Egg Sandwich on an English Muffin

This is really more than just an egg sandwich.

It's loaded with flavor - and it hangs out under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and the tomato is releasing its sweetness.

I've always been bad about breakfast.  Even as a kid, I just never ate it.  Now, I'll often fix breakfast for my kids and either skip it, or fix a plate for myself that I just don't get around to eating.

But now, I'm on a diet.  Or (because I hate the word/idea of a diet) two week meal and exercise plan.  It includes breakfast.  And I know the only way to avoid incessant snacking at 10a.m. is to eat the breakfast.  So - please enjoy this lovely sandwich, knowing that it's actually a healthy way to start your day.

Just fry up some onions and peppers.

Add egg whites.

Lay out your bread.

Assemble the yummyness.

Spinach and cheese on the top;

egg and tomato on the bottom.

Here's the good part - place it under the broiler.

Bubbly goodness:

Smash it all together.

And take a bite.

MMMMmmmmmmmm............I hope this is a start to a fantastic day!

You can get the printable recipe here.

Banana Berry Smoothie

I was completely prepared to tell you all about my rockin' morning today.  We started off great - I woke up early, showered before the kids got up, put the crockpot going with some red beans for dinner, made smoothies for breakfast, woke up the kids and had Bug going on her new morning routine, everyone was up and happy.  We were laughing and playing and getting things done with no stress, no fighting, no whining.  I was writing this awesome "we've got mornings conquered" post in my head through the whole thing.  Then...

Yep, there's a 'then'.

THEN the kids followed me into my room.  THEN I left my room to grab a shirt out of the laundry room.  THEN Bug and Tank found a pair of scissors and cut some pretty ribbons to play with...from a brand new shirt I just bought (way on sale!) and haven't even worn yet.  I must confess that momentarily de-railed our no stress, on time, "we've got morrnings conquered" morning.  The new lessons I have learned?  No one in my closet unless they have a job. . . and I probably shouldn't leave sharp objects in the reaches of my 2 and 4 year olds.  Lucky for me - the part they cut was the tie.  I can likely sew it back together or replace it with a belt.  And the kids did not cut themselves/one another --- no children were harmed in the making of this blog post.

But let's get back to happier times, shall we?

The smoothie.  Bug is just like me in that she doesn't like to eat in the morning.  However, since she's started school, I try to cram something in find creative ways to feed her.  I took her to the store with me yesterday (you know, that whole, 'if they participate they are more likely to try' idea) to pick out some fruit for a smoothie.  We got some frozen mixed berries and tart cherries, some fresh bananas and orange juice.  We talked about smoothies (yummy, good, you will like these) all through the store.

This morning I grabbed all of this

2 cups frozen berries
1 cup frozen tart cherries
3/4 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp wheat germ*
2 bananas
*Totally optional, but no one will notice, it's packed with vitamins (!) and I happened to have it in the pantry

Throw everything in the blender

and give it a whirl.

MMMmmmm... pretty and fruity!

So what did Bug think??? It was a no-go. She gave it to the boys and opted to eat a grand total of 6 grapes for breakfast.

The boys (and myself) loved it.

Until it was out... that caused much distress.

Happy again with a quick refill.

Try this for your little ones (and/or yourself) in the morning.  It's a great way to start the day.  And don't forget to hide the scissors!
Get the printable recipe here.

Linking up at Works for Me Wednesday, The Wiegands, Fingerprints on the Fridge and Imprintalish

Blueberry Syrup

I hope you had a fantastic weekend celebrating Independence Day!  It was a very productive weekend at our house.  We painted the boys' room and built their big boy beds.  I'll show you all the details of that when we finish ~ projects tend to take longer than we expect, usually thanks to our little "helpers". (yes, she dressed herself!)

On Sunday, in the middle of trying to paint the new beds, we were thwarted by a heavy thunderstorm.  So the construction got closed in the garage, and we moved our productivity to the kitchen.  We bought 8 pints of blueberries at the farmer's market, so I knew they would have to be turned into something yummy.  We debated on jellies, jams and spreads but ultimately decided to make syrup.  The process was kind of long (as canning projects tend to be), but very easy. 

Don't forget to sterilize your jars.  I put mine in the diswasher.  Which I have to think about at the beginning of the process, because it's usually full of dirty dishes.  So I have to run those, unload and then do the jars.  But enough about my messes....on to the syrup!

Start with blueberries, water and lemon zest.

8 cups blueberries, cleaned of stems and whatnot
2 cups water
1 Tablespoon lemon zest

You'll also want to go ahead and set yourself up a collander or sieve lined with cheesecloth over a large bowl.

Place blueberries, zest and water in a saucepan over Medium heat.  Bring to a gentle boil (it took about 12 minutes for mine to get to a 'gentle boil').  Let it boil for about 5 min, stiring occassionally.
 
Remove from heat and pour into prepared collander.
 
Now...the recipe said, "allow to sit, undisturbed for at least 2 hours".  Uhm...I'm not really that patient, I was over at the bowl messing with it ever 10 minutes.  Finally I decided it was not dripping enough blueberry goodness, so I put a bowl on top with a can in the bowl to weigh it down.  I don't know if it really helped the process, but I quit messing with it after that.
 
After your two hours is up, you make the actual syrup.  In a large pot or saucepan fitted with a thermometer, put 4 cups water and 3 cups sugar over Medium High heat.

Boil until the mixture is 230 degrees.  This takes a while!  Remember how I said I'm not patient?  Well it was taking so long I decided that surely I had done something wrong.  I almost threw it out and started over, but instead I googled "how long does it take to boil sugar water to 230 degrees".  What I found out is that the boiling point of syrup is 230 degrees and what takes so long is that the water has to evaporate until the ratio of sugar to water is such that a syrup can be made.  You can read more about it here, here or here.  Or you can just wait it out patiently . . . . whatever works for you.  You'll notice somewhere right beyond 200 degree that your bubbles change from regular-looking boil bubbles to a shiny, glassy look.  That means you're getting close to syrup.

Once you reach 230 degrees, pour in all that yummy blueberry juice that's been draining and crank the heat up to High.  Bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil for 5 minutes.  Then ladle it into your prepared jars.  You want 1/4" headspace.  Seal the jars and process for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and leave them in for 5 more minutes, then remove the jars, cool and store.  

*For more information on canning, take a look around here.  There are a lot of specifics that go into canning, but it's not hard at all. 


Monday morning we had lemon pancakes with blueberry syrup!  YUMMY!

Have a great day...see you tomorrow!

Lemon Blueberry Goodness - Works For Me Wednesday

Gooooooooooood morning!

Or at least it is when you've got these guys around to feed your crew.

Breakfast time is a struggle at our house.  Really, almost everything about the morning can cause a struggle at our house.  There's a reason for that; I'll admit it - I'm not a morning person - neither is Bug.  Must be a girl thing, the guys are always ready to face the day...and they want breakfast shortly after (or directly as) their feet hit the floor.  For us, the best thing is to plan and prepare ahead of time.

In my constant search for prepare-ahead breakfast foods - I found these at Smitten Kitchen.  They are SUPER. YUM.  The lemon flavor is so fun and bright.  It really shines through.  And the blueberries - well - WOW!  They're way easy to make, and they come out looking really fancy.Throw them together at night (like TOnight)...have a few after the kids are in bed...AND go to sleep knowing breakfast is already taken care of. Total. Win. (!)

Grab all of this

Lemon Bar & Crumb Top

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 large lemon

1 Tbsp lemon juice (FRESH!)

Blueberry Layer

3 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons cornstarch

1 Tbsp lemon juice (FRESH!)

Oven = 375 degrees

Go ahead and butter a 9x13 pan so it's ready when you need it.

Put the dough blade in your food processor and mix all the Lemon Bar & Crumb Top ingredients.  I like to layer the butter in there.  (You can do this by hand, in a bowl, with a fork if you don't have a food processor).

Pulse it until it's nice and crumbly.  You'll probably have to stop a couple of times and run a rubber spatula around the edges of the bowl.

Reserve 1 1/2 cups of this mixture for the top.  Gently press the rest into the bottom of your buttered pan.

Check blueberries for stems.  Rinse them and pat dry.  In medium bowl mix blueberries, white sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.  Stir.

Spread evenly over lemon bar mixture in pan.

Sprinkle the 1 1/2 cups reserved lemon bar mixture over the blueberries.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the crumbly top starts to get all browned and irresistible looking.

Let them cool.  If you can restrain yourself, that is.  They'll be smelling pretty good by now.

Once they're cooled they can be cut into squares and served, or refrigerated until morning (they'll be okay for a few days...if you don't eat them all first).

Here's the printable!

Making breakfast ahead of time Works For Me!

See what's working for everyone else...

Also linking up at Mingle Monday

Avocado Buttercream Frosting on Banana Cupcakes

I know, I know...this doesn't sound good.  But it looks good, doesn't it!?!

And it smells like a big ol' hunk of heaven!  Oh - you don't have a scratch-n-sniff monitor?  Then you should bake some.  Tonight - or today, if you bake during daylight hours.  Crazy as it sounds, you will thank me.  Or actually, you should thank Jessica over at How Sweet Eats.  She's the brains behind this cupcake/frosting combination that brought a SWAT Team to its knees. 

You remember these, don't you?  I talked about them for Bug's birthday.  Yea, right there on that tray with the fruit.

I really can't say enough about them.  The combination of the cupcake flavor with the avocado butter cream is perfect.  That's really the only way to describe it.  Have you ever had butter cream icing and though it just needed a little something to take the edge off of the sugar?  It turns out, avocado is just that thing.  It's the little something special that rounds out the flavor and balances everything.  It's pure bliss!

So without further ado, let's bake!

Pre-heat the oven to 350.  Drop some cupcake liners in a muffin pan.  Go ahead and sit 2 tablespoons of butter out on the counter.  It needs to be soft for the frosting, so just let it sit out.

 Gather the ingredients.

1 1/3 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted

Sift the dry stuff into a bowl (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg).

Mash your bananas (it's okay if you start singing Gwen Stefani's Banana song while you do this, I do it all the time!)

Mix the eggs and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer.

Add vanilla, sour cream and melted butter *YUM*.  Mix until it's all together.

Add the sifted dry stuff....mix.  It should look like peanut butter(!)

Now add the mashed bananas and mix until they're evenly dispersed.
Put the batter into a gallon sized zip top bag, snip off the end

and squeeze into your prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 13-15 minutes.  Yea, that's the smell I'm talking about.  OH! MY!

!!!WAIT!!!

You have to make the frosting.  No, like, you must.  Trust me!  It's fast and painless.  And it'll change your world forever.  I'm serious.

Grab this:

2 ripe avocados
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Peel the avocados and put them in the bowl of your mixer with the softened butter.  Beat them pretty good until they're creamy (I'm pretty sure it's not possible to get out ALL of the clumps that avocados have, but you can get it pretty creamy).

Now add the sugar and blend.

Drop in the vanilla and salt and blend again.

Taste it!  Don't be scared - it's fantabulous!  Aren't you glad you made it!?!  Okay, now put the spoon down and frost your cupcakes.  I like to pipe them with a round tip so there's plenty icing!

Store these guys in the fridge.  They'll hold up for about 3 days . . . . but they NEVER make it that long at my house.  They usually don't make it past breakfast.  What?!?!?  They've bananas in there - it's totally okay for the kids to have these for breakfast.  Never mind the powdered sugar, really, it's breakfast food all the way!
 

***Click on over to How Sweet Eats for the recipe***