Blueberry Crisp

This is adapted from Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes. I originally made this as a dessert, but it was even better for breakfast! Add a little Greek yogurt and a really great cup of coffee and you are all set! 

Ingredients: 

4 cups blueberries

Crisp topping:

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup raw pecans, halved or chopped

1/2 cup almond meal (put a handful of almonds in your coffee grinder and pulse until it is a fine meal, but before it turns to almond butter)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions: 

Mix together the crisp ingredients

Pour the berries into an 8x8 pan, and then layer the crisp topping over it. 

Bake at 350 degrees 35-40 minutes or up to 10 minutes longer (if using frozen fruit), until fruit is bubbling and topping is crisp and golden. 

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Fruit Compote

        

Breakfast is probably my favorite meal to eat and to cook. I mean, for most meals it would be considered wrong to have a pastry topped with sugar and icing as the main dish, but for breakfast...fair game! There are just so many amazing things you can make for breakfast - egg dishes, sweet treats, savory-sweet combos (my favorite). I LOVE it!

During the week we have (really) healthy breakfasts - mostly fruit & spinach smoothies (it's not as scary as it sounds...I promise!). So on the weekends, the hubby and I always try to make time for at least one sit-down, cooked breakfast together as a treat. I love cooking adventures and trying new recipes for breakfast (most of which tend to be not-so-healthy). But on Saturday mornings that are a bit busier, we usually resort to the old standby...pancakes.

I started with my mother-in-law's pancake recipe - which is fantastic! And then, as we were working on eating healthier, I started swapping out and adding ingredients...all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour, a spoonful of flax, etc. And then one Saturday it happened. No milk. And of course I was already half way through making the pancakes. Luckily we had some almond milk (for those spinach smoothies I mentioned before), and I figured it was worth a try. It turned out so great that the hubby said the pancakes were even better than the not-so-healthy ones. So I wrote the "recipe" down, and that's what we've been using since.

Of course we can't just eat the pancakes plain. Who does that?!? We usually top them in maple syrup. Sometimes I even make homemade "pretend" maple syrup. But in an effort to make the pancakes even healthier, I started making a fruit compote. It's quick, easy, and you can use whatever fruit you have on hand - even something that's a bit over-ripe will work. Enjoy!

        

Whole Wheat Pancakes

makes about 7-8 medium pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon (or more if you like!)
• 1 tsp sugar (or agave or sugar substitute)
• 1 Tbsp melted butter (can substitute veggie oil or coconut oil) - optional
• 1 heaping Tbsp ground flax
• 1 egg
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp almond milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• nonstick spray, butter, or oil to grease pan - optional

Heat griddle or frying pan over medium heat.
Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients, and mix until there are no dry spots (be careful not to over mix!).

If you are using a nonstick pan or griddle, you shouldn't need to grease the pan. If not, once pancake batter is ready, spray griddle or pan with nonstick spray. Pour about 1/4 cup mix for each pancake. Cook until bubbles begin to appear on surface. Flip and cook on the other side for a couple of minutes. Super quick & easy!

Serve with syrup or compote (recipe below).

Fruit Compote

Makes enough to use with 3-4 batches of pancakes. Store in refrigerator.

Ingredients

• 2-3 cups fruit (peeled & diced) - berries work great, or peaches, or apples
• 4 Tbsp sugar -add more or less depending on how sweet your fruit is
• 4 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a small saucepan, place fruit, sugar, water, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir constantly until berries burst. Reduce heat and allow to simmer over medium-low, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve warm, or refrigerate for use later.

        

Eggs Benedict over Spicy Sweet Potato Hash

All right, ladies! As Virginia said, it's Quick & Creative Healthy Breakfast Month!

I love breakfast food, but I'm not especially known for recipes that are "quick" or "healthy." Both quick AND healthy? Psssh. To make matters worse, I realized that everything I could think of that might possibly fall into that category was something that Virginia had actually served to me first. Baked apples? VA. Greek yogurt pancakes? VA. Anything involving bananas? VA.

So then, out of rebellion, my mind wandered over to pout in the bacon aisle and glanced longingly at the butter as it whispered seductively: Whisk me . . .

And the problem with that, friends, is that once you start thinking about Hollandaise sauce, you can't stop thinking about Hollandaise sauce.

Perhaps this interpretation of the assignment plays fast and loose with the definition of healthy, but in this recipe's defense, I did replace the English muffin base with not just one, but three vegetables. So I'm putting that in the win column. 

And perhaps it takes a lot longer to make sweet potato hash than it does to pull a muffin out of a package . . . but this cheater's sauce takes less than two minutes to whip together in a blender (or in my case, a food processor), so let's call it even.

Was it the best Hollandaise sauce I've ever had? No. Not by a long shot. Would I serve it to an Eggs Benedict enthusiast who told me that all he wanted for his birthday was a perfectly poached egg drizzled with creamy, emulsified, pale yellow happiness? No. Would I serve it to friends like you to maximize visiting and minimize whisking? Yep!

Also, a note on the sweet potatoes: I bought some red garnet sweet potatoes at the grocery store the other day on a whim, and beyond their red-purple exterior their insides were a beautiful, deep burnt orange. So when I saw these "Oriental Beauties" stocked next to the garnets, I couldn't wait to peel them. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. 

To my great disappointment, they turned out to be white inside - - paler even than their Idaho cousins.

They were delicious, and sweeter than your average sweet potato, but not as photogenic as I wanted them to be. I recommend serving them to that stubborn person in your life who swears that he only likes regular potatoes but clearly needs a secret shot of vitamin A.

Final notes . . .

Bacon: Why use Canadian bacon when regular bacon is available? Go with something thick cut.

Poaching eggs: The actual poaching of the eggs is easy, but taking appetizing photos of egg clouds swirling around in vinegar water is not for amateurs. Hence, no photos of the poaching process.

Much love from Bloomington. - EDB

Eggs Benedict over Spicy Sweet Potato Hash

(adapted minimally from Holly Would if She Could)

Ingredients:

Hash
4-6 slices thick cut bacon
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 onion, chopped
6-8 sweet mini peppers, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
Cayenne pepper, to taste
Salt & pepper, to taste

Eggs

2 eggs
vinegar
small pot with lid

Sauce*
3 egg yolks
1 T lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. melted butter

Instructions:

Hash
1. Fry bacon in a dutch oven. (I cut my bacon in half first for presentation's sake.) Let the bacon drain on a paper towel, but leave the fat in the pot.

2. Add the onion, peppers, and garlic to the pot over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes, then add the sweet potatoes. Let cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper to taste.

Eggs
3. While hash is cooking, bring a small pot of water to a rapid boil. There should be enough water to cover the egg by about an inch. Add a splash of vinegar.

4. Break one egg into a ramekin, being careful to keep the yolk intact.

5. Move the pot of boiling vinegar water to a cool burner and stir gently to create a whirlpool. Plop the egg delicately into the center of the whirlpool.

6. Cover with lid and let sit for 3-4 minutes. (Any longer than 4 and your yolk won't really be runny. I like my eggs about 3:30.)

7. Immediately remove the egg from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel.

Note: I usually poach eggs one at a time, because the whirlpool method is the best way I know to keep your eggs pretty and not spiraling into a cloudy mess. However, it's entirely theoretically possible (and recommended by better chefs than me) to poach all of your eggs at one time in a wide, shallow sauce pan. Also, I guess you can do them all in advance and keep them in ice water in your fridge, but that just seems like more work to me in the long run.

Sauce
8. Throw your eggs, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper into a blender. Blend for about 30 seconds until yolks are light in color. (I actually recommend this over a food processor, even though that's what I used, because I'm guessing the design of the blades whips it better than a food processor--but I'm just speculating.)

9. With blender running, slowly stream in the hot, melted butter. Blend until it looks like Hollandaise sauce.

*This is going to be waaay more sauce than you need for two people, but just go with it.

Assembly
10. Hash on bottom. Then bacon. Then egg. Then sauce. Enjoy!

Serves: 2

Healthy Breakfast Month

This month is devoted to a love of breakfast food, an aversion to getting up obscenely early to make breakfast, and a conviction that breakfast is, indeed, the most nutritionally important meal of the day. We will be posting in the month of June various breakfast recipies and ideas that are quick to prepare in the morning, healthy, and (most importantly) delicious!

To start things off... I give you my world famous, lickity split, yummy and nutritious, versatile pancake recipe!

The staple of this pancake recipe is a good buckwheat pancake mix. I usually try to avoid using mixes, and I'm thinking of trying to put together my own mix that I can make up a lot of ahead of time and keep on hand, but for now I use this one for speediness and convienience:



For two people, I combine:
~ 3/4 c of mix
~ 1/2 c plain greek yogurt
~ Honey to taste
~ 1/2 c unsweetened apple sauce
~ 1 egg

This is the basis of worlds of possibilities!

Begin by placing your pan on the stove to warm up or plugging in your countertop grill (my favorite way to go!) to medium high heat (350 on a grill)

Prepare your mix:
1) Start with the yogurt and honey. Mix those together to your desired sweetness. The honey really only needs to cut the tartness of the yogurt.
2) Add the egg and applesauce and stir again
3) Now add the mix

This should take approximately 1 minute :)

Next, grab a stick of butter and unwrap one end. Swirl it around on the hot cooking surface (pan or grill) the desired size of your pancake. Wait just a few seconds for it to get golden brown and delicious smelling, and then pour on your pancake mix (I use about 1/4c per pancake).

When the bottom half looks nice and cooked, time to flip!

Repeat with the rest of the mix. This cooking phase should take about 4 minutes.

Heat up some real maple syrup in the microwave, serve over hot pancakes, and enjoy! I promise you can get this down to 5 minutes...

Fun with variations:

1) Apple Cinnamon Pancakes
      ~ Add to the mix some pumpkin pie spice, some strong vanilla, and some extra honey. Delicious with cooked apples on top instead of syrup!

2) Banana Pancakes
      ~ Slice up a couple of bananas and after you pour the mix on the griddle, place slices neatly on top of the pancake and gently press into the pancake. When you flip, swirl a bit more butter on there to caramelize the bananas. Yummmmm...
      ~ You can also add some nuts to the pancakes for banana nut. I like walnuts!

3) Blueberry
      ~ Its always easy to throw some blueberries into the batter. Also, I like to add lemon juice!

Happy Pancake Making!!!