French Toast with Leftover French Bread

We used french bread to go along with our delicious cauliflower soup on Monday, but this was an easy way to get rid of the remaning bread.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
1 T sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
pinch of salt

Directions:
I heated on medium, about 2 T of butter.  I soaked each piece of thinly sliced french bread for about 30 seconds on each side, and then cooked it until brown on each side.  Sifted some powder sugar over it (with my tea bag holder haha.. you gotta make due with what you have!), enveloped it in syrup, and served it to my boys.  It would have been nice to have fruit garnishes, alas we didn't.

Easy Microwaved Eggs with Milk

It's hard to figure out what the heck to feed my son in the morning.  Besides waffles, I have discovered something else to throw into the rotation.

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 oz milk (I usually use his leftover bottle milk and if he finished it all, I use our 2% milk - the good whole milk is for him to drink straight from a bottle, not mixed into food!)
garlic salt, for taste

Directions:
In a microwave safe bowl, beat egg, add in milk, beat mixture and sprinkle some garlic salt, continue mixing.  Heat for 1 minutes and 30 seconds (may vary depending on your microwave strength).

Let cool, remove and mix with a fork, and serve to your baby!  He or she will love it and it will not have taken you more than 5 minutes!

Easy Granola Recipe

I made granola on Monday from my friend Lorraine's recipe.  I tweaked it a bit.. so here it is...

Mix it with some low-fat Danon vanilla yogurt, sliced strawberries and berries and BOOM - easy healthy breakfast as evidenced by my hubs:

Ingredients:
4 cups oatmeal

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup honey or maple syrup

½ tsp vanilla extract3/4 cups unshelled sunflower seeds (raw or cooked)

1/3 cup sesame seeds (I used toasted)

½ cup sliced almonds

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place oatmeal in large bowl.  In medium saucepan, heat oil, brown sugar, and add honey over medium heat, until thin, about 5 min.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla and salt.  Pour over oatmeal, add sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and almonds and toss to combine.  Spread evenly on 2 baking sheets and bake 15 minutes, stirring every five minutes.  If you want it a bit toastier, cook it a few minutes longer.  I did one at 15 and one at 20... and I kind of like the 20 better.  Makes 6 cups.

Warning:  Due to the content of nuts in your granola, eating it in large quantities (think larger than a handful) is very high in protein but calories as well.

Strawberry Peach Smoothie

We got 4 servings of fruit this morning all from one easy to make smoothie!

I always keep our freezer stocked with Costco's frozen blueberries and strawberries, for the sole purpose of making smoothies!

One peeled (with as much white stuff left as humanly possible) orange
3/4 banana
10 frozen blueberries
6 frozen strawberries
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 Yoplait light peach yogurt
*Add water depending on how frozen the mixture is while mixing

Blend until smooth and it becomes like a liquid.

I call this the strawberry peach smoothie because the taste of the banana and blueberries are very subtle, mostly you get strawberries and peaches! Pair it up with a piece of toasted wheat bread (no butter please) and you got yourself a well rounded breakfast. Miam!

Egg White Breakfast Burrito

It's more expensive to buy egg whites in a carton... but trying to take out your egg whites from a normal egg usually means less egg whites than you wanted so I normally use 3 egg whites to get about 2 eggs.

2-3 egg whites
Pepper and salt for flavor
1 cup of cooked spinach
4-5 Cherry Tomatoes
1 cup of black beans
sprinkle of cheddar and jack cheese
1 wheat tortilla
Flavor with Tapatio or Tabasco and Ketchup

Cook egg whites, cook spinach, cook cherry tomatoes (cut in halves), and heat black beans

In another pan, place tortilla with cheese, once it's half melted, put the other cooked stuff on and wrap into a burrito of healthy yum.

Oatmeal Goes a Long Way

Oatmeal is the best item to eat if you're going to do a workout in the morning. It fills you up, keeps you energized and gets you going until after the workout. For a good post workout, eat a banana or an orange.

I am a huge fan of brown sugar and craisins or raisins with my oatmeal but for something more fantastically awesome and creative, try some maple syrup (not too much!) and bananas with a sprinkle of brown sugar. Or, as my Mom used to do, she'd put some oatmeal into soup - YUM - especially if you want a saltier breakfast. Lastly, we'd often steam eggs and put in a little bit of oatmeal and milk, also another staple favorite when I'm craving a salty breakfast.

Oatmeal! It goes a LONG way!

Remember When Bagels Were "In"?

Bagels used to be a huge craze! Everywhere you went, bagels were "in," and you couldn't escape the trends of bagels! Bagel for breakfast, bagel sandwich, bagel for dinner, bagel for a late night snack.... Goldstein's, Western Bagel and Noah's Bagels were among the famous nearby bagel stores we frequented often and in our home, bagel breakfasts were an exciting day! We had Sara Lee, Thomas Muffin and even bagels from Ralph's. Cream cheese came in regular, whipped, strawberry, salmon, garden, jalapeno, etc.

And then, I found out how bad bagels actually were for you. In essence, it was as if someone took a loaf of bread, crushed and compacted it into a bagel, and then said, add some cream cheese for more fat. But man, how delicious they were!

So recently, when I found a smaller bagel, advertised as "toast size," I was excited! The bagels were only 160 calories (normally half of a normal sized bagel get you to around 180 calories) so I grabbed that, some low fat whipped cream cheese, and wa-la, I have been eating bagels for breakfast almost everyday! YUM!

Part of eating right is portion control, so I'm grateful for the smaller bagels... because in the past, even though a half of a bagel filled me up, sitting there, I would feel the other half taunting me to just eat it! And then... after eating it, I'd feel remorseful and too full. For people like me who are unable to just put it aside, it's important to just get it in the right size in the beginning.

Yay for bagels!