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Category Archives: Brunch Dishes

Golden Raisin Almond Crumble Muffins

January 27, 2010

Apolinaras and I have a similar outlook on life and agree on all major issues that couples tend to fight over (family, money, politics, etc), but sparks always fly over desserts! I like to indulge in treats laden with butter and sugar since I don’t bake very often and feel like one real cookie satisfies my cravings more than several more healthy imitators. Apolinaras, on the other hand, is a health nut and is always trying to convince me to lighten things up. Unfortunately, this means I usually end up baking something only one of us actually enjoys. This needs to change! So, I decided to challenge myself this weekend and see if I could whip up a batch of muffins that weren’t completely bad for you that I would actually still gobble up with a smile.

I had a bunch of golden raisins left after making a Moroccan Beef Meatball Tagine from a recent issue of Bon Appetit, so I decided to center my muffins around them. Although applesauce is commonly added to low fat baked goods to keep them moist, I didn’t want to buy a jar just for one recipe, so I decided to puree a pear instead. In addition, I reduced the amount of sugar I normally use, used low fat sour cream and white whole wheat flour, and topped the muffins with an almond meal crumble topping. These muffins tasted like coffee cake AND Apolinaras wasn’t completely disgusted by the nutritional profile – problem solved! Well, for muffins at least…

Golden Raisin Almond Crumble Muffins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Crumble Topping:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2/3 cup almond meal

Muffins:
1 medium Barlett Pear, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped golden raisins

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cups. To make the crumble topping, mix the melted butter, brown sugar, and almond meal in a small bowl.

To make the muffins, pulse pears and sour cream in a food processor until smooth (I had 1 cup of liquid after pulsing); place in a large bowl and stir in butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in golden raisins.

Scoop muffin batter evenly into the 12 prepared muffin cups. Top muffins evenly with the crumble topping. Bake at 350˚F for 20 to 25 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

Nutrition: 260 calories, 14.2g fat, 2.2g fiber, 3.3g protein per serving
Cost: $0.34 per serving

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Egg and Potato Squares with Gruyere, Asparagus, and Mushrooms

January 1, 2010

Happy New Year! Did anyone else make any foodie resolutions? My goal last year was to get my blog up and running, and I remember spending the first few weekends in January designing the header and side bars for my little site. This year I just want to continue challenging myself in the kitchen and would like to cook at least one new recipe a week. I made a lot of progress in this area last year – I roasted my first chicken, played with royal icing and fondant, and conquered my fear of yeast. But, I have an ever-growing list of foods to master! I want to finally learn how to cook all the different cuts of meat, conquer pasta, and make my favorite Indian dish, saag paneer (if anyone has an Indian cookbook recommendation, please let me know!). Oh, and I’m hoping to convince my family to let me host Thanksgiving! I could go on and on… I spent part of today organizing and prioritizing the long list of recipes I’ve saved from around the blogosphere and my cookbooks, and I’m already looking forward to getting in the kitchen! Things definitely started out on the right track because I braised lamb for the first time last night and it turned out perfectly! I also wanted to make something special for our first 2010 breakfast.

I was inspired by Elly’s delicious moussaka a few months ago and really liked how the potatoes were fried first and then served as the base of the dish. So, I decided potatoes needed to be used in this way in a breakfast casserole. I topped the potatoes with shredded gruyere, mushrooms, and asparagus, and then poured an egg mixture on top – so good! I made enough for an 8 inch square pan, but the recipe can easily be doubled for a 13×9 if you’re having company. You can also fry up the potatoes and cook the veggies the night before so all you have to do in the morning is whip up the eggs! Yay for 2010!

Egg and Potato Squares with Gruyere, Asparagus, and Mushrooms
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large baking potato, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
2 cups sliced mushrooms (8 ounces)
1 cup sliced asparagus (4 ounces)
4 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat and pan-fry the potatoes on both sides until they are light golden brown. Place the fried potatoes slices evenly in the bottom of a greased 8×8-inch baking dish. Sprinkle gruyere cheese evenly on top.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in the same skillet and sauté mushrooms for 5 to 7 minutes until tender. Repeat with remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and asparagus. Evenly top gruyere cheese with the veggies.

Whisk eggs, milk, flour, and salt together in a large bowl. Pour over the veggies. Bake at 350˚F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cut into squares. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 355 calories, 21.7g fat, 2.8g fiber, 19.6g protein per serving
Cost: $1.68 per serving

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Green Eggs and Ham

November 8, 2009

Wednesdays have quickly become my favorite night to relax in front of the TV because I love Top Chef and have become addicted to Glee. I was so disappointed this week when Glee wasn’t on due to the World Series and the “Top Chef All Stars Dinner” was on instead of a new episode. I thought it was pretty boring overall, but did perk up a bit when they showed the clip of Carla working her magic and whipping up an incredibly creative green eggs and ham dish. Why didn’t I think of that? I loved all the Dr. Seuss books growing up – in fact, “Go Dog Go” was the first book I could read by myself. Anyway, I decided to come up with my own version of green eggs and ham as a little tribute to Carla, who SO should have won last season!

I knew I wanted to make the eggs green naturally, so I decided to whip the eggs together with spinach and basil until they were well incorporated in the food processor and then scramble them. I topped the eggs with a bit of crispy prosciutto for my ham component. The basil flavor really came through and I thought this was a great way to sneak in some spinach. I also really enjoyed the contrast of the soft eggs with the crispy prosciutto. This is another recipe I look forward to making for our future kiddos someday!

Green Eggs and Ham
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 slices prosciutto, chopped
1/3 cup cooked chopped spinach
8 fresh basil leaves
4 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large nonstick skillet and sauté prosciutto 3 to 5 minutes or until crispy. Remove prosciutto from the pan and drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, place spinach, basil, eggs, milk, and salt in a food processor and mix until well blended. Place eggs in the same pan the prosciutto was cooked in and sauté 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked, stirring frequently. Top scrambled eggs with crispy prosciutto. Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition: 189 calories, 13.8g fat, 0.8g fiber, 13.2g protein per serving
Cost: $1.20 per serving

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Apple Spiral Chai Coffee Cake

October 16, 2009

I was super excited when my friend Shannon organized an apple picking field trip the other weekend to Smolak Farms! Not only would I get to check out a local orchard for the first time, I also would get to meet several of my favorite fellow Boston food bloggers, including Nicole, Kelly, Elina, and Lauren. We all had a great time chatting and discussing which apple varieties to use in our future apple concoctions (check out their sites from some great pictures!), and to top it all off I picked up a pack of spiced apple cider and donuts to enjoy after we got home!

So what exactly do you do with 10 pounds of apples? I’m actually not a huge fan of raw apples. I had one daily for years and then suddenly one day I couldn’t bring myself to even take one more bite, so I guess I just overdid it, but my hubby polished off quite a few and I helped by doing a bit of baking! Apolinaras requested a low fat and sugar apple crisp and I also made my favorite apple coffee cake, which is always on our table when we have weekend guests. Since it’s an upside down cake, there ends up being a lovely spiral of apples sitting atop a moist cake layer spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cloves. The walnuts add an extra crunch! SO good.

Apple Spiral Chai Coffee Cake
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Apple Layer:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tart baking apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Cake Layer:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.

Prepare the apple layer. In a small bowl, mix butter and brown sugar. Spread sugar mixture evenly in greased cake pan. Fan apple slices in two concentric circles on top of the sugar mixture.

Prepare the cake layer. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and salt. Mix thoroughly with a fork and set aside. In another large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Slowly mix in the flour mixture and then the walnuts.

Bake at 350˚F for 35-40 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes or until the cake comes away from the edges of the pan, then run a knife around the outside of the pan, and immediately invert on a serving platter, and cut into wedges. Makes 12 servings.

Nutrition: 330 calories, 25.1g fat, 2.0g fiber, 4.7g protein per serving
Cost: $0.55 per serving

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Roasted Butternut Squash, Prosciutto, and Sage Quiche

September 25, 2009

I secretly enjoy checking out wedding registries and seeing what makes couples tick. Are they more excited about the monogrammed towels and fine china or the obscure kitchen gadgets and fancy knife sets? I’m sure you can guess which category we fell into! I was recently browsing through my good friend Emily’s wedding registry to send her a shower gift. Emily is a great cook (her hummus is seriously the best I’ve ever had!), and while I know people want everything on their registries, I still had a great time carefully selecting the kitchen items I thought she would enjoy and use most often.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to her shower because it was being held in Chicago (but we are super excited to go to the wedding in November!), but browsing through her registry made me wonder what they were serving at the shower. That’s just how my mind is wired! I hope they were serving something like this quiche, which I think would be perfect for a fall brunch shower. It’s gourmet enough to serve to company because it’s stuffed with prosciutto, fresh sage, and roasted butternut squash – yum! I’ll definitely be making this again.

Roasted Butternut Squash, Prosciutto, and Sage Quiche
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 leek (white and light green parts only), chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 eggs
2 cups milk
4 slices chopped prosciutto (1/2 cup)
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 10-inch pie crust

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Place squash on a greased cookie sheet and drizzle evenly with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bake squash for 25-30 minutes at 400˚F or until tender. Lower oven heat to 350˚F.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet and saute leeks for 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and saute one additional minute.

Beat eggs and milk in a large bowl until well mixed. Mix in butternut squash, leeks, prosciutto, cheese, sage, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Line a 10-inch pie pan with prepared pie crust; pour in quiche mixture. Bake at 350˚F for 45 to 60 minutes, or until set. Cool slightly and cut into 8 wedges. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 330 calories, 20.4g fat, 2.0g fiber, 14.1g protein per serving
Cost: $0.91 per serving

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Mini Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches

August 24, 2009

My hubby and I shop for the majority of our groceries together on the weekends, but Apolinaras usually heads to the store by himself when we need something during the week. I try to help him out by structuring the list so it goes in order of the store aisles and usually he remembers everything. But, there’s one thing he never forgets and actually will get without me even asking – mini whole wheat bagels! I go through them really quickly because I like to have one as a snack after work when I’m starving but still need to throw something together for dinner. I also like to make quick mini bagel pizzas when Apolinaras is at one of his networking events and I’m on my own for dinner. But my favorite way to enjoy them is in mini breakfast sandwiches! I’ve already professed my love of breakfast sandwiches and make them practically every weekend.

I decided to mix things up this week adding roasted tomatoes and creamy ricotta cheese mixed with fresh basil, along with my usual eggs and turkey bacon. I think a normal serving is two little sandwiches, which I noted below, but I actually couldn’t resist them and ate three! I was completely stuffed afterwards, but it was worth it. They are addicting!

Mini Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
6 slices turkey bacon
2 small tomatoes, sliced
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil
6 mini whole wheat bagels, split and toasted

Directions:
Cook bacon in large skillet over medium high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet; drain on paper towel. Cut each strip in half.

Clean out skillet and add sliced tomatoes. Saute for 5 to 7 minutes over medium high heat or until tender, flipping once.

Spray medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Whisk eggs, milk, and salt, in a small bowl and add to the skillet. Cook until eggs are set on the bottom and bubbly on top. Cut in half and turn eggs over to finish cooking until eggs are set, then cut eggs into six equal portions.

Mix ricotta and basil in a small bowl until smooth.

Spread ricotta cheese mixture on bottom half of each mini bagel. Top with the tomato, eggs, and bacon. Cover with top halves of muffins. Makes 3 servings.

Nutrition: 456 calories, 16.5g fat, 2.6g fiber, 24.9g protein per serving
Cost: $1.16 per serving

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Boston Cream Pie Mini French Toast Stacks

July 8, 2009

While I was visiting my parents in Des Moines last weekend, my mom and I put on our aprons and chef hats, and collaborated on this breakfast treat. She’s the first source I go to when I need any advice in the kitchen because she’s an awesome high school culinary arts teacher! Her classroom consists of several commercial kitchens and a café her students run, which is open to the public for lunch a few times a week. She not only prepares her students for a restaurant career or culinary school, but also takes them to national culinary competitions, where they cook or bake in teams or individually. I wish I could have taken her classes in high school! I’m hoping to convince her to write a guest blog post about her program and famous chocolate cake when her kids are back in school next year.

I already developed a pancake recipe with my mom in mind since she loves sweets for breakfast, so it was only natural that we come up with another breakfast treat. We decided Boston Cream Pie French Toast would be delicious and my mom had the brilliant idea of using soft dinner rolls to make little mini French Toast stacks! We cut each roll into 3 slices and cooked them up as French toast and then filled the layers with vanilla pudding and topped the stack with chocolate ganache. They tasted very indulgent, but are not really all that bad for you. We had ours with strawberries, but I think any kind of fresh fruit would also be great. Oh, and check out my mom’s cool strawberry fan – she’s always teaching me something!

Boston Cream Pie Mini French Toast Stacks
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 soft dinner rolls (ours were about 2 1/2 inches on each side), cut into 3 slices each
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup vanilla pudding (we made instant with 1 3/4 cup milk so it would be on the thick side)
8 strawberries, sliced

Directions:
Whisk 1/2 cup milk, eggs, and vanilla in a pie pan until smooth. Spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium high heat. Working in batches, dip 12 roll slices into egg mixture on both sides and cook about 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and remaining 1 tablespoon milk on high for 45 seconds, stirring once after 25 seconds, until melted.

To assemble the stacks, layer the first third of each roll, 2 tablespoons vanilla pudding, another third of the roll, 2 tablespoons pudding, and the final one third of the roll. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of chocolate ganache on top of each stack. Garnish with sliced strawberries. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 257 calories, 10.0g fat, 2.5g fiber, 8.4g protein per serving
Cost: $0.89 per serving

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Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes

June 7, 2009

This recipe is for my mom. She love pancakes and considers them a breakfast treat. She would often make pancakes on the weekends while my brother and I were growing up and always took the extra time to spell out our names (7 pancakes – score!). She usually ended up making me two Ks, one to munch on while she finished the rest of the letters of my name, and one at the very end to replace the one I had already eaten! I don’t make pancakes very often, but when I do, I want them to be special. My mom also loves the Cheesecake Factory and goes there just about every weekend for Sunday brunch. So, this recipe combines her love of strawberry cheesecake and pancakes!

I usually use whole wheat flour in everything, but I’m not a fan of it in pancakes for some reason, so I tried white whole wheat flour for the first time and was pleased with the results. I added graham cracker crumbs and sliced strawberries to the pancake batter and then drizzled a cream cheese sauce on top instead of syrup. So good and I can’t wait to make these for my mom when we visit in July!

Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (3 crackers pulsed in the food processor)
2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sliced strawberries
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon milk

Directions:
Mix the flour, graham cracker crumbs, 1 tablespoon sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Stir in the egg, buttermilk, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract until just combined. Stir in the strawberries.

Pour 1/3 cup scoops of batter onto a greased nonstick skillet over medium heat. Flip the pancakes when bubbles start to appear on top, after about 3 minutes. Cook the other side until golden brown. Makes 6 pancakes.

Mix cream cheese, milk, and remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract in a small bowl until smooth. Drizzle over pancakes. Makes 3 servings.

Nutrition: 423 calories, 21.8g fat, 2.6g fiber, 9.1g protein per serving
Cost: $0.78 per serving

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