Mini Cinnamon Muffins

I bought these really adorable mini muffin pans a couple weeks ago at Home Goods, and I figured a holiday is a great day to bake. It can be hard for me to find the time and the energy to bake. And I don't think it's that baking is terribly time consuming, unless you're making a bread. I think it must just be a combination of clean-up and the fact that I don't really eat baked goods. Anyway, so these muffin pans were cute, and I was going to make mini apple muffins, but seeing as how I didn't want to peel and core apples, I found this recipe instead (through FoodGawker, of course).

I substituted whole wheat flour (because I didn't want to open our white flour and hey, this is healthier, anyway, right?) and almond milk (because we don't keep regular cow's milk anymore). I thought the muffins were pretty good, maybe a little too dry (because of the whole wheat flour or the almond milk or perhaps overmixing?), and I would probably add a little more cinnamon and maybe a little nutmeg too next time. Also, they came out perfect looking. I was quite pleased with the lovely round muffin tops.

Mini Cinnamon Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup almond milk
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease mini muffin pans or line with mini cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
Melt butter in the microwave, about 30-40 seconds.
In another bowl, beat together the butter, eggs, milk, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.
Drop the batter into the pans, about a tablespoon for each muffin.
Mix together sugar and cinnamon for the topping and sprinkle mixture over the top of each muffin.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until muffin tops bounce back or a toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Breakfast Potatoes

I am a really big fan of three-day weekends. I decided to do a relaxing/super productive Labor Day, part of which included making a good breakfast at home. Normally during the work week I have a scrambled egg or a bowl of cereal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I eat at my desk when I get to the office. However, since I had today off, and that giant bag of russet potatoes, I decided I would make some breakfast potatoes and an egg after this morning's session at the gym. I've always made skillet breakfast potatoes before and I'm never satisfied with them, so today I decided to do them in the oven. Best decision ever. I didn't have to keep an eye on the potatoes, and I could just let them bake while I showered and folded laundry. Such multi-tasking! It was a perfect weekend breakfast, and I have leftover potatoes that will probably be terrific for breakfast tomorrow too! Win!

Breakfast potatoes
3 russet potatoes
1 red bell pepper
1/2 of one giant onion
paprika
salt
black pepper
Cube the potatoes. Cut the onions into wedges. Dice the bell pepper.
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, and add onions and potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and paprika. Toss together and bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, tossing once at the 10 minute mark.
At 20 minutes, pull out the baking sheet and add the red bell pepper and toss together. Stick back in the oven and broil for 3-5 minutes. Serve with an over easy egg on top.

ICBC Pumpkin

This is the first time probably since this Iron Chef Blogger Challenge started that I've actually cooked an ingredient during the week it was selected. Blanca, our newest Iron Chef, chose pumpkin as the secret ingredient, perfect for the season! For my secret ingredient recipe, I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blog sites, Annie's Eats. Annie makes a lot of amazing looking baked goods, and also has a lot of really accessible recipes for the type of cooking I like to do, simple, homemade stuff. Here's a link to her recipe, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins.

I ended up making two dozen muffins, and still had batter left over. The muffins are pretty delicious, and I love the surprise of finding the cream cheese in the center. There's a little too much clove in it, so I would probably recommend taking the clove down to a 1/2 teaspoon or 3/4 teaspoon. But the cream cheese balances the spice in the muffin nicely. And overall, I would say the effort behind the recipe isn't too bad. For a little bit of bragging, I made these muffins in the morning before I went to work.

Here's a link to La Monica's Iron Chef Blogger Challenge, Pumpkin.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Breakfast for Dinner

For dinner earlier this week, we did something a little different and had breakfast for dinner. I made a baked French toast, Southwestern egg casserole and served them with bacon and corn tortillas. I really liked the Southwestern egg casserole and I'll be posting that recipe soon.

Cherries and Brie Breakfast Pastry

1 can cherry pie filling

1 wheel Brie

1 puff pastry sheet

1. Thaw puff pastry sheet. Place Brie in middle of sheet and cover with cherry pie filling.

2. Fold up corners of pastry sheet and twist so that they hold together like a bundle.

3. Bake as per puff pastry box instructions. Brie should be melted and bubbling.

--- Review---

I made this back in LA with my friend Michele one weekend (except with raspberry jam) and loved it so much that I took it home for Brandon to eat. I love cherries more than raspberry, so I made it for breakfast on a good cold Denver morning and B and I gobbled up the whole thing.

The Brie has a great salty flavor that goes well with the sweetness of the cherries... and who doesn't like puff pastry? Seriously.

I like it with crackers. B likes it with a fork.

Pear Pancakes

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup pear nectar

2 medium Anjou or Bosc pears, thinly sliced lengthwise

1 cup half and half

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Confectioners sugar for serving

1. Preheat oven to 435. In a saucepan combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar, pear nectar and pear slices. Sprinkle pears with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Cook on medium-high until sugar caramelizes (about 10 minutes).

2. In a blender combine half and half, eggs and vanilla. Add flour, salt and remaining granulated sugar. Blend for 30 seconds on high. Scrape the sides of the blender and go for 10 more seconds.

3. Move pears to a glass or cast iron baking "bowl" (like a Pyrex container), pour batter over top of pears. Bake until light brown (about 15 minutes). Lower heat to 350 and bake until an inserted skewer comes out clean (about 10 more minutes).

4. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar before serving.

---Review---

Maybe it was because it was snowing outside when I made this for a Saturday breakfast, but this was one of the best breakfasts I have had at home. Brandon really liked it as well, and went for seconds (and thirds I believe).

Next time I am going to branch out and try some different fruits, perhaps apple or guava.

Here's a hint- you don't have to but a large jar of nectar for this recipe. You can buy individual cans of fruit nectar (usually found in the "Hispanic Foods" section) and you'll have more than enough!

Banana-Berry Smoothie

I found myself confronted with a problem of overripe strawberries this week. I was overly ambitious and bought too many strawberries, then found myself not eating them. So I threw together a smoothie and had it for breakfast. It was a great idea.

Banana-Berry Smoothie Recipe:
strawberries
banana
blueberries
vanilla yogurt
splash of cranberry-raspberry juice

Blend until desired thickness

Blueberry Muffins

Tonight, I decided to go for a baking frenzy, but only succeeded in making blueberry muffins because I ran out of flour. So much for the baking frenzy. But now I at least have breakfast for the rest of the week. This recipe comes to you by way of Pioneer Woman, one of my favorite daily blog reads. I made a couple adjustments to the recipe due to what I had on hand, but I was pleased enough with the result. The color of the muffins was a little too dark for my tastes, and I tried to adjust the cooking time by five minutes when I put in the second batch, but then it didn't seem long enough. Looks aside, the muffins are pretty tasty and will make a perfect quick breakfast.

Ingredients:
3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Dash of nutmeg
Heavy pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup veggie oil (I used canola)
1 egg
1 generous cup plain yogurt (I used light vanilla)
2 cups blueberries
vanilla extract
softened butter (for muffin tins)
Turbinado sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 385 degrees.

In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, cap-ful of vanilla extract, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir to a count of 10.

Add blueberries to mixture and stir 3 times.

Add mixture to well-buttered muffin tins. (I skipped the buttered tins and just put down cupcake wrappers). Sprinkle berries on top and press down. (I also skipped this step). Sprinkle turbinado sugar over top. Brown sugar can be substituted. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.