Thick and Creamy Chia Seed Pudding

May 14, 2020 | Brunch

This thick and creamy chia seed pudding is a sweet and protein packed alternative for a quick breakfast! It’s hardly even a recipe, you mix up just a few ingredients and let it set for a few hours and it’s ready to go! Mix and match fruits and flavors for a new creation every time. 

Ingredients:

• ½ C chia seeds
• 1 14 oz can of coconut milk (not milk from a carton)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¼ maple syrup 
• 1 ½ tsp salt

Now you make it:

1. In a large bowl pour out the coconut milk and mix thoroughly, so that the milk and the cream are combined
2. Add in the chia seeds, vanilla, maple syrup, and salt and stir until it is evenly blended
3. Let the bowl sit in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, or until set. 
4. Top this thick and creamy chia seed pudding with fruit, jams, or granola (my recipe for that is here!)

Enjoy!

Crunchy & Clustery Granola

May 7, 2020 | Brunch

There’s nothing better than crunchy and clustery granola to top off a hearty breakfast (a new list of ideas below!) This granola is low in sugar but still tastes sweet and is the right amount of crunch to chewy ratio. This granola is made with simple ingredients, and you can sub out any of the nuts to make it just the way you like it!

My mama has been making this sweet, crunchy and clustery granola for years, and it made my whole kitchen smell like my childhood while I was baking it this morning. Hopefully it warms up your kitchen with a little happiness.

Different ways to eat said granola:

• Sliced apples with a thick smear of peanut butter, granola on top
• Waffles/pancakes/ bagels/toast- peanut butter, banana, and granola on top
• Granola with milk as cereal
• Granola as a topping on oatmeal
• Yogurt parfait

Ingredients:

• 4 C oats
• 1 ½ C sliced almonds 
• ½ C chopped walnuts (optional)
• ¼ C brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• ½ C coconut oil
• ½ C honey
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 C craisins or raisins

Now you make it:

1. Preheat oven to 300
2. In a large bowl mix oats, almonds, walnuts, salt, cinnamon, and craisins
3. In a microwave safe bowl, combine brown sugar, coconut oil, honey and vanilla and microwave for 30 seconds or until the coconut oil is melted. Stir until there are no clumps. Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients and mix together carefully, until all of the oat mixture is lightly covered
4. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and spread out granola evenly. Bake for 40 minutes. Resist stirring throughout the baking so that the granola can form larger clusters

Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this granola, check out some other breakfast recipes here!

Tropical Green Smoothie

Apr 23, 2020 | Brunch

One way or another, I try to get my greens in every day! This concoction of a tropical green smoothie has been my daily go to for the last few weeks.The girls at work will attest to my green smoothie I show up to work with, I call it my “pond scum”. I promise it tastes better than it looks 🙂

The vitamin C is essential, especially coming out of flu season and amidst this virus. Blended in a smoothie is one of the easiest ways I’ve found, and there’s about a million different ways you can blend one up. If your greens are starting to go bad, this is one of the easiest ways to use up a lot of them before they’re wasted!

For the record, frozen fruit is the cheapest way to go for smoothies. It chills and gives flavor, but is pretty cheap to buy, especially at Aldi. It gets pricey to add fresh fruit in to something that will be blended so you won’t even get to fully enjoy the fresh produce itself.

Ingredients:

• ½ C milk of choice (I use almond milk)
• Generous handful of spinach
• Generous handful of kale
• 2 tsp flax
• 1 tsp chia
• ⅓ C mixed frozen fruit (pineapple, mango, and blueberries)
• 1 scoop of protein powder of choice (I’ve been using vanilla Orgain)

Now you make it:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth
2. Add ice cubes to chill and thicken to preference

Hardly even a recipe, but it works.

Enjoy!

Serve this tropical green smoothie up with some other breakfast yummies here!

Caramelized Brown Sugar Bacon

Apr 23, 2020 | Brunch

My mom has been making this caramelized brown sugar bacon for brunches and special occasions for as long as I can remember. I made it for all of our women’s team potlucks in college, but it’s been too long since I made it last. Time to change that! 

This is a perfectly sweet and addicting way to make bacon, and in the oven- so even better! Use any bacon you like with this- regular, turkey, meat substitute, or I even saw someone online making carrot bacon?? Whatever floats your boat- I used Trader Joe’s dry rub bacon.

Ingredients: 

• 1 package of bacon of choice (I used Trader Joe’s dry rub bacon)
• ½ c brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp black pepper
• Pinch of salt
• ½ tsp chipotle powder
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp paprika

Now you make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 and make sure the oven rack is in the middle. Line a baking tray with tin foil and if you have a baking rack set that in the pan (lightly spray with nonstick to help yourself with the cleanup)
2. In a shallow dish, combine brown sugar and spices
3. One at a time, coat bacon slices in brown sugar seasoning, patting it onto the meat so both sides are evenly coated
4. Line on baking wire, they will have to be almost overlapping to fit the whole package, but it’s okay if they’re squished. Sprinkle any remaining brown sugar seasoning over bacon on the rack, taking care not to drop excess down on the foil 
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes (18 was perfect in my oven). Watch closely after 15 minutes because the brown sugar and drippings can easily burn 

Enjoy! 

For more brunch recipes to serve with this caramelized brown sugar bacon, check out my protein pancake mix!

Fluffy No Cut Biscuits

Apr 12, 2020 | Brunch

Honestly you can never go wrong with a fluffy biscuit, but it’s easy to create a dried out overly tough one. Here’s how to avoid that- don’t spend time rolling them out and cutting them!! Instead, make these fluffy no cut biscuits!

This is the easiest and most delicious biscuit recipe, one my mom swears by (and that means it’s good). Less than 30 minutes from start to finish, and these are golden on the top and fluffy and flaky on the inside..basically they’re a dream come true. 

Ingredients:

• 2 C flour 
• 1 tbsp baking soda 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ C buttermilk (straight from the fridge, not room temp)
• ¼ C butter, cubed (also straight from the fridge)

Now you make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 500
2. Mix dry ingredients together and then add butter. Using a fork or whisk, chop butter/mix together until the butter is in fine crumbles. I did this in a food processor and pulsed about 10 times. The key is to not overwork your dough, so mix it as few times as is efficient
3. Add buttermilk and fold in until well combined, but working with the dough as minimally as you can- this produces tough biscuits
4. Spray a round cake pan and a ¼ c measuring cup with cooking spray. Lightly flour a baking sheet
5. Using the measuring cup, scoop out a dozen balls of dough and drop them on the baking sheet into the flour. Quickly roll them in the flour just enough the coat them and form a ball, and then place them in the cake pan- 9 on the outside and 3 in the middle 
6. Bake for 5 minutes at 500, and then turn your oven to 450 and bake for 12 more minutes. Let them set for 5 minutes before flipping them upside down and breaking apart

Serve these fluffy no cut biscuits with butter, jelly, honey, or my homestyle breakfast sausage gravy!

Enjoy!