Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

I made these this week for our Bible study luncheon.

They were so good! And since we had a Valentine's Day theme, I thought the strawberry jam went along nicely. Over half the pan was empty by the time we were done... and our group was small that day, about 12-15 people. So that oughta tell you how great these were! Plus, I received several compliments. They're great as dessert, but I think they'd make a cute Valentine's Day breakfast treat.

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

(Recipe by Ree Drummond)

(I'm sure she'd do a much better job of photographing them, but unfortunately, she didn't. So you're left with my sad depiction...)

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 sticks salted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing pan
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• One 10 to 12-ounce jar strawberry preserves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch rectangular pan.

Mix together the butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Press half the oat mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with the strawberry preserves. Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely, and then cut into squares. Makes 24 bars.

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Lately, I've been having a hard time getting my little guy to eat anything healthy.

He caught a cold last week, and every time this happens, all he agrees to eat is bread. Chips, muffins, toast, etc. No fruit, no veggies. So when this happens, I do my best to work with his taste buds.

That's when I found this recipe. I altered it a little bit, just to help the texture and taste a little.
It totally worked.
I made these yesterday, and he's eaten like six of them so far.

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

(Adapted from Jill McKeever)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cups low fat milk
• 1/2 cup natural applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup sugar (thinking I may substitute some of this with honey next time...)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (if you don't have any blueberries, you can always use raisins instead. still healthy, but much cheaper, especially in the cold months)

Directions
Preheat oven 400ºF degrees. Spray muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray or use cupcake liners.
Blend milk, applesauce, egg, and butter in a small bowl and set aside.
Stir flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center and pour wet ingredients into the well. Stir just until the flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until golden brown; regular size muffins bake in 18 to 20 minutes, mini-muffins bake in 10 minutes. Immediately remove from pan.
Makes 12 muffins.

Special Touch:
Mix 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 2 Tbsp butter together. Sprinkle over muffins about halfway through baking for a crunchy, sugary topping.

Sweet Potato Mini-Muffins

I made these over the weekend with my little guy. I had some sweet potato left over from dinner the night before, and I hate wasting food (especially healthy food!).

As a baby, Noah looooooved sweet potatoes. His hands started turning orange, he ate so many. But since starting solids, he eventually lost that love. But I swear, as soon as he stopped eating so many of them, he started getting more colds and ear infections.

I wanted to find a way to incorporate them back into his diet. But since he wasn't interested in eating them normally, I had to get a little creative. I found this recipe, and I'm SO happy with it.

As soon as they were done, Noah ate FIVE of them.

And he has no idea how healthy they are. Next time, I might try to replace some of the oil with applesauce. They have an oatmeal-cookie-like flavor, so I think the applesauce would work great.

Sweet Potato Mini-Muffins

(Original recipe by Catherine @ weelicious.com)

via

Ingredients

• 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon
• 2 Large Eggs, whisked
• 1 Cup Sweet Potato Puree, cooked*
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1/4 Cup Canola or Vegetable Oil
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place the first 7 ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl whisk the remaining ingredients.
Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients just until they are combined (be careful not to over mix the batter).
Place 1 tbsp of batter in each cup of greased mini muffin tins and bake for 15 minutes.
 Serve. (Makes 30 Mini Muffins)

* To make sweet potato puree, bake sweet potatoes (or yams) in a 400 degree oven for one hour, allow to cool, slice in half lengthwise and mash flesh with a fork until smooth.
** You can place muffins in labeled freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months.

Pumpkin Waffles and Cinnamon Syrup

Okay, okay. I know I said I wouldn't overdo it on the pumpkin recipes.

But I had to share this one too.

I made this yesterday for breakfast for me and the little man. Noah is actually pretty picky about his breakfast. Actually about food in general, but breakfast particularly. He likes his standard toast, eggs, and blueberries. So I went out on a limb with this one. But it was all chilly and rainy, and the morning was just crying out for waffles.

Maybe I've been living under a rock or have just been too nervous to try, but I've never made my own breakfast syrup before. It's actually really simple! And the cinnamon with the pumpkin waffles??

Oh my goodness gracious. Make sure you have room for seconds. It's that good.

Pumpkin Waffles with Cinnamon Syrup

(Original recipe by Amy @ The Idea Room)



Pumpkin Bread Waffles:
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1/4 c. packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1/2 c. canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 2 TBSP canola oil

Directions

 

Mix dry ingredients, combine wet ingredients. Mix together. Batter will be thick. Cook in waffle maker. (Use pam to prevent sticking.)

 

Cinnamon Syrup:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup water

Directions

Stir together the white sugar, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small saucepan. Stir in vanilla extract and water. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring often. Continue to boil and stir until mixture thickens to syrup consistency. Remove from heat; cool 10 minutes before serving.

Banana Blueberry Pancakes

I just have to say, I'm so glad I started this foodie blog.
It's made me try recipes that've sat in my cookbooks, binders, and boxes for years. You know what I mean. You clip or save a recipe, assuming you'll eventually get around to trying it... but for some reason, you never do. Well, this is one of those recipes.
Christmas 2009, I went to stay with my mom for a few days with my 5 month old baby (my hubby was sick with the flu, so we hightailed it outa there!). While we were there, she happened to get a new cookbook in the mail. It was full of healthy, yummy options. And of course, since I'd just had a baby, I was desperate to lose the baby weight and still enjoy food at the same time.

Useless fact about me: I love breakfast food. Anytime of the day. My favorite dinner is breakfast. It's just fun and comforting and so good. These pancakes happened to be in that healthy cookbook, and I was so excited! Fyi, I don't remember which cookbook it was (possibly a Weight Watchers?) and neither does my mom... so I can't really give proper credit.

But then I never tried them... until tonight!
I don't know why I waited so long. They're waaaayyy better than a box mix any day. And much healthier for you! I already had all of the ingredients I needed, and I'm so glad I made them.
Definitely melt-in-your-mouth pancakes.

The only change I made was the milk. The original recipe calls for skim milk, but I used whole... mainly because I have a one-year-old and was planning on sharing (um... maybe not anymore) with him. I doubt there's much of a difference, however I do wonder if they ended up a tad richer because of the whole milk? Either way, I'm pretty sure they're delicious! Add a little powdered sugar, and you've got yourself a dessert!

(I put the nutrition info at the bottom, in case you're interested)

Banana Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/4 fat free milk
• 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 fresh or frozen blueberries*

Directions

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Combine the egg, milk, bananas, and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a hot griddle coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with blueberries. Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until second side is golden brown (be careful not to make your griddle too hot - you'll end up with burnt outside, doughy inside). Serve with syrup if desired.

Yields about 14 pancakes.

*Note: if using frozen blueberries, do not thaw.

2 pancakes = 195 calories, 2g fat, 4g fiber, 6g protein, 41g carbs

Baked French Toast Casserole

First, I wanted to give a big shout-out to the new followers. I'm glad you like this place enough to want to keep reading. Thanks for that! :)
Secondly, a big apology for not posting more recipes lately. With the craziness of last minute Christmas stuff, plus I got sick (the kind that shouldn't be mentioned on a food blog), the blogs are just getting a tad neglected.

Anyways, I thought I'd share this recipe with you. It's one of my favorites, and is such a good one to have if you plan on entertaining family over the holidays. And oh.my.gosh, it's SO ridiculously good. I made it this past summer for some friends that stayed over, and one of my husband's friends asked me to send the recipe to his wife. He didn't stop talking about it.
It's really not that difficult to make. My only advice? Get the bread the no earlier than the day before you make it. Otherwise, it may go stale (or worse) by the time you get around to it. Bakery bread doesn't have as long of a shelf life (found that out the hard way).

Baked French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Dash salt
• Praline Topping, recipe follows
• Maple syrup

Directions

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Praline Topping:

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.

The Lady's Perfect Scrambled Eggs

You're going to start noticing a theme on here. I'm trying not to make it TOO obvious... but I have a feeling my readers are smarter than I'm giving you credit for. I'm a HUGE fan of Ms Paula Deen. Most of my tried and true recipes come from her... possibly because she makes incredibly yummy amped up comfort food look so incredibly easy.

I love to entertain, mainly because I love to feed people. It worked out great that my chunky-monkey (aka baby Noah) likes to eat. My favorite, though, is when my hubby's guy friends come to town and stay with us. It's like they revert to being teenage boys again, eating everything in sight, typically junk that their wives don't want them eating.
But hey, I appreciate it. I get to test out new "larger" recipes on them. I'm still working on losing the postpartum weight, so eating a big bowl of lasagna every night just isn't going to happen. Noah still doesn't eat much big people food. And my husband can't eat it all himself, as much as he wishes he could. So having a big group of guys to make this stuff for is perfect.

My favorite meal to make is breakfast. It's easy, filling, and fun.
Having that many boys over, I needed a way to stretch eggs. Which is how I found this recipe. It's perfect if you like scrambled eggs, but need a little something more to them. A more "grown up" version, maybe?

Anyway, it's simple and will feed a lot of people. It's actually perfect if you have family coming into town for the holidays and need an easy (but impressive) breakfast option. (Who wants turkey for every meal??)

Enjoy!

 The Lady's Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• 2 heaping tablespoons sour cream
• 1 tablespoon water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions

In a medium size bowl, beat eggs, sour cream, water, and salt and pepper until fluffy. Using a nonstick frying pan, melt butter and cook eggs over low heat, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cheese. Cook until you reach desired consistency.

[it says it serves 4, but you could totally make it feed at least 6... keep in mind, this is Paula Deen. She tends to serve a little more than most would eat. :) ]