Caramel Apple Breakfast Casserole

We're heading off to a potluck brunch this morning... I threw this together last night, baked it this morning.  Couldn't of been easier and is going to be so delicious!  It's almost as good as a crockpot meal ;)

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 4 medium or 3 large apples, peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 6 slices of bread, torn

Directions

• In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs, milk, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• Peel and dice the apples.  In a smaller mixing bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Toss with diced apples.
• In a greased 8×8-inch glass baking dish, tear 3 slices of bread and add to the bottom.  Then add a layer of the diced caramel apples.
• Tear the other 3 slices of bread and spread on top of the apples. 
•  Pour egg/milk mixture into the baking dish.  Cover with foil and let stand in the refrigerator for at least an hour (overnight, ideally!).  Preheat oven to 350.
• Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake another 15-20 minutes, or until eggs have cooked through.

Coconut Flour Pancakes (Gluten Free)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup half & half or coconut milk (full fat)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 cup coconut flour (I have all purpose Coconut flour and needed 1 cup flour to make a thick batter)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• coconut oil or butter, for frying (optional if using non-stick pan or griddle)

Directions

• In a small bowl, beat eggs vigorously until frothy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in milk, vanilla, and honey.
• In a medium-sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients (coconut flour, baking soda, salt).
• Stir the wet mixture into the dry; mix well.  Let batter sit for 5 minutes to thicken.
• While batter is thickening, preheat a griddle over medium to medium-low heat.  Add butter or coconut oil, if needed.  Ladle about 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle.  Cook for a few minutes, until the top bubbles and the bottom is lightly brown, then flip the pancakes over and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.

Thanks SheCooksClean for the recipe!

Refrigerator Oatmeal - Yogurt Oatmeal

It's not always easy to find the time to eat something healthy in the mornings, especially if you are running off to work or have small children to take care of.  This Refrigerator Oatmeal is a life saver!  Just make a few of these up the night before (or several if you want to make enough for 2-3 days).  You can pretty much make any variation you want!  It's versatile, easy, healthy and delicious.  You just can't go wrong!  These recipes fit perfectly in a half pint canning jar, however you can of course use a larger size if that's what you have.

Start with these base ingredients, then you can add some great extras and make a variety of flavors.  I will post more varieties as I try them!

Base Ingredients

• 1/4 cup old fashioned oatmeal (not quick or instant)
• 1/3 cup milk of choice
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsp chia seeds

Optional Varieties

Apple Cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup homemade applesauce
• 1 tsp maple syrup or honey

Pumpkin Pie

• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp maple syrup or honey

Peanut Butter Banana

• 1 TB peanut butter (or PB2 Powder)
• 1 tsp honey or maple syrup
• 1/4 cup diced banana

Quinoa Pancakes

These are a fantastic, healthy breakfast.  Husband and kid approved!

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked Quinoa
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 egg plus 1 egg white
• 1 TB coconut oil
• 1/4 cup coconut or almond milk
• 2 TB maple syrup
• 2 TB ground flax seed

Directions

• In medium bowl combine Quinoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. 
• In another medium bowl, whisk together egg, egg white, oil, milk, and syrup until smooth. 
• Add egg mixture to flour mixture and whisk to combine.
• Drop batter by 1/4 cup onto hot griddle and cook until bubbles appear on top.
• Flip over and continue to cook until done.
• 
  

Thanks RachelCooks for the idea!

Pumpkin Pancakes With Just Two Ingredients

That's right, there is just 2 ingredients in these delicious Pumpkin Pancakes.

2 Ingredient Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (or sweet potato or butternut squash)
• 4 eggs
• Coconut oil for cooking

Directions

• Put pumpkin and eggs in blender or food processor and blend until well combined.
• Grease griddle or pan with coconut oil and heat to medium high
• Turn griddle to medium low, pour batter by 1/4 cup onto griddle and cook for 7 minutes, flip over and cook 4 more minutes
• That's it!

Thanks WholeFoodsSimply for the idea!

What's in Your Breakfast? Strawberry Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie

I love having Smoothies for breakfast, for lunch or even dessert.  I'm out of Spinach right now or I would have thrown some in there. It's such a great start to the day and you can pretty much make any kid of smoothie you want!

This morning I used Driscoll's Strawberries (purchased with a $0.75/1 coupon), ZICO Chocolate Coconut Water (Which I saved $0.75 on using Ibotta), Silk Almond Milk (Also saved money on at Costco using Ibotta), P2B Powdered Peanut Butter and a Banana.

Healthy Banana Waffles

Looking for a great, healthy breakfast the whole family will love?  These are amazingly delicious, a hit for our whole family.  And if you make a double batch, the leftovers are perfect for making Blueberry French Toast Bake.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or 1 cup all purpose 1/2 whole wheat)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1 egg
• 1 TB maple syrup
• 1 large banana mashed (about 1/2 cup)

Directions

• Mix dry ingredients
• Mix banana, maple syrup, egg, milk and water together and add to dry mixture
• Pour 1/2 cup batter into greased waffle iron and cook for 3-4 minutes (or according to manufacturer directions)

Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake

We like french toast...  But we LOVE this french toast bake.  It's french toast taken to a whole new level of amazingness, and it's super easy.

Ingredients

• Leftover waffles (like these Healthy Banana Waffles) or pieces of bread (I use 3 waffles or 6-8 pieces of bread)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/12 cup almond milk
• 2 TB sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 eggs
• 3oz cream cheese, diced
• cinnamon
• blueberries

Directions

Takes the leftover waffles (or bread), tear into pieces and place into lightly greased 8x8 pan.  I made our new favorite, Healthy Banana Waffles and made a double batch, just so I could make this stuff the next day

Mix flour, milk, sugar, vanilla and eggs.  Add your egg mixture to pan and make sure all waffle pieces are covered.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, blueberries and cream cheese.  Place in refrigerator overnight (for up to 24 hours).  

The next morning, bake in 400 degree oven for 25-35 minutes.

And you're done!

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes w/Pumpkin Spice Syrup

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour (I used 1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 2/3 cup pumpkin puree (or other winter squash or sweet potato)
• 2 eggs
• 2 TB coconut oil
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

• Mix dry ingredients, add wet ingredients and stir until combined
• Pour batter by 1/4 cup onto hot griddle
• When starts to bubble, flip over and cook until done

Syrup Ingredients

• 2 TB brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 TB coconut oil
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Syrup Ingredients

• Mix all ingredients together in small saucepan on low heat until well combined

Onion Ring Fried Egg

Tired of the same old boring fried eggs?  Do something a little different!

Heat up some Olive Oil in a pan, sear one side of the onion ring, flip it over and slowly crack an egg inside the onion ring.  Continue cooking until egg is done!

Better for You Breakfast Muffins

This is not considered a Whole Food.  I wanted to make a Healthier muffin for my son and I think I'm on to something here.  I still have some more substitutions I want to try next time, now that I know this worked out pretty good.  Each muffin (this makes 12) has about 80 calories, 5g Sugar and about 1/2g Fat.  I am going to adjust it some more next time I make these and hopefully cut out more sugar and calories.  (I adjusted this recipe of Raisin Bran Muffins to make these)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cups Corn Flakes (shown in picture below)
• 1 cup Almond Milk
• 1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree (Next time I wont used canned, but either fresh Pumpkin or a sweet potato or squash)
• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar (I'm going to try and substitute this out next time as well)
• 1/8 cup Honey
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour (next time I'll use all Oat Flour)
• 1/2 cup Oat Flour (I put Organic Oats through the food processor)
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 cup Organic Raisins

Directions:

• Let Corn Flakes sit in milk for about 10 minutes.
• Add Pumpkin
• Puree mixture
• Add Sugar, Honey and vanilla
• Add dry ingredients
• Add Raisins
• Drop into Muffin cups
• Bake 400* for about 18 minutes

Sweet Potato and Kale Hash

So I was SwagSearching this morning for some Whole Foods breakfast ideas and I came across this recipe for Sweet Potato and Kale Hash.  I loved it!  My husband, who loves his traditional bacon, eggs and hashbrowns breakfast said it was good but tasted more like a lunch or dinner.  Either way, I thought it was fabulous and definitely worth a shot.

She has wonderful step by step pictures so I decided not to repost the recipe, but you can check it out here. :)

Day 4 recap

I am so not doing good here, this week has not started out nice for me.  Oh well, that's life right?  I came in way under on my calories again today.  I am gonna have to kick it up tomorrow!

Breakfast was a simple bowl of fruit with Sunflower Seeds, Goji Berries and a small dollop of Greek Yogurt.

For other meals I had some Honey Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas, Grapes, Hard Steamed Eggs, Bananas, and Apples.

Dinner was again fantastic Mushroom Ginger Chicken.

Now that my husband wants to eat healthy too, when I make my afternoon Green Smoothie I make an extra one for him but put it in the freezer and he takes it to work the next day.

So far we're at $67.72 spent on food for the week.  We had to buy some eggs, milk, yogurt and celery.  I have to go buy some more bananas tomorrow, as my husband only eats them green.  Yesterday we had a bunch of bananas that had turned too ripe for any of us to eat, so I sliced them up the threw them in the freezer.  They'll be perfect for smoothies.

Day 3 Recap

Whew, busy day today!  Haven't had a chance to post anything.  I was out and about for a few hours today and forgot to bring anything with me and then work and the kids kept me pretty busy at home, so I didn't eat as much today as I should have.  I came in about 500 calories short of my goal.  Unfortunately, for me it's a snooze you lose situation when it comes to eating.  Oh well, just have to do better tomorrow!

I had a simple breakfast of Oatmeal with flax meals and strawberries (yum!).

I snacked on a banana, apple, raisins and avocado.  I even only had 1 cup of coffee today, that's how crazy my day was.  Dinner was great though and I will be posting the recipe for that next!  Quinoa Tuna Cakes.

I did not start my exercising over the weekend, but started up today.  Better late than never I say :)

Ok, hopefully tomorrow I'll  be able to post more (and eat more!).

Tex Mex Scrambled Eggs

I finished off Day 1 yesterday with 275 calories to spare!  I was under "goal" on carbs, fat and sodium.  Over on protein (yay!) and sugar (But it was all GOOD sugars).  It's amazing how filling and delicious just 1025 calories can be when you actually eat healthy.  No, seriously.  I encourage you to start using MyFitnessPal.com.  Track what you eat (don't lie, you're only hurting yourself) and see where you really are on your calorie intake.  I'm not saying you have to live by the Count Your Calories diet but it's so helpful and eye opening when you actually get to see what's in the foods you're eating.  Not just calories, but are you getting enough Protein?  Enough GOOD carbs and sugars?  Are you getting too much fat and sodium?  All important things to keep track of when you are wanting to be healthy.  Just be conscious of what you're really ingesting and eating healthier will come naturally and easily.

On to today's Meal 1.  Tex Mex Scrambled Eggs (2 servings)

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs, scrambled.
• 1/4 cup Black Beans
• 1 Tomato
• 1-2 Green Onions
• Cilantro
• Chili Powder

This simple, delicious breakfast was only 208 Calories, 17g Protein, only 9g Fat and 9g Carbs (And these are good Fats and Carbs!)  Yum :)

Raisin Bran Muffins

I meant to post this the other day.  It's not part of my Whole Foods menu, but my son thought these were great!  (I did too!)  It's a pretty healthy and yummy muffin.  I found the recipe on OneHundredDollarsAMonth.com and the only thing I changed was adding some Flax meal to it, you know, to make it even healthier.  :)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Wheat Bran
• 1 cup Buttermilk (I used Almond milk with vinegar to make it "butter"milk)
• 1/3 Vegetable Oil
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1-2 TB Flax Meal 
• 1/2 cup Raisins

Directions:

• Mix buttermilk and Wheat Bran together, let sit for 10 minutes.
• Mix Oil, Egg, Vanilla and Brown Sugar.  Add to What Bran mixture.
• Add Flour, Soda, Powder, Salt, Flax.  Mix.  
• Fold in Raisins
• Scoop into lined/greased muffin tin.  Bake for 18 minutes at 400 degrees.

Day 1, Meal 1 & 2

I have never liked breakfast.  I used to actually not eat breakfast.  I don't really like breakfast foods, sure pancakes and waffles are great but it's just bread so it fills you up with sugar and carbs.  Eggs, honestly I could do without.  Though they are very good for you.  Bacon, I do love me some bacon.  But it is oh, so bad for you.  Cereals never worked because I don't like any kind of milk and hot cereals are boring.  I could go on, I just don't like breakfast.  So this is going to be the hardest meal for me.  It is indeed, the most important meal of the day, especially when trying to lose weight.  It is important to eat within 2 hours of getting up to get your metabolism going.  If you go too long without eating, your body will start hoarding what it gets as it goes into semi-starvation mode.  And that is not what you want when you are trying to lose weight.  So lately I have either been eating fruit, drink juice, eating Belvita crackers or Zone bars.  But now that I'm on my whole foods diet, I am going to try my best to have an actual breakfast everyday.  So, bear with me while I get the hang of this "breakfast" thing.

I will be eating 3-5 small meals a day, so I am not going to call them Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner but simply what number meal it is for me that day.  Eating 5 smaller meals a day is better for you and better for losing weight.

Day 1, Meal 1

Ok, it's not very pretty but it tasted good :)

• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Garlic
• 2 Eggs
• Balsamic Vinegar

That was 178 Calories.

Then as my second meal I had

• Banana
• Apple
• 1/4 cup Organic Raisins

That was 289 calories.  I always forget how many calories fruit has :)

Total Calories so far: 467

Smoothies smoothies and more smoothies!

I LOVE Smoothies.  Fruit smoothies.  Green smoothies.  Superfood smoothies.  You name it.  

Here are some FREE Amazon books with Smoothie recipes.  Now get blending!




Here are some for just 99 cents :)  (Prime members can borrow for free!)

Breakfast Fruit Smoothie

This morning I wanted a smoothie.  And honestly, I spaced putting in any spinach but it was still delicious!

• Strawberries
• Apple
• 1/2 Banana
• 2 TB Chia gel
• Water

Eating Better: Juice for Breakfast "Apple Mango Carrot Banana Juice"

I had some leftover fruits I  needed to use up this morning.  Half a mango and half a banana, leftover from some green smoothies, and 3/4 of an apple.

Chopped up the apple, mango and some carrots, juiced those.  As you may or may not know, bananas are not a fruit to be juiced.  So, I threw the half banana in the blender, added my juice and a little bit of Coconut oil, hit blend and done.  Only made about 8oz but it was delicious!

Next time I have a full mango, I know what I am going to make :)