This Breakfast Should Be Illegal!

I'm not really even sure it counts as a true breakfast item except for the fact that we ate it in the morning and used the word pancake. ;) I have mentioned before that I love the store Aldi. You can really get a lot for your money there without worrying about coupons or anything. Right now they have a seasonal item called Pumpkin Quick Bread or Muffin Mix. Props to my sister for turning me onto to this yumminess! In our house, we tend to use muffin mix to make pancakes because it is so much quicker. Breakfast time needs to be quick and easy when you have a toddler.


This is probably the best and easiest breakfast trick in my arsenal. Open a bag of any kind of muffin mix, add milk until it is a pancake batter consistency (usually about 1/2 a cup depending on the size of the package, but I honestly don't measure it.)

That is exactly what I did this morning, and then I made it even better. I made a cream cheese topping to play on the idea of adding syrup. It was just a basic cream cheese icing thinned out a little. Cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk. I am really not a measurer. I just go by consistency.

I Want To Stir!!!

This is what I hear a lot when cooking with my nephew. He is almost 3 and a great helper in the kitchen. He loves to cook! He has been staying with me and Logan this week during the day while my sister works. Logan has loved having someone to play with and he crawls after Grayson like a little puppy dog!

Today, Grayson and I made blueberry muffins. I had some blueberries in the freezer and was just craving some homemade muffins, but realized I didn't have eggs. My heart was already set and since I had already told Grayson we would make them, there was no going back! Thankfully, I found this recipe for egg-less muffins!!


Honestly, they were not as good as the blueberry muffins I made in this post. These got a little too brown around the edge before the middle cooked and I just liked the flavor of the other better. Of course they called for a lot more ingredients that I don't usually keep on hand. However, Grayson said, "they are very good for my tummy!" So at least they were a hit for him.

Breakfast for Dinner, With a Twist!

We used to have pizza night once a week, either ordered in or homemade. If you recall, we went through a grilled pizza kick. Man, those were good! Anyway, I decided to do a breakfast pizza. Taylor wasn't as enthused as I was with the prospect, but he did try it. He said he would rather stick to traditional pizza, but I thought it was a nice change of pace.

I also used one of my favorite seasonings EVER! Pilleterri's Bold & Spicy Seasoning. It is great on just about everything!!!

Breakfast Pizza
Source: Me

1 refrigerated pizza dough (we like pillsbury)
5 eggs, scrambled
5 sausage links, the heat and serve kind, defrosted and sliced into 1" pieces
cheddar cheese
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
milk
chicken stock
salt
pepper
Pilleterri's Bold & Spicy Seasoning

Roll out the pizza dough and bake for 1/2 the time indicated on the package. While it is baking, add the butter to a small sauce pan and let it melt over medium heat. Add the flour and cook a few minutes. Add milk until it creates a sauce. Yeah, I don't do measurements with the liquids. I just add until it looks right. Let it thicken over the heat and then use the chicken stock to thin it out a little. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When the half baked pizza crust comes out of the oven, use the gravy like pizza sauce and spread over the crust. Sprinkle with the pilleterri's seasoning. Add the eggs and sausage. Sprinkle with any cheese of your choosing, I used cheddar.

I love learning new tricks!

Yesterday was our Sunday to bring breakfast or snacks to Sunday School. I have been craving blueberries, a fact which was spurred on by Kate and all her blueberry posts. I decided I would make blueberry muffins...from scratch! A first for me, and my first official act as a stay at home mom. ;)

I found this recipe on Patsy's blog: Family, Friends and Food. The title does not lie; Melt-in-Your-Mouth Blueberry Muffins. They are excellent and I had many compliments on them yesterday morning. They really aren't much more complicated than opening the bag of muffin mix that I normally use.

But here is where the title of this blog comes in. I learned a new trick! I love learning the basics of cooking and baking so I can improvise more easily, especially when I do not have the called for ingredients readily on hand and a mad dash to the store is just not happening. In these cases, google can be a girl's best friend.

This recipe called for sour cream. I know I read that originally, but it slipped my mind until I looked it over again Saturday night. I didn't have any sour cream! Google came to my rescue and I found that you can substitue 3/4 cup sour milk plus 1/3 cup butter when a BAKING recipe calls for sour cream. Great! But how do I get sour milk? (or you can use buttermilk but I don't have any of that either!) I just googled that also and found that if you add 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 cup of milk and let it sit for 10 minutes you have sour milk! So, I used this little trick instead of jumping in the car and going out to get sour cream.

Also, I only had 1 egg and the recipe calls for 2. I did originally have 2 eggs but broke one on accident...long story, not going there right now. ;) I decided to just add a little oil to the one egg and call it a day. Both my substitutions did not seem to harm the outcome of the recipe and I was proud of my ingenuity! I am learning something through all this cooking and food blogging!

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Blueberry Muffins

Source: Family, Friends and Food

Originally from: Summer Gatherings, Rick Rodgers

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup full fat sour cream

5 tbsps unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 10 muffin tins with paper liners. I got 18 muffins out of this...well 12 full sized ones and 6 1/2 sized ones...I had too much batter for just 12 muffins. Also, I didn't use liners. I just sprayed the pan with cooking spray.

Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Beat the eggs until combined in another medium bowl, then stir in sour cream and butter. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Foldin blueberries. Spoon equal amounts into each muffin tin.

Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Mine took exactly 21 minutes. :)

Breakfast for Dinner!

I love breakfast food! We don’t have it that often because on the weekdays we are both running off to work and more often than not, on the weekends we just have cereal. We are boring, I know. Therefore, breakfast for dinner works much better for us. I added it to the meal plan for this week because I wanted something easy and something comforting. Pancakes are my most favorite breakfast food, especially with strawberry syrup. No, not maple. I hate maple syrup. Taylor smothered his pancakes in that overly sweet concoction though. The more the better as far as he is concerned.

I looked for a new pancake recipe because I’ve always made them with Bisquick (other than one time in 9^th grade Home-Economics when we made them from scratch). Tonight the pancakes were made from scratch and oh were they yummy! Perfect and fluffy, and because I was cooking them they didn’t get overly brown. I am strange when it comes to breads of any kind. I do not like brown and crunchy. I know, I’m weird.

We also had bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns. Here’s another weird thing about me. I cook my bacon in the microwave because it isn’t as greasy that way. I like crisp, non-greasy bacon. I have this cool plate you microwave the bacon on and it makes clean up so easy! The hash browns were just something I threw together.

This is what I call comfort food!

Pancakes
Source: allrecipes.com, my additions/changes in italics

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, milk, vanilla and oil. Pour milk mixture into flour mixture. Beat until smooth.

Pour or scoop the batter onto the hot griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.