Archive for Breakfast

@untie R’s Gluten-Free Blueberry Cheese Pancakes

I’m happy to feature my friend, Arlene Sablan Aguon’s healthy recipes.

This particular recipe is a healthy alternative to regular pancakes. It’s gluten-free, delicious, and packed with nutrients that not only taste good but are good for you too!

Give Arlene’s recipe a try.  I think you’ll like it! 🙂

Yield: 4 pancakes

@untie R’s Gluten-Free Blueberry Cheese Pancakes

Gluten Free Blueberry Cheese Pancakes

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups gluten-free flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder (or 1 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum powder)
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons wheat germ or steel cut oats
  • 1 1/2 cups flax or soy milk
  • 1 cup small curd cottage cheese.
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten (see notes below)
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:

Gluten Free Blueberry Cheese Pancakes

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in sugar and wheat germ/oats; set aside.

Combine the milk, cottage cheese, and coconut oil.

Pour the flax or soy milk mixture all at once into the flour mixture; stir until moist. Add additional milk, a little at a time, if the batter is too thick (the batter should pour easily). Gently stir in the berries.

Pre-heat a skillet/grill over medium heat; lightly grease the skillet. Pour the mixture onto the skillet to the size you prefer. Cook until the tops are bubbly and appear dry; flip over to finish cooking.

Serve and enjoy!

NOTE from Arlene: I didn’t use the egg. The small curd cottage cheese acts as your binder with the coconut oil. Yummy too.

NOTE from Annie: You can use a “chia egg” in place of the regular egg. Mix 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds with 3 tablespoons water. Let the mixture sit until it forms a gel. Use the chia gel/egg in the recipe instead of the egg.

 

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The Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Pancakes are a favorite breakfast in our house. Fluffy, buttery, and dripping with thick maple syrup — it’s a great way to start the day.

My oldest daughter started her love for cooking by making a basic recipe for pancakes. She was only four years old. She’d wake up after a good night’s sleep, find her way into my room, and pull me into the kitchen. She’d climb up on her step stool and pull out her little Mickey Mouse mixing bowl then proceed to tell me the ingredients she’d need to make pancakes.

Get your kids into the kitchen and let them have their hand at making breakfast for your family. With my recipe, you won’t need to buy packaged pancake mix after you see how easy it is to make delicious, fluffy buttermilk pancakes from scratch.

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Give my recipe a try. I think you’ll like it. 🙂

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon real maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, sugar, vanilla, maple syrup and butter. Mix in the remaining ingredients.

Heat a non-stick skillet (I use a cast-iron skillet and butter it) over medium heat.

Pour slightly less than 1/2 cup of batter onto the heated skillet. When you see small bubbles on the surface and around the sides of the pancake, flip it over. Cook until the edge of the pancake is no longer wet-looking.

Look how tall it rose! 🙂

Top with butter and maple syrup and ENJOY! 🙂

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Berry-licious Blueberry Muffins

I love blueberry muffins, but I absolutely hate the packaged blueberry muffin mix which turns the batter a bluish-purple after you add canned (and tiny) blueberries.

Blueberries are my favorite when it comes to fruit muffins, but you can easily make this into a loaded berry muffin by mixing you favorite berries — a combination of raspberries, cranberries, and of course, blueberries are delicious too.

I use frozen berries for this recipe. While fresh berries are delicious, frozen sweet berries are always available and “in season.”

I also top these muffins with a sweet mixture of lemon zest and sugar. The perfumy, aromatic oils in the lemon zest gives these muffins a hint of lemon flavor that compliments the berries so well.

This recipe makes a little more than a dozen muffins. You’ll have just a bit of batter leftover after filing the muffin tin. Make mini loaves or use a second muffin tin to use up the extra batter.

Berry-licious Blueberry Muffins

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Ingredients for the Muffins:

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons dry Buttermilk Powder (you can find this in the baking section of your grocery store)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons white, granulated sugar
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups frozen blueberries

Ingredients for the Topping:

  • 1 cup frozen blueberries plus 1 teaspoon white, granulated sugar
  • The zest of one large lemon plus 1/2 cup white, granulated sugar

Directions:

Make the toppings:

1. Make a blueberry sauce by placing 1 cup of frozen blueberries with 1 teaspoon sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the berries to a simmer. As the berries begin to soften, use the back of a cooking spoon to slightly mash the berries. Cook the mixture for about 5-8 minutes, or until the sauce reduces and thickens. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

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2. In a small bowl, mix the lemon zest and 1/2 cup sugar together. Set aside.

When you zest the lemon, make sure to get only the yellow lemon rind, not the white pith. After zesting the lemon, chop the zest into smaller pieces then mix with the sugar.

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Mix the batter:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with baking spray or non-stick (butter flavored) cooking spray. Or, line each cup with a muffin liner.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, buttermilk powder).

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3. In another mixing bowl, place the eggs and sugar. Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until creamy. Mix in the butter, oil, water and vanilla extract.

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4. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, mixing only until the batter is moistened (a few lumps are okay). Do not overmix.

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5. Fold in the blueberries.

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6. Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full. These muffins really rise high, so don’t overfill each muffin cup.

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7. Place a heaping teaspoonful of the blueberry sauce on top of the batter in each muffin cup.

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8. Using the handle of a spoon (a chopstick works really well here), swirl the blueberry sauce into the batter.

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9. Evenly sprinkle the lemon-sugar mixture over each muffin.

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10. Bake at 425 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean (a few crumbs sticking to the toothpick is okay). Let the muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

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If you have a mini loaf pan, you can make mini loaves with the extra muffin batter. You should have enough batter left (after filling the muffin tin) to make 3 mini loaves. I doubled this recipe so I made 6 mini loaves with the extra batter (after filling 2 muffin tins).

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Serve and ENJOY!

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Stuffed Biscuits

Create a super easy breakfast or brunch with my recipe for Stuffed Biscuits. You can have it all prepped and served in about 30 minutes.

Start out by making a batch of my Soft & Fluffy Biscuit dough (click here for the recipe). An egg gets baked right into the biscuit dough, then top with your favorite breakfast foods (bacon and cheese top the list in my family).

Serve and ENJOY!

Give my recipe a try. I think you’ll like it. 🙂

Stuffed Biscuits

Ingredients:

  • 1 batch of biscuit dough (click here for my recipe)
  • 1 package of bacon (we love maple bacon)
  • 1 dozen large eggs
  • Garlic powder (to taste)
  • Black pepper (to taste)
  • Dashida (to taste)
  • 4 stalks green onions, sliced
  • Grated sharp cheddar cheese, as much as you like

Optional Ingredients:

  • Red pepper flakes
  • Chopped mushrooms
  • Tomatoes, diced small
  • Cooked and crumbled breakfast sausage

Directions:

1. Cut the bacon into small pieces. Fry until crisp; place on paper towels to drain excess oil. Set aside.

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2. Separate the biscuit dough into 12 pieces. Spray a muffin tin with butter-flavored cooking spray. Spread each piece of biscuit dough into each of the 12 cups of the muffin tin, making sure you pull the dough up and around the sides, creating a “biscuit cup.”

3. Crack one egg into each biscuit cup.

4. Sprinkle garlic powder, black pepper and Dashida seasoning over each egg.

As an option, before baking, sprinkle on top of each egg: red pepper flakes, mushrooms and tomatoes.

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes, or until the sides of the biscuit are a golden brown. The eggs will be soft-set.

6. After baking, top with bacon, green onions, cheese, and any other of your favorite toppings. Serve immediately and ENJOY! 🙂

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Pillow Soft and Fluffy Biscuits with Homemade Gravy

Biscuits and gravy is a classic breakfast dish. A serving (or two or three) of soft, fluffy biscuits topped with a savory, meaty gravy is a perfect way to start the day.

These biscuits are so soft, they practically melt in your mouth. Seriously.

These biscuits are so soft that you tend to smoosh them when trying to spread butter on them. That’s why I like making a Honey-Butter Sauce that you can just drizzle on top–there’s no need to spread anything on them! 🙂

Aside from serving these for breakfast, you can also serve ’em up with some fried chicken and a side of hot buttered corn for an absolutely delightful dinner.

Give my recipes a try. I think you’ll like them. 🙂

Be sure to scroll down for my Homemade Gravy and Honey-Butter Sauce recipes.

Soft Fluffy Biscuits

Ingredients:

  • 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup corn starch
  • 10 tablespoons buttermilk powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 sticks (1 cup) very cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 1/2 cups water

Directions:

1. Place the flour, cornstarch, buttermilk powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine all of the ingredients.

2. Add the pieces of butter to the bowl. Use a pastry cutter (you can also do this in a food processor) to cut the butter into the flour.

3. Add the water to the flour mixture. Gently mix with your hands until a dough forms. Do not knead or over-mix the dough.

4. Place the dough onto a floured surface.

5. Roll the dough out into a rectangle or square, about 1/2 inch thick.

6. Use a dough scraper to cut the dough into evenly sized squares. I prefer to make square biscuits rather than round ones. Using round cutters leaves you with extra dough that has to be re-formed and rolled out again, causing you to over-handle the dough which turns out tough biscuits. By making square-shaped biscuits, you roll the dough out once, yielding incredibly soft, fluffy biscuits.

I rolled out the dough a little less than a 1/2 inch thick. They still bake up nice and tall if you roll the dough out less than a 1/2 inch, but if you like tall biscuits, keep the dough at 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Less than that and you’ll yield about 30 little biscuits, cut the way I did below. Thicker and you should get about a dozen or so biscuits.

7. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the biscuit squares onto the baking sheet, about an inch apart.

Brush the tops of each square with milk. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes. My oven runs hot, so mine bake up nice and golden brown after just 15 minutes. Again, this was 15 minutes for dough rolled out a little less than 1/2 inch. 20 minutes of baking should suffice for dough rolled out to between 1/2 and 3/4 inch thick.

Serve these fluffy wonders with Homemade Gravy or drizzled with Honey Butter Sauce and ENJOY!

See how fluffy they are? Yum!!

Homemade Gravy

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground beef (or you can use your favorite sausage)
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons Dashida seasoning
  • 3 cups milk (I used 1 1/2 % reduced-fat milk)

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in a large skillet.

2. Add the flour and all the seasonings to the skillet.

3. Stir to combine all of the ingredients. Turn the heat up to medium high.

4. Pour the milk into the skillet. I use a whisk that can withstand the heat and be used for cooking (see the photo above) to stir as I add the milk.

5. Stir constantly until the gravy thickens.

6. Serve with my soft and fluffy biscuits and ENJOY! 🙂

 

Honey Butter Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon water
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 tablespoons honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Place all of the ingredients into a microwave-safe bowl.

2. Microwave in 30-second intervals until the butter melts.

3. Stir to combine the ingredients.

4. Drizzle over freshly baked soft and fluffy biscuits and ENJOY! 🙂

Try sprinkling some cinnamon over the warm honey butter sauce. Yum!

 

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