Overnight French Toast Casserole

  

  I made Overnight French Toast this year for us to eat on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I knew we would be leaving early to visit family on both days, but still wanted to make something special for my boys to eat for breakfast. This was the perfect choice because I was able to throw it together in less than 10 minutes the night before and just throw it in the oven in the morning. It was nice to have a hot breakfast without interfering with my other cooking or family time. This dish would also be fantastic to serve overnight company or maybe even for dessert!

 

 

Overnight French Toast Casserole
(Adapted from The Pioneer Woman)

 

For the French toast:
1 loaf sourdough bread( torn into 1 inch pieces)
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla extract

 

For the topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup chopped pecans

 

To assemble: Spray 8x11 casserole dish with cooking spray and evenly distribute bread chunks in pan. Mix together eggs, milk, cream, sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over bread and cover with foil. Refrigerate overnight.
To prepare topping: Mix flour, sugar,cinnamon, salt and pecans in a bowl. Cut butter into mixture until it resembles pebbles. Store in Ziploc bag in the fridge.
In the morning, pour topping evenly over the casserole and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Top each serving with syrup.

 

Enjoy!

Healthy Breakfast Round-up

  We always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But so many of us don't enjoy eating breakfast  or have a hard time finding something healthy to eat in the morning. Eating a healthy breakfast has been hard for me in the past because it's the one meal of the day that I really don't want to cook or put a lot of effort into. Sure you can get up and prepare a  fresh vegetable frittata or fancy egg white omelet if you want, but I want something quick and easy. Cracking an egg in a skillet to cook for 2 minutes or toasting a bagel is about all you're going to get from me.
   I have been alternating these three breakfasts for the last couple of weeks. I can't eat the same thing everyday because, well, I get bored. But it would be too expensive to buy items for a lot of meals so I just rotate 2-3 breakfasts for a couple of weeks then come up with more ideas to rotate the next time. All three of these have my top priorities for breakfast; they have less than 300 calories and all contain a protein, a healthy carb, and a fruit.

   My number one go to breakfast is Greek yogurt with blueberries and granola. I love it because it's easy, refreshing, and absolutely no cooking is required. This is a pretty typical breakfast of someone who likes to eat healthy. I like the Chobani non-fat vanilla yogurt the best. It seems to have the best consistency of all the Greek yogurt I have tried. I also really like blueberries with my yogurt. They are so nutritious and full of antioxidants. I try to include as many 'superfoods' into my diet as possible. Plus, blueberries are little man's absolute favorite food, so we always have them in our fridge.
   As for the granola, I actually use Kashi GoLean cereal. Granola can be 200 calories or more per serving and is generally full of sugar. I found this at the grocery store while comparing granola and knew I could use it to add crunch to my yogurt while saving about 150 calories! It has only 60 calories per 1/4 cup and is loaded with 18g of whole grains, 8g of fiber, and 9g of protein.

Greek Yogurt with Blueberries and Kashi

1/2 cup nonfat Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup Kashi GoLean cereal

Makes 1 serving
200 calories

  Another breakfast I've been eating is a toasted whole grain English muffin with egg whites, turkey, and Babybel cheese served with fruit. This one takes a little more effort so I really only have it once or twice a week.

    I start out by toasting the English muffin in the toaster oven. Then I cook my eggs, weigh the turkey, and shred the cheese. Layer it all on the toasted muffin and broil it until the cheese is melted. It is served with fruit. In this case, fresh watermelon picked from the garden the day before. My husband's Great-Grandfather has a garden with TONS of watermelons and they are to die for!
   I always use 100% whole grain bread products and use egg beaters for convenience. I like this Delifresh turkey because it is only 45 calories per serving (I only use half a serving for this sandwich).These mini Babybel cheeses are awesome! There are a lot of different flavors, all for a nice, portion controlled, 60 calories.

 
Turkey Egg and Cheese Muffin

1 whole grain English Muffin
1/4 cup Egg Beaters
1 oz deli turkey
1 Babybel cheese (I used sharp original)

Makes 1 serving
235 calories (without fruit)

Lastly, a whole wheat bagel thin with either eggs or Laughing Cow cheese served with, you guessed it, fruit. There is nothing fancy or innovative about this breakfast, but I find myself eating it often. It's complete simplicity and with the Laughing Cow cheese it's the perfect on-the-go breakfast. I am obsessed with this cheese. It comes in a million different flavors. Its smooth and creamy. It's perfect on bagels, wraps, sandwiches, crackers or eating straight from the wrapper. And its only 35 calories per wedge for the 'Light' and 45 calories for the regular. I use it almost everyday to make my lunch wrap and Ethan loves it on his quesadillas.

Bagel Thin with Scrambled Eggs/ Laughing Cow Cheese

1 Bagel Thin, toasted

1/4 cup Egg Beaters and/or 1 wedge Laughing Cow Cheese

Makes 1 serving
145 calories (with eggs or cheese)
180 calories ( with eggs and cheese)

*Does not include fruit. I usually have about 1/2 cup of fruit for an additional 50 calories.

   Most morning I will also have one up of coffee with 1Tbsp Natural Bliss Vanilla creamer. I love this stuff. I switched from my favorite Creme Brulee creamer when I decided to start eating as clean as possible. This creamer contains milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla flavoring. No artificial ingredients. I just love being able to pronounce all the ingredients to foods I'm putting into my body. It feels good!

  

Enjoy!

Toddler Approved Green Monster Smoothie

 Today for my mid-morning snack I decided to make a green monster smoothie. These smoothies, made using spinach or other leafy greens, are all over the internet lately. I have been wanting to give it a try for a while now. It was REALLY good! I used banana, strawberries, spinach, almond milk, and water to make mine.
   Ethan LOVED this smoothie. After I filled my cup, I poured the rest in a little cup for him and he was all about it! Ethan has always been a great eater, but lately he has been spitting out anything green.  You can't even tell there is spinach in it, so it is a great way to sneak vegetables to a picky toddler, child, or even an adult. Next time, I will make Ethan his own smoothie, so he doesn't insist on drinking mine!

Here is Ethan trying his smoothie.

"WHOA, Mom! That is awesome!"

Here is Ethan after insisting on having my smoothie.

This is the face I got every time I took my smoothie back!

Green Monster Smoothie
Makes one 24oz smoothie (130 calories)

1/2 banana, peeled, sliced, and frozen
1 cup strawberries
a handful (or two) spinach
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup water
ice

Place banana, strawberries, almond milk, spinach, and a few cubes of ice in a blender. Blend until well mixed, adding water if needed. *I used a little less than half a cup of water to get the consistency I wanted. Pour and Enjoy!

Notes: This smoothie can be made a million different ways. Try adding peanut butter or Greek yogurt for more protein. Or, try making it using different fruits. You can always use cow's milk, I just prefer unsweetened almond milk because it is lower in calories and sugar.

Weight Loss and Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes

  You may have noticed I haven't made any new blog posts in over a month. I have been on a brief hiatus to focus on my health. I am proud to say after 15 months I am finally at my pre-pregnancy weight! Getting healthy has been quite a journey for me. My weight has yo-yoed for years and I have always struggled to lose weight and keep it off. I lost 30 lbs before getting pregnant, only to gain close to 50 throughout my pregnancy with Ethan. Diabetes and heart disease are serious issues in my family so I knew how important it was for me to start living a healthy lifestyle now, before I started having issues of my own.
   I have begrudgingly tried so many diets and forms of exercise in the past; some worked, some didn't. But I never once enjoyed it enough to turn it into a lifestyle. This time has been different. I am enjoying eating clean, healthy foods and I am loving the way exercising makes me feel. I worked with a weight loss clinic for the first month, doing a complete overhaul of my diet and taking HCG injections to help me along. I drank a gallon of water everyday and lived off of only chicken breast, green veggies, and a handful of fruits. It was tough, but I felt better and better everyday knowing I was becoming healthier and cleaning all of the toxins, from the junk I had been eating the past 26 years, out of my body. Now, I am on my own, but remain eating a low calorie diet made up of lean protein, vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. I love the way real food tastes now. I love feeling satisfied after a small portion without feeling like I'm going to burst because I ate so much food. I love my body again and I love having nothing to wear because all of my clothes are falling off of me!
   Of course, eating nothing but plain chicken and steamed vegetables, I had nothing interesting to add to the blogosphere last month. But fear not, I have started cooking again and look forward to sharing some delicious, healthy recipes with you!

   Tonight for dinner we had a turkey breast tenderloin I rubbed with a salt-free blackening seasoning from a local company, Dak's Bistro. I served it with a green bean salad and Crash hot sweet potatoes. I have made these sweet potatoes several times, I just changed the recipe up a little bit to lower the calories per serving. They weren't really unhealthy before, so I only made a few small changes. You can find the original recipe here .

Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4 (110 calories per serving)

2 small to medium sweet potatoes, peeled
cooking spray
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cut peeled potatoes about 1- 1 1/2 inches thick. Cook in boiling water for about 10 minutes, until just tender. Drain potatoes and let cool about 10 minutes. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Use a fork to slightly smash each potato disk. Spray tops with cooking spray.
Combine sugar, salt, and spices. Distribute spice  mixture evenly amongst potato slices.
Bake on 375 for about 20 minutes. Broil last few minutes for sugars to caramelize.

In the original recipe, both sides are coated with sugar/spices and a butter/olive oil mixture is used to aid in caramelization. These have much less fat and sugar, but still taste delicious.

Enjoy!

Italian Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze

     There are very few dishes I make time and time again.  I usually change recipes each time I make them. Sometimes, I only make small changes, and sometimes I change it up completely. But, I only make one kind of meatloaf. It's just that good. I probably like this meatloaf so much because of the Italian flavors, but it is also moist and delicious. Nothing is worse than dry, hard, bland meatloaf. Gross! This is none of those things. It's so flavorful and it literally falls apart on your plate. It was hard to get an actual 'slice' of meatloaf for the pictures. MMMmmm!
     I got this recipe out of my favorite cookbook, The Best of Cooking Light. Surprisingly, I follow the recipe almost exactly. The only thing I change is the topping. They use plain ketchup and ,of course, that just doesn't work for me. So, I decided to add a balsamic glaze and some cayenne pepper to the ketchup. Perfect! I served this with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots.

Italian Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze
 Adapted from Cooking Light

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup breadcrumbs (of course I use panko)
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped basil
1/2 cup shredded provolone
2 large egg whites
2 cloves garlic, minced (I use more :)
1lb ground beef
cooking spray
1/3 cup ketchup
3 Tbsp balsamic glaze
pinch cayenne pepper

Combine boiling water and tomatoes in a bowl, let stand about 30 minutes until soft. Drain and chop.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine tomatoes, 1/2 cup ketchup and next 7 ingredients. Shape into a loaf and place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
Stir together 1/3 cup ketchup, balsamic glaze, and cayenne pepper. Spread over top of meatloaf.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until temperature reaches 160 degrees. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.


Enjoy!!

Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes

    This is a great side dish! It's creamy and delicious, but doesn't make you feel heavy. It is also quick and easy to put together. I served this the other night alongside my Creamy Chicken Marsala, but was just as good the next day as a light lunch. I think this would be the perfect summer side dish for a cookout. Oh wow, how good would these be cooked on the grill with a nice juicy ribeye? yumm! I can't wait for the farmer's market this summer. I have so many dishes I would like to recreate once the vegetables are at their best. Or.....how about adding sausage or chicken and making this a main dish? Sorry, I think I'm a little scatterbrained today! Enjoy!

 Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes
 ( Proud Italian Cook )
2 tomatoes
1 cup part skim ricotta
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan
small bunch chopped fresh basil
small bunch chopped fresh parsley
salt&pepper
panko breadcrumbs for topping
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Halve tomatoes and scoop out the seeds. Salt the tomatoes and turn upside down on paper towels to draw out moisture.

In a small bowl, mix ricotta, Parmesan, and herbs. Season with salt&pepper to taste. Fill the tomato halves with cheese mixture.

Top each tomato with panko and spray with cooking spray. Bake on 400F for 25 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.


yumm!

Creamy Chicken Marsala

   Have I ever mentioned my love of Italian food? I could eat it everyday. There has actually been a couple of times in the past I've prepared an Italian dish almost every night of the week without realizing it until Brian said, "Are we having Italian again tonight?"  This recipe is a nice change of pace from your average American Italian dish because it doesn't contain tomatoes and it goes really nicely with mashed potatoes instead of pasta. I even substituted bacon for the pancetta because that's what I had on hand and I felt like being a little rebellious.


Creamy Chicken Marsala
   From Simply Recipes

Olive oil
2 oz pancetta (I used 3 slices bacon) cut into 1/4in cubes

1/2 medium onion, diced 

Flour for dredging

1 lb chicken cutlets

3/4 cup dry Marsala wine

6 Tbsp heavy cream

Salt&pepper

Minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Coat pan lightly with olive oil and heat on medium high. Add the pancetta and cook until just crisp and lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan, and set aside. Add the onions to the pan and cook until translucent and slightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan, and set aside. If needed, add more olive oil to pan so you have about 2 tbsp.

Season chicken cutlets with salt&pepper and dredge in flour. Working in batches, brown the cutlets on both sides until cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Pour off the excess fat and add the Marsala wine to the pan. Scrape brown bits from the bottom and cook until wine is reduced by a quarter. Stir in the cream and boil until sauce thickens. Add chicken, pancetta, and onions back to the pan and heat through, 1-2 minutes.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Homeade Baby Food

I have several projects that we have done (my husband and I) over the past few months that I will be posting periodically. This is one of those.

I decided while I was pregnant that I would make all of Ethan's baby food from scratch. I figured I cook delicious food for us, why shouldn't Ethan get the same? And besides, who would want to eat that nasty garbage they call baby food? What is actually in that stuff anyway?

So I did some research. It is actually very simple and you can make enough food in a couple of hours for 1-2 months if you freeze it. I didn't buy one of those expensive baby food makers. I already had a food processor and knew I wanted to make it in large batches. All I bought was a steamer and some silicone ice cube trays. Here's what you need:

Steamer (I used an electric one, but you could use a steamer basket)
Food processor or blender
Ice cube trays
Large freezer bags
Fruits and vegetables

The first batch I made, I bought 2-3 fruits and 2-3 vegetables. I think they were apples, peaches, pears, yellow squash, green peas and carrots.  I sliced them up and put them in the baskets of the steamer.Most things steam in 15-20 minutes. They need to be pretty soft the first couple of months, because you want a smooth puree.

I also steamed some fruits on the stove with a small amount of water in a large pot.

Once everything was tender I pureed them one at a time in the food processor and poured them into the ice cube trays. I covered each tray with plastic wrap and put them in the freezer overnight. The next day all I had to do was empty the cubes into freezer bags and label each one with the food and date.

This has been one of the easiest and best things I have done for Ethan. I feel good to know I am feeding him only the cleanest and freshest foods. He will eat anything and everything and has a great appetite. I can't help but think it is partly because he is eating food that actually tastes good and is good for him. I highly recommend it!