Bacon Powder Biscuits

I have a good Tuesday morning story for ya’ll. I’ll start out with this: a lot of you already know that K and I were born with hearing loss and both wear hearing aids. My hearing is much worse than K’s- which comes with its challenges, but has never been something that made me embarrassed or feel bad. In all honesty… It’s made my life pretty hilarious. Because I get to share stories like THESE.

Growing up, K and I always remember spending time with our grandparents. My Grandma and Grandpa Cole would have us over all the time and we’d play on the pool table, eventually smash each other’s fingers with the pool balls, play house, dress-up, and of course, eat.

My Grandpa was (is) known for his pancakes, namely because he’d make them into all sorts of different shapes for us. Though he could make any shape, we always requested the first letters of our names. Later, we found out that the ‘special’ pancakes were just Bisquick mix! Funny how something as special as Grandpa making them for you makes them taste like gourmet pancakes that no one else could ever replicate!

My grandpa also made us Bacon Powder Biscuits a lot. We’d have them for breakfast with butter and syrup and we LOVED it. I would request these bacon biscuits all the time and beg my mom to make them when we got home. She’d ask me if I was sure that’s what they were called and I was adamant there was bacon powder we needed to go purchase somewhere.

I’m sure you all know where this is headed. After a childhood full of Bacon Powder Biscuits and bliss, I came into the knowledge only a few years ago that there is, in fact, NO SUCH THING AS BACON POWDER.

WHAT!?!? I’m sure I tasted bacon in those biscuits. There’s gotta be a can of bacon powder out there somewhere. Pretty sure I’ve seen it in MarVal. Cooked, ground bacon to flavor these delicious breakfast treats. I swear I tasted bacon, guys. I don’t even want to know if I’ve told people that bacon powder exists.

Turns out,  my hearing aids heard something different for the first 20 years of my life. These heavenly Bacon Powder Biscuits were none other than your average (but still super tasty) bacon-less Baking Powder Biscuits.

Baking. Powder. 

Not near as much fun as bacon, but still one of my all time favorite breakfasts that reminds me of my grandparents. The recipe is in most cookbooks, despite my childhood belief, and I’m just sharing one of many!

~M

Buttermilk Baking Powder Biscuits

2 cups AP flour

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp cream of Tartar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 butter

2/3 cup buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add the buttermilk all at once. Using a fork, stir until just moistened.

Turn dough out on a floured surface and quikcly knead 10-12 strokes. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness and cut out biscuits with a biscuit cutter or overturned glass. Place biscuits 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm with syrup or jam!

p.s. Look what I found. A day will come when I will bring Bacon Powder Biscuits to life. Mark my words.

Spicy Chai Latte Blender Muffins

I love Saturday mornings, and I LOVE cold weather. It might be premature to say it’s ‘cold’ outside, but we’re getting there! Being a nurse, I used to work most Saturdays- especially since weekend shifts are the ones that you want to pick up when you’re new to the profession. I loved Saturdays for a different reason when I was working them- but now that we’ve got Gabs and I’m working less, Saturday mornings usually consist of: fresh brewed coffee, breakfast with the husband, snuggles with Gabs, and watching soccer while watching the sun come up.

It’s great. I love it.

Aaaand Gabs is 7 months now!! I’ve been without a phone for a couple days, so I don’t have a good new picture of her (Gasp! The horror!) but I’m sure that’ll be rectified soon. In the meantime, I have some delicious muffins for ya’ll.

You can make ’em in the blender.

My mom recently got a Vitamix (totes jelly) and it came with a fantastic recipe book for making pretty much anything in a blender! I don’t have a Vitamix, but I just used my regular blender for the muffins and things turned out okay. Deliciously okay.

We changed up a couple things on the recipe to suit our tastes, aka less sugar, less chocolate chips (what?) and spicy chai latte mix.

If the name of the recipe has ‘chai’ in it, that means it’s healthy right?? I don’t know, but these are super good and a perfect breakfast, snack, or post-workout re-fueler. In this case, a pre-workout snack- I’ve started going to some classes at my gym and am hooked. I don’t know how I keep going back because usually I can’t hardly move for 2 days after the class. Muscle Blast and Spin Class are my recommendations so far- each is led by an awesome instructor who is awesome at motivation and using music to keep up the intensity.

She made me do an extra set of push-ups because I merely mentioned Krispy Kreme in her class. Yeah. I LOVE intense fitness instructors though- I’m a glutton for punishment. Anyways, I usually save breakfast for after class, but these muffins are small enough and not super sweet, so they are a perfect energizer for a good workout.

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Best part about using a blender to make muffins? To clean the blender, Vitamix recommends just blending hot water and a drop of soap for 30 sec or so, and then rinsing. Then wah-LA! Clean! Changed my life.

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

~M

 

Blender Chai Latte Muffins 

adapted from the Vitamix recipe for Jamocha Tea Bread

Makes 12

INgredients:

{dry}

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 TBSP spicy chai latte mix

{wet}

2 eggs

1 stick of butter, softened

1/2 greek yogurt

1/2 milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In the blender, put all the {wet} ingredients. Once fully blended, add the blender mixture to the dry mixture and stir well. Add more chai mix to taste 🙂 Bake for about 20-22 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy warm with BUTTER!!

Dog Carnival & Blueb. Coconut Scones

 

This is our happy pre-walk face. My little red riding hooded sweetheart! Poor thing has had a lingering cough for the past few weeks, and has been waking up really, really early. So, to get myself up and about in the mornings, I inhale this amazing coffee my sister in law got me from Texas, and head out the door for a relaxing walk/run with Gabsy pie.

This morning’s walk, however, was a disaster. DEE-saster. I took our pack of (3) dogs with us, and that might be the last time I take all three out while I have Gabs! It’s amazing I have any hair left- Gabs thought it was hilarious that I was yelling at our dogs every 3 1/2 minutes   attempting to control such a crowd during school commute hours. I’ll spare you my not-so-happy post-walk face.

 

 

Ay yi yi! Never again, I tell you! I got back and was glad I saved my devotions for after the walk. My heart was in need of some softening after dealing with the dog carnival. My heart was in need of patience, and my tummy was in need of these delicious little numbers! Linds has a day off of school today and I knew she’d want to sleep in, thus giving me time to make some bangin’ scones, which I know are her favorite. (She’s staying with us this week while my parents are gone!)

 

These will make ANY hectic morning better, I tell you! With each bite, the crumbly, melt-in- your mouth texture just wins your taste buds over. These aren’t your typical cookie-like scones, they are made from coconut flour and brown rice flour, which gives the scone a little bit of a denser, more fine texture. I had both types of flour needed for this recipe in my house- I’m weird like that. I like variety, so if you look in my baking cupboard, I have about 7 different kinds of flour. You’ll realize why after you eat these! I’m like the weird flour-hoarder you’ll probably see on TLC someday.

Just kidding, I hope 🙂

 

Gabs had to pass these up for rice cereal, but I don’t think she minded.

Have a GREAT Friday!

~M

 

Blueberry Coconut Flour Scones

Adapted from The Hungry Hungry Hippie

Ingredients

1 c. coconut flour

1 c. brown rice flour

1 T. baking powder

½ t. salt

1/3 c. + 2 T. coconut oil, melted

1/3 c. honey

1 T. vanilla extract

¾ c. frozen blueberries

Juice of one lemon + the zest

1 c. hot water

Directions

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Then add the coconut oil, honey, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add the lemon juice and zest. Then add/mash the blueberries and the hot water. Stir until a moist dough forms.

Gather the dough into a ball and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Form the dough into a wheel (a flat round shape?), and cut into eight triangles by making four cuts across like a pizza. Brush with coconut oil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 22 minutes, or until brown on the edges and firm to the touch.

English Muffin French Toast

Before I get to the good part, I need to take a step back and talk to you about a few things. Have a little heart to heart.

Don’t be nervous, this is all on me. It has come to my attention that I have developed a nasty habit of ‘mentioning’ recipes, promising to ‘get back to you’ about them, and totally NOT getting back to you. It’s amateur hour over here, folks. Anyways, next week will be a redeeming blog week and I’ll make sure to get all of those to you! I’ll start by adding (today) the bomb-diggity Oliebollen recipe that was given to me by a dear family friend. This is her grandma’s special recipe that has been handed down the generations– so I hope you try it and treasure it! I wanted to get her permission before posting it to the Internet, of course. In her words, “My grandma would be honored!!”. I felt honored she would share such a special recipe!

 

Moving on! This morning I was about ready to default to the usual yog/bluebs/cereal bowl that has been my breakfast for ages- but then my eyes rested on a lonely english muffin that was sitting by our toaster. And I remembered that we only had ONE egg left in the fridge… all this lonely food in our house! Ah-HA! My mind jumped immediately to an idea I saw somewhere… but can’t remember where, so if this was your idea, let me know so I can give you credit!

I give you: English Muffin French Toast.  It truly is ten times better than plain ol’ french toast. So good in fact, that I may or may not have licked my plate clean.

 

Grody- I totally did lick it.

~M

 

English Muffin French Toast

serves one

Ingredients

1 english muffin, separated

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon maple extract

 

Plain Greek yogurt for topping (optional)

Syrup for topping (optional, or use honey)

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, maple extract, and cinnamon. Separate the english muffin into halves, and soak in the egg&milk mixture, flipping to soak both sides. Cook in a small pan over medium high heat until browned on both sides.

Top with greek yogurt and syrup, and enjoy!

Easy Pull-Apart Monkey Bread

Hands-down, the best thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning is the smell of monkey bread baking in the oven.

One could argue that cinnamon rolls have the same effect- I wouldn’t deny that either. But I just love the tiny little bite size pieces you can tear off of this melty cinnamon-y goodness! Each little piece is doused in melted butter, then rolled in cinnamon sugar, and then baked to perfection… whereas with a cinnamon roll, let’s face it. All you really are going for is the little nugget in the middle where all the gooey deliciousness is.

As you can see, I burned these slightly. I popped them in the oven on Sunday morning and then hopped in the shower, hoping my timing would be about right… which it would have been, if I hadn’t tried to quick blow-dry my hair before checking on them too. Anyways, ended up with a few er, crispy ones which happen to be my favorite! Joey cannot understand why I like things slightly burned- and neither really can I. So I just go with it.

This lovely treat is so simple to make. And very cheap! Just pop open a can of those Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits, tear each round into 4 chunks, and then dip in melted butter, then cinnamon sugar, and throw into a pan!

It is so hard not to munch on these all day long… just a warning that these have somewhat of an addictive quality! However, they work like a charm to win over a sibling that you may or may not have snapped at earlier the night before. They really help the apology process. “I’mreallysorryIoverreactedlastnightpleaseforgivemeImadeyouMonkeybreadanditsstillwarm!!!”

Works like a charm.

Either way, these are a super fun and easy treat for your husband, kiddos, roommates, siblings, or houseguests on relaxing mornings- they’ll be sure to impress!

~M

Easy Pull Apart Monkey Bread

serves 4-5

Ingredients

2 cans Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1 stick butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt one stick butter in the microwave, set aside. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon until mixed.

Open the cans of biscuits and tear each biscuit into 4 pieces- drop each piece into the melted butter to coat, then into the cinnamon/sugar mixture to coat. Then place into a greased pan (you can use a loaf pan or cake pan!) until all pieces are covered.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, keeping a close eye on them at the end!

Never Gets Old

Happy Monday!

I had a haaard time waking up this morning. Luckily I only live about 12 minutes from where I work, so rolling out of bed at 7:20 unfortunately does happen sometimes. I only had to work half the day today, so the rest of the day is free for finally changing my tires, and more importantly excitingly, my first session of prenatal yoga! I’ve been looking forward to this forever, so I’ll let you know how it goes- my flexibility leaves a lot to be desired these days.

My good friend Katy is training to be a yoga instructor, so it’ll be so fun to see her in action! We used to go to yoga/ the gym together every once in a while, but its been a while- time for some downward dog!

I started out this morning with the same breakfast I’ve been having every weekday for the past 3 months. Plain greek yogurt, fiber one cereal, and frozen bluebs (blueberries). Never gets old. I’ll be back tomorrow with a recipe for an extra special Sunday morning breakfast treat from this past weekend!

~M

Do any of you have a go-to breakfast?

June!!

These are my favorite mornings.

Sometimes Joey comes in for breakfast when I have the day off of work, and it’s a great start to the day- it’s like a little date before the day begins! Typically we eat breakfast on the fly, since we both have to be at work pretty early. So when we have these special days, we take the time to make something really, really good. Like today, we voted french toast and bacon. I didn’t really follow a recipe for the french toast, just threw a couple eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and a dash of honey into a bowl, lightly soaked the bread in the batter, and fried it up in some butter. I made a ‘skinny’ french toast for myself- all I changed was that I used vanilla almond milk (WHAT?! But you live on a DAIRY!?! How could you?! Are you saying that milk is BAD for you?!) No, no, no. Let me tell you, we drink our milk in this house! Raw, sometimes! But I’ve come to like almond milk as a fun and lower calorie change sometimes- anyways, Joey just planted some almond trees with his dad last year, so we have to support both industries! Also, I just used egg whites. Oh, and don’t forget the pure maple syrup- if you haven’t ever tried pure maple syrup, you don’t know what you’re missing out on! It’s a little more expensive than your regular thick syrup, but oh is it worth the dough. You’ll wonder why you ever acquainted yourself with Aunt Jemimah.

When I had about half a piece of my toast left, I knew that little smidgen I had left wasn’t going to fill this tummy til lunch! So I added a dollop of plain greek yogurt (Fage is my fave), and another little drizzle of syrup.

Sorry, that plate looks pretty gross. It sure was tasty, though!

After our lovely little breakfast date, we parted ways for the rest of the day. I quick took my dogs for a little walk/swim in the canal before starting my to-do list, which felt pretty good after that big breakfast. Aren’t they cute? I think they could smell the bacon on my breath…

I was surprised with a phone call from a dear friend during our walk too! It was so good to catch up- I think friendships are one of the greatest blessings out there. Plus, this friend had a pretty hilarious scary story. She will remain nameless, but if you see a girl walking around with pig teeth marks on her calf, you’ll know who I was talking to. Oh yes, it was a good story.

After I got back from our walk, I gardened a little bit and then headed out for some errands and groceries! I also got my laptop fixed, which will make this blogging experience a whole lot more fun. Those Apple employees are geniuses, aren’t they?! It actually says the employee’s name on their name badge, and ‘genius’ too! Awesome, I wish that was on my RN license…

That breakfast kept me really full well past lunchtime, and by the time I realized I was a little hungry- it was 3:45 and grocery shopping time! We all know it’s dangerous to go into Costco with a rumbly tumbly, so I popped into jamba Juice to try out that new green smoothie they’ve been advertising.

I got a sixteen ‘Apples’n’Greens’, and it was soooo good! Hit. The. Spot. I was slightly disappointed because there wasn’t actually any veggies in the smoothie, just the usual fruit and then veggie juice. I’ll still take it though. This was about 220 calories, and 3 servings of fruit and 2 servings of veggies! A lot of sugar still, but a girl’s gotta have her snack.

After Costco, I squeezed in some gym time! Ran a fast 2 miles on the treadmill with intervals, then about 32 min on the elliptical. Finished up with 2 sets of squats, some dumbells, and planks. Man, planks are killer. I always feel so energized after a good workout, and was looking forward to the usual pit stop at the fruit stand on the way home! Seriously- all this for $8.14?!

I have come to be pretty good friends with the staff at this fruitstand, since I see them once or twice a week! I always look kinda sweaty and gross when I’m there though, since its usually after the gym… sorry guys.

Now dinner time with my man! BLT’s and salad on the menu tonight! I guess we didn’t get enough bacon this morning… gotta keep that ball rollin!

Joey had the true BLT, and I had this beauty. This may well be the best salad of my life! I added a 3 bean salad to the top there- it was a Mediterranean bean salad from Costco, 70 cal for a 1/2 cup and SO good! Plus a scoop of hummus on the side. And tons of veggies and some bacon, of course.

Dessert:

This bowl x 3. Can’t get enough of those babies!

Happy June!

~M

P.S. did I tell you that K is coming over on Sunday again?! So excited! In the meantime, have a looksy at my adorable niece and her beautiful mommy!