It's About Time

OK, if anyone there still reads this blog, no I am not dead, or retired, or moved on to something else.  Believe me, Break the Fast is continually on my mind.  But....it's not my job, and my job, unpaid though it is, takes precedence, so The Blog must wait.  Hurray, that I have time today!

I have a huge backlog of items to post, but today I thought I'd keep it simple.  Not too many weeks ago, I was folding laundry and listening to the Meal Makeover Moms podcast.  Their focus on this particular episode was breakfast.  Yeah!  I love breakfast.  They reaffirmed everything I believe about breakfast and then addressed the conundrum that many of us, including me, find ourselves in: how to make a kid-friendly, tasty, nutritious breakfast in a very short time that will get your children from early morning to school lunchtime without crashing. Yes, we can fry eggs and bacon, but surely not every day?

The key word is protein.  Protein is what is going to get you through the morning.  Let's see: we can have eggs, bacon, sausage, and at this point I run out of ideas for the typical morning sources.  None of these is going to kill us, but a daily dose is not only boring but also not the best for overall well-being.  Don't get me wrong, I looooove bacon, and nothing beats an egg for a quick, satisfying start to the day, but come on, there must be something else out there.

Meal Makeover Moms to the rescue!  How about a peanut butter smoothie?  Well, yes, how about it?  I listened to their recipe, and then just went to my trusty blender and started in.  My beef with smoothies has always been that they don't have staying power.  Cool Guy, in particular, could do a smoothie every day, but I resist because it takes time, cleaning up time, and it isn't enough.  For that same amount of time, I could get something much more substantial on the table.  But, hey, a peanut butter smoothie might work, so I tried.

And yes, one glass of Elvis-inspired smoothie was not only tasty, kid-appealing, and full of good nutrition, but it also kept us happy until lunch.

I didn't really follow the recipe.  I just took the idea and used what I had, which I would encourage you to do, also.

Here it is.  If you try this, hope you're as happy as I.

Elvis Smoothie
1 banana
vanilla yogurt
milk
peanut butter
ice cubes

Place all in the blender.  I usually put in a few serving spoonfuls of yogurt, a splash of milk and a large serving spoon of peanut butter.  Sorry I can't be more specific.  I don't think you can screw this up.  Consistency is what you're working for, not too thick, not too runny.  The ice cubes help thin it out and give a frostiness, which is nice.  A nice touch, if you're feeling indulgent, is to add some chocolate syrup, but the shake is delicious with or without.

Dessert or Breakfast?

Am I cheating?  Justifying?  I don't know.  I just know that it's good.  This morning, we had an apple cobbler with cranberries, complements of King Arthur Whole Grain Baking.  Over the past month, I've been haunting Marietta Farmer's Market, especially Lane's Orchard's Stand, where each week, new varieties of apples are available.  They recognize me now.

We are lucky.  We have a basement, and it has a kitchen (!) complete with a full sized refrigerator.  We don't have a root cellar, but we do have a mostly empty fridge "downstairs," so I decided to get as many apples now, while the gettin's good, and store them there to see us through part of the winter.  We have Grimes Gold, Firm Gold, Macleod, Winesap (tart!), Macs, JonGolds, you name it, we got it.  Have I mentioned that unless it's peach season, my favorite fruit is apples?

So it's apple season, and I have an overflowing refrigerator.  And I wake up at 5:00, while the rest of the household sleeps in since they stayed up late watching Oklahoma football on TV.  May as well do something good with all these apples.  Burt loves pies.  In fact, he always asks for pie for his birthday instead of cake.  I think I've made it known to him that a pie takes about two hours of labor, while a cake takes 20 minutes.  Still, he persists in pie.  I should be happy that birthdays only happen once a year.  And, truly, Burt wants nothing else.  No presents, nothing else.  Just pie.  So it's the least I can do.  But pie at any other time?  Sorry.  It's just too much of a time eater.  Counting the crust, which Burt prefers to be homemade, and we're talking 3 hours total.  But there are other options, and cobbler is one.

I stumbled upon a apple pandowdy recipe, and decided to try it.  The idea behind the pandowdy is that you put the fruit in the pan and then top it with a crust.  After it has baked, you break up the crust and integrate it with the filling, thus soaking the crust in the juice.  The thing that appealed to me was that the crust could be just a wreck, and no one would know.  And it should be a lot quicker than pie.

This particular recipe came from King Arthur, which, very nicely, gave me permission to reprint their recipes as long as I credited them and provided a link to either their store or their cookbook.  Credit and links duly noted.  Let me say right now that this pandowdy is the best apple concoction that I have ever made.  And believe me, I've made a lot, lot, lot of pies, cobblers, etc.  I'm a regular baking machine in the fall when it's apple season.  This is supreme.

The addition of dried cranberries is genius.  It adds a wonderful rosy color to the dish, and provides just the right tart.  For apples, I like to use as wide a variety as I can.  You know, some apples are eating apples, and others are cooking apples.  Some are tart, some are sweet.  I say just take a little of each, and then you don't have to worry about mushiness, tartness, oversweetness, or whatever.  Well, I pulled from six varieties, and it was a wonderful balance.  Let me add that if I only had one variety, I'd plow onward and make this.  I just don't see how  it could not come out good.

So is it a good start to the day?  Honestly, I don't see how anyone could question that.  In 7 cups of apples, only a mere half cup of sugar is used.  The crust is whole grain, so the carbs are not empty.  Yes, there are 6 tablespoons of butter, but come on.  You are getting SO MUCH fruit.  Live with it.

One thing that might be a little off-putting is that the main flour of this dish is barley flour.  I have a really hard time finding it here, and have gotten lucky occasionally at the local health food store.  However, this is a whole grain flour, and it adds a really nice taste, so it is worth taking the time to find it.  If I were determined to make this and I didn't have barley flour, I think I'd use white whole wheat flour instead.

When this baby came out of the oven, and I dug in, I just couldn't believe how good it was.  Cool Guy, who is not really a pie fan, became really hoggish with the crust parts, as in picking them out and taking them for himself, the rascal.

If I were to name a drawback, it would be that I doubt that the crust will retain its integrity over time.  Therefore, I ordered the family to consume the entire dish in one day.  It was going to breakfast, part of lunch,, snacks, and dessert for dinner, but by gosh, we were going to eat it in one day.  No protests.  If any is left, I guess I'll find out if the crust is any good on day 2, but I don't think that's going to be a problem.

*NOTE*  Day 2, there was enough of the pandowdy to make two small bowls for breakfast.  As I feared, the crust just wasn't as good, but overall, the taste was fine.  Certainly eat as much as you can on the first day, but enjoy it on the second, also.

Since eating it fresh is so important, I wouldn't recommend making this unless you have a lazy weekend planned.  Start to finish, it took 2 hours, and an hour of that was labor.  If I had thought to make the crust the night before and refrigerated it, if I had thought to peel and chop the apples ahead of time, it would have all gone together quickly, but I know me, and that doesn't happen often.  By the time dinner is over, this early riser is ready for bed, not another round in the kitchen.  Save this one for when you have time, but if you don't already have a favorite way to enjoy apple baking, be sure you carve out time for this.

Apple Cran-Dowdy
Courtesy of King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book

3/4 cup whole barley flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 TBSP. butter
2-4 TBSP. milk

Combine dry ingredients.  Cut in the butter until it is the size of small peas.  Add enough milk to make the dough hold together.  (For me, that was all 4 tablespoons.)  Shape into a disk, and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

7 cups peeled, cored, chopped apples
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
2 TBSP butter, cut into small pieces (I forgot to add this, and everything was FINE.)

Toss the apple slices with the cranberries in a large bowl.  Combine the brown sugar, spices, and salt, and add.  Pour the syrup and cider over the fruit and toss.  Put into buttered 9-inch square pan, and dot with butter.

Roll out crust to fit over the fruit.  Place it on top, and stick in a 350 degree oven.  Bake 50-55 minutes.  After it comes out of the oven, let it rest a few minutes, then cut the crust up, kindof turning it into the fruit.  Leave some large chunks, leave the edges alone, and leave some sticking up.

My New Favorite Breakfast Sandwich

Sometimes I amaze myself.  I sauntered into the kitchen, knew it was oatmeal time for Cool Guy, just didn't feel like having that myself, and created something new from what I had around, and am I ever glad I did.

I'm sure I'm not the first person on earth to make this breakfast sandwich, but I've never seen it before (my wide-ranging experience -- not), and I am super thrilled with it.  I think I'm calling it something like Avocado Hamwich.  For now, it's just My New Favorite.

I'm even going to go out on a limb and say that it's healthy.  Yes, I know avocados are loaded with fat, but it's the good kind of fat, the kind that doesn't clog your arteries, and also makes you feel good and full all morning long.  And they taste soooo good and have lots of other good nutrients in them.  Not only that, avocados allow your body to more easily absorb other vitamins, like beta carotein.  If you're curious, or just want to justify the avocado fat to yourself, you can learn all about avocado nutrients here.  And please don't skip the little bit of butter.  (Yes, I know that it's saturated fat, but just tiny smear of butter is what we're talking about.)  It really makes it.  Really.

I would definitely cut this rich breakfast with some fruit.  I think the perfect match would be an orange, but it's not orange season, so I had some fresh pineapple with mine.

Avocado and Ham Breakfast Sandwich


Half an avocado, peeled and mashed
little bit of butter
diced ham
1 whole wheat English muffin, toasted

1. Spread a little butter on the muffin while warm.
2. Spread with avocado
3. Top with ham.

Yum.

Tweaks

I'm interrupting my 5S series for a bit about tweaks to breakfast.  I've done two lately, and they've been huge successes, so I'm sharing them to inspire you to devise tweaks of your own.

Tweak #1: Mary Poppins says a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, but around here, all it takes is a spoonful of pork, preferably in the bacon or sausage category.  Here's the story.  I had some leftover cooked  sausage in the fridge and wondered what in the heck to do with it.  Sure, I could put it in an omelet, but I don't do omelets.  Lots of other ways to use it, but I ran across an idea from A Real American Breakfast.  This is one of those fantasy cookbooks, where only in my fantasies would I be cooking like this.  After all, I have lots of other things to do, and there are still only 24 hours per day.  However, I was glancing through and saw that they stuffed cooked sausage in the center of baked apples.  Up to this point, boys have refused baked apples.  I've tried stuffing them with brown sugar, raisins, pecans, cinnamon, all of the above, and no dice.  "What the hey," I thought, "can't hurt to try."  Let me tell you, those apples disappeared in nano-seconds.  Wish I'd made more.  Brown sugar won't do it, but sausage does.

This is super easy to make; all you need is to be awake an hour before eating.

1. Have some cooked, crumbled sausage left over.  You don't need much.
2. Peel the apple, just a circle off the top of it.  This helps keep it from splitting open.
3. Take a melon baller if you have one, and use that to scoop out the core.  This makes it so easy.  Be sure to leave the bottom intact.
4. Stuff a little sausage in the middle, up to the top of the apple.
5. Now place apple or apples in a pan with just a little water in the bottom, and bake at 350 covered for 30 minutes.  Then remove the cover and bake another 15 to brown things up.

That's it.  The only real work is coring the apples, which will take you about 5 minutes.  After that, the oven does the work, while you make coffee, and work your crossword puzzle.  And it is so worth it.

Tweak #2: The Mmmelvis.  This is named after the Elvis bagel plus our common first inital.  And you say "Mmmm" after eating it.  Get it?  Here, I was just make the ol' Elvis bagel and on a whim decided to add a few chocolate chips to the mix.  What a hit!  One caveat: you may not want your bagel toasted.  When I tried that, the peanut butter, and banana, and chips all kindof slid off the thing into a puddly mess.  Cool Guy was not amused.  So Mmmelvis is better eaten non-toasted for those who prefer not to get messy hands.

Tweaking is fun, and breakfast is so forgiving, that you should really try it sometime.  And if, as when I tried adding rhubarb to the oatmeal, it turns out a disaster according to the peanut gallery, there's always cold cereal to fall back on.  And life goes on.

A Great Start to a New Week

What better way to start a week than with waffles?  How about Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Waffles?  Do you think that will put smiles on the boys' faces?  You bet!  Oh, Encyclopedia, who is a little too cool right now to smile for his mom, may not actually smile, but I know he's smiling inside.

Normally, this would be a definite weekend breakfast and something easy would be on tap for Monday, but hey, I was up.  Using a stand mixer makes the batter very easy, and then all I have to do is wait for the boys to get up before starting the waffles.

The recipe, which is from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book, calls for serving these with a banana cream.  Well, that's just a little too fancy for me any day of the week, so instead, I topped the waffles with banana slices.  We had it that way in lieu of syrup and didn't miss the syrup one bit.

What do I like about these waffles?  First, they are made with whole spelt flour, giving us whole grains and protein.  Second, they have peanut butter, which adds more protein and really appeals to the boys.  Chocolate chips just make them even better.  Finally, the fluffy texture plus the great chocolate/peanut butter combo makes them seem so special, as if I had been slaving all morning in the kitchen, when in fact, I haven't at all.

After eating one waffle with the banana, I was so full, I had to put off my morning walk for awhile.  I am sure it will hold the boys until lunchtime.

The peanut butter flavor is not overwhelming, and the chocolate chips just come in a little bit, but the whole is a quiet pb and a quiet choc, and together, it is very nice.  The Elvis banana touch really appealed to the boys.  I guess if I go ahead and SLICE the bananas instead of just handing one to them, they get eaten.  OK, fine.  I'll slice them.

Making these, I used a 3/4 cup of batter for my iron.  I think that was too much.  2/3 would be better.  My iron let that larger amount spill all over the iron and made cleanup a mess.  Hey, less batter means more waffles.  And Cool Guy just couldn't get enough of these today.  More waffles, more bananas.

Each waffle will give you

• 8 whole grains
• 12 grams fat
• 6 grams protein
• 3 grams fiber

OK, so there's more fat than I would like, but I rationalize this by telling myself that I am aware and that I just need to cut back on lunch and dinner.  The whole grains are good, and the protein is good, and adding in the bananas, I'm sure we're still way better than my pop tart measuring stick.  Is this better for you than a pop tart?  If yes, then proceed.  We can proceed.

Please, if you aren't scared off by (a) waffle iron or (b) spelt flour, try this waffle.  Everyone in your family, young or old, will LOVE it.  You've got to trust me on this.  And also, I want you to let me know after you have tried it and loved it yourself, that you know that I was right.  Please.

My Third Favorite Coffeecake

My first favorite is rhubarb.  My second is blueberry buckle.  And third place goes to (drumroll) Peach - recipe is here.  In truth, peaches are my favorite fruit of all time, but, sadly, a little something is lost between the fresh peach picked from the tree and frozen peaches that I must use at this time of the year.  Also, though the peaches are dandy in this coffeecake, don't get me wrong, nothing, nothing can compare with a peach off the tree.

We are very lucky to be living in a part of the country where fresh peaches grow well.  We have two trees in our backyard, and last summer, I was on-the-ball enough to put bird netting over the trees before the squirrels stole all my peaches.  One variety is white and clingstone, and the other is orange and freestone.  Both are equally delicious.

Peaches give you lots of vitamins, like A, and some fiber, and not much in calories.  And this coffeecake combines the good of peaches with the good of whole grains and it is tasty, crumbly, cinnamony, moist.  There's nothing not to like.  It's just not fresh peaches, so of course I'm disappointed.

My boys, though, any morning that they get out of bed and find out that coffee cake is cooling on the counter, are NOT disappointed.  They very much enjoyed this two days in a row, especially when accompanied by some bacon or fried smoked sausages.  Add some milk, maybe some juice, or even coffee, and your morning is set for success.

Another thing about the peach coffee cake is that I had the final slice on the third day of its existence, and it was still just as moist as on the first day.  I think that, more than anything, is what the peaches do for the coffee cake.

What I especially like about this recipe is that it makes two cakes.  So we eat one, and I double wrap the other and freeze it so that I have a super easy breakfast sometime in the near future.

Full disclosure: I began making this at 5:45, and the boys ate it at 7:15.  This is not a quick meal - probably better for the weekend.  But sometimes weekends around here are even more hectic, so I decided to do this on one of those early-rising mornings.  Don't regret it at all.

Celebrate Hot Breakfast Month!

In my usual fashion, I'm a day late and a dollar short.  Or more exact, half a dollar short, since the month is only half over.  Yes, February is National Hot Breakfast Month, and we have two weeks left to celebrate.  How better than the classic American bacon and eggs breakfast?

This is the breakfast that comes to mind whenever I think breakfast.  This is the one, the epitome of fill-you-up, get ready for the back 40 kind of breakfast that I love.  It's not hard at all, not too time-consuming, just takes some kitchen juggling.

1. Cook the bacon.  Keep it warm.

2. Meanwhile, make the toast.  As soon as it comes out of the toaster, spread it with some butter.

3. In the leftover bacon grease, fry the eggs, any style.  We had hard eggs this morning.

4. Meanwhile, pour the juice, set out jam, peel the oranges, set the table, pour the coffee, etc., etc.

Just a lot of juggling, but with efficient movements, you can have everything hot and ready in very short order.

Weekend, weekday, whatever, just try the classic in honor of this month!

A BIRTHDAY ADDENDUM

Today happens to be Cool Guy's 10th birthday.  Happy Day, CG!  He is his Mother's son.  For his special birthday dinner tonight, he requested biscuits and gravy, and yes, I'm going to try my hand again at real biscuits.  Below is a shot of his birthday cake, the first that I didn't make for him myself.  But since he wanted a Nerf Gun birthday party, and I know my limitations, I found a local genuis to make this cake for me.

Banana Oat Pancakes

I already have a favorite pancake recipe, Spelt Pancakes, but these run a close second.  You like banana bread?  You like pancakes?  Then you'll love these.  They are quick and easy to mix up, and just take a few minutes to cook.  They are also Cool Guy's favorite pancake.

If you've ever smashed up a banana and stirred it into your pancakes, you know how good that can be, but using the oat flour (you can just whiz some oatmeal in a blender if you don't have oat flour) and the cinnamon and nutmeg elevates these to a higher level.  Seriously, they will melt in your mouth.  These pancakes (recipe is here) rise higher and have an almost cakelike texture compared with most pancakes.  Since they do pour out thick, I spread the batter out a bit, and I have to be careful not to have the heat on too high or else the insides won't cook all the way before the outsides burn.  But then, pancakes have always been a challenge for me.

Please don't let that or the oat flour scare you away from trying these.  They are definitely delicious, and taste almost dessert-like, while also being good for you.  Two pancakes will give you

• 18 grams whole grains
• 203 calories
• 8 grams fat
• 6 grams protein
• 3 grams fiber
• And potassium, iron, calcium, and other good things.

I could only eat one, though the boys each had two.  We served it today with some stick sausage, oranges, juice, and coffee for me.

Tastes Change (Thank God)

I'm not talking about the boys' tastes.  No I'm talking about my own.  I think you could have put me in the running as one of the pickiest kids in America.   I didn't like eggs forever.  I don't think I enjoyed scrambled eggs until my 30's.  And I didn't like eggs fried unless they were rubbery-hard and then only between bread smeared with lots of Miracle Whip.  I didn't really like toast, didn't like pancakes, didn't like homemade waffles.  Is it any wonder my mom only fed me box cereal, which I also didn't like?  Heck, if I'm not going to like anything anyway, why bother making anything?  (Although why we couldn't have French toast every morning is beyond me.)

Well.  My tastes have changed, thank God, or should I say they have "matured."  I like all those things now, and I have learned that I should never write something off entirely forever without giving it another try.  (Exceptions are canned corn and coconut.  Totally and forever.)

Which brings me to today's breakfast: broiled grapefruit.  About once a year, growing up, I would come to the breakfast table and find, much to my horror, a half grapfruit sitting at my place and a bowl of sugar next to it.  I was supposed to sprinkle the sugar on top and eat that thing.  It felt like I sat there for hours, sprinkling and sprinkling, and just could not get that grapefruit to taste any better.  Once I had flown the coop, grapefruit was on my "never to be endured again" list.

And then, again in my 30's, I found out that corn on the cob is good.  You see, my personal war with canned corn turned me against any and all forms of corn, seemingly for the rest of my life.  Poor Burt.  He never got corn at our house.  Then one day, we had some friends over for dinner, and they brought some fresh corn and made it for us, and I knew it would just be plain rude to refuse, so I put on my best face and decided to fake my way through it, choking it down with a smile.  What a revelation!  Corn on the cob was good!

What else have I been missing in my life?  Well, runny eggs on toast, for one, and pancakes and waffles.  Not to mention steak, celery, and lima beans.  And grapefruit.

I finally got up the nerve to try grapefruit again this winter, and what a treat it has been.  It's quick, easy, and good for you, and it has this juxtaposition of tastes and textures when it's been broiled.  The coolness and tang of the fruit contrasts so well with the warmth and sweet crunch of the topping.  I had some again this morning, and am so glad that I didn't let grapefruit pass me by forever.

One grapefruit, not counting the topping, has less than 100 calories, 5 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, half of your Vitamin A for the day, and over 100% of your vitamin C.

Full disclosure: boys didn't like it.  Their tastes haven't matured enough yet.

Are there any foods that you need to try again?  Or foods that you have matured into?  Let me know!


Broiled Grapefruit
serves 1 or 2

• 1 grapefruit, which has been stored in the fridge for that cold contrast
• brown sugar, about 1/4 cup
• butter, softened, about 2 Tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat your broiler

2. Cut the grapefruit in half.

3. Use a small serrated knife to cut the fruit away from the white part all the way around and also cut between each segment.  This makes for easy eating and takes 1 or 2 minutes.  It's worth the time.

4. Mix together the topping ingredients and spread over the cut grapefruit.  What I mixed together this morning wasn't quite enough to allow for a nice thick layer, so I just sprinkled a little more brown sugar on top.

5. Broil until the top is bubbly.

Flying Solo

Some things you just can't convert the heathens to.

Today boys are having oatmeal again, and I am having what I had planned for all of us and what quickly got deep 6-ed by the boys: cottage cheese and canned pears.  I don't know......is this something like creamed chipped beef on toast?  Something that you have to have grown up during a certain era to even conceive eating?

When I was growing up, this used to be a frequent dish at dinner.  Sometimes my mom would have a small bowl next to the dinner plate with a leaf of lettuce lining it, a mound of cottage cheese, and half a pear perched on top.  That was our salad for the night.  I loved it.  It was a nice change from the usual tiny bowl of iceberg lettuce that we usually had, and I like pears.  And cottage cheese.  Something about the combination, the sweet pears with the slightly salty cottage cheese just hits the right note.

How is it, then, that the boys have not been won over to this great combo?  I keep putting it on the table, and they keep refusing to eat it.  Is it me?  Or them?

No matter.  I like it, and they like oatmeal day after day, so we're all happy.

No recipe needed for this one.  Combine cottage cheese and canned pear halves, and dig in.  You've got most of your nutrition bases covered.

Roughy

The name for my new fruit salad: Roughy.  It's like a Smoothie, but it's not smooth - get it? 

The point is that sometimes it takes clever marketing to make things appealing to the Younger Generation.  "Fruit Salad" just doesn't stir excitement in my boys' souls.  I guess I could have called it "Wookie yum-yums," or some such, but I've got a little dignity left.  After making this salad, I realized that what I put into the bowl was exactly what I would have put into the blender if we were having smoothies.

And under the guise of Roughy, this salad got eaten.  Not that is wasn't delicious on its own, but it looked suspicious, being an amalgamation of things all mixed up together.

I served this fruit salad with oatmeal (again) for the boys and with a leftover scone for me.  Here's how I made it.

Roughy

1. Take whatever fresh fruit you have on hand (I had oranges, apples, and bananas) and cut them into bite-sized chunks.  I didn't peel the apple, and no one protested.

2. Throw in some dried fruit.  I used a handful of dried cherries and a handful of dried cranberries.

3. Stir in enough vanilla yogurt to cover all the fruit well.

That's it!  And it got eaten and requested again.

If I had had some canned pineapple, I would have used it.  I only used one of each fruit, but this could be infinitely expanded.  Total time was minimal.  I started the salad while the oatmeal was cooking, and while the boys were putting on their oatmeal toppings, I finished up the salad.  It could also be made ahead, thus allowing the dried fruit to soften a little.

Carpe Piem

(Note: no picture today, due to operator error.  I shot a movie of a pie sitting on the counter on accident, and then deleted it, again, on accident.)

Yes!  We had apple pie for breakfast, and I'd do it again.  Not that it happens much around here, but Monday was a holiday.  I ran the boys all over town getting errands done, had Cool Guy do some reading for me, sent the boys outside to have their Nerf Gun war outside, and finally, it was mid-afternoon, and each boy had settled in for some cave time: Encyclopedia to the computer for one of his empire-building computer games, and Cool Guy to watch some of the 20 or so Tom and Jerrys that he DVR-ed.  (The kid has a love-affair with the DVR button.)  We were having leftovers for dinner so no cooking to be done in that department, and there was no basketball practice or gymnastics as per usual on Monday afternoons and evenings.  In short, I had time.

Burt loves, loves pie.  He has pie for his birthday cake.  If we go to a fancy restaurant, he orders pie for dessert.  And he would get it more at home except that I rarely make dessert, and he asked me once if I could please, please make homemade crust when I make pie.  It's a lot of work, and there's rarely time.

But today, there was time.  I put on a podcast, heard just above the T & J on the TV, and started rolling crust.  These pies of mine are never pretty, always a bit lopsided with jagged edges.  But inside, a pile of diced apples mixed with spices, vanilla and a little cream, and the crust - oh, my, it was so perfect and crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth, if I do say so myself.  The filling recipe was much like this one, but I used a double crust.

I don't even want to think what the calories were or the fat in that crust.  So, we're livin' high.  But I can rationalize pie in the morning this way.

• It has fruit in it, so there's got to be a healthy element.
• The whole pie only had 1/2 cup of sugar.  Surely a slice has less than a bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs.
• Served with a slice of cheddar or some meat, it works for keeping us going in the morning.
• It's super-fast in the morning.  Slice and eat.

We'll only have it today because it will be gone by tomorrow.  Carpe Piem.

My Smoothie Ambivilance

I like smoothies, really, but I don't see them as the be-all and end-all of healthy breakfasts.  Today was another snow day, so a perfect day for smoothies ----not?  Yes, and no.

One the one hand, it was cold outside, so most people would want something warm.  Not a good day for smoothies.  On the other hand, they lack a rib-sticking quality to get the boys and me through until lunchtime.  A better day for smoothies than most, since boys would be here to have something else if needed.  Mainly I chose to make smoothies today because the boys asked for them.

So my two gripes about smoothies are that they don't sustain us throughout the morning and that I hate my blender.  To combat the first problem, I could serve something else along with the smoothie, such as a breakfast meat, or even some cereal.  Cool Guy handled the problem by having a bowl of cereal at 10:30 this morning.  To combat the second problem, I am waiting to receive another blender in the mail.  I'll give this new one a try, and if it is the success that I hope it to be, I'll post about it.

The good part about smoothies is

• they are easy
• they are healthy
• boys like them
• they are quick
• they are customizable

Today's smoothie got in 100% of our Vitamin C, a lot of our Vitamin A, a good chunk of potassium, some calcium, protein, and even some Omega-3.  That's quite a whallop for such a small investment of time and energy.  And did I mention that the boys like them?

In the final analysis, I think smoothies are a good thing, but not something that I would want every day as my main source of morning sustenance.  Enjoy it for what it is: a yummy, healthy drink.

My basic recipe for smoothies is vague.  It takes a little tinkering with yourself to make it yours.

Smoothie
For two or three people

1 banana
Several serving spoonfuls vanilla yogurt (probably 3/4 cup total)
Fresh or frozen other fruit of your choice, about 1 cup (we used frozen mango today)
2-3 ice cubes if not using frozen fruit
Orange juice if needed
Optional ground flax seed or wheat germ for extra nutrition

1. Place the fruits, ground flax seed,  and yogurt in the blender and turn it on.  Hopefully your blender works better than mine.

2. If it seems too thick, add orange juice until it is of a consistency you like.

3. Pour into glasses, add straws, and FILL YOUR BLENDER WITH WATER.

4. Train your family members to fill their glasses with water after they are done with their smoothies.  Smoothie residue is the devil to clean after it dries on the blender and glasses.

Let Them Eat Cake.

Coffee cake, that is.

Does anyone do coffee cake anymore, or is it old-fashioned?  When I was a kid, it seemed pretty common, but I haven't seen it around or heard it mentiond in ages.  It's not sold ready-made on shelves; it's not on the drive-thru breakfast menu, so it may be becoming an endangered species.

If so, it's time to revive it.

I'm not going to say that coffee cake is particularly quick or particularly healthy, but it can have some healthy elements in it, making it healthier, especially by adding fruit and whole grains.  And the point is, we all need some sweetness in life.  Coffee cake fills the bill.

For an early riser, it's not a big deal to whip out.  It's not complicated, no fancy, exotic ingredients, and it is such a nice treat, much nicer than a box of donuts, much easier than a pan of cinnamon rolls.  And the smell as it comes out of the oven.  That makes it worth it.

There are a bazillion coffee cake recipes out there.  I have tried a few from King Arthur: rhubarb coffee cake, which is our favorite, and peach coffee cake, also good.  Today, we had Blueberry Buckle coffee cake, again from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book,  and that may be the NEW favorite.  Cool Guy thinks it has a piecrust taste.  I think it's a light, fluffy, crumbly, cinnamony muffin taste.

I encourage you to look around for a recipe that strikes your fancy.  You can begin making it healthier by substituting some whole wheat flour for the white, about a half-cup swap for starters, and definitely a whole grain swap in the streusel topping, if there is streusel.

One piece of my cake gave me 19 whole grains, 252 calories, 8 grams fat, 4 grams protein, 3 grams fiber.  I can live with that now and then.

A Versitile Topping

Here's a Bah-Humbug for you - for Christmas morning breakfast we had....oatmeal.

THAT's a bit anti-climactic.  I mean, here's the Breakfast Blogger serving oatmeal on the day of Christ's birth?

The justifications:
1. Oatmeal happens to be Cool Guy's food jag for now.
2. Time was tight.  Two of us were serving at 9:00 Mass, and the boys SLEPT IN until we woke them a little after 7:00.

There's nothing wrong with oatmeal at all, but it's just not that festive.  I decided to try dressing it up a little for Christmas.  I checked in one of my trusty tech manuals, A Real American Breakfast, and came across a topping idea.  You take equal parts of softened butter, sugar, nuts, and dried fruit and mix them all up together.  I used brown sugar, pecan bits, and dried cranberries.

This made serving the oatmeal so easy!  Everything but the milk was in one bowl, and we only had to scoop out what we wanted and stir it in.  Cool Guy picked out the cranberries, but I would include them again, for no other reason than that they add some festive color to an otherwise greyish-brownish dish.  But I liked the cranberries beyond just the color.

Now here's the cool part: I woke too early again this morning and began thinking breakfast.  What to have, what to have?  Eureka!  We have some apples that have been sitting awhile on the counter, not being eaten because of the wonderful oranges.  These are largish apples and are a little softer than we like.  So I baked them and filled the centers with the leftover oatmeal topping.

Wow, what a fantastic breakfast!  What a fantastic idea, if I do say so myself!

One topping, two breakfasts, I love it.

The next time I do this, I think I'll try adding some cinnamon to the topping, or a mix of cinnamon and nutmeg.  I could add other fruit, even some fresh diced apples, maybe some maple syrup in place of some of the brown sugar.  The possiblilities are endless.  Anyway, here's what I did.

Oatmeal Topping/Baked Apple Filling
(From A Real American Breakfast)
6 Tablespoons of each:
butter softened
brown sugar
small pecan pieces
dried cranberries

Baked Apples
1.Take the peel off the top of the apples, about 1/4 way down.
2. Core the apples.  This is usually the hard part, but this time I tried using a melon baller to scoop out the core, and it worked well on soft apples.
3. Place the apples in a pan with sides just big enough for them and fill them with the topping.
4. I put a little liquid on top, orange juice, but you could use cider, maybe some maple syrup, or just water.  Just a little liquid.
5. Put in 350 oven, covered for about 30 minutes and then uncover, check and return to oven until they are done to your liking.
6. Put the apples in bowls and spoon as much drippings as you like over the top.

These are delicious.  We had them with some leftover pork roast.

Grandma's Christmas Fruit Salad

Thanksgiving fare around here is pretty much a given: turkey, stuffing, on down to the pumpkin pie.  Christmas dinner, at least in our house, has not been set in stone.  One year it might be ham, another something else.  In Burt's home growing up, it was always Beef Burgundy, but I never got the hang of that one.  There is one dish, however, that we always have for Christmas and only for Christmas - Grandma's Fruit Salad.

It's nothing fancy, nothing complicated, and there's no reason that we couldn't have it at other times.

Wait a minute, this is a breakfast blog; why am I bringing up Christmas Fruit Salad?  Leftovers, of course!  You can make this fruit salad as a side dish or even dessert and have the leftovers as a side for breakfast.

Usually, leftover fruit salad feels very, well, leftover, but not Grandma's, as you will see.  The longer it hangs around, the better it becomes.

This is a ratio-type dish, no exact amounts, and it is so simple, no fancy ingredients, that you could probably make it today and have it on New Year's Day in all its glory.

Of course, for me, the best part about this fruit salad is that it is Grandma's, so I always think of her when I make it and when I serve it.  It's a part of family being passed on to my children, which makes it the best of all.

Grandma's Christmas Fruit Salad
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained some
1 apple, peeled and cut into 1/4"  dice (not exact, just make it small)
1 banana, peeled and cut the same
1 orange, peeled and cut the same

I use a small serrated knife, like one used to peel tomatoes to cut the orange without losing too much juice.

1. Cut all the fruit very small and mix it with the crushed pineapple in a bowl.  Add more sugar than you think you ought.  For that amount, I think I added 1/2 cup, but maybe more.  Go ahead, put in a little more sugar and mix it all together.

2. Now cover the bowl and stick it in the refrigerator for a week and leave it.  All that sugar helps the fruit to ferment a little and get some tang.  That's what makes it.

This year, I was behind on things, like TODAY I'm going to write Christmas cards, so I didn't get the fruit salad made until only 5 days before Christmas, but it was still super.  It will be even better this morning and probably better tomorrow, if there's any left.

Now if any of you have special family breakfast dishes, I'd love hear.

Expanding My Orange Horizons

We have fruit every morning as part of our breakfast.  I can't think of any morning in my boys' 12 and 9 years that we didn't have fruit.  Nada.  I am so consistent with the fruit, that it's not even an issue.  They know they'll get it, and it's just not worth the hassle to resist. 

Not that eating fruit is onerous, but sometimes there are more tempting things to reach for.

One bright spot about this time of year is that it is orange season.  At some point in my past, I was blase about oranges, but now I look forward to their season and buy, buy, buy when the season arrives.  I always get navel oranges and only navel oranges.

This year, it has been slim pickin's for the better oranges.  I don't know why, but unless one shops at Wal-Mart or Sam's it seems that the navels are all thin-skinned and dried out.  I suspect a deal was made.  I don't WANT to go to Wal-Mart, and I'm not going to endanger my life in our town's worst parking lot at the absolute least sane time of year.  Not even for oranges.

Burt was at Kroger yesterday and, at my request, hand-selected some oranges from what was offered.  This morning, what a surprise to see that he brought home a different kind of navel: the Pink Navel, also known as the Cara Cara.  At first, I thought it was a blood orange, but I think those have seeds.  The sticker on the outside told me what it was.

Like all navels, it is easy to peel and seedless.  It is smaller than the Florida navels we usually get, but it is really, REALLY intense in flavor.  The color is gorgeous, being more like ruby than pink.  Everyone in the fam was excited about this new find.

If you see some Pink Navels, give them a try.