Breakfast Cupcakes

One of J.'s roommates requested that I make this recipe which comes from Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy. We already had most of the ingredients and this had a lot of down time so it was a really great recipe to make on a lazy Sunday morning.


Ingredients:

-1 20 ounce package pre-shredded hash brown-style potatoes

-2 large eggs, lightly beaten

-4 tablespoons flour

-1 small sweet onion, coarsely grated

-1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

-1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

-Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

-1 dozen eggs, scrambled

-Sour Cream and chives for garnish

Mix together the first seven ingredients. 

Press into a greased muffin pan, make sure the muffin pan is really greased. 

It's not too hard to get the hash brown mixture to form cups, place some in the center, then press it up the sides of the muffin tin with the back of a spoon.

You'll need to make scrambled eggs out of a dozen eggs.

Remove the hash brown cups.

Fill with scrambled eggs.

Top with sour cream and chives. 

Serve.

First, you need make sure that the muffin tin is really greased, I had difficulty getting some of the hash brown cups out of the pan, three out of twelve to be exact. Second, you really do not need to make a dozen eggs into scrambled eggs, we had a lot of leftovers -- six to eight eggs would have been really good. I was able to eat three to four breakfast cupcakes because they were really filling.

Overall this was a good recipe, the hash brown cups did not crisp up as much as they did in the picture in the original blog, but the hash brown cups were cooked fine. If I had all of the ingredients on hand and was looking for something to make I would do this again.

Mini Hashbrown-Omelettes with Hollandaise Sauce

I know I've said over and over that I love breakfast for dinner, but it is just such a great way to finish the day! In the morning I don't have time to actually cook breakfast so I usually rely on a little cereal and a lot of coffee to get my through the morning. Since I don't get to cook for breakfast often, I really enjoy having it for dinner during the week. An added bonus is that breakfast recipes are usually easy!

This recipe is adapted from Hash Brown-Omelet Skillets by Never Enough Thyme. 

Ingredients: 
Hash Brown-Omelette 
-2 tablespoons of butter, divided
-3 cups refrigerated shredded hash browns (or frozen hash browns thawed)
-1 egg whites
-Salt
-Pepper
-1/2 small onion, diced
-1/2 small red bell pepper, diced
-3 oz. cheddar cheese, grated

-6 eggs

Hollandaise sauce
-3½ oz butter, cut into cubes
-2 free-range egg yolks
-½ tbsp cold water
-½ tbsp lemon juice

Measure 3 cups of hash browns into a bowl, mix with one egg white and 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

Spray six ramekins with cooking spray.
Fill each with an equal amount of hash browns, add salt and pepper to taste
Bake at 425 for  15 minutes

Near the end of 15 minutes, melt a tablespoon of butter and saute the pepper and onion until soft.

Carefully remove the ramekins from the oven, spoon an even amount of the pepper/onion mixture into the hash browns.
Re-season with salt and pepper if desired.

Top with cheddar, as much as you want.
Bake for 2 minutes at 425.

Carefully remove the ramekins again.

Crack an egg into each ramekin and bake at 425 until the egg whites are set.

Over a double boil beat the egg yolks for thirty seconds.
Add the water, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Add half of the butter, stir for 1-2 minutes.
Remove from heat and add the remaining butter slowly whisking the whole time.

Top each hash brown-omelet with hollandaise

Top with additional salt and pepper if desired and enjoy!

This the perfect breakfast for dinner, the only ingredient that I needed to buy was the red pepper. One thing to mention is that the ramekins are small, either serve this with a salad or another side dish or you can do what I did and have everyone eat two. Two small ramekins was enough to fill me up.

This was a hit with J. and my dad, the red pepper, onion and hash brown tasted great together. I made some toast to soak up the last bit of the egg. The original recipe didn't have any sauce with it, but I'm glad I made the hollandaise, it gave a nice acidic bite to the recipe. I will be making this again!                                

Apple Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

The idea for this blog comes from good life eats. I cut the original recipe in half, this made a few less than 2 dozen muffins. When I see a good breakfast recipe I like to try it, breakfast seems to be the meal that is most repetitive for me, so I'm always looking for something new and easy to eat in the morning.

Ingredients:

-2 cups flour
-1/2 cup quick oats
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-salt
-2 teaspoons cinnamon
-2 eggs
-1 cups buttermilk
-1 stick butter, melted and cooled
-2 green apples, grated
-4 ounces cranberries

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix the eggs, butter, and buttermilk in another bowl.

Grate 2 apples. I just used a cheese grater, it was much
easier than I expected.

Add the liquid and apple to the dry ingredients. 

Mix in the cranberries. You can use fresh cranberries, but
I used dried. Make sure you mix it well to distribute the fruit evenly.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

These muffins had just the right amount of sweetness and fruitiness. They were sweet enough to be tasty, but not too much for the morning. My mom really liked these too. She thought they needed a bit more fruit though, so if you like a lot of fruit in your muffins, I would recommend adding a little bit more.

Breakfast Nachos

I found this recipe on Pinterest and immediately went home to recreate it. You can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients:
-Oil, butter or cooking spray
-2 eggs
-salt & pepper
-1/4 cup cheddar cheese
-1 cup baked tortilla chips
-any desired toppings: I used salsa, lettuce and Tabasco sauce.

Pour the whisked eggs into a greased and heated skillet.

Scramble the eggs.

Remove from pan and keep on a plate for later.

Clean the skillet and add tortilla chips (this is all still over the heat). 

Top with the scrambled eggs.

And with the cheese. The cheese started to melt a little bit after half a minute - a minute.

Add other desired toppings and serve.

I scaled this recipe back to make enough for one and this serving size was perfect for me. The breakfast nachos are messy, but here's what was left of mine.

"

That's right...not much. These were so delicious that I texted my college roommate to let her know that I had just made a fantastic recipe. Next time you're looking for an easy meal this recipe is a must try for any meal.

Egg & Cheese on Onion Poppyseed Ciabatta

I'll be out of town this weekend with no internet so you'll have to check back on Sunday for a new post!! I promise a variety of delicious recipes for the upcoming week. 

As discussed in a previous post I am in love with Panera Bread. One of my guilty pleasures is swinging through by Panera for a coffee and an egg & cheese on ciabatta sandwich -- my stomach loves this habit but my wallet hates it. Here's a spin off of that simple ciabatta sandwich from Panera Bread which is sure to leave both you and your wallet happy.

Ingredients:
-Ciabatta Bread (I used Onion Poppyseed)
-White Cheddar Cheese
-American Cheese
-2 Eggs
-Salt and Pepper if desired

Grate white cheddar cheese onto the inside of the ciabatta bread, onto both the top and bottom bun. Add American cheese and heat until the cheese is melted.

Cook the eggs however you'd like -- poached, fried, sunny-side up or over easy.

Add your cooked eggs to the sandwich and top with salt and pepper.

Serve.

This breakfast sandwich was good, if I made it again I would add more white cheddar cheese instead of American cheese. I think the flavored ciabatta bread really made the sandwich so make sure to buy ciabatta bread with some extra flavor.

Egg in an Avocado Slice

I'm always looking for a good and healthy vegetarian breakfast. Also for whatever reason whenever I see an egg in a whatchamacallit recipe I just have to check it out (see Egg in a Bell Pepper from July). I found this recipe on online and you can find a lovely tutorial for the recipe here.

Ingredients:
-1 avocado, sliced and pitted but not peeled
-1 egg per each avocado slice
-Butter or Olive Oil spray for skillet
-Salt and pepper

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit.

Using a paring knife widen the holes in the center. And using a sharp knife cut off the back of the avocado making two thick slices.

Place in the skillet and cook until the egg is set, flipping once. 

Serve with salt and pepper.

This recipe was pretty good and really easy to make. The nutty flavor and buttery texture of the avocado went really well with the over-easy egg. You may notice that the avocado that I used doesn't look like the typical avocado -- the avocado people are use to seeing is the Haas avocado, the only variety I could find was a Florida avocado.  I don't think it makes a difference which variety you use.