A Catered Brunch...

Mixed greens with walnut and mandarin orange.

This is served with a blueberry vinaigrette.

Chicken I grilled the day before but not all the way through... it was just marked and then refrigerated to finish cooking the day of.  Look at those gorgeous grill marks... I am getting some grill practice that I never got in school and I am really loving it!  My husband might not be the lone grill master at our house much longer.  ;)

Quiche made with sun dried tomato and asparagus.

Aida does beautiful fruit platters!

Finished quiche on platter.  I love these square platters that we used!

My grill station where I did the chicken

Setting up for the Baby Shower Brunch

Chicken being finished off in a sauce.  It turned out very moist!

Brunch fit for a Queen... (Mother's Day Menu)

Looking for something for Mom?
Or maybe, Mom, you are doing breakfast and want to treat yourself with something the whole family can enjoy?
Here are some recipes that are sure to please everyone involved.
They are kid tested and mom tested in our own kitchen.
They are also novice in the kitchen friendly for all of those helping hands that might join you on Sunday. ;)

Have a lovely Mother's Day!!!

I will keep this at the top through the weekend so look below for any more crock-pot recipes and such.

Brunch Ideas

Orange Julius
12oz. frozen orange juice concentrate
2 cups milk
2 cups water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
20-24 ice cubes
Blend well in a blender and serve immediately.

French Toast
Texas (thick slices) or regular bread -
I also use leftover dinner rolls or challah
approximately 3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 mashed bananas
Mix all wet ingredients. Add bananas and spices into liquid. Dip slices of the bread into the mixture and cook in a frying pan on each side until golden and cooked throughout.
Serve with favorite syrup


Strawberry Syrup
1 pint fresh strawberries, halved
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tblsp. corn syrup
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon butter or margarine
Place strawberries in a blender or food processor; cover and process until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan; add sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice and butter. Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 1 minute. Skim off foam. Strain seeds if desired. Serve warm over waffles, pancakes or french toast. Refrigerate leftovers; reheat before serving. Yields: about 1-1/2 cups.

One of our favorite recipes found in Quick Cooking Magazine (July/August 1999 issue)

Quiche
Cook 4 slices of bacon and crumble, set aside.

Mix 1 small can mushroom pieces
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup cooked spinach
brown all vegetables in skillet and set aside.

Mix:
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
2 Tblsp. all purpose flour
1 cup cheddar cheese
In a pie crust, place crumbled bacon and sauteed vegetables. Pour egg mixture over the top of bacon and veggies in pie crust. Place quiche into shallow baking pan on oven rack. Pour boiling water around quiche in baking pan to a depth of 1 inch. Bake in a 325* oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes.
Serves 6.

Tropical Fruit Juice
3/4 cup milk or water
1 cup fruit chunks
sugar to taste
Choose fresh fruit. Use ripe mango, strawberries, cantaloupe, papaya or pineapple. Wash berries and remove stems. For other fruits, cut flesh from rind or skin and cut into chunks.
Pour milk or water into a blender. It should cover the blender blades. Add the fruit chunks. Cover the blender. Run the blender at low speed until chunks start to break up. Switch blender to high speed. Blend until fruit turns to a liquid. It may start to froth. Taste the drink. If you wish, stir in sugar, 1/2 tsp. at a time. Pour into a chilled glass. Makes one serving.

We found this wonderful recipe in a book entitled The People of Mexico and Their Food - by Ann L. Burckhardt.


Apple Salad
Peel and core one golden delicious apple, one granny smith apple and one red apple. Cut them into cubes and place in a bowl. Add the following to the apples and mix together:

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup golden or regular raisins

Dressing mix:
1 Tblsp orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup vanilla yogurt

Blend together and stir into the apple salad and serve.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal,
originally uploaded by academy252.

This is my new favorite breakfast. All you do is put 1/2 cup old fashioned oats and 1 cup water in a pan. Add 1 big tablespoon (or more if you like) of pumpkin, sprinkle in some brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove and cook it on the stovetop until it is the right consistency. I finish it off with a little cream and salt. Then I garnish it with craisins and pecans or pumpkin seeds. It is hard to keep the kids out of my bowl after they finish their own. They eat it so fast... LOL

NBM - English Muffins...

Whole Wheat English Muffins



1 Tbsp yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups vegetable oil
1 egg
4 cups hard white wheat flour
2 cups corn meal

1. In a small bowl, mix the warm water with the yeast and let stand 10 minutes.
2. In a medium sauce pan, scald milk and stir in sugar, the salt and oil. Pour mixture in a large bowl and let stand until tepid.
3. Pour the yeast mixture into the lukewarm milk mixture. Stir the mixture.
4. Add egg and 2 cups flour int the liquids and beat until smooth. Cover bowl and let rise until doubled and bubbly, about 1-1 1/2 hours.
5. Stir the mixture and add 2 cups of flour. Turn the dough out on a floured surgace. Knead, adding flour as needed.
6. Place the dough in a bowl, cover and let rise again until doubled.
7. Sprinkle cornmeal on the kneading surface. Roll dough to about 2 inches thick. Sprinkle cornmeal on top. Cut the muffins wiht a glass or biscuit cutter into rounds. Leave on kneading surface. Cover and let rise again until the muffins double.
8. Place muffin dough in a lightly oiled large skillet, cover the pan and cook 5-10 minutes on each side on medium heat. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 30 muffins


If you are interested in more whole grain recipes this recipe is from Cooking & Baking wiht Fresh Ground Four by Christine Downs. It is a wonderful book for those who mill their own flour and bake for their families (or want to...). I use this book ALL THE TIME!!!

I am making these tomorrow, I hope, and I will share pics when I get them done... :)

For those interested in what I do...

I am a bread baker by trade. I am studying to become a chef and pastry chef and want to own a whole grains healthy bread and catering business. I mill my own grain from wheat I purchase once a year from Wheat Montana. I mill my grain with a Whisper Mill (they are no longer made but you can check out the Nutrimill for milling) I use a Bosch machine for my mixing because the Kitchen Aid could not take the daily use I was dishing out and it started falling apart on me. LOL The Bosch is the BEST MIXER I HAVE EVER USED!!! For more info on bread basics you can check out my sidebar under Bread Baking 101.

Stay tuned for pita bread...

NBM - Simple Whole Wheat Waffles...

NBM = National Bread Month, btw...

This is the waffle recipe I use. I add in all kinds of things as I cook them. I sprinkle them with nuts and seeds or add berries. Sometimes I add in stuff as I mix like a bit of pumpkin or mashed banana and cinnamon and nutmeg. The sky is the limit on these wonderful healthy breakfast treats. The above picture is a pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg waffle with little pumpkin seeds in it. We had these for dinner on Saturday night...

1 cup freshly ground red or white hard wheat flour (or just use wheat flour from the store)
1/4 level tsp salt
2 level tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I often substitute 1/3 powdered milk and 1 cup water to save a bit of money)
2 Tbsp. melted butter (or you can substitute oil for this)

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium size bowl.
Beat in the eggs and milk until batter is smooth. (you can separate the eggs, add yolks as you mix and beat the whites separately and fold in at the end of mixing for lighter waffles with a little crisp to them) Stir in the melted butter or oil and mix well.
Pour the batter into a hot, well-oiled waffle iron. Cook until the waffle is brown.

This is it... The Banana Walnut Whole Wheat Muffin Recipe

This is whole wheat and NO SALT for my hubby. Thought you might want the final test case and results for your files. They are YUMMO!!!

The latest recipe is as follows...

The basic recipe:
4 cups soft white wheat flour (freshly milled)
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup honey
3 whole eggs
3/4 cup skim milk
4 mashed bananas
1/4 cup canola oil (can substitute applesauce for oil)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Mix all ingredients well and place in muffin pans. i spray with canola spray before filling and I am using a Pampered Chef stone muffin pan. This recipe makes 16 good sized muffins. Bake at 350 degree F for 40 minutes.


To analyze a recipe I use www.calorie-count.com. You can plug in a recipe and it will break down the nutritional information for you.

My New Comfort Food...

Let's just say I had a really bad afternoon and leave it at that, shall we? That being spoken out loud I really really REALLY deserve that Blue Bell Cookies and Cream ice cream in my freezer but, being the good girl that I am, I had a smoothie instead. I will often have a banana, peanut butter, and cocoa smoothie blended with yogurt and rice milk but today I shook things up a bit and put a new concoction together. Shall we say it was yummy? Well, it was and here is the recipe...

Power Packed Smoothie

1 cup rice milk
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate (right out of the freezer can and dumped right in)
1 whole banana
1/2 cup goat's milk yogurt (plain natural unsweetened)

I just chunked it all right in the blender and blended together nicely. Pour in glass and there you have the quickest and healthiest thing you can imagine right there in your glass in 30 seconds or less. The orange juice was the perfect compliment to the blueberry and the banana added sweetness without having to add honey or sugar. SCRUMMY!!!

Scrumptious...

Scrumptious...
Originally uploaded by academy252.

Homemade bread made into French Toast with homemade strawberry syrup on it.

Here is the link to that Strawberry Syrup recipe.

Vegetable Frittata

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons margarine or butter
• 2 whole tiny new potato, thinly sliced
• 3 green onion, sliced
• 5 eggs, beaten
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Dash pepper
• 1/4 cup crumbled Feta Cheese
• 6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved (I used ones from my garden picked fresh today - YUMMO)

Directions

1. In an oven transitional skillet melt margarine or butter. Add potatoes, and green onion. Cook over medium heat until potato is tender, turning occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine eggs, milk, basil, salt, and pepper. Pour egg mixture into skillet. Cook about 2 minutes or until egg mixture is set, running a spatula around edge of skillet and lifting mixture to allow uncooked portion to run underneath. Top with cheese and tomatoes.Remove and move to 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Makes 2-3 servings. I served with fresh cantaloupe and French bread. Good for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. :)

You can also add mushrooms as you are browning the potatoes but I did not have any today so I didn't.

Adapted from a Better Homes and Garden recipe from their website.

Spinach Quiche...

This one is still kinda in progress but it is really good as it is here.

Spinach Quiche
Cook 4 slices of bacon and crumble, set aside.

Mix 1 small can mushroom pieces
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup cooked spinach
brown all vegetables in skillet and set aside.

Mix:
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
2 Tblsp. all purpose flour
1 cup cheddar cheese
In a pie crust, place crumbled bacon and sauteed vegetables. Pour egg mixture over the top of bacon and veggies in pie crust. Place quiche into shallow baking pan on oven rack. Pour boiling water around quiche in baking pan to a depth of 1 inch. Bake in a 325* oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes. Serves 6.

Buttermilk Biscuit Mix...

I am allergic to soy so there are very few things that I can actually eat from the grocery store that are prepackaged. That is the biggest reason I choose to make my own when it comes to things like Biscuit mix. Here is a great recipe that I found back in 2000 in the Quick Cooking Magazine (it has a new name now but I am not sure what it is...) It was submitted by a lady named Katie Koziolek and I want to make sure you know it was her's and not mine. That being said, here it is...

Buttermilk Biscuit Mix

8 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups buttermilk blend powder
4 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/3 cups shortening

In a bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; cut in the shortening until crumbly. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 6 months. Yield is about 13 1/2 cups of mix. This is a MUST HAVE when we take camping trips so I am making a batch of it tonight. I will share a picture when I get a chance... :)

Still tweaking the muffin recipe

Still tweaking the muffin recipe
Originally uploaded by academy252.

Ok, here is the latest batch of those banana walnut muffins. They turned out great and big and fluffy. I went with less liquid this time and it worked! Here is the link to the last one...

The latest recipe is as follows...

The basic recipe:
4 cups hard red wheat flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup honey
3 whole eggs
3/4 cup skim milk
3 mashed bananas
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix all ingredients well and place in muffin pans. i spray with canola spray before filling and I am using a Pampered Chef stone muffin pan. This recipe makes 12 good sized muffins. Bake at 350 degree F for 40-45 minutes.