Breakfast Part 2,3 and 4: Ellie Krieger’s Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal, Apple-Pecan Muffins, and Peach French Toast Bake
This is the post that could not be written. Every single time I tried to sit down to write, nothing would come. I felt determined to finish it once I kept seeing people were arriving to my blog while searching for the Ellie Krieger things I’ve said I’ve made on my sidebar tracker. So in continuing on with my quest to eat healthier, my obsession with all things breakfast related, as well as Ellie Krieger recipes from The Food You Crave, I bring to you the following three breakfast ideas.
First up we have Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal.
I love oatmeal. The only problem is it’s a tad bland unless you’re eating one of the sugar laden instant kinds (the kind that I know and love so much). To me, oatmeal was never something you broke out a recipe for. Until now. I’ve made this probably 20 times. It’s perfect. It’s old fashioned oats mixed with cherry jam, dried cherries, vanilla and milk. There’s no added sugar but I found it was sweet enough from the jam alone. I’ve adapted to making it in the microwave with no problems.
Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal Recipe on Food Network
Second, I offer to you Apple-Pecan Muffins.
I absolutely loved these. I made a full batch and they were gone in about 10 minutes around here. I thought about adapting this recipe into a loaf. It would make a really good apple bread. You must make these muffins soon, I’m not kidding. They’re made with whole wheat pastry flour and brown sugar. Applesauce and buttermilk add tons of moistness.
Apple-Pecan Muffin recipe on Food Network
And last but certainly not least, we have Peach French Toast Bake.
This one intrigued me from the first time I came across the recipe. Not sure why because I really don’t care for French Toast that much. (Although, I’m considering trying to come around. Matt, my blogging friend, recently featured a Crème Brûlée French Toast that looks pretty good.)
Anyway, this Peach French Toast couldn’t be easier. You make it the night before so in the morning all you have to do is turn on the oven and bake. A whole wheat baguette is the base underneath a milk and egg mixture that’s topped with frozen peaches, brown sugar and cinnamon. Ooooh Mama! It’s only lightly sweet which I think makes it really good.
Watch the video for making Peach French Toast Bake here
Ahh, it feels so good to clear this draft out of my posts. The bottom line is you can’t really go wrong with a healthy breakfast. Remember kids, it’s the best way to start your day. And Ellie Krieger can do no wrong right now with me. Everything I’ve tried of hers has been good.
The recipe links again:
Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal
Apple-Pecan Muffins
Watch the video for making Peach French Toast Bake
Breakfast Part One: Blueberry Blast Smoothie
Breakfast, as we all have heard, is the most important meal of the day. It’s supposed to get us going, help us concentrate, and keeps weight down just to name a few things. I’ll be honest and say that I skip a balanced breakfast pretty often, replacing it with high calorie Starbucks Venti White Chocolate Mochas instead. I’m ashamed.
Anyway, I’m still on an Ellie Krieger kick. I’ve become quite fond of her new book The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life. But aside from one meatloaf recipe I can’t seem to tear myself out of the Breakfast chapter. There’s just too much good stuff in there. I decided to do a couple of posts over the next week or so showcasing some of Ellie’s recipes that I’ve tried.
Let’s start with the Blueberry Blast Smoothie.
This has the most minimal of ingredients – “superfood” blueberries, non-fat yogurt, non-fat milk and honey. The recipe is for one serving size and you get a full glass for under 200 calories. It’s not overly sweet which I had to get used to, but it was really good. This smoothie is a great way to start out the day and you only need about two minutes to make it. Anyone of us breakfast skippers can spare two minutes in the morning, I’m sure. My one piece of advice: check your teeth after drinking this! Don’t go around grinning wide until you’ve looked at yourself in the mirror because there might be tiny antioxidant filled blueberry pieces in your teeth. You’ve been warned. It’s a small price to pay for health, ya know? You can view the recipe here and you can even watch a video here if you like visuals (the video cuts off when Ellie takes her first drink… hehehe, wonder why…)
Next up is Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal. Stay tuned!
On a healthier kick…
I can’t finish a regular book to save my life, but I read cookbooks constantly. Normally, I have about five I’m looking through at any given time and my sidebar obsession tracker usually lists at least three. But every now and again I’ll get completely obsessed with just one. Right now, it’s Food Network’s Ellie Krieger’s The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life. I found I’m not the only one taking notice of this book, there’s a new blogging group that recently formed called Craving Ellie In My Belly or “CEiMB” for short that is tackling one recipe a week from The Food You Crave.
What I like about this book is that it’s all food I would pretty much normally eat, just done in a healthier way and not made up of any weird ingredients. The weirdest things are probably Pearl Barley and Buckwheat Flour and those aren’t even weird. Who doesn’t want to eat a little bit healthier if it really isn’t that much of a sacrifice, ya know? This past Friday night at my co-worker’s party, the Wii said I was slightly overweight. Just a smidge over the normal line. So it’s time to whip myself back into shape, baby! The great thing is that this is the one cookbook of mine the boyfriend has gone through and said “that sounds good… this sounds good… that sounds good…” so it’s great to have him on board with me trying some of this stuff out for our dinners. Normally all I ever hear is “eh” from him.
The first thing I made from the book was the Stuffed Turkey Burgers and they were excellent. I highly recommend them. Those got me on a lean ground turkey kick and since I found it so cheap at the store this week I wanted to try Mom’s Turkey Meatloaf next. The CEiMB group had already done this meatloaf and looking through their posts in my reader I found it had gotten pretty decent reviews from most. And Food Network members give it four stars out of five. The interesting thing about this recipe is the addition of quick cooking oatmeal as the binding ingredient. That sort of surprised me and when all was said and done, you couldn’t even tell it was in there. The only change I made was using leftover jarred Roasted Red Peppers from the turkey burgers instead of fresh. Everything else was followed to the letter.
I also made Smashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives that are pictured alongside the meatloaf in the book. These were really good also. The potatoes are steamed over boiling water which was a new technique for me at home. Not too much to say, they were super easy and tasted pretty good. The only changes I made were using dried chives instead of fresh and guesstimating what 1 1/4 pounds of little baby potatoes would be instead of using big ones.
I really should have showed a picture of the inside of the meatloaf but I was hungry and wanted to eat. My bad. I definitely would make both of these again. I’m really looking forward to trying out some more of the recipes. I already got stuff from the store to make a few more things this week. Check back to see how they turn out!
Links:
Smashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives Recipe
Mom’s Turkey Meatloaf Recipe
Stuffed Turkey Burgers Recipe
