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Make-Ahead Egg Muffins

By on August 26, 2016 in Breakfast

My kids started school this week. This was a big deal because my youngest started Kindergarten! I’ve never seen someone so excited to go to school. So now I have 3 1/2 hours to myself every day because we opted for half-day Kindergarten. My daughter is a smart little coconut and I’m sure she’d do just fine in full-day, but I needed the adjustment from half to full day. Here are my cutie patooties ready to go! In the words of my mom, one of these kids was okay with going to school (school is old hat once you hit third grade) and the other one is excited beyond all reason.

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Day 1, I was so excited. I went grocery shopping by myself for the first time in years. It was so liberating. But then my daughter’s favorite song came on the radio. It made me a little… sad. I’m a complicated person.

Anyway… that’s what’s going on in our lives. That cute little girl in the picture loves to have eggs for breakfast. The problem is, I don’t have time to make eggs every morning now that we have to leave for school at 7:30 a.m. I wake up at 5:45 and work out while my husband gets the kids breakfast. In order to save on time and make sure the kids have a good breakfast, we set it out the night before. So how could I give my daughter eggs, but make breakfast the night before (and scrambling eggs at 9:30 p.m. was not an option for me)?

The solution: Egg muffins. These are SOOOO easy to make. Just scramble eggs and flavor them however you want. My daughter loves salsa and this makes them even easier to flavor. Be careful with salsa. There are some great options out there but read the labels. It’s really easy to find salsa without sugar, but you have to check and make sure they didn’t sneak it in. My daughter also loves bacon, so I cooked some bacon before, chopped that up and added it in.

Then I just put the eggs into a muffin tin using an ice cream scoop. Make sure you grease the pan well.

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Just bake them at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

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After the egg muffins cool put them in a Ziploc freezer bag and put them in the freezer.

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When I want to serve one, I put it in the fridge the night before. Then in the morning I (or my husband) just stick it in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

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This breakfast will give your kids the energy they need to leave you and go out into the world… I’ll get through this… give it a few weeks and I’ll be fine…

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Guilt-Free Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits

By on July 8, 2016 in Breakfast

As a kid, I always got excited when I heard the ice cream truck. Since it was summer, I was generally in my black and rainbow striped swimsuit running through the sprinklers with half the kids in my neighborhood. We’d hear the music and run toward the truck with all our might and quarters. Aside from that, there was another truck that brought joy to my heart: the Schwan’s truck. We’d get so excited when the “Schwan’s man” would come each week. My mom always bought two things (she bought more but I wasn’t really interested in raw chicken breasts and salmon patties). One, push-up ice cream pops. Remember those? I can still taste of that delicous peach ice cream combined with the taste of plastic and cardboard as I licked the tube trying to get every last drop. The second things she always got; cinnamon raising biscuits. These things were so addicting. Many a Sunday morning, I’d wake up smelling those delicious biscuits. The fact that they came with a tube of frosting made them that much better.

Maybe I was feeling nostalgic because it was close to mother’s day, but a few weeks ago, I was craving these biscuits, but didn’t want to eat something that I’d regret later. Then I realized, since I know how to make healthy biscuits, I could easily recreate these!

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I started with my healthy drop biscuit recipe. To them I added cinnamon, vanilla and raisins. As with the drop biscuits, I was way too lazy to roll and cut them, but you certainly could if you had the motivation. Since I wanted them to have that round look the ones from my childhood had, I rolled them and shaped them with my hands.

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We ate these before I could get a picture, but to simulate the frosting, we drizzled a bit of coconut butter of the top of a few of them. These were so good, I considered putting the black and rainbow swimsuit back on and running through the sprinklers eating one. But then I’d be the neighborhood freak. Oh well. They tasted just as delicious as they did when I was 7.

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Gluten Free 3 Ingredient Pancakes

By on June 10, 2016 in Breakfast

My mom used to make our family a big breakfast every Sunday. Sometimes it was french toast, sometimes waffles and sometimes it was pancakes. Being the awesome mom she is, she’d make my pancake shaped like minnie mouse, complete with pancake eyes, nose, mouth and bow. It was the best breakfast you can imagine.

My kids get pancakes… shaped like circles. Unless I have a batter accident and then sometimes it’s shaped like something from a Rorschach test. Oh well. It’s a pancake, right?

These are our favorite pancakes to make. They are sweet, super easy to make and flip better than any grain-free pancake I’ve ever made.

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I was actually shocked how much these taste like regular pancakes. I thought they’d be really eggy, but the flavor and texture was fabulous. Plus, with only three ingredients, these are the easiest pancakes I’ve ever made. Unless you count adding water to Krusteaz mix…

I mix everything together in a blender because it’s easy, thorough and the spout on the blender jar is the perfect way to pour the batter onto the skillet.

My son ate these with maple syrup, but my daughter and I heated some natural peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds and drizzled it over the top. WOW! That was absolutely amazing. It was one of those meals that makes me wonder why everyone doesn’t eat healthy.

Enjoy your pancakes, no matter what shape they take.

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The Easiest Way to Make Eggs in just One Minute

By on May 3, 2016 in Breakfast

I feel guilty calling this a recipe. Guilty because it’s like calling Easy Mac a recipe, except Easy Mac is terrible for you and eggs aren’t. But as far as difficulty level, these eggs and Easy Mac are on the same level.

My daughter loves to have eggs for breakfast. The problem is, I have 45 minutes in the morning to make her breakfast, do her hair, shower and get myself ready. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for an omelet. So when she wants eggs, this is my go-to. Why? Because this egg comes together in the microwave in just one minute.

In fact… this summer the kids spent four nights with my parents while my husband and I took a trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. One morning, my daughter asked for an egg. My mom got out her frying pan, buttered it and cooked a beautiful scrambled egg. My daughter looked at it and said, “This is not the way to make an egg.” My poor mom.

So now the process. Pay attention or you’ll miss it, because it’s fast and not very complicated.

Just beat the egg  with a little salt, pepper and milk in a small bowl.

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Pour this into a microwave safe mug greased with your favorite pan greaser (butter, coconut oil, cooking spray, etc.). This is very important. First off, if you don’t use a microwave safe mug, you’ll have an explosion. My husband learned this the hard way when he tried to make my daughter her egg one morning. He thought he covered his tracks, until I saw the egg explosion stuck to the top of the microwave. Don’t do that. Second off, if you don’t grease it, it will stick like crazy. If you do, it will just slide right out.

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Cook it in the microwave for 30 seconds and then stir it. Put it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. If I make two eggs, I cook it in two sets of 45 second intervals.

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My daughter loves cheese on her eggs so after it’s cooked, I sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and let the heat from the egg melt it. By the time the cheese is melted, the egg is cool enough for her to eat.

Now I can make her a nutritious breakfast in just one minute and still have time to shower and possibly even shave my legs… maybe.

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Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets

By on March 29, 2016 in Breakfast

My husband used to ask me to buy pre-packaged oatmeal packets for his breakfast. One day I decided to read the ingredients. Yikes. This breakfast was not doing my husband any favors. I quickly realized I could easily make him his own oatmeal packets for much less money and with a much more impressive ingredient […]

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Egg and Veggie Breakfast Hash

By on February 19, 2016 in Breakfast

It’s kind of ridiculous how much I love breakfast. It’s really my favorite part of the day. So I’m not going to have a tiny breakfast that leaves me hungry an hour later. I’m going to eat a hearty meal that takes at least 15 minutes to eat.

This is my go-to breakfast. I eat it at least three times a week. I feel guilty calling this a recipe. It’s more of a delicious hodge-podge of things thrown together. I’ve listed approximate measurements for the ingredients, but I don’t measure. I just add the amount I feel like at the moment. I also change up the ingredients based on what I have on hand. I generally add zucchini, but I was out this day. So the point is, add what you have and what you like. This recipe looks very different for me than it does for my husband.

I sautee 2-3 cups veggies in avocado oil. This may sound like a lot, but because veggies have so much water, this shrinks down as it cooks, especially if you add leafy greens.

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I also try to pick an array of colors. Vegetables get their colors from the vitamins and minerals they contain so if you eat more colors, you get a bigger variety of health benefits.

I always add one half an onion and one clove of garlic, but then it’s open to whatever sounds good. I often add zucchini, peppers, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes spinach and kale.

I heat a pan with 2T avocado oil and add all the veggies except the garlic, cherry tomatoes and kale, seasoned with a good amount of salt and pepper. I let this cook until I see charring on the onion and peppers. This takes about five minutes. Then I add the garlic and tomatoes and let this cook for another minute. Then I add the leafy greens and let them wilt down for another minute or two.

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Scoop this all into a bowl and then add more avocado oil to the pan and fry two eggs.

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Once the eggs are done, put them on top of the veggie mixture. The veggies taste fabulous on their own but when you break the egg yolks over them, it’s heavenly.

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If you make this, breakfast is likely to become your favorite part of the day too.

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No Sugar Chocolate Banana Muffins

By on January 8, 2016 in Breakfast, Guilt-Free Treats, Healthy Snacks

Every morning my son’s breakfast includes a mini muffin. This is my way of cramming a bit more protein and nutrients into him in an unprocessed way before sending him off to second grade to solve the world’s great problems. I always look for muffin recipes heavy on nuts and/or eggs and low on sugar. We generally stick to banana muffins, but to keep things interesting, I’m always trying to find something else. I found this recipe from Yummy Mummy. It looked delicious, but since I was giving it to my son every morning for breakfast, I wanted something without added sugar or sugar substitutes and without chocolate chips. So using Yummy Mummy’s recipe as my base, I came up with a version without sugar. We’re all very pleased with the results and I can continue to give my son a muffin every morning without feeling guilty. Luckily as a mom, there are still plenty of other things I get to feel guilty about every day.

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Healthy Pico Frittata

By on December 4, 2015 in Breakfast, Main Dishes

Last week we were supposed to have chicken for dinner. About an hour before dinner, I realized I had failed to thaw said chicken. This always leaves us with two options: Go out to eat or throw together something quickly with what we have on hand. In the past I would have boiled some pasta and topped it with canned sauce. That amounted to very little protein, lots of sugar, and basically just a lot of processed junk. So I needed a solution that would give us a protein and vegetables without loading us down with processed ingredients. The solution: eggs. Eggs are packed with protein, vitamins, minerals and iron. It’s hard to beat the nutrients of an egg. Plus, turning it into a frittata makes it seem more fun and elegant. If I were Fancy Nancy I’d say, “We’re eating frittata. That’s a fancy word for eggs.” Can you tell I spend a lot of time with a 5-year-old girl?

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Brown a pound of turkey sausage. Let this cool a bit or the eggs with scramble as soon as you add it.

Whisk together the eggs and almond milk. Stir in some Pico de Gallo. Pico is so versatile and adds all the seasoning this dish needs. Add the sausage and mix everything together.

I like to bake this in a pie dish but you could also bake it in a 9×9 pan or an oval casserole dish.

This dish is great because it’s so versatile. Add whatever meat you want or leave it out completely. If you’re not a fan of pico, switch it out for different vegetables. Use what you have on hand and what your family likes.

This goes great with roasted veggies, a green salad or sliced fruit.

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Power Breakfast – Egg and Veggie Stir Fry

By on October 2, 2015 in Breakfast

I don’t understand people who say they’re not breakfast people. How can you not be a breakfast person? After not eating since dinner, doing a workout, taking the kids to school, and having to do a very picky 4-year-old’s hair, I’m starving. Breakfast time is pretty much the best time of day. So I don’t want to waste this fabulous meal on a sugary, processed cereal. I want something healthy and delicious that will give me the energy to make it through the rest of the day. This hearty stir fry is the key.

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Start by heating up some avocado oil in a large skillet. I use avocado oil because it performs great at high temperatures and is good for you. Brown the onion and garlic first. Add in the pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, cauliflower and saute until the veggies are tender but still have a bit of crunch. Make sure to season your veggies with plenty of salt and pepper.

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Add the halved cherry tomatoes last and cook them until they are slightly shriveled and have released some of their juices.

Because I’m lazy and don’t want to dirty extra dishes, I just push the cooked veggies to the side before adding the eggs. I like to keep the two separate for a while so I still have distinct pieces of veggies and eggs. If you just toss the eggs in and mix it all together, it’s a bit mushy and just not as good.

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Once the eggs are cooked, stir it all together for a bit.

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This recipe is easy to customize. Add any seasonings or vegetables you like. Leave out any you don’t like. Even add leftover chicken or sausage. Either way, I’m sure this recipe will make anyone a breakfast person. If not, go ahead and make it for lunch.

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