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ultimate spring breakfast: poached eggs with asparagus, smoked salmon, and hollandaise
I don’t know about where you live, but it is definitely not spring where I am. I’m going a little crazy. I thought this recipe would bring a little warmth and sunshine to the table.
When I had those gorgeous asparagus a few weeks ago, I wanted to do something special with them, so I got brave: I made hollandaise. And not the blender kind, either. I made the kind you make over the stove, which in my opinion, is better, since you actually cook the eggs.
banana bread protein shake
It is now two weeks after New Years, and I think we can safely say the holidays are over. I tend to come up with an excuse every day in January that conveniently pushes back the end of the holidays and my resolution to eat healthy and get fit. But it is best to ease into things, right?
pink applesauce
Back in mid October, I bought a huge box of these gorgeous Empire apples:
The folks at Allred Orchards assured me they would be best if I ate them quickly, or at least refrigerated them. Of course I didn’t, since that would have meant cleaning out my fridge, which I don’t ever do if I can possibly help it. Anyway, they ended up looking sad and wrinkly.
Well, maybe not sad. They’re still a pretty color. But they are definitely wrinkly.
So I turned them into applesauce.
pumpkin waffles
I promised a post on these pumpkin waffles today, so here they are!
What’s everybody making for Thanksgiving? I’ve got my day cut out for me: three loads of laundry, two batches of cranberry sauce, two pumpkin pies, and this amazing looking Apple Sour-Cream Crumb Pie that I saw in November’s issue of Martha Stewart Living. Then tomorrow I need to throw down six dozen Parker House rolls.
So, enough with all the chit chat. Here is the recipe, and then I’ve got to get to work!
green slime smoothies
I figured it was time for a Halloween recipe. I wasn’t intending to make one today; I was actually just trying to make something healthy after my workout. Now that I live in Utah Valley again, I can go to Sweaty Chix, the fitness club my friend Wendy runs. Wendy is a fantastic instructor. She is caring and full of energy and accepting. Today she kicked my butt in an hour-and-a-half class, starting with Sculpt & Burn, and ending with Zumba. I had been putting off doing a Zumba class since she told me to come over two years ago—not because it didn’t look fun, but mostly because I didn’t want to look like an idiot. If there’s ever a chance I might look uncoordinated, ridiculous, unintelligent, or like a goofball, I generally opt for staying on the sidelines.
But I did it anyway, and I did okay.
And I had fun.
So, if you live near where I live, be sure to check out Sweaty Chix. You won’t be sorry. I’m only sorry I put off going for so long.
Wait . . . now, what were we talking about? Oh yeah. Halloween.
When I made my smoothie, I just tried to use up some of what I had, and that resulted in something green and really thick. When I poured it into a glass, it was clearly something from “You Can’t Do that on Television” or “Double Dare,” so I called it a Green Slime Smoothie. Lucky for us it happens to be October, and we can say it’s for Halloween. And it’s healthy to boot.
bake sale week: cranberry breakfast muffins
I asked my friend what I should include in bake sale week, and he suggested I do something healthy, with cranberries.
Now, the term healthy has come to have as many meanings as there are Birkenstocks in a natural foods store. For some people, whole wheat isn’t particularly healthy, while for others, anything without hydrogenated oil is hailed as a model of virtuous cuisine. The other day, I saw a bag of gummy bears with a sticker on it that said “Healthy!” Apparently, they didn’t didn’t have any high fructose corn syrup in them, which I guess . . . makes them healthy?
our favorite kashi cereal
Phew! I’m back! Again! Our life seems to be a series of moves, which means absolute and utter chaos. Thanks for being patient! We have nearly settled into our second place this summer, and I feel like I can finally breathe a little and write on the blog again.
Tomorrow, the kids go back to school, and that means we’ll all be getting ready for our Bake Sale Week on sophistimom, which starts the first week of September.
A few months ago, Kashi sent me some cereals to try out, and asked us to write about our favorite one.* This is what I had to say about it:
Writing a cookbook truly has been a family endeavor—whether it was posing for photos, coming up with recipes, testing, or tasting—everything involved required the help of each one of my kids.
Because my book focuses on family celebrations, most of the food we’ve been tasting and testing hasn’t been exactly healthy.
I love Kashi’s meals in the frozen food section, especially the Mayan Harvest Bake, so when they recently sent me a sampling of their breakfast cereals, I was excited to try something new that would be both nutritious and at the ready while I finished up the last bits of my cookbook.
Our favorite Kashi cereal is the 7 Grain Flakes & Granola with Black Currants & Walnuts. It’s slightly sweet and fruity, which my kids appreciate, and I love the fact that it has two grams of soluble fiber per serving.
We like to serve it on a bowl of plain Greek yogurt with a spoonful of homemade blueberry jam.
*Since I originally wrote this copy, my daughter has taken a strong liking to Kashi’s GoLean Crisp! Cinnamon Crumble. She eats it by the handfuls all day and says, “It’s just so good.”
hot cross buns
Every spring in Massachusetts, the grocery store bakery would start carrying hot cross buns. They were beautiful and shiny, but never quite delivered on taste. And they certainly never had enough frosting.
For my recipe, I wanted to add in enough flavor to satisfy the cravings of my ten-year-old self, adding in plenty of butter and egg yolks, and more currants than most recipes call for. As for the frosting, if you put more on the buns than the normal cross pattern, you wouldn’t really end up with hot cross buns, but the recipe makes enough to get creative.
When I made mine, I didn’t add anything besides currants, but you could add raisins, dried cranberries or cherries, or even candied orange peel.
pumpkin stuffed french toast
I had some mascarpone in the fridge, and I wanted to make something really special out of it. Something that would say fall. My mind got to work, and I decided something pumpkiny and breakfasty would be the right way to go. So I came up with this. The longer name for this is Almond-Crusted Pumpkin Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast. That’s what I announced when I made it last Saturday morning.
blueberry sourdough pancakes
These are my new favorite pancakes. The sourdough creates little bubbles in the batter, resulting in spongy pancakes that soak up all the pure maple syrup and butter. The slight sour tang balances out the sweetness.
Some of you may know that I am in the process of moving (again!!!), and life is crazy, to say the least. So this post will just be a quickie. I can’t wait until we’re all settled in, and can get started on bake sale week! Any suggestions?
