Breakfast of Champions

For Chistmas this year J and I were given a Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker by my friend Lauren. The store I work in sells this little gadget and I've been eyeing them for quite a while so I was pretty excited when I opened it up Christmas morning. Yesterday was the first chance we actually had to use it and I was really happy with it.

We made our breakfast sandwiches using pancakes (Compliments frozen buttermilk pancakes fit in the sandwich maker perfectly if you've got one of your own), pre-cooked bacon, and an egg. After four minutes they were cooked perfectly. We covered them in maple syrup and enjoyed them with some fresh fruit. Best breakfast I've had at home in a while. (Actually better than the last meal I had at Cora's too, now that I think about it.)

Clean up was easy too, which is important to me. If it's too big of a pain to clean it I'm just not going to use it. I'm super lazy, especially when it comes to cleaning! (I made sure my slow cooker was dishwasher safe because I knew I wouldn't use it if I couldn't just chuck it in the dishwasher.)

The only downside was that we could only make one sandwich at a time, so J had his breakfast half finished before mine was finished cooking. They do sell dual sandwich makers, so if I feel like we're getting a lot of use out of this one I make look into getting one of those.

Do you have any neat little kitchen appliances that you love?

PS: This post wasn't sponsored or anything. I just really like our breakfast sandwich maker and I wanted to share one of my new favourite products. :-)

Meal Planning Success

I'm feeling kind of proud of myself today. Last week I sat down and planned out all of our suppers for the week. Some new recipes and some old recipes but a real, home-cooked supper for every night. So now it's Thursday and I'm excited to announce that I've actually stuck to the plan! (And I know, so far that's only 4 out of 6 days but for me that's a record.)

On Sunday afternoon I made this Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Stew from the Scrumptious Pumpkin. We had it Monday for supper and then Tuesday and Wednesday for lunch. Usually I avoid slow cooker meals that have multiple steps (I like the ones where you chuck everything in and then forget about it) but I'm glad I tried this one out anyways. I also usually avoid anything with cooked celery (or leave it out) but I'm trying to eat more vegetables so I made it with the celery. It wasn't thick and creamy like you'd expect from something with "pot pie" in the title but it was still enjoyable. Next time I think I'd use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, but I definitely do plan on making it again.

Supper Tuesday and Wednesday night both came from Ali at Gimme Some Oven. I find her recipes are really easy to follow. I'm still very much a novice, but I'm trying to get more comfortable cooking. Tuesday night we had the 12-minute Chicken & Brocoli. Even though this was my second time making this dish it still took me longer than 12 minutes. Supper was still on the table in under 20 minutes though, so it was perfect for a Tuesday night since I don't get home from work until after 6:30. On Wednesday night I stepped out of my comfort zone (and dragged J out of his) by making Ginger Beef, Mushroom and Kale Stir-Fry. I am not a lover of mushrooms. At all. But this recipe called for shiitake mushrooms and baby portobello mushrooms. So I bought them. And used them. And ate them. And didn't hate them. And then there was the kale. I really feel like I should eat kale. So every so often I throw it in something, hoping it will grow on me. It still hasn't. (But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try this recipe.)

As I'm sitting here typing this tonight's supper is cooking away in the slow cooker. We're having Slow Cooker Cream Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes from Six Sisters' Stuff. This is one of the few meals that I've made a number of times. It's one of those slow cooker recipes that I love, you throw everything in the slow cooker and in 4 hours (or 6 depending on what setting you're using) you have an amazing meal. J is very much a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy so this is something he really enjoys. I think it's tasty too, but my favourite part is definitely how easy it is.

Do you plan your meals in advance? What do you find helps you stick to the plan?

Breakfast Poutine

I love breakfast. Like a lot. But not healthy breakfast. Oh no, I like fried eggs and bacon and hashbrowns and white toast covered in butter or waffles covered in fruit and whipped cream and icing sugar or delicious eggs benedict with rich hollandaise sauce. So when my second, Melissa, submitted a breakfast poutine recipe for our staff cookbook I knew it was something I would have to try. And soon!

I made some tweaks and was really happy with the final product. J approved too, though he admitted he would prefer traditional eggs benedict. The only thing I didn't really like about this dish was that is used a lot of dishes.

Breakfast Poutine

 

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs, scrambled
• 1 pound ground sausage
• 1 bag home fries/hash browns (I used a 750g bag of McCain's Home Fries)
• Swiss cheese, shredded (the amount depends on how much cheese you want)
• Prepared Hollandaise sauce (I used a Knorr packet, but you could make it from scratch if you're really talented!)

Directions:



1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large pan fry up the hashbrowns. (I seasoned mine with a bit of garlic powder, salt and pepper)
3. Meanwhile begin cooking ground sausage.
4. Once it's cooked remove the sausage from the pan and cook your scrambled eggs.
5. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
6. Place hashbrowns in your prepared pan and top with sausage, eggs, and cheese. Pour Hollandaise on top.
7. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

I've never written out a recipe like this before, so please let me know if you have any questions or need any clarification. And huge thanks to Melissa and her family for introducing me to breakfast poutine!

Breakfast of Champions

I knew when I joined Weight Watchers that I needed to start doing a better job eating breakfast. If I don't have breakfast before I leave for work, I end up snacking on muffins and other pastries all morning. (One of the downsides of working in a grocery store - lots of fresh baked treats available.) However, I also knew that I wasn't getting up an earlier. Quarter to six is early enough thank you very much! So I turned to Pinterest to look for some healthy, make-ahead breakfast ideas.

I decided to try this Overnight, No-Cook, Refrigerator Oatmeal from Monica at The Yummy Life. (I made the vanilla raspberry version.) I liked that the recipe included chia seeds, I've had several customers mention how beneficial they are. I especially liked that they're supposed to make you feel fuller, longer. I thought that would be perfect as I began my Weight Watchers journey.

They were quick and easy to put together. I made three to get me through until my day off. On the first morning I got up super excited and eager to try my breakfast.

And it was gross.

Okay, it wasn't that bad. It was definitely edible. But my experience with oatmeal has been limited to oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and highly sweetended instant oatmeal packets. The oatmeal in my breakfast didn't taste like that. And greek yogurt is TART. At least, I think it is. Combined with the tartness of the raspberries it had my lips puckering as I tried to eat my breakfast.

The second day it wasn't as bad. I don't know if I brushed my teeth right before I ate my breakfast the first day or what, but the second day it wasn't nearly as tart. I still wasn't blown away though.

 After I finished my third jar I decided to try the chocolate banana version. Chocolate-banana is one of my favourite combinations. Again, I got up super excited and eager to try my breakfast. And again, I was disappointed. This week I'm going to try the maple-blueberry version. Hoping that the maple will add the sweetness that I seem to be looking for.

If that doesn't work I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do. Any suggestions for make-ahead or really quick breakfasts?

Oh, and I lost 2.6lbs in my first week on Weight Watchers. I'm pretty happy with that!

xo,
Sara

Ugly Pancakes



Ugliest pancakes EVER.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise, but on Easter Sunday we have a special service at church. We call it a sunrise service, but we always have it at 7am. (Even though the sun rose at about 6:22 today.) Our Pastor (who also happens to be my father-in-law) gives a short, somewhat simple, sermon. After the service we have a big pancake breakfast in the church gym.

The ladies bring all the dry ingredients for their pancakes, then we mix them up and start frying them up. I like to do something a little different from everyone else- I'm the youngest "wife" so I feel like it's my responsibility to be different. ;-) The past two years I've made chocolate pancakes, this year I decided to do chocolate chip pancakes made with greek yogourt.

I used this recipe from the Kitchen Magpie. Karlynn used blueberries instead of chocolate chips, but J requested chocolate chips. (I figure they were still probably a little bit healthier...) I was pretty nervous when I started spooning them on to the griddle, they didn't look like normal pancakes. I used sprinkles on some, but I only had little ones and they didn't seem to be that noticable. In the end the pancakes were a big hit though, and not just with the kids.

I don't think I'll use this recipe again next year though, so if you have any suggestions please let me know.

Happy Easter!

xo,
Sara

Canadian Content

{ Food Network Canada }

 

I used to say I hated reality TV, but I'm starting to realize that there's some reality TV that I love. I love cooking competitions. Master Chef and Hell's Kitchen are two of my favourite shows. But out of all of the cooking shows we watch, my absolute favourite is Top Chef Canada.

A lot of Canadian versions of shows just don't compare to their American counterparts (though I can't deny my love for Ryan Malcolm, winner of the very first Canadian Idol) but for the most part you'd never know Top Chef Canada was Canadian. At the same time, in some ways it's uniquely Canadian. It also doesn't have all the "drama" that Hell's Kitchen has and as much as I love Gordon sometimes he's just too much of a jerk. The judges on Top Chef Canada give honest feedback without being too harsh. (Or at least that's the way it seems.)  I'm not even sure how we stumbled across the show initially, but I'm glad we did!

I think all the cooking shows we've been watching are part of the reason I've become interested in expanding my horizons a bit in the kitchen. Never in a million years will I be as talented as the chefs that make it on to these TV shows (including the kids on Master Chef Junior) but I'm actually excited about trying new dishes and working with new ingredients.

Any seasoned cooks out there have any tips for how I should start my culinary make-over?

xo,
Sara