Cinnamon Apple Baked Oatmeal

Welcome, October! While autumn arrived a few weeks ago, the cooler weather has just recently arrived. We’ve had temps down around 50 each morning while the afternoon temps are making it to the mid-70s. With low humidity, the days are just glorious! I can easily say that this is my favorite time of year! The leaves are slowly beginning their change to gorgeous yellows and oranges.

I have been enjoying some recipes found in the new THM cookbook, Trim Healthy Table. I was looking through it the other day wanting something new for breakfast. I found one for baked oatmeal, but realized that I could personalize it by making a few changes. I love anything apple and pumpkin this time of year, and since we still have some apples from an orchard we went to a few weeks ago, I decided to make an apple baked oatmeal dish. I was totally amazed at how moist it was! Absolutely delicious!

• 4 large eggs
• 2 c. low-carb flour blend (I use my own mix of oat flour; almond flour; and ground flax)
• 1-1/2 c. almond milk
• 3 tbsp. pyure
• 2 heaping tsp. ground cinnamon
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. caramel flavoring
• 1 medium apple, peeled and grated
• plain Greek yogurt

Lightly coat a 9×9 baking pan with coconut oil. Whisk the eggs well in a large bowl. Add all the other ingredients except for the apple and mix well. Add the grated apple and stir until just mixed. Pour into greased baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cut into 6 pieces. Serve each with Greek yogurt or a squirt of canned whipped topping!

Easter Weekend and Berry Breakfast Crisp

Hello, everyone! I am finally taking the time to sit down and write a new post…this time including a new recipe!

But first—Easter weekend! I was thrilled that Barbi and her sweet little family were able to drive here for Easter! They not only got to spend time with us all, but they got to meet Baby Gracie! The only disappointing part of the weekend was that my 2Lt was not able to be here since he is still half-way across the country in training!

Here are a few obligatory pictures from the weekend!

This morning I decided to have something different for breakfast than my usual sunny-side up eggs and fruit. I have been trying hard to get back on track with eating in a healthy manner since the guys brought in lots of sweets and other carbs over the weekend. And of course, I served our traditional Pavlova for Easter dessert!

This recipe makes one serving. It calls for baking it in the oven, but I used the microwave for about one minute. Either way is just fine.

• 1 cup mixed berries (frozen or fresh)
• 3 tbsp. low-carb flour blend (I used my own flour blend of oat, almond, and flax)
• 1 tbsp. unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 tbsp. sweetener (I used Pyure)
• 1/2 scoop protein powder
• 1-1/2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted

Place the berries in the bottom of a small baking dish. Mix remaining dry ingredients in a small bowl and then stir in coconut oil until it is a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle over the top of the fruit. Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, or put into microwave for about one minute or until the berries burst.

Serve topped with about 1/4 cup Greek yogurt.

Breakfast Casserole, THM style!

Things have been pretty quiet around here this week. My little grand darling and her parents are away for a week of family vacation with her other grandparents. I miss that little girl like crazy!! I can’t believe she is almost 2 years old! It won’t be long until she is in “First Day of School” pictures like I’ve been seeing on my Face Book news feed this week. Those children are so adorable!

This is also the time of year for colleges to begin again. It is hard for me to believe that my Citadel grad is starting his second year out of college! I have remained a member of some of the Citadel parent pages on Face Book in order to encourage parents who are new to the 4th class system of a military college. Back when Ben was a knob, I wrote this blog post about mailing packages to him. It is my most viewed post…over 2500 clicks on that post alone! I am amazed!

And of course, my heart misses my newest bundle of love! I can’t wait to see him (and his mommy!) again in September!

Last week I saw this recipe come through my news feed and realized that I could make it low-carb with no trouble at all. The original recipe called for 1 lb. of hash brown potatoes. I switched that out for finely chopped cauliflower, and it worked great! The hubby even took seconds! This recipe makes 6 large portions.

Mix these ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

• 1 lb. chopped cauliflower
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. paprika

Cut  7 slices of bacon into bite-sized pieces and fry them in a skillet. Drain on paper towels.

Mix these ingredients together in another bowl.

• 6-7 eggs
• 1/3 c. heavy whipping cream
• the fried bacon pieces

Lightly oil a baking pan. I used one that is 7 x 11 inches. Press the cauliflower mixture into the pan on the bottom and part way up the sides. Pour the egg mixture on top of the cauliflower. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and 1 tbsp of  chopped, fresh chives.

Bake at 350* for about 40 minutes or until the eggs are firm. Serve with a spoonful of fresh salsa. Enjoy!

 

Crustless Mushroom Breakfast Quiche

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I have oodles of cookbooks! Over the last few years, I have also collected oodles of recipes that I have printed after downloading them from the internet.  And I also have recipes that I have kept in a zip-close bag in my cupboard…just like my mom used to do! (You can read about that memory here:  https://cookbookexperiment.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/the-best-is-not-always-from-a-cookbook/

A few weeks ago, I decided that some organization of these recipes was called for.  So when I had some time alone one evening (the hubs and sons were out), I sat down and went through all those recipes.  Some I discarded because I had had them for a while and had never made them.  The others I categorized and put into page protectors.  Then I put them into a 3-ring binder with dividers.  It is so nice to be able to flip through that notebook and find the one I want!   I still kept a few special ones in that zip-close bag…can’t get myself to get rid of that particular memory of mom!

One of the recipes that I found while organizing my recipe notebook is a low-carb breakfast quiche.  I discovered it years ago in a library book when the hubs went on a high-protein/low-carb diet for a while.  He really enjoyed it then, so I decided to make it again this morning for breakfast  I will give you the exact recipe first and then share the options that I tried when I used to make this regularly.

1 tsp. butter

1/4 c. cream or whole milk

4 oz. grated cheese

2 c. sliced mushrooms

dash of dried basil, paprika, and black pepper

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 can spinach, drained well

Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch glass pie pan.  In a medium saucepan, heat the cream until scalded. Remove from heat and quickly stir in grated cheese.  When cheese is melted, add mushroom slices, basil, paprika, and pepper.  Let cool for several minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well.  Stir in spinach.  Pour into pie pan and bake at 325* until set, about 45 minutes.  Serve warm or cold.

OPTIONS:  use Monterey Jack cheese, cream cheese (softened in microwave) , or cheddar cheese.  Add 1/2 lb. cooked and crumbled sausage or ground beef.  Add about 4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled.  Add about 1/2 tsp. dried hot pepper powder.  One can of mushroom slices, drained works as well as fresh mushrooms.