Ice Cold Strawberry Milkshakes

My dad recently reminded me of this tasty low calorie treat. If I'm craving ice cream or something sweet at night, this will really hit the spot and satisfy my craving. Plus, it's really filling and you'll eat it slower because it's cold! These are so good, even strawberry haters (yes, they do exist, in my own house, actually) will gobble them right up.

15 frozen strawberries
1/2 cup Splenda (or sugar)
2 cups fat-free milk

Blend until smooth. Makes 4-5 cups. Weight Watchers Point Plus Value: 4 points for the whole batch. About 1 point per cup, depending on serving size.

Zucchini Quiche

Do you have zucchini at your house? Then you must make this recipe. It was so good, I made it for my family dinner one night, then made it for a girly lunch with the women in my extended family a couple days later. Everyone raved about it, from the non-zucchini lovers in my house, to my two-year-old, to my husband, and my grandma.

Another thing I have to say is this is the way to prepare zucchini as a side dish. No more of this steaming mushy stuff. Slice your zucchini very thinly, and cook it up with some onions and garlic in a little bit of butter and top it with salt and pepper. It was so good I couldn't stop picking at it with my fingers while I prepared the rest of it. I used one of those ginormous zucchinis that come from your garden, so I sliced it as thinly as I could, then cut the slices into quarters.

I simply bought two frozen pie crusts at the store (they came in a two pack) and found a pound of gruyere cheese at Costco. I used a deep dish pie crust, so I added an extra egg and a little more cheese than the original recipe.

Zucchini Quiche
adapted from Our Best Bites

1 deep dish frozen pie crust
1 lb. zucchini
1 Tbl. butter
1/2 c. chopped onion
3 cloves garlic (I used 3 tsp. prepared minced garlic)
kosher salt
black pepper
4 eggs
1/2 Tbl. dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp. dry oregano
1/8 - 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, depending on how much kick you want
8 oz. gruyere cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese (or if you are out like me, I substituted the powdery stuff and it still tasted great)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large skillet on the stove top, melt butter. Add onions and garlic and cook for about 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add sliced zucchini and add a sprinkle of salt (about 1/2 tsp.) and a few cracks of black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes until zucchini is softened. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add dijon mustard, oregano, and red pepper flakes. (You might want to use the lower end measurement for red pepper flakes for kids.) Whisk to combine, then gently stir in Gruyere cheese.

Add egg and cheese mixture to zucchini mixture and toss until combined. Place mixture in prepared pie crust and sprinkler Parmesan cheese on top.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until center is set and top is lightly golden. Cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting. Can be served warm, at room temp, or even cold.

Edit: I would add that if you are using an old zucchini, remove the seeds. The first time I made it with a ginormous zucchini from the garden, and the seeds softened up just fine and blended into the quiche. The next time I made it, the zucchini was a little older and the seeds didn't soften up and you had to pick them out as you ate it.

Mexican Quiche

I love this dish. Very cheesy texture and good flavor. We eat it for breakfast or dinner.

1 cube butter

10 eggs

½ c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 8 oz. can chopped Ortega chilies

1 pt. cottage cheese

1 lb. Jack cheese, grated (or use the Mexican blend)

½ tsp. salt

Melt butter in 9 X 13 pan to be used in baking quiche. Beat eggs, add flour, baking powder and salt. Blend, then add melted butter, chilies and cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes; reduce to 350° and bake 40 minutes. Cut in squares. Serve hot or cold with salsa on side and chopped cilantro (optional).

Homemade Egg McMuffins and Biscuit Sandwiches

Another good breakfast recipe from Laura at Real Mom Kitchen. We've made something similar to these ourselves before, but the thing that really made these great were the precooked frozen sausage patties. We ate them fresh, but Laura freezes hers for a quick breakfast in the morning. Check out her site for the instructions to freeze and reheat them.

The first time I made them with English muffins and they were a hit. The next time I made them, my English muffins were gone, so I used Grands Biscuits I had left over from dinner the night before. They were both really good, but the biscuit sandwiches were even better, 0f course. It's the same thing but with butter and more calories, right?

My husband deemed these better than McDonald's. I found the sausage patties precooked in the frozen section at the grocery store, then warmed them up in the microwave assembling the sandwich. I think it was the sausage patties that made these especially good.

English muffin, toasted (or Grands biscuit)
1 egg per sandwich, scrambled according to your taste
1 slice American cheese
1 sausage patty, precooked

Scramble eggs (1 per sandwich). I scrambled mine like I always do with a little bit of water, salt, and cheese. Split and toast muffins (for the biscuits, I just cut them in half). Assemble sandwich with eggs, sausage, and cheese. If you like, you can warm in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese before serving.

Deluxe French Toast

I tried this recipe thanks to Laura over at Real Mom Kitchen. She got it from Cooking Light (and it is technically called Pain Perdu). I love my plain old French toast that I make for my family and cook up on the griddle, but I thought this was fun for when you want to make something special.

The only drawback is it took too long to cook enough to feed my family hot out of the pan (3 pieces every 7 minutes).

That said though, my family raved about this meal. It was rich and buttery and tasted like restaurant French toast. If I were to make it again, I think I'd get two pans going with melted butter or try it on the griddle so I could cook more pieces at a time. Also, when I made this, I made a double batch, but I had to triple the amount of the egg and milk mixture to have enough liquid to coat and saturate the bread. I also made it without the orange rind, purely by accident, and served it with syrup because I was in a hurry and didn't have my strawberries ready to go.

3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon grated whole nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
8 (1-ounce) slices diagonally cut day-old French bread (about 1 inch thick)

2 cups sliced strawberries
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
4 teaspoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1. Combine milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, salt, and eggs in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Place bread slices in a 13 x 9–inch baking dish; pour egg mixture over bread; turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until egg is absorbed.

2. Combine strawberries, remaining 1 tablespoon sugar, and rind in a small bowl. Let stand 20 minutes.

3. Melt 2 teaspoons butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 4 bread slices to pan; cook 3 1/2 minutes on each side or until golden. Repeat procedure with remaining butter and bread.

4. Place 2 bread slices on each of 4 plates. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered sugar; top each with 1/2 cup strawberry mixture.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 349
Fat: 10.2g (sat 4.5g,mono 3.4g,poly 1.1g)
Protein: 11.7g
Carbohydrate: 52g
Fiber: 3.4g
Cholesterol: 172mg
Iron: 2.8mg
Sodium: 540mg
Calcium: 136mg

Cheese on Bagels

Just a simple breakfast idea to mix things up. You can't go wrong with this - I guarantee everybody will love it.

Cut your bagels in half and place a slice of cheddar cheese on top of each bagels half. Toast under the broiler until the cheese starts to bubble. Then you have two options: go ahead and eat it like it is, or sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. I know some people who stand firmly in the no salt and pepper camp, and others who won't eat it without. Which do you prefer?

My Favorite Omelet Combo

This is my favorite omelet combo. We'll even have them for dinner or lunch sometimes.

2 eggs, or 1 egg and 1 egg white
ham
mushrooms
pico de gallo
salsa
cheese

I have a small 6 inch fry pan that works perfect for omelets. I turn the heat to 7 (medium high heat), spray with PAM and cook the ham, mushrooms, and pico de gallo until the mushrooms are soft. Transfer this mixture to a bowl.

Whip up your eggs in a separate bowl, spray the pan with PAM non stick cooking spray again, and when your pan is hot add your egg mixture and evenly distribute eggs around the pan. You may have to scrape down the edges.


When the eggs are mostly cooked through, add cheese, ham, mushrooms, pico de gallo, and salsa.



Fold the omelet in half and let it gel together for a few seconds before transferring to a plate.

Bon appetit, omelette du fromage.

Scrambled Eggs

So I know scrambled eggs are probably one of those things where YOU DON'T NEED A RECIPE...

so why is it that everyone' scrambled eggs turn out so differently?

My dad makes some mighty fine tasting breakfasts. He is famous for them. I learned how to make scrambled eggs from him.

In my opinion and per my dad's instructions, there are 3 things you need for great tasting scrambled eggs. I have learned from my own experience when I left one of the 3 out.

1. water
2. salt
3. cheese

I've been taught you add water to eggs, milk to french toast.

The tricky part is figuring out the amounts of each. I never measure, I've just gotten a feel. You will too.

1. Whip up your eggs in a bowl. Add a shot or two of water from the tap. (shot meaning a real precise measurement of turning the water on and off again really quickly). If you add too little water, the eggs won't be very fluffy. If you add too much, once the eggs are done cooking you'll have some water leftover in the pan. Not a big deal. Whip the water into the egg mixture.


2. I like my pan on a medium high heat. That's a 7 on my stovetop. Spray your pan with non stick cooking spray if you think you'll need it.

3. When your pan is hot, dump the eggs into the frypan.

4. Salt to taste. My taste, eggs need a fair amount of salt. Eggs without salt taste nasty. I salt the pan as I would if it was vegetables on my plate at the dinner table, but like I said, I like salt, especially with my veggies. BUT: My husband, who is not an over-salter like me, approves.

5. Add cheese, also to taste. Last time I made 10 eggs for my family, I used between 1 cup and a cup and half of colby jack cheese.


6. Stir until eggs are cooked through and not slimy. Serve with ketchup or salsa if you like. My best batches? They're so good they don't even NEED ketchup or salsa.




Our favorite stir ins while the eggs are cooking:

ham
leftover taco meat (even with the kidney beans in it)

One Eyed Jacks

Trying something new here. I had never made these before so if anyone has any tricks or tips, feel free to share how you do it.

Use a glass to cut a hole in the piece of bread. Butter one side of the bread and place on griddle set to medium high heat.

Butter the other side of the bread, then crack an egg into the hole. Salt and pepper as desired, flip when ready.

If you like, butter the circle of bread you cut out and cook it on the griddle too. Use it to dip in the egg yolk. Serve with hashbrowns and orange juice.

We thought these tasted good, but it was more of hassle when cooking for multiple people. Faster to just make fried eggs with toast.

Strawberry Belgian Waffles

Believe it or not I had never had anything but syrup on waffles until a few months ago. So if for some reason you are strange like me and have never tasted these before, please go put strawberries and cream on top of some waffles right now. You will feel like you are eating strawberry shortcake for breakfast.

How does your family do waffles or pancakes? I love this waffle recipe, and I also love the Krusteaz pancake mix (with more water added than what the recipe calls for). What brands do you like and/or which recipes does your family like? I know about Amy's whole wheat pancakes, and I think my inlaws have a whole wheat pancake recipe that I need to track down. It will take some time, but I think I'll give some different recipes a try. Sounds like an easy way to get more whole wheat into my family.

Emeril's Belgian Waffles

This recipe is from Emeril on the Food Network. BAM.

Bowl 1: Sift

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Bowl 2:

4 egg yolks

2 Tbl. sugar

Beat until sugar dissolves and eggs turn a pale yellow color. Add 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 4 Tbl. butter, 2 c. milk.

Bowl 3:

Beat 4 egg whites about 1 minute until peaks form.

Combine Bowl 1 and 2, fold in egg whites. Do not overmix. coat waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Use 3/4 c. batter each time (at least this amount is perfect for my waffle iron). Makes 8 round Belgian waffles.

Breakfast Pizza

This is a tradition for our family on Christmas morning and every six months for General Conference. On Christmas we have it with orange slices topped with powdered sugar, and for Conference sometimes we'll make orange julius to go with it.

2 packages crescent rolls
1 package sausage, cooked
1 1/2 c. frozen grated hashbrowns
12 eggs
salt and pepper
grated cheese
parmesan cheese

Roll out the packages of crescent rolls to cover a jelly roll pan (3 long ways, and 1 across the bottom). Pinch the seams together to seal and be sure to make a crust around the edge of the pan or the eggs will run underneath.


Sprinkle the sausage and hashbrowns evenly across the pan. Whip the eggs in a separate bowl and pour over the sausage and hashbrowns. Top with salt and pepper and grated cheese. Finish with parmesan cheese on top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with ketchup. It's good without ketchup too. :)