubby loves the combination of peanut butter and bananas. I however think it's atrocious...blech...but this breakfast was for him.

I have been making stuffed french toast forever with all kinds of combinations. My personal favorites are just sweetened cream cheese topped with fresh fruit. The hubby however enjoys some of my from the hit creations like peanut butter and jelly filled and now this one...peanut butter cream cheese and banana.

First off we have to whip up the peanut butter cream cheese. This is a recipe I have made before but I usually use it as a fruit dip to give me added protein and something sweet, but it worked really well here too.

Peanut butter cream cheese dip

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese softened (you can also use whipped or 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
• 1 cup peanut butter - doesn't matter chunky or creamy, I prefer creamy for this
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together until smooth. Chill to set. Refrigerate leftovers.

Easy right?! Now for the creating of the french toast....

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs depending on how many french toast you are making
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Bread
• Bananas
• Peanut butter cream cheese dip
• 1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

Mix the eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl. Set aside.

 

 

Spread as much peanut butter cream cheese on one piece of bread as you like. Make sure that you make it thicker in the center than you do on the edges. As the french toast cooks it will melt the spread and it will move to the edges naturally.

 

 



Then of course the easy part slicing the bananas on top of the peanut butter cream cheese. You can add as much or as little as you like. I sliced my bananas about 1/4 inch thick.

Make the sandwich and dip it in the egg mixture. Make sure both sides are nicely saturated with egg.

Melt the butter in the frying pan till it's nice and hot. Then finally cook until golden brown on both sides.

The finished product! Gooey goodness...or so I was told...lol I hope you enjoy this one. Just something simple...but now you have leftover peanut butter cream cheese to eat with slices of apple or bananas or whatever you like.

Overnight crockpot apple oatmeal



What better way to wake up in the morning than with a nice hot bowl of apple oatmeal...and not the instant packet stuff either. I am very picky about my oatmeal and don't like it too mushy or too chewy, but I saw this and I thought well why not give it a try. Besides if I don't like it...I can always pawn it off on the hubby...evil smirk...muwahahaha.

There are a few things that I would change but they are for my own personal preference. So before we get to that, here is the recipe :

• 2 medium apples peeled and diced
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 4 cups water

I prefer big pieces of apple in my oatmeal rather than small diced so I sliced mine. I also prefer more apples so I used 3 apples instead of the 2.

Place the apples in the bottom of the crockpot. There is no need to spray the crockpot with any kind of cooking spray but if you wish you can use a slow cooker bag to help with clean up.

 

I added the brown sugar like it said but think that it's not really necessary as I like to add my sugar after it's cooked...I can be a bit heavy handed on the brown sugar :-)

Add the brown sugar and cinnamon on top of the apples. I was surprised at how bland the oatmeal was with the 1/3 cup of brown sugar so I think next time I will leave it out and add the sugar later...but DO add the cinnamon! By adding the sugar later you can control how sweet or not you want it or if you want to sweeten with sugar substitute. It won't affect the cooking of the oatmeal if you omit the sugar.

 

I used old fashioned oats because of the cooking length and my finickiness about mushy oatmeal

Now add the two cups of oatmeal. The recipe didn't specify what kind of oats to use, but since it was going to cook over night I decided to use old fashioned oats rather than quick cooking ones so it wouldn't turn into wallpaper paste. After making this, I thought steel cut oats would be a lovely alternative.

 

Added the water.

Next add the water. Do not stir! Once the water is added put the lid on, turn the crockpot onto LOW and let cook for 8-9 hours, or give or take to your own liking. I found that 8 hours was plenty for me. Not to mushy but not chewy or gummy either.

 

Couldn't wait to try it, so sorry no pretty picture of it in a bowl garnished...lol. There is just enough leftovers for tomorrow..yeah!

Oh the house smelled divine!!! Nothing better than waking up to the smell of apples and cinnamon! It's for sure a great way to make you smile...even on a Monday! This recipe makes a nice fairly large batch of oatmeal great for families. Since it's just the two of us we had some left over...but not much..lol. The container here holds about 2 cups.

 

It doesn't matter the type of apples used, I used fuji because it's what I have on hand all the time but if you prefer a granny smith for a more tart apple that would work fine too. I used light brown sugar but dark brown sugar could be used as well for a richer deeper molasses or carmelish flavor. Again with the oats, my personal preference was the old fashioned but any kind would work well just be mindful of cooking times. Other things would be lovely added to this as well like dropping in 1/3 cup of raisins, dried cranberries, or any other type of dried fruit you enjoy. This recipe is so versatile and easy even the kids could join in and make it their own.

 

I hope you enjoy it and I would love to hear the different variations that you all come up with.