Category Archives: breakfast

We like to move it move it….

baking, breakfast, kids Leave a comment

A word of warning before you proceed: if you do not parent/nanny/otherwise interact on a TMI level with a toddler and have never dealt with the, um, ickier sides of toddlerhood, stop here. Seriously. Do not read any further.

If you DO, however, find yourself acquainted with the ickier parts of toddlerdom, you may need this recipe. It is with that in mind that I even publish such a thing — I couldn’t find something fitting, so I made it up.

So if you’re still reading, consider yourself warned.

This is one of my solutions for The Kiddo Who Needs Fiber But Who Will Not Knowingly Ingest Fruits or Vegetables. I’m building an arsenal of solutions.

I’ve spent the last twenty minutes trying to think of a cuter title for this recipe:

Constipation Cookies

Bulk Biscuits

Move It Muffins

Sadly for all of you, I’m kind of at a loss.

Sadder still: sometimes toddler digestive issues are just not cute. We’ll leave it at that.  Without further ado: one of my secret weapons.

In a mixing bowl:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour (I use only King Arthur flour)
  • 1/2 cup flax meal
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp instant yeast
  • pinch of salt

Cut in with a pastry blender:

  • about 3 Tbsp of butter till the mix looks like cornmeal.

Add to this:

  • a big squeeze of dark Karo syrup (maybe a couple Tbsp.)
  • enough milk to make it look like biscuit dough.

If your toddler is willing to eat such a thing, raisins would be a great addition to these. Mine is not.

Pat out the dough on a floured surface (I use a floursack) and cut biscuits. Place closely together on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. To make them even more treat-like, sprinkle lightly with cinnamon sugar. Now bake them at 350* for about 20 minutes or until they’re a nice golden brown.

* I normally bake biscuits at more like 400 or 450 but whole wheat flour is denser and takes longer to cook through, so I like a lower temperature for these; that way the outside doesn’t get too crispy before the inside is done.

I have tried these, and they’re actually kinda tasty! The butter and the sweetness of the Karo make them more likely to actually be consumed by a toddler. With a smear of Nutella on top they’re downright tasty (but so is practically anything with Nutella). With some Sunbutter on them, they’re a meal for The Kiddo in and of themselves! Also (confession alert) I told my kid they’re cookies. So far he’s buying it.

Baked Oatmeal

baking, breakfast 3 Comments

Here’s the thing. Two things actually:

1. Oatmeal is really good for you

2. I hate oatmeal

On a mission to somehow learn to like it, I have discovered the answer: BAKED oatmeal. This comes out as a cross between oatmeal cookie and some kind of oatmeal crisp topping. And it’s for breakfast, people!

 

 

I started out with two different recipes from Allrecipes.com and kind of picked what I liked from each and reduced the sugar a bit (still tastes plenty sweet); here’s my final result:

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 3 cups old fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup Craisins

Plus:

  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon

To make:

  1. Beat oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar and eggs
  2. Add milk, salt, baking powder, oats and fruit and stir together
  3. Pour mixture into a greased pie plate and top with 2 Tbsp. brown sugar and cinnamon
  4. Bake at 350F for about half an hour; swerve warm with any combination of butter, maple syrup, milk and extra cinnamon

This was SO good and so healthy! Score!

Baked Oatmeal

baking, breakfast 1 Comment

Here’s the thing. Two things actually:

1. Oatmeal is really good for you

2. I hate oatmeal

On a mission to somehow learn to like it, I have discovered the answer: BAKED oatmeal. This comes out as a cross between oatmeal cookie and some kind of oatmeal crisp topping. And it’s for breakfast, people!

I started out with two different recipes from Allrecipes.com and kind of picked what I liked from each and reduced the sugar a bit (still tastes plenty sweet); here’s my final result:

Beat into submission:

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs

Add and mix:

  • 1 cup milk – I use whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 3 cups old fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup Craisins, raisins or other dried fruit

Pour all this into a pie plate, baking dish or muffin tin — but whatever you use, grease it. This stuff is like glue on a pan otherwise (I heard).

Now mix together and sprinkle on top:

  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

I baked this at 350 for about half an hour, then served warm with choices of butter, maple syrup, milk and extra cinnamon. This was SO good and so healthy! Score!

What to do when your thermometer probe stops working

breakfast, tools 1 Comment

Here is my thermometer one morning on yogurt making day; this is a day during which I desperately needed my thermometer to work. See this? img01634 That is my thermometer registering 103 degrees. Please to notice the probe is sitting on the counter. This. Is. Not. Good. After a lot of quality time with Google, I came to the conclusion that the likely problem was water in the probe; completely immersing the probe in water to wash it gets water in places it’s not meant to be. The solutions suggested were either boiling the probe in peanut oil for half an hour, or baking it in the oven at 300 degrees for half an hour, either of which should theoretically evaporate any water in the probe and render it useful again. The oven appearing to be the safest, least smoky option, I baked it. Slapped it right on the rack in the toaster oven at 300 degrees and let it cook for about half an hour. Voila, problem solved!

Update: a month later this is still working great. This is definitely a fix.

Epic muffin fail: a lesson in bakeware

baking, breakfast 1 Comment

I had some frozen bananas to use, so I pulled up the recipe for Aunt Mickey’s Famous Banana Bread from Rumble in the Kitchen. This recipe is brilliant! So quick and easy.  My crap bakeware and I take full responsibility for the partial failure of these muffins.

I wanted to make mini muffins with the batter because The Kiddo loves all things mini, and is more likely to eat a muffin than a slice of bread. I’m all about sneaking in fruits and veggies anywhere I can, so that was my game plan. I have a lovely 24-muffin mini pan by Wilton, and a 12-muffin size, a cheapo one I picked up at Home Goods sometime last year. Since I had plenty of batter I used both. And then some.

First, my bananas were frozen. I cut the ends off, then sliced it in quarters; from there I could pretty easily get the peel off. I dropped them, still pretty frozen, into the work bowl of Barbie’s Dream Mixer. Within just a few minutes they were on their way to lovely mush. I added in the sugar and remaining wet ingredients and mixed, and had a gorgeous light yellow batter in no time.

Then into the pans, as mentioned. I had a little batter left over even after filling those two pans, so I poured the rest into a ramekin. Maybe I’d end up with a little personal bowl of something like banana cake?

Baking time went by fast with two 2 year olds running around the kitchen. Verdict: USE A GOOD PAN. Here are the muffins in the cheapo mini pan:

ACK! What IS that? What happened? Two of them wouldn’t even come out of the pan, despite a generous greasing with butter before baking.

A study in contrast — the Wilton pan muffins on the left, the cheapo pan muffins on the right:

The ramekin was an utter failure. It looked lovely, but was still batter inside. I think if it had cooked more the top would have burned, so I pulled the plug on that part of the experiment.

After a purely professional taste test (I was hungry), I can tell you the ones on the left are divine! I’ll definitely make these again. When these cool I’ll freeze about 3/4 of the batch and pull them out for breakfast as needed. I think for the next batch I’ll throw some chocolate chips in, too. Breakfast of champions!