Zucchini Bread

Here is a wonderful recipe for an easy Zucchini Bread. It came from my mother in law who is the master at making this bread. It is such an easy recipe that she has been making for years and years; my kids love it anytime. I made 2 loaves out of this recipe and they were gone within a day and a half by my kids, I did not get any! What is up with that? The Cooking Dad never got any either. Now I have to go buy more zucchini so I can make more, this time maybe I will load up and make about 10 loaves and freeze some, that way maybe we can get some before the kids eat it all. Well, here is the awesome recipe!

Zucchini Bread

3 C flour
2 C sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 C shredded zucchini



Mix all ingredients together. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.



See... I said super simple and it was.

Notes:
Some other variations that she has done with this recipe to change it up a little.
- Add 1 cup raisins
- Add 1 cup diced apple
- Add 1 cup chocolate chips (seriously, the chocolate chips tastes really good in this bread, I thought it was funny at first, until I tasted it... delicious!)
- Spraying the loaf pans with cooking spray is ok too; that is what I did because I did not feel like greasing and flouring and it worked fine.

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Lemon + blueberry = the most wonderful taste combination ever! Which is what we had for dinner the other night. We had breakfast in the form of Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes. I also made Lemon Butter and Blueberry Cream Cheese Spread to go with it. It was fantastic! So I am going to share my recipes with you all here today. This would make an excellent Mother's Day or Father's Day breakfast; or, just whenever you get the craving for some awesome pancakes! So this post is a 3 in 1 recipe collage, totally heavenly put together in this dish. Enjoy!



Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
(an adaptation of my usual buttermilk pancake recipe straight from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook)
2 C flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 C buttermilk
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 C blueberries (drained, reserving about 1 Tbsp juice if your blueberries have juice; if not than you can skip the draining and reserving)
1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest, or 1 Tbsp lemon curd, or both (depending on how much lemon you want)

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In another bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil; mix well. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients and combine well. Add lemon zest/lemon curd and mix well. Gently fold in blueberries and juice (if juice is desired) and gently mix. Cook on preheated griddle (about 400 degrees) until golden brown. Serve with Lemon Butter and Blueberry Cream Cheese Spread (recipes following)

Lemon Butter



1/2 cup butter, softened (do not use margarine)
1/8-1/4 cup lemon curd (depends on how much lemon you want)
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix well and refrigerate.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Spread



1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup blueberries, chopped in food processor or blender
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Combine all in a bowl until we mixed. Refrigerate.

Tips:
- Blueberry Cream Cheese Spread and Lemon Butter can also be eaten on toast, bagels, or english muffins for breakfast.
- Pancakes can be frozen in individual baggies (usually 2 per bag) and toasted in a toaster later for quick breakfasts.

Open Faced Apple Turnover

This is not your normal apple turnover. It is not a closed pastry with all that fruit goodness inside. Instead, I decided that I wanted to see what I was eating and just sort of constructed it as I went, it took me a couple of times making it to perfect it. I realized that you have to bake the puff pastry before you add the toppings or else it becomes mushy and doughy on the bottom (just remember that haha). It is so flaky on the crust and it meshes well with the apples, cinnamon, and raisins. It was a hit to the family once I got it right. Now that I got it right, I can share it with everyone. This is very easy to make and does not take many ingredients to make this for either breakfast or a really yummy dessert warmed up with ice cream. Enjoy!

Open Faced Apple Turnover

1 sheet puff pastry
1 can apple pie filling (or you can use homemade applesauce if that is what you have)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
Powdered sugar icing (if desired; recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out puff pastry into a circle and place on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray (I used a round pizza baking pan). Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Mix apples, cinnamon, and raisins. Place on top of cooled puff pastry. Mix together flour and brown sugar; cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Place on top of apples for a streusel topping. Bake for 20 minutes or until crumb topping is browned. Let cool and frost with powdered sugar icing.

Powdered Sugar Icing

2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4-5 Tbsp milk

Add vanilla and 1 Tbsp milk and mix together. Add 1 Tbsp milk and mix until desired consistency. Should use between 4-5 Tbsp milk to make a thick icing.

Variations:
- Use any type of fruit in place of apples; cherry pie filling sounds good too.
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for a yummy dessert.
- Drizzle with caramel instead of powdered sugar icing to make caramel apple turnover.

Danish Aebelskiver From Melinda Lee's Great Site

This is a cool recipe I found on this site Melinda Lee's page for Aebelskiver and then I used my own homemade raspberry jam for one filling and my homemade applesauce for the other filling. We just wanted something different for breakfast one day, and I had just seen something about these little gems on Food Network. I thought I have one of those pans, that looks fun for the kids while preparing something different than the same old pancakes or waffles. They went over big! It is some extra work but they tasted so good. Just visit Melinda Lee's site, she has all kinds of great foods on there, this particular page takes you to her Aebelskiver recipe.

Here is the pan you use:

You can get one of these at Aebelskiver Pan page from Cre8tive Kitchen Store. They come in cast iron, or aluminum. Cast iron is better and they are not expensive at all.

With the raspberry filling, I sprinkled them with powdered sugar and garnished with more raspberry jam, you can also put a little dollop of whipped cream on the side also.


With the applesauce filling, I made a crumb topping with some butter, brown sugar and a little cinnamon. It carmelizes over the hot aebelskiver and then you can serve some additional applesauce on the side. Caramel would probably be really good with them to make a dessert aebelskiver too. Then some whipped cream wouldn't hurt either.


Just check out Melinda Lee's site for more great ideas for all sorts of great recipes and then check out my store for the kitchen tools needed to pull off some of her recipes.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Whether you are fixing breakfast for a holiday or just because you want to; these cinnamon rolls are just plain fantastic! It does take some time, but taste so much better when they are homemade than store bought. With this recipe, you can be versatile and add raisins or use cream cheese frosting, or just use a plain powdered sugar glaze. Heat them up in the morning for breakfast or freeze some to bake later, they are great anytime. Here is my recipe:

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

4 to 4 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine or butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup raisins, optional

Cinnamon mix for center of rolls
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp margarine or butter
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine 2 cups flour with yeast. Heat and stir the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, and margarine or butter, add salt and cook until warm and margarine has almost melted (about 120-130 degrees). Add to flour/yeast mixture along with the 2 eggs. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a spoon stir in as much of the last 2 1/3 cups flour as you can.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of remaining flour (there should be 2 cups left to add if needed)to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes total of kneading). Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double (about an hour)

Punch dough down. Divide in half. Cover and let rest about 10 minutes.

Roll half the dough into a 12x8 inch rectangle. Melt the 3 Tbsp butter or margarine, brush half the margarine or butter onto the dough. Combine the 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle half the mixture over the butter on the dough. Top with raisins if desired. Roll up the dough and seal the ends. Cut the dough with a piece of fishing line pulling through the dough the make a clean cut without smashing the rolls. Slice into 12 pieces. Repeat with remaining dough until you have 24 rolls. Place rolls into 2 greased cake pans. Cover, and let rise until nearly double (about 30 minutes) Bake in 375 oven for 20-25 minutes. Cool slightly, remove from pans. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing or cream cheese frosting (recipes following here)

Powdered Sugar Icing

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
milk or orange juice

Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 Tbsp milk or juice. Stir in more milk and juice until desired consistency to drizzle over rolls.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 - 3 oz packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
2 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 - 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar

In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter or margarine and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating well. Gradually beat in enough of remaining powdered sugar to make frosting of spreading consistency. Frost onto cinnamon rolls

Apple Raspberry Turnovers

I found these turnovers in a new magazine I picked up and made just a couple changes to it. The magazine I found this recipe in is called All You (October 24, 2008 issue)and you can find it at their website at www.allyou.com. It seems to be a pretty good magazine that is not expensive (magazines are getting so expensive these days).

I substituted my own raspberry freezer jam for store bought raspberry jam and instead of putting sprinkled sugar on top, I used a powdered sugar icing on top of the turnovers. The variations of this recipe will be at the bottom of this article.

Apple Raspberry Turnovers

1 medium apple; peeled, cored, and diced
2 Tbsp seedless raspberry jam
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from one 17.5 oz package), thawed
1 large egg, slightly beaten

Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Combine apples, jam, and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out puff pastry into an 8x12 inch rectangle. Cut pastry into 6 - 4 inch squares with a sharp knife or pizza cutter (I used a pizza cutter and it worked better to keep the shape, the knife sort of pulled on the puff pastry)

Spoon some of apple mixture into center of each square, leaving a 1 inch border. Brush borders with beaten egg. Fold each square into a triangle and press edges with tines of a fork to seal (be sure to seal tightly). Using a sharp paring knife, cut 2 small steam vents in the top of each turnover. Sprinkle each turnover with cinnamon sugar. Place turnovers on lined baking sheet.

Bake until golden and puffed, about 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Variations:
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for dessert.
- Instead of the cinnamon sugar, drizzle with powdered sugar icing consisting of 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 5-6 drops of water and mix into a drizzling consistency (add more water depending on how thin you like your icing) you can make it thick and pipe it onto the turnovers to make them extra nice looking for special occasions.

Tips with the puff pastry:
- Check the label. IF you are using an all-butter puff pastry, freeze the turnovers for 15 minutes before baking. If you are using a puff pastry made with vegetable shortening, freezing isn't necessary.

Broiled Grapefruit

Some people think this sounds very strange. Well, it isn't. It is very tasty when you add sweet plus a little tart and add heat to it. When you add these things together... you get Broiled Grapefruit, and it is yummy for breakfast! I got it out of my Williams and Sonoma Breakfast and Brunch cookbook and I make it so often, I have that recipe memorized, that is how good it is.

Broiled Grapefruit

2 ruby red grapefruit
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 Tbsp butter

Cut the grapefruit in half and then cut around the segments so they will spoon out easily. Melt butter and add the brown sugar and cinnamon to make somewhat of a paste. Put grapefruit halves in baking dish and top each with equal amounts of brown sugar mixture, spread it all over the top of grapefruit. Broil 4 inches from element for about 2-3 minutes or until brown sugar is bubbly and grapefruit is hot.

Notes:
- You can use other types of grapefruit, I just prefer ruby red grapefruit.
- You can adjust the recipe to make more grapefruit halves or fewer, just adjust accordingly.

Banana Pecan French Toast with Caramel Drizzle

You want breakfast? Here is a very tasty decadent breakfast that was fun to make and very easy to do with just a few ingredients. I had the ingredients in the house and just made this up yesterday morning for my hungry family who wanted something just a bit different for breakfast.



Banana Pecan French Toast with Caramel Drizzle

8 slices thick french bread or sourdough
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter
3 bananas
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
caramel sauce (I used Smucker's Caramel Sauce Ice Cream Topping for the drizzle
Garnish with whip cream

Beat 3 eggs in a bowl; add milk and vanilla, beat well. Preheat griddle to 375 degrees and spray with cooking spray. Dip both sides of each slice of french toast and put on griddle, cook until golden brown on both sides.

Slice bananas and mix with lemon juice in a bowl (the lemon juice prevents the bananas from turning brown). In a saute pan, melt butter. Add bananas and pecans, saute for about 2 minutes until bananas are hot.

Put french toast on a plate, put some banana/pecan mixture on, drizzle with caramel sauce and then top with whip cream and a few more pecans. Enjoy!

Strawberry-Banana Breakfast Milkshake

Kids love milkshakes, they do not always like to eat breakfast. My kids are no different, sometimes a healthy milkshake is a good breakfast when they are on the go. Before sports activities is also a good time for a healthy milkshake as my daughter loves to have one before she goes to Tae Kwon Do class or any other physical activity.

This is a very versatile recipe as you can use any kind of fruit and any kind of yogurt. The wheat germ adds some vitamins, the banana adds protein, and if you are using blueberries instead; it adds a lot of antioxidants. I have the pickiest 3 year old on the planet and she even likes these (and she doesn't like anything, it is so hard to cook for her). Here is what I throw together in a blender for this recipe.

Strawberry-Banana Breakfast Milkshake

1 cup 2% milk
1 container vanilla or strawberry yogurt
1 banana
1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a blender and blend well, serve in a tall glass with a straw.

Notes:
- Substitute any fruit for the strawberries and bananas
- Substitute any yogurt for the vanilla or strawberry
- Make this thicker by using less milk and serve in a parfait cup topped with granola and more whole fruit for a tasty parfait treat.

Quick Breakfasts on School Mornings

photo courtesy of http://www.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:School_bus.jpg

Here we are again at the beginning of another fun filled school year. Kids have to eat breakfast to fuel their minds for the day. When they do not eat breakfast, they tend to be more sleepy, sluggish, and not as alert as they would if they eat a good breakfast. A person does not have to be a gourmet cook by any means to make sure their kids have a good breakfast. These are some of the breakfast choices my kids have in the mornings and they do not have the same old thing every day (well unless they want to anyway).



In the summer, I always buy alot of berries. Strawberries and blueberries are our most favorite. I make jam with some of it, we eat some of it, and then there is freezing it for winter. One thing they love is smoothies. You can make a fresh fruit yogurt smoothie for them to drink up before leaving for the bus or even on the way to the bus. Just get some fruit, yogurt, milk and whip it up in the blender. Strawberry banana is a hot flavor for my older daughter; bananas are good for you because they are packed with potassium which your body needs. My youngest loves anything blueberry; do the same thing with blueberries, yogurt, and a little milk. Sometimes add honey for a little extra sweetness, especially when using a tart berry like blackberry or raspberry. To-go cups can be purchased at Costco with lids, they look like espresso cups and then get some straws and they can take their smoothies to go.

Yogurt Parfaits are also popular. Just take some fruit, granola or other favorite cereal, and of course, yogurt (any flavor). Mix it up or layer it in a parfait cup the night before and they can just grab it and eat it before leaving. My kids go for Multi-grain Cheerios in their parfait cups. Hubby likes granola in his. This is such a versatile breakfast and you can make so many combinations with different kinds of cereal, fruit, and yogurt out there on the market.



You can have waffles, pancakes, or french toast on hand. A lot of people buy the frozen kind, but I make my own since it is more economical that way. Anyone can whip up pancakes, waffles, or french toast on their own and then cool them off after cooking, place 2 or 3 in a freezer bag and freeze their own breakfast foods. Much cheaper than buying frozen and better for you when you use wheat or any multi-grain flour.



You can add miniature chocolate chips, blueberries, bananas and nuts, or whatever sounds good at the time. My oldest son likes bacon waffles, I put bacon bits in the waffle batter and then cook them. He says its like having his bacon and waffles all in one. Then they make waffle or pancake sandwiches with peanut butter and jelly and they can take them with them out the door.



Any multi-purpose cookbook will have recipes for pancakes, waffles, or french toast. Websites also have recipes for nutritious batters for these wonderful breakfast foods. You just have to look and find what is out there, rather than paying more than you need to in order to have these frozen convenience foods out there.

So whatever the kids like, make sure they eat in the morning before leaving for school. You would be doing them a disservice by allowing them to leave before fueling them up for the morning. Extra work in the morning or the night before is well worth kids getting better grades, and being healthier overall because you thought to make sure they had something for breakfast every morning.