Daniel Fast Breakfast: Sweet Quesadilla

Now that the secret is out about my love of almond butter, I'll share my breakfast recipe for the week. Pick your favorite fruits, spread any nut butter of your choosing on a whole grain tortilla, heat and serve. It's so good! And here I thought I'd be sick of eating the same thing for 7 days straight. My favorite combination thus far is bananas and dark chocolate. The combination of saltiness of the almond butter with the sweet bananas and rich chocolate is to die for. Since strawberries are not in season (sorry Florida I don't care that it's warm enough to harvest your strawberries in January, they're just not as good as California's so I'll wait til April) the top recipe wasn't as sweet as it could have been but still good and worth another shot when strawberries are in season. Tomorrow I'm trying apples and cinnamon! Have a good day all!

Southern Comfort: Biscuits and Gravy

Lately I have indulging in what I like to call struggle meals, Now I know what you,re thinking, biscuits and gravy is quite decadent, but I assure you it is. A struggle meal is when you create something from seemingly nothing because you haven't been able to go to the store.

For this meal the milk and flour were both past their expiration dates. I had butter from making desserts at Thanksgiving and sausage that had been in my freezer. Thus, biscuits and gravy were born and it came out delicious, especially for my first time making either. Both recipes were adapted from ones I found on foodnetwork.com. 

Biscuit Ingredients

4 cups self-rising flour, plus more for dusting
1 stick good butter, plus 3 tablespoons melted
2 to 3 cups cold buttermilk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Biscuit Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Add the flour to a mixing bowl. Working quickly, cut 1 stick of the butter into the flour using the pastry cutter (or your fingers).

In batches, add in the buttermilk until the dough is cohesive yet still moist. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and lightly press into a 1-inch-thick round. 

Using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter or a dry measuring cup, cut out 10 biscuits. 

Place the dough rounds into a heated, round cake pan, right up against each other, and brush with the melted butter. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes.

Gravy Ingredients

1/2 lb roll sausage
1 Tb flour
1 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Gravy Preparation

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage, break it up with a wooden spoon, and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned and cooked through, about 7 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a bowl, leaving the rendered fat in the skillet. Whisk the flour into the fat and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. While whisking, pour the milk into the skillet and bring the gravy to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Stir in the sausage and season with pepper. Split the biscuits in half and divide them among plates. Top each biscuit with some of the gravy and serve immediately.

Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins

I found this recipe on Pinterest and adapted it only slightly to make muffins. It's pretty labor intensive but the muffins came out so fluffy and delicious it's worth it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Batter:

½ cups Butter
½ cups Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 whole Egg Yolks
1-½ cup All-pupose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
⅓ cups Milk
2 cups Blueberries
1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
2 whole Egg Whites
¼ cups White Sugar

Filling:

8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
½ cups Sugar
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 whole Egg
1 Tablespoon Orange Zest

Preparation

Filling:

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, egg and orange zest; beat until smooth. (Be sure to use the measurements found under filling for these.) Set aside.

Batter:

Cream butter and sugar (1/2 cup) until fluffy. Add salt and vanilla. Add egg yolks (save the egg whites as you’ll need them later) to the sugar mixture; beat until creamy. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine flour (1 1/2 cups) and baking powder. Add this mixture, alternately with milk to egg yolk mixture.

Coat berries with 1 tablespoon flour and add them to the batter.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add sugar (1/4 cup), 1 tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter.

Spoon batter into muffin tins; fill them half way. Layer the filling over the batter and then top with more batter. This will create a layer of “cheesecake” between the blueberry batter.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Hash House A Go Go

Hash House A Go Go is hands down my favorite place to go in Vegas. It has the remedy for hangovers and gambling busts. The food is great and the price is right. The portions are large but more importantly the food is fresh. Homemade bread for sandwiches, homemade biscuits for sopping up gravy or golden egg yolks from farm fresh eggs. 

This last time I tried the chorizo hash. Housemade chorizo piled on top of crispy fried potatoes with onions and peppers, all nestled under two eggs over easy (or any way you want them), and a biscuit snuggled into a skillet (instead of a plate). It was absolutely delicious! I've also had the biggest BLT ever (I'm pretty sure there was a pound of bacon on the bread) and the chicken and waffles. Don't go to Vegas without stopping here! Oh and now its 24 hours!!!!

P.S. I've only gone to The Quad (formerly Imperial Palace) location. 

Breakfast of Champions

Maybe not of champions but definitely breakfast for foodies. The Original Pancake House is a chain, which I try to avoid at all cost, especially when on vacation. However, while in Chicago it was down the street from my hostel so I decided to try it. Not to mention it had pretty good reviews. I ordered the hash with chorizo, peppers, onions, potatoes, jalapeños, and eggs over easy. It came with pancakes. I chose pecan, my favorite for pancakes or waffles. The pancakes were so delicious that I ate every bite and every nut even after eating half a pound of potatoes and eggs, ha! I don't know if the restaurant is good at every locatin and every city, but wouldn't hurt to try, right?

Sweet Potato Hash

What you need:

Sweet potatoes, cubbed
Red potatoes, cubbed
Red onions, diced
Smoked paprika
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper
Salt
Egg (optional)
Kale or spinach (optional)

What to do with it:

Drizzle oil in a pan.
Toss in the potatoes and onions.
Liberally season the potatoes.
Cook until tender with a golden crust.
Serve with eggs (over easy is great) and wheat toast or an English muffin.

Other Uses for Biscuits

Being single and usually cooking for one, leaves me with a lot of leftovers. Every now and again I like to have biscuits for breakfast. The can comes with 8 and I generally only eat 2; what to do with the rest? I decided to make donut holes and mini pizzas.

Breakfast

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Holes

2-3 Grands flaky layers biscuits
1/2 cup oil for frying
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a small saucepan heat the oil. Cut the biscuits into quarters, drop into the oil, and fry until golden; it only takes a couple minutes. Meanwhile, mix the the cinnamon and sugar. Fresh from the fryer toss the donuts in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Eat!

Lunch

Mini Pizzas

2 Grands flaky layers biscuits
4 tbsp pizza or pasta sauce
1/4 mozzarella
Your favorite toppings

*Note: Pillsbury has tons of recipes to try using their products.

Quiche

As a kid my mom made quiche but I never ate it. I can't remember where I tried it but when I did I loved it. I also decided that I preferred vegetable quiche. The other day I went to the store and a large bag of spinach was on sale so I found a general recipe on Allrecipes and adapted it for what I wanted. Instead of butter I cooked two strips of bacon to saute the onions and garlic in, but I didn't actually use the bacon in the quiche.

Original recipe makes 6 servings

 2 tablespoons butter
 1 onion, minced
 1 teaspoon minced garlic
 1 cup chopped fresh spinach
 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
 4 eggs, well beaten
 3/4 cup milk
 1 teaspoon salt
 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
 1 tablespoon butter, melted


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Over medium-low heat melt butter in a large saucepan or crisp two strips of bacon and remove.

Add onions and garlic and saute until translucent not brown. Let cool.

Stir saute mixture into spinach and sprinkle with cheese. Spoon filling into crust

Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in melted butter. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until center has set.

Pumpkin Bread

I've this recipe for a while and had been meaning to make it since before Thanksgiving, yet never got around to it. So now that I'm on vacation and have to classes to attend, I decided it was as good a times as any to finally make some pumpkin bread. I love making breads because there's always plenty to share. Not to mention it makes the house smell homey. Below is a recipe I got from Allrecipes that I substituted oil for applesauce. Enjoy!

Original recipe makes 3 - 7x3 inch loaf pans

 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
 4 eggs
 1 cup applesauce
 2/3 cup water
 3 cups white sugar
 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 2 teaspoons baking soda
 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Breakfast on the Go

Hi my name is Raven and I'm a skipper. The first step is admitting, right? Yes I skip breakfast most of the time. You already know I always have tortillas on hand, most of the time corn, but every now and again I find a sale on flour and make quesadillas or burritos. The problem is they don't last as long as corn so I usually have to eat them pretty quickly: breakfast, lunch, and dinner quesadillas? Burritos? I do enjoy breakfast burritos and I ran across a post on Pinterest where a mom had made them all at once and froze them. Problem solved! I no longer waste half the bag of tortillas and I have no excuse for skipping breakfast because I can grab one out of the freezer, pot it in the microwave and go! I made two kinds, one with bacon and the other with chorizo.

What I used:

10 10-12" Flour tortillas

14 Eggs

5 Strips of bacon

1 1/2 Cups of southern style potatoes (frozen)

1/4 Small onion (chopped)

1/4 Small green bell pepper (chopped)

1 Package of Mexican chorizo

3 Small white or russet potatoes

1 Cup of Cheddar Jack or Mexican Cheese

For the bacon burritos (makes 5):

Cook the frozen potatoes in a drizzle of oil, add the onion and bell pepper, and season with salt and pepper. Bake or pan fry the bacon (1 strip per burrito) and rough chop. Scramble the eggs. Let everything cool before assembling.

For the chorizo burritos (makes 5):

Oven bake or microwave the potato(es). Set aside to cool. Cook the chorizo until all the grease is cooked out. Make a well in the center of the cooked meat and add 5 eggs and scramble until cooked thoroughly. Peel the potato(es), chop, and add to the chorizo mixture. Let cool before assembling.

Spoon all ingredients into the tortillas, sprinkle with cheese, and roll. Then wrap with plastic wrap, pop into a freezer bag, and freeze.

For best results warm on a low setting for 2-3 minutes.

Why Didn't I Think of This?

On Pinterest I often find myself uttering this phrase lol. Oh well there are plenty of things that I did think of. I found this recipe on Pinterest. Simple enough, I mean who doesn't like a good ham and cheese sandwich. The original recipe is savory with Worcestershire sauce and onions, but I wanted more of a breakfast feel like a croissant. I bought honey wheat King Hawaiian rolls, cut them in half layered in swiss cheese, turkey ham (because I'm sticking to the no beef or pork thing), more swiss cheese, popped the tops back on, buttered the tops, and baked for a few minutes on 400. Done and delicious! It's perfect for an on-the-go breakfast. Then I started thinking about all the other possibilities: Thanksgiving dinner sammies with leftover turkey, gravy, and cranberry sauce, Pulled pork (or chicken for me), meatball sliders, etc . . . Get creative!