Yummy In My Tummy!

In an effort to break out of our "cereal for breakfast every morning" rut I made it my mission to find a few alternatives for breakfast.  For one, cereal is terribly expensive (especially when your kids start eating more than one bowl at a sitting, and it's a go to snack during pregnancy!), secondly, minus the milk it's not the healthiest or most filling option out there!

A couple of things that make cereal our go-to is that it's quick and easy, so when looking for new breakfast ideas those two things were priorities for me.  They needed to be something I could make the night before and pop in the oven in the morning, bake the night before or throw stuff together quickly in the morning - morning is our busiest time of day so getting the kids fed in a timely manner is pretty important.

So this week we tried five different recipes - some I've made before, some are new to us... we've decided to share them with you! (and of course I had lots of helpers in the kitchen)

Granola

So this is a very easy recipe that a friend shared with me, and although not new to us, I do forget to make it!

7-8 cups Old Fashioned Oats
Nuts (we use slivered almonds and shopped up walnuts)
Dried fruit (we use craisins but use your imagination)
Mix all together in a large bowl


In a sauce pan combine
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
3/4 cup vegetable oil
some cinnamon
pinch of salt
dash of vanilla

Melt together and bring to a boil then remove from heat and pour over oat mixture, stir well to coat





 

 Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper (or grease well), spread mixture evenly, bake at 350 for 20 minutes stirring after 15.
Once cooled completely add chocolate chips if desired, store in air-tight container!  Either eat with milk, like cereal, or sprinkle over yogurt! YUM

Smoothies

 Again, really simple, and not new to us, I just forget that this is such an easy option for breakfast, lunch or just for a snack.

Start by cutting up whatever fruit you want... this time we used pineapple and strawberries!

About a cup or so of vanilla yogurt

Daddy even helped with this one, about a cup or so of orange juice (next time I'll freeze the juice for a while before making the smoothy)

Then, let your toddlers "gently" put the fruit into the blender... I say gently because I think I had to tell them that about 50 times and they still plopped them in and made a mess!  Oh well that's the fun of working in the kitchen!

Put the top on and then PLUG IN THE BLENDER (don't do it before putting the top on or you'll regret it, trust me on this) , turn the blender on, you'll have to do this more than once to make sure everyone gets a turn to push the buttons, blend until smooth!

 ENJOY!
I was hoping to add some spinach to our smoothies, but with all the hot weather we've had I couldn't find it at the market :(  So we'll do green smoothies another time!

Dutch Baby Minis

 My mom use to make dutch babies for us (or dutch pancakes), they are a fluffy, egg "pancake" I guess you would call it.  I've made them for the kids before but always used a cake pan, I stumbled upon a blog where a lady made them in a muffin tin - BRILLIANT! So we gave it a try, Sophia was my helper this time since she was the only one awake when I made these!

In a blender, combine:
1 cup milk                 1/2tsp salt
6 eggs                        1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour

once that's mixed well add 1/4 cup melted butter
(slowly so the eggs don't scramble)

grease muffin tin well, fill each cup no more than 1/2 full.
bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown at 400degrees

While they're baking you can have your 2 year old set the table!

This is after taking them out of the oven, in the oven they puff up, probably 3 or 4 inches from the top of the pan "incredible" as Sophia said!

We've tried lots of different toppings, you can fill the wells of the "cupcakes" with different jams, or powdered sugar and fresh squeezed lemon, but we prefer whipped cream and strawberries!  This recipe makes 20 cupcakes, Amelia ate 3 and then asked for a bowl of yogurt because they were all gone! Will most definitely be making these again!  Super easy and yummy too!

Monkey Bread

 My mom use to make monkey bread for us when I was little, so I figured I'd introduce it to my own kids... there were mixed reviews. Sadly I didn't have any helpers this time, I made it before they got up, I think if I had let them help they may have actually liked it!

One loaf frozen bread dough - thaw but don't let rise, cut into chunks, roll in cinnamon and sugar, layer in the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
Sauce: 1 stick butter
1 cup not packed brown sugar
                                                      1 tsp vanilla
                                                      boil in microwave then pour over top
                                                      bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes

Tim and Abram inhaled most of the pan, Amelia tried one bite and made a very disgusted face (although the next day she asked me to make it again because she liked it so much) and Sophia wouldn't even try it :( 

Overnight Breakfast

 This is actually called Grove City Breakfast (we were visiting Grove City college when my mom got this recipe).  Pretty simple, assemble the night before and bake in the morning!
In a 9x13 pan layer:
6 slices of bread
ham slices, I used diced ham because that's what I had
swiss cheese slices, I used shredded mozz, and have also used mojack

Shredding the cheese was the girls' favorite part!

 In a sauce pan, melt 1 stick of butter and saute 1/2c chopped onion until tender
Add: 2 tsp garlic
        1/2tsp celery seed
        1/2tsp dill
        1 tsp basil
pour over bread,meat and cheese
then add 6 more slices of bread

Wisk together 3 cups milk and 6 eggs

 Pour milk and eggs over top of pan, make sure you cover all the bread,
this is what it looks like, now cover with foil and (carefully-or else the eggs will slop all over the inside of your fridge) put it in the fridge until morning!

 Bake for 45 minutes at 350 - until the bread starts to brown up!

I cut into ours right away and I should've let it set for a few minutes, all the cheesy goodness started to ooze out but it was still very yummy!  We all liked this one, and we had left overs, which were amazingly good cold!









So what do you have for breakfast?   After a week of "fancy" breakfast I will admit that I'm craving a plain ol' bowl of cheerios, but we will definitely be changing things up more often!