What's on YOUR Menu? (Wk 4)

(If you want to share some of the lunch/dinner ideas you have for this week, leave a comment after the post. Thanks!)

Warm & Toasty Drinks---Recipes.

If you have any other recipes to add, feel free to leave them in the comments section. Thanks!!


Cocoa Colada
Submitted by: Sarah
Recipe courtesy Food Network Magazine

Prep Time:10 min

Cook Time:5 min

Serves: 2 servings

Directions

Bring two 14-ounce cans coconut milk and 1 cup water to a simmer over low heat. Add 1/2 cup sugar and 8 ounces chopped milk chocolate and whisk to melt. Spike with coconut rum, if desired, and garnish with toasted coconut.

How To Make Toasted Coconut

Submitted by: Sarah

By Rhonda Parkinson, About.com Guide

Toasted coconut adds flavor to Asian dishes and makes an attractive topping for desserts.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 5 minutes

Here's How:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Lay coconut flakes out flat in a baking tray.
3. Stir in a small amount of cinnamon and/or sugar for flavor if desired.
4. Heat the flakes for about 5 minutes, until they turn a rich brown color.
5. Use as desired.

Recipes to try on your own:

Hot Cocoa from Scratch (Single Serving)
Submitted by: Liz

• 2 t. Dutched Cocoa (you can use regular, but Dutched is yummier. Hershey's doesn't work very well though. You can often get Dutched less expensively at health food stores than at the grocery store.)
• 2 rounded t. sugar
• 1 1/2 t. (1/2 T.) milk
• a little more than 3/4 c. milk
• vanilla, mint, or other extracts; flavoring syrup like hazelnut; or cinnamon
  

1. In a small mug (10 oz. is the size we have I think), mix the cocoa and sugar with a spoon. If you like your hot cocoa darker, you can use less sugar and/or more cocoa. My mom likes to use 2 t. sugar and 2 rounded t. cocoa.
2. Pour in the 1/2 T. milk (I usually approximate rather than measure) and mix thoroughly. When you do this, it will seem like you don't have enough liquid at first, but if you just keep mixing with a spoon it will turn into a thick paste.
3. Then add a little of the 3/4 c. milk and stir, then add the rest or the milk and mix. (This method works the best, but if you forget and just add all the milk at once without making the paste, it'll still work mostly).
4. Microwave on high 1 minute.
5. If desired, add extracts or flavoring syrup: I like one drop of mint, 1/4 t. of vanilla, 1/2 t. of hazelnut flavoring syrup, or a couple shakes of cinnamon. And of course, you can top it off with marshmallows or whipped cream if you like.

Simple yet Substantial Breakfasts---Recipes.

If you have any other recipes to add, feel free to leave them in the comments section. Thanks!!

Baked Apple Oatmeal

Submitted by: Julie

• 3 cups rolled oats (quick or old-fashioned)
• 2 cups chopped apples (could use dried apples, too, or another fruit)
  
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1 large egg - beaten
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Prepare a 2-quart baking dish with a light coating of cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a seperate bowl, mix together milk, egg, applesauce, butter, and brown sugar.

Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry and pour into prepared dish.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Stir the oatmeal and add more milk if you want it less firm (1/2-1 cup), fold in the chopped apple, and bake 20 more minutes until top is lightly browned.

Spoon into serving bowls and serve with milk and a little extra brown sugar.

Freezeable Breakfast Burritos

Submitted by: Alicia

(This makes two dozen big fat burritos, bigger than you might make them. Depending on how big you make yours, you may get more burritos out of the amounts of ingredients I use. So you might want to buy an extra package of flour tortillas.)

3 dozen eggs

2 one-pound packages Jimmy Dean sausage (I use regular flavor but sage or maple would also be good)

2 32-ounce packages Ore Ida frozen hash brown potatoes (shredded or cubed, your choice, I use cubed)

2 7-ounce cans Ortega diced green chilies

1 medium yellow onion

16 to 24 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese (depends on how much cheese you like)

salt and pepper to taste

24 large (burrito size) flour tortillas

Scramble the eggs. I beat the eggs with about half a cup of milk and a couple of tablespoons of water and salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the hash browns according to package directions. I chop one yellow onion up and add it to the hash browns as they cook.

Cook the sausage. I chop it pretty well, so it's crumbly, as it cooks.

Using the biggest mixing bowl you can find, place hash browns, scrambled eggs and sausage in the bowl and mix gently but thoroughly. Add the green chiles and gently stir into mixture.

Place the flour tortillas on your kitchen counter, just a couple at a time so they don't dry out (if they dry out, they break when you fold them), and sprinkle Cheddar cheese down the middle. Place a couple of big spoonfuls of the potato-egg-sausage mixture on top of cheese. Fold burrito, folding the short ends in first and wrapping the long ends around.

Wrap each burrito individually in aluminum foil and freeze. These last a couple of months in the freezer.

Take the number needed out of the freezer the night before and let them thaw in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, since they're already wrapped in aluminum foil, just pop them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until they're heated through. If they're not completely thawed, just heat them a little longer.

You can always top them with green chili or a cheese sauce, pretty much what you'd get on a breakfast burrito in a restaurant.

Yogurt---homemade in a crockpot

Submitted by: Alicia

The Ingredients.

--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized is fine, but do NOT use ultra-pasteurized. (Debbie recommends starting with whole milk until you get the hang of yogurt-making)

--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter) Note: I add 3/4 c. started and it makes thicker yogurt.

--frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring

--thick bath towel

The Directions.

This takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home to monitor.

I used a 4 quart crockpot.

Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.

When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.

Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.

Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.

In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened---it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.

Blend in batches with your favorite fruit. I did mango, strawberry, and blueberry. When you blend in the fruit, bubbles will form and might bother you. They aren't a big deal, and will settle eventually.

Brown Sugar Muffins
Submitted by: Andrea

Preheat oven to 375- lightly grease muffin tins.

Topping:
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. flour
2 T. butter
2 tsp.cinnamon
Mix topping in small bowl and set aside.Mixture will be crumbly.

Batter:
1/4 C. softened butter
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 C. milk
1 1/3 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp.salt
Pour batter into muffin tins- sprinkle with topping. Bake for 15-18 min.


Granola
Submitted by: Tiffany

4 c. oats
2 c. wheat germ
1 c. coconut
1 c. nuts
3/4 c. brown sugar OR 2/3 c. honey
3/4 c. oil
1 Tlb vanilla in 1/3 cup water
sesame seeds, sunflower seeds
Mix it all together and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake it 250-300 - stir every 15 min. until light brown
Add raisins, craisins, or any dried fruit after you bake it.

Rice Pudding

Sumbitted by: Sarah

Ingredients--

• 1 C whole milk--try experimenting with different kinds of milk if you want
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 to 1/2 C brown sugar--try other sweeteners if you'd like (agave, honey, etc.)
  
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 3 shakes (hmmm, don't know the correct term :0)) of nutmeg
  
• 2 1/2 to 3 C cooked rice (I use brown rice, but other kinds work too. Use less rice if you want it more puddingy and more rice if you want it more substantial.)

Optional extras:

• Walnuts (or other favorite nuts)
• Fresh/Frozen fruits (berries, apricots, peaches, etc.)
• Raisins
• Pie filling (my favorite is cherry...if you want to turn it into an easy dessert :0))
• Milk, if you want it to be less porridge like

Instructions--

1 On the stove or in the microwave (beverage setting) warm up milk. You want it hot but not boiling.

2 In a small mixing bowl, whisk together egg and brown sugar until well mixed. Add the warm milk and stirk until well combined.

3 Pour mixture into a saucepan and stir, on low heat (3 or 4), for 10-15 minutes, until thickened. Make sure it doesn't come to a boil or the mixture will curdle. It doesn't ruin it, it just doesn't look as nice! Then stir in the vanilla, remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon and nutmeg (and any other extras you want to add in). Lastly, mix in your rice, stir and enjoy!

Serve warm or cold.

Serves 2-3...unless you chow it down like I do! You might just need to see how far a batch goes in your family :0)

**You can make larger batches and keep in the fridge for quick breakfasts. Just stick in a microwavable dish to warm up and you're ready to go!**

Recipes to try on your own:

Whole Wheat Pancakes
Recipes submitted by: Liz

One of my favorite easy breakfasts is to make a batch of pancake batter and eat off it for several days. Store the batter in a covered bowl in the fridge and just pour out a couple of pancakes each day for yourself. The batter may get a little thicker after it sits, so you may want to add a splash of milk to thin it back out. By doing this, you only have to take the time to make the batter once or twice a week (which only takes like 10 minutes), and then the rest of the days, you have fresh, hot pancakes ready to eat in like 5 minutes. Here are two different recipes that I like.

Favorite Pancakes (from Loretta Jensen)
Mix and set aside:

• 1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 c. white flour
• 2 T. baking powder
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 t. salt

In a separate bowl, mix (I just do this in a 4-cup glass measuring cup):

• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 c. milk
• 1/4 c. oil

Combine wet ingredients with dry and mix with a wire whip only until flour is wet. Bake on hot griddle.

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

• 1 c whole wheat (whole wheat berries, NOT flour)
• 1 1/2 c milk (divided)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 c oil
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 c. Brown sugar

1. Put whole wheat and one cup of the milk in blender. Blend on high for four minutes (this will make a paste).
2. Add remaining 1/2 cup milk, eggs, oil, baking powder and brown sugar. Blend for 3 more minutes, until mixed. This will make a thin batter. If you want a thicker pancake, white flour may be stirred in to make desired consistency.
3. Cook pancakes on hot griddle.

Homemade Whole Wheat Egos (Waffles)

Similar to the pancakes, I like to make the waffle batter once but have waffles all week. Instead of keeping the batter in the fridge, though, I make all the waffles at once and freeze any that I don't eat. They can then be easily reheated (without thawing) in the toaster or toaster oven. Even better is to undercook those to be frozen just slightly. Here's our favorite whole wheat waffle recipe.

Whole Wheat Waffles (from David Cane)

• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. milk (add a little more for the right thickness if necessary)
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1/2 - 1 t. salt
• 1 T. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 - 1/2 c. oil

Mix and bake on hot waffle iron.

Perfect Cinnamon Rolls

Submitted by: Christy

1 c. warm milk

1/3 c. melted butter

2 eggs

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. salt

4 c. flour

1 T. yeast

Put warm milk, sugar and yeast into your mixer and mix for a minute until combined. Let the yeast grow until foamy and bubbly (about 5-10 minutes). Then add the eggs, butter, flour, and salt and combine until smooth and mixed together. Let dough sit in the bowl until it has doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours). When it has doubled, put a small amount of flour on the counter and pour the dough onto the counter. Roll dough out until it measures 16 inches x 21 inches.

Filling:

1 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 T. cinnamon

1/3 c. melted butter

Melt butter and spread on dough rectangle. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle all over buttered dough. Roll up and cut into 16 equal rolls. Place rolls on greased cookie sheet 4 across and 4 down. Cover w/ greased plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour). Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.

Frosting:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1/4 c. cream cheese

1/2 t. vanilla

1/8 t. salt

Frost 1-2 minutes after finished baking.

What's on YOUR Menu? (Wk 3)

Warm and Toasty Drinks/Simple yet Substantial Breakfasts.

Our running list of Recipe Reservations:

• Yogurt--homemade in a crock pot
• Freezable breakfast burritos
• One variation on Oatmeal--"World famous in Poland" :0)
• Granola
• Strata
• Rice pudding
  

I just started researching recipes for Simple yet Substantial Breakfasts...here are some website links I thought might be helpful if you're like me and stumped :0)

MrBreakfast1

WomensHealthMag

DeepFitness

TheKitchn

What's on YOUR Menu? (Wk 2)