I must be the only person I know who wakes up in the morning ready for breakfast. Some people I know have the ability to wait for a few hours to get to their breakfast. Even when I am up and ready to leave for work at 6:30 in the morning, I’d be ready for breakfast. This is a breakfast that I rely on when I need something hearty and flexible that takes less than 10-minutes to put together, because I don’t have an hour to wait for its baked version. When I have fruits that are pretty ripe, I normally just drizzle a little bit of maple syrup and pile this up with whatever fruits that I have on hand. This is perfection in a bowl.
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups whole milk (can be substituted for other types of milk as well: low fat, soy, almond, etc)
2 cups of water
1-1/2 cups of quick cooking oatmeal
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 bananas
1 cup of dried fruits (I used cranberries in mine)
Maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon and milk for topping (optional)
Directions
Bring milk and water to a simmer in a medium-sized pot. Add oatmeal and salt, stirring occasionally until thickened, around 4-5 minutes. Once thickened, add sliced bananas, and dried fruit. Cover the pot for about 2 minutes, and serve with whatever topping you’d like!
Yield: 4 servings
Slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home
For my birthday last summer, I asked for a pasta maker attachment set to go with our Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I had every intention to use it, but it kept on being put to the back burner until a couple of weekends ago. My first try at making and tasting homemade pasta was back in 2009 in Italy, and let me tell you that it was a rather physically demanding task! Especially with my lack of “rolling dough” experience. This pasta set though, took care all of that “dough rolling” for me, and if anything, it made the experience so much more fun!
My good friends Jill and Sarah came to visit me for the day and I thought that it was a good enough reason for me to finally get this pasta maker to a good use. We went out for a late lunch, and then we were back at my house hanging out. I chose a recipe that uses semolina flour that I had previously bought for this very purpose, and the rest of the ingredients are pretty much standard pantry items. The dough came together relatively quick although I had to adjust the water almost five times what it calls for in the original recipe, and I even added an egg. The most time consuming part was the dough rolling; but having friends to help out definitely made this fun. Jill doesn’t really like tomato-based sauce, while Sarah prefers not to have “white-sauce”. So I ended up throwing a bunch of items together (prosciutto, black olives, roasted red peppers, etc), mixed them together in sun-dried tomatoes with half of the dough, and everyone won. Nothing beats homemade pasta with great companies!
Ingredients
4 large eggs, room temperature (I used 5 eggs)
2 tbsp of water (I ended up using about 10, because my kitchen must have been dry)
1 tbsp of oil, plus 1 tsp for cooking water
3-1/3 cups semolina flour
1/2 tsp salt, plus 2 tsp for cooking water
Direction
Place eggs, water, oil, flour and salt in a mixer bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater (the paddle attachment). Turn to low speed and mix for 30 seconds.
Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook. Turn to mixer back to low speed and knead for 2 minutes. Remove dough from bowl and hand knead for 1-2 minutes. Divide dough into eight pieces before processing with the pasta roller attachment to make the desired pasta. Follow the manufacturer’s direction to cut and shape your pasta.
Boil 6 quart of water. Add 2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of oil. Cook pasta between 2-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the noodle type you make and how “al-dente” you like your pasta.
Yield: 1-1/4 lbs dough
Pumpkin is an all-year long staple at our house. Not only that it is delicious and nutritious, it is also versatile. We love them in pancakes, waffles, cupcakes, and even mac ‘n cheese! I really can’t help that I have cans of them lining up inside my pantry. I opened a large can of pumpkin the other night so I could make these pancakes for my daughter’s breakfast, since she was on pancake mood, and I wanted a quick recipe that I could put together easily without an extra trip to the grocery store. Red suggested this pumpkin bar. Since it is an oil-based bar, it is almost like a cake, or a very moist quick bread. Definitely not denser like what you’d expect on a typical “bar” by any mean (as you can see from the picture).
I was a little cautious at first when I shared some of these with my co-workers and friends. I figured that I was the only person who loves pumpkin all year. I was wrong! Everyone enjoyed and raved about them. These bars were delicious on its own without the icing, but if you want extra “ooomph”, definitely add the icing. The icing recipe below makes it to a nice spreading consistency. But you can also thin it out even more and drizzle them on top of the bar. Looks like I’d be making this again soon.
Ingredients
Bars
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Icing
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.
To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.
Adapted from Paula Deen via Food Network
Yield: 24 bars
I think everyone needs a recipe like this in their repertoire: a delicious dish that can be prepared in less than 15 minutes. And when I mean, 15 minutes, I seriously mean one person can get it done in 15 minutes. But don’t let the fancy title fool you to think that it’s a fancy dish, because it’s literally translated to “Lemon Pasta”, spaghetti cooked with lemon paste. Most of the ingredients can be found in any well-stocked pantry, all you need to remember to have lemons and fresh basil. As you can see in my picture above, I forgot to grab some fresh basil this time, and it turned out delicious without them. There are so many variation of this recipe, but I really appreciate the simpleness of this dish, it is light and refreshing from the lemon flavoring, but still hearty… because it is still a pasta dish after all. When I use whole wheat spaghetti, I usually double the amount of lemon paste to make sure that the light lemon flavor can stand up to the whole wheat flavor in the pasta.
Ingredients
3/4 pound (3/4 box) spaghetti
Coarse salt
1 lemon
1 1/2 cups finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3–5 tablespoons of pasta water, to thin
Handful fresh basil leaves (from 4 leafy stems)
Directions
Boil the spaghetti in salted boiling water, according to the package directions.
Meanwhile, using a Microplane, grate the zest from the lemon into a large mixing bowl. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl (I like to use the grater as a strainer—one less thing to clean). Add the 1 1/2 cups Parmesan, pepper, and a pinch of salt, and mix in the olive oil to form a wet paste.
When the spaghetti is perfectly cooked, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of the cooking water to the lemon and cheese mixture. Add the spaghetti to the bowl and toss thoroughly, adding another tablespoon or 2 of pasta water if necessary so that the sauce coats each strand. Roughly tear in the basil leaves.
Serve each portion with a sprinkle of coarse salt, a fresh grind of black pepper, and a few gratings of extra Parmesan.
Yield: 2-3 servings
Adapted from My Father’s Daughter
I’m probably the only food blogger left who hasn’t tried these wonderful buttery Soft Garlic Knots from King Arthur’s website. I made these amazing Golden Pull-Apart Butter Buns a couple of years ago, and remember thinking that I was looking for some sort of garlicky addition to it. I must say that if I were given the choices, I would always go for the garlic bread/toast/knots in the bread basket. These rolls were perfect for me: very tender yeasty crumbs with nice crust, slathered in garlicky goodness!
I skipped a couple of the ingredients listed in the original recipe, and adapted as written below – and they were perfect. My kitchen is slightly in the cold side (the granite counter top doesn’t help!), so it took me longer than an hour to get this to rise. Just like most yeasty type of breads, you just want to make sure you allow enough time for it to rise. Other than that, if you are one of the very few folks who hasn’t tried this amazing recipe, I would say make these now.
Ingredients
Dough
3 cups (12- 3/4 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup (1 ounce) powdered milk
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) potato flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) olive oil
1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water (Add an additional 2 tablespoons water in the winter, or if you live in a very dry climate)
Glaze
2 to 6 cloves peeled, crushed garlic
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon Pizza Seasoning or Italian seasoning, optional
Directions
Whisk the dough dry ingredients together to prevent the potato flour from clumping when liquid is added. Stir in the olive oil and water, then mix and knead (by hand, mixer, or bread machine) to form a smooth, elastic dough, adding additional water or flour as needed. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and allow it to rise for about 1 hour, until it’s doubled in bulk.
Divide the dough into 16 pieces, and roll each into a rope about 11 inches long; tie each rope into a knot, tucking the loose ends into the center. Place the knots on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, cover, and let rise for 45 minutes to about an hour, until very puffy looking.
For the glaze, whisk together the melted butter and garlic. Set it aside.
Bake the knots in a preheated 350°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes. They should be set, but only very lightly browned. Remove the knots from the oven, and brush or drizzle them with the garlic butter. Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and pizza seasoning or Italian seasoning, if desired. Eat the knots warm.
Yield: 16 garlic knots
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
I live for the weekends! I get to eat breakfast sloooowly (well, maybe not that slow, but slower for sure)…. in my eat-in kitchen, next to my little daughter and hubby with my St. Bernard breathing on my elbow 
In the summer, or spring when the weather is a little bit warmer, I love to open the sliding door going out to the deck, and enjoy that morning breeze. Now, I just get to watch the sunshine from the inside, where it’s nice and warm!
One of my all-time favorite breakfast items is probably oatmeal. Yep, kind of hard to believe right? It sounds too healthy. I recall many years of eating instant oatmeal for breakfast at work and loving it. Red, on the other hand, doesn’t care for oatmeal very much. He claims that it has funny textures, whatever that means. I have, however, been wanting to try baked oatmeal at home, and I finally convinced him to try it. It uses two fruits that are favorites at my household, so I figured that my chance of winning over my audience (of two) is definitely higher than 50%. To my pleasant surprise, everyone loved it! We skipped the topping and I thought it was perfect on its own. Red describes this dish like a “warm, soft oatmeal cookie”, which was why he loved it. We polished this off, and Red actually requested that we make this again soon. How about that for a happy me???
Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped and lightly toasted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup maple syrup, plus more for serving
1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, sliced into 1/2-inch thick pieces
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or spray a 1 and 1/2-quart casserole dish with either butter or cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, toss together the oats, half of the walnuts, the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In another separate small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, milk, egg, half of the melted butter, and the vanilla.
Place the sliced banana pieces in a single layer in the bottom of the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle about two-thirds of the fresh blueberries over the top of the bananas, then cover the blueberries with the oat mixture. Drizzle the milk mixture over the oats, making sure to distribute the milk as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the remaining blueberries and walnuts over the top of the oats.
Bake the oatmeal for 35-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the oats have set.
Remove the oatmeal from the oven and drizzle the remaining butter over the top and serve. Add your fave toppings.
Yield: 2-4
Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson as seen on The Curvy Carrot
As I am typing this, I’m still battling what feels like a never-ending cough. What the heck is going on with the air? It seems like everyone at work has also been taking turn of getting some sort of flu and cold. So maybe this week was my turn. I gave in and took some antibiotics that I used to swear off, just so that I can get some energy back. Enough about my depressing illness. I wanted to post this Stromboli recipe because if you love pizza, you would love this! I have never made this at home; and I’m surprised that it took me this long to try it. I was looking for something fun to put together, so I could also include my daughter, who’s still in the ahem… “wonderful” throwing stage at 18 months. This recipe, just like pizza, is soooo…. versatile, and you can basically use whatever filling (i.e.: cold cuts, cheeses and veggies) that you have available. What a great way to sneak some veggies into our meals. Plus, it pairs great with salad and or soups.
This dough for this recipe takes a little time to put together, so if you’re short on time, you can easily use store-bought pizza dough, which will cut the prep time significantly! If you have not tried making your own Stromboli at home, I highly recommend it!
Ingredients
For the Dough
2 cups (11 ounces) bread flour
1 tsp rapid rise or instant yeast
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for the bowl
1 cup warm water
For the Stromboli
Olive oil
4 ounces thinly sliced deli salami
4 ounces thinly sliced deli capocollo
4 ounces thinly sliced provolone cheese
½ cup jarred roasted red bell peppers, rinsed, patted dry and sliced thin
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (½ cup)
1 large egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Kosher salt (optional)
Directions
For the Dough
Pulse the flour, yeast and salt in a food processor (use dough blade if possible), to combine. While the food processor continues running, add the oil and water through the feed tube and process until the dough is formed into a ball form, about 30 to 40 seconds. Let the dough rest in the bowl for 2 minutes then process for 30 seconds longer.
Turn the dough into lightly floured surface and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball, about 5 minutes, adding additional flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Gently deflate the dough with your fist and turn it out onto a unfloured work surface. Gently reshape the dough into a ball and cover with a plastic wrap lightly sprayed with vegetable oil spray. Let the dough rest 15 minutes, but no more than 30 minutes.
For the Stromboli
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Press and roll the dough into a 12 by 10-inch rectangle with the long side facing you. Layer the meat and provolone over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border at all of the edges. Top with the peppers and Parmesan.
Brush the edges of the dough with some of the egg wash. Starting from a long side, roll the dough tightly into a long cylinder, using the parchment paper to lift and roll the dough. Pinch the seam and ends to seal and roll the stromboli back into the center of the parchment paper, seam side down. Transfer the stromboli on the parchment paper to a baking sheet.
Brush the dough all over with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Cover loosely with lightly greased aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until the crust is golden, about 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. (Keep an eye on the baking time to make sure it doesn’t over cook!)
Transfer the stromboli to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board, slice into 2-inch-wide pieces and serve warm.
Yield: 4-6
Adapted from The Best of American Test Kitchen 2008
I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! I unexpectedly took a little time off from blogging because our family got a little sick just before Christmas break from a stomach bug, but we recovered just enough strength for a family visit for Christmas. I really just prefer more intimate and low key Christmas celebrations. You’re probably thinking why the heck is she posting a WHOLE WHEAT (read: healthy) muffin recipe in the middle of the holiday season. Rest assured that these muffins didn’t actually taste “healthy” (you know, the tough texture, and bland flavors)! Tasty healthier treats like this are my favorite to make during holiday times to balance with all of the sweets and goodies that only show up in special occasions.
The combination of apple sauce, buttermilk, and canola oil really made these muffins moist, delicious, and had pretty delicate texture considering that it uses whole wheat pastry flour. I have to admit that whole wheat flour doesn’t work in all recipes, it’s not as easily substituted into recipes that call for all purpose flour. But I wanted to take a chance on this anyways since I needed a new whole wheat muffin recipe using apples (my daughter’s all-time favorite fruit, which thankfully can now be found all year long). I’m really glad that I tried these, because I really liked how they turned out (or I wouldn’t have posted it ) They weren’t very sweet, but definitely delicious, hearty and satisfying.
Ingredients
Cooking spray
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-capacity muffin pan with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar, the pecans and cinnamon.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and oil until combined. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla.
Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. Gently stir in the apple chunks.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan mixture. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.
Yield: 16-18 muffins
Adapted from Ellie Krieger as seen on Food Network
I thought that it’s only appropriate that I post a gingerbread recipe this month, since Christmas is only several days away. I made these Gingerbread cupcakes a couple of years ago and remember how delicious the flavors were, although I thought that the texture was a bit too dense as cupcakes. I was in the middle of the first trimester of my pregnancy with my daughter at that time, and I remember not loving food in general as much I normally do (even ice cream!). I decided to try this recipe again this year to make sure that my taste buds weren’t comprised. I came to the same result and opinion: wonderful flavor and dense texture, so we ended up enjoying them as muffins (worked for us!). I had about six cupcake leftovers and decided to turn them into these yummy truffles. They’re basically just cake balls, dipped in chocolate. 
This truffle “recipe” is very versatile, you can use this as a base of any cake truffles combination. If your cupcakes have denser texture, you may need more cream cheese. The flavor combo here is really endless, so you can’t go wrong. One of my favorites is this Red Velvet Cake Truffles. I have also used leftover frosting as the binder instead of cream cheese when I didn’t have any cream cheese at the house, and it’s like eating a bite-sized cake without having to worry about a plate, fork or napkin On a final note, if you are patient, they are also awesome treat to have in the freezer. So you can stash a few extra for those long days that you need a little treat for yourself.
Truffles Ingredients
6 cupcakes, recipe below
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
12-oz melting chocolate (I used white chocolate)
Truffles Directions
Mix all of the crumbled cake and cream cheese frosting together. Form them into a 1/2-inch diameter balls. Refrigerate for approximately 10 minutes.
In the meanwhile, melt chocolate either in microwave (at 50% power), or over double broiler.
Dip cake balls into melted chocolate. Let set for a few minutes and store them in airtight container in the refrigerator.
Yield: approximately 2 dozens
Cake Ingredients
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 cup unsulphered molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
Cake Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 10 jumbo muffin tins with paper baking cups, and set aside. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup water to a boil. In a bowl, combine boiling water and baking soda; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, ground spices, salt, and baking powder; set aside.
In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light. Beat in the brown sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses, baking-soda mixture, and flour mixture. Beat in the eggs.
Fill the cupcake papers three-quarters full, making sure that the batter is divided evenly. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the center of them comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cupcakes cool a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Yield: 18 cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcake
I love the combination of flavors of both sweet and savory in one bite so I knew that I wanted to try this cheddar pie dough as soon as I saw the recipe. I really didn’t think that I would consider doing a post on this, but I just had to share my recent discovery with my readers. Plus, I thought that this was an appropriate submission for my bake along group whose November’s theme is “Savory Treats”, hosted by Jessica at the Jey of Cooking.
I made the whole recipe and ended up with two disks of dough. I used one to make a variation of this Asparagus and Ham Quiche (but I used Bacon and Potatoes), and really LOVED how it turned out. It was really like eating a cheese cracker instead of a regular pie crust. I still have the other disk in the freezer which I plan use as a an apple galette. This pie dough is really versatile, if you are open to having the salty-and-sweet combo, you can use it either as a savory pie like I did, or substitute it in your regular dessert pie crust. If you have never tried it, give it a shot and let me know how you like it!
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Salt
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
Directions
Pulse flour and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. Drizzle 1/4 cup water evenly over mixture. Pulse until mixture just begins to hold together (dough should not be wet or sticky). If dough is too dry, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse. Add cheese; pulse until combined.
Shape dough into 2 disks, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes or up to overnight.
Yield: (2) single-crust dough
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Pies & Tarts
