Quick Breakfast Bread - courtesy of Aunt Sandy

So scrolling through Facebook yesterday I came upon a picture of beautiful bread.

Picture Courtesy of my Aunt Sandy

Isn't that bread gorgeous!? Studded full of dried fruit and looking absolutely delicious. I had to know.

So going through the post I discovered that my Aunt Sandy had made this bread, she calls it "Quick Breakfast Bread." In the words of my Aunt "Just made Quick Breakfast Bread - my own creation. This recipe is super easy to make and pretty healthy - no oil, low sugar, and full of healthy fruits and nuts! Took some last night to a gathering and it disappeared! Had to make another loaf this morning for our house."

After that description on top of the picture I had to make it. Of course I'm cheap so I didn't buy any nuts to put in it but I can tell you it would just make it taste even better I'm sure.

So I scanned the ingredients. Flour, check. Brown sugar, check. Baking powder, check. Salt, check. Ground cloves and cinnamon, check. Milk, check. Only thing I didn't have was the dried fruit and nuts.

So after working out and sending the handsome man off to work I headed to Walmart for the missing ingredient and to maybe hunt down a fruit and nut mix.

Upon entering Walmart in any town of any state you are bound to have an adventure. Honesty there really isn't a way not to in some way. You are at least entertained. It's comical to me.

Anyway, my adventure began soon after entering the doors. I had walked in wearing my sweaty workout clothes (they do fit and cover all parts necessary). As I walked in there was this little girl (about 7) who had stopped dead in her tracks as she had been leaving with her mother and her eyes popped out of her head and she started to bounce. She had spotted a friend at the Subway in the entry and was obviously excited. Her mother stated "Well don't have a heart attack" and I proceeded to head for the back of the food section. Then about 20 feet in I hear this LOUD belch come from between the two doors you walk through. I turned around momentarily and just kind of snickered to myself. After walking past the produce this young man looked and me and said "do you run track?"

I had to quickly think, well technically no but I ran track in 7th grade and then in June as well. Mind you this was internal talk to myself. I smiled and said yes, because I do run everyday. The man had this triumphant look on his face as he said "I knew it, I have a knack for these things." I just smiled and kept walking. It was 9 pm and I really wasn't in the mood to chat with someone as I was on a mission.

I found the dried fruits but couldn't find a delicious combo of fruits and nuts that would work in my bread that wouldn't cost me more than $3. (I'm a cheapskate - ask Mike).

So headed home and break out all the ingredients and begin to follow the directions:

It already looked magnificent. Though I changed a few things. I didn't add nuts and I used 1/2 flour and 1/2 oats. Up the fiber a bit since I was using unbleached white all purpose flour.

Then add milk.

It smelled heavenly with the cloves and cinnamon, almost Thanksgiving like.

Now the fun part, deciding on a pan. For whatever reason I have not replaced the loaf pan I used to have and tossed due to wear and tear. So I found this pan hiding under all the casserole dishes.

Make due with what you have. So I do.

The recipe said to bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Well, my electric oven runs a bit hot. Also, on another note, I can't stand electric ovens/stoves. I miss my old gas oven. So I only baked for 20 minutes to start. It wasn't done so I added another 10. It came out perfect at 30 min in a larger pan and my oven.

Anyway, I digress. This came out beautifully. Flat - but beautiful. I think I may have actually forgotten to add the baking powder. Oh well, still amazing.

So this is fresh and smelling wonderful. My kitchen now smells irresistible. I of course, cannot wait to dig in. 1. It's fresh, hot bread out of the oven. 2. Perfect timing to add butter or other toppings as desired. 3. This just looked AMAZING.

So I sliced up a sliver and taste tested.

I must say this is DELICIOUS! Perfection in a loaf. You could of course add any sort of dried fruits you want or any nut. My aunt recommends pecans or walnuts but get creative by all means. The fruits I used were a berry mix (cherries, blueberries and cranberries). I found this combination to be perfect. Though I can guarantee I will try apples, raisins, goji berries etc. Whatever strikes my fancy that time.

I will probably be making another loaf tonight just because I could literally eat this whole pan of bread by myself in one sitting. Hopefully Mike likes it too, he didn't get home until 8 this morning and am unsure if he had some for breakfast or not.

So thank you Aunt Sandy for the delicious recipe :) Keep them coming.

Quick Breakfast Bread
Courtesy of Aunt Sandy

Makes roughly 8 servings

Ingredients
2 cups flour (or 1 cup flour and 1 cup old fashioned oats)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dried fruit of choice (I used cherries, cranberries, and blueberries - get creative with your choices)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I omitted because of cost - that's me)
1 cup milk (I used skim)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Grease a 9 1/2 inch loaf pan (or 8 inch square pan in my case) and set aside.

Mix all ingredients except milk.

Add milk and mix well.

Put batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour. (I baked for 20 to start then had to add another 10 min to that to cook completely).

My aunt recommends toasting and serving with butter or cream cheese.

Also can mix up all the dry ingredients the night before and then just add milk in the morning and bake while you get ready in the morning. Warm breakfast bread fresh from the oven in no time. :)

Now go out and cook!

Oatmeal and Oat Obsession

Ok, so I have had this oats obsession this week. Absolutely been OBSESSED. Much like Julie was with Julia in "Julie & Julia." One of my favorite movies by the way.

Julie & Julia Quote:
Julie: I'm totally obsessed.
Eric: She's totally obsessed."

So, to move forward - what did I do with my oat obsession? Well I made oatmeal, naturally. Crock Pot oatmeal no less. I could have made cookies, oat bars, etc. But I settled for something healthier and delicious to boot and would be ready for me to eat as I shuffled through the kitchen at O'dark thirty in the morning. Now that I do not NEED to exercise in the mornings before work I give myself the benefit of eating in bed in the wee hours followed by drifting back to sleep before my second alarm sounds or, depending on the day, I will talk to Mike while he is finishing his last hour of work. Which I do enjoy my morning phone calls with him :) Start the day right.

So first we will start off with a dangerous oatmeal that I found the recipe for and thought would be a good idea to make for Mike and myself last weekend. Well, anything that is buttered and bruleed is probably not a good idea to eat when trying to be healthy. Hmm, noted and I should know better. So we have "Oatmeal Brulee with Brown Buttered Pears and Cinnamon Ginger Cream." Sounds delicious, no? Well it was quite delicious, however, dangerous in the calorie department. AFTER eating it I plugged all ingredients into my phone and discovered that it had a whopping 605 calories!!!! Holy butter balls Batman!!! Yeah, not making that again, even though it was quite yummy - minus the burnt bits of pear - oops, my bad honey! ;)

Lovely, yes, delicious, yes. Healthy - far from it. Granted, anything with cream, butter and sugar is going to be not so great for you. I told Mike the calories and even he was shocked. So having to put up with my desire to make oatmeal for us for breakfast he soon was rewarded with a toy.

 

A layout boat for duck season, of course we finally get it to where it's going to be stored and it has to be tested. Rightfully so - Mike gets out to the middle of this pond and starts saying "take a picture! take a picture!" Hehe, like a kid in a candy store. He's a happy man, so this lady is happy too.

So after our layout boat adventure and our lesson learned from bruleed and sugared oats the weekend ended and I headed back home to work :(

So this week I have made two different types of crock pot oats. Pumpkin pie oats and banana oats. I found the recipes at Sugar Free Mom's site. These are SUPER easy to make and just add your desired amount of sugar once everything is cooked. That way everyone can add what they like instead of having one taste for all. I added honey or stevia to mine. Brown sugar to the pumpkin pie oats though. Yum yum yum.

Before cooking

After waking up

After stirring

After adding brown sugar and cinnamon

These are quite filling and quite low in calories. Even though Sugar Free Mom says not to use old fashioned oats, I did. I don't like spending more on something if I don't have to so I stick to my old fashioned oats and save a buck. I came up with 195 calories per 1/4 recipe of the Pumpkin Pie type and 125 calories for 1/4 of the banana oatmeal.

Banana oats with cinnamon

The basic recipe is:
1 cup oats, old fashioned in my case
3 cups water
1/4 tsp salt

Cook on low for 8 hours.

For banana oatmeal: add 1 banana, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.
For pumpkin pie oatmeal: add 1 cup canned pumpkin puree *not pie filling*, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice.

Obviously you can customize this oatmeal however you feel compelled to. I've thought about apple spice, cinnamon sugar, peaches and cream, or just about any combination you could possibly find in the store you could easily make overnight in your crock pot for a better price and better quality and known ingredients. Sounds good to me.

I have eaten these for the past 3 days and it's probably a great way to start my day since I have entered month two of insanity. Monday afternoon I was scheduled to do the Fit Test as well as Max Cardio Conditioning Circuit thingy - well to say the least I cursed, griped, hated, loathed, and told Shaun T. where he could go and how to get there while doing this set of workouts. I then looked at my hat on Tuesday when I did Max Plyo and went for a 2.5 mile run PRIOR to Insanity. This is what my hat looked like.

Can we say DRENCHED? Yes, drenched. I sweat a lot during insanity to begin with and this is why it is recommended to have a towel handy while doing these workouts  - but my goodness gracious. I probably would not have noticed had I just taken the hat off and tossed it to the side but I went in the bathroom and looked up in the mirror and saw this. WHOA!!! Time to hydrate for sure! Mike is doing the Insanity program as well and is a week behind me. He's in for a treat next week. Though I truly believe  month two is where the big changes start to happen. Believe me, I've been cursing Shaun for a week now in month two but I know things are changing. Anyway, enough of about this, I'm not getting paid to endorse a program - hmmmmm ha ha, just kidding. I won't do that to y'all, this is about food right?

Right -

So go make some oatmeal and get creative. Go out and cook!

Buttered Rum --- um, YUM!

How did everyone like the Misters post? Mike, I think did a wonderful job. Maybe he'll do more posts in the near future.

So another weekend has come and gone, (and this week is almost over, phew) and what did I do? Bake of course. I was home by myself this weekend (minus the day I spent at my parents place with my aunt). So what did I bake you may be asking, as I'm sure me hanging out with my aunt to pick up the "Insanity" workout is probably not that fascinating. I think it was fun and a good time. I rarely get to see this aunt so it's always nice to hang out. (Dad's side of the family, very much my dad's sister). I so very much love my Aunt Judy. She's a superstar and a healthy lady to boot.

So Buttermilk, I refuse to go to the store and buy buttermilk that will end up going bad in my fridge because I forget about it and only use a little bit. So I opt to make my own substitute. I take 1 tbsp of vinegar (in this case apple cider though I generally opt for white - having just ran out of white vinegar due to a bad potato bag incident where I needed a stronger - more natural cleaner to get the smell out of my kitchen. Note: rotten potatoes reek and make a mess on your counter. Be warned.) So 1 tbsp vinegar and then add to the 1 cup line enough milk to make 1 cup total. So you're not using 1 cup of milk, it's 1 cup minus a 1 tbsp milk and 1 tbsp vinegar. So then let it sit for about 5 minutes to really become buttermilky (is that even a word - spell check is saying no).

So at this point it's time to start making cake. I tried to bring all ingredients to room temperature so they would be easier to work with as well as bake better. I'm finding this is the best idea but ultimately sometimes you just want to bake, RIGHT NOW, and just can't wait for ingredients to "thaw". That's when I zap the butter for a few seconds in the microwave to soften and put eggs in last and if hot ingredients go in with the eggs I temper them so they don't curdle. It's the little things.

So I added all the necessary ingredients and of course I used real rum (Bacardi if you can see from the first picture) in the batter because it would bake off, more or less. (I was taking this to my mothers' church event mind you, with children.) So I decided to use rum extract for the buttered rum glaze.

Not having a pretty bundt pan like the blog I found this recipe from (here) I used my angel food pan. It's a tube pan, yes, it has a hole in the middle, yes. OK, same difference, yes? Yes :) It turned out quite lovely if I do say so myself.

How gorgeous is that!? No it's not pretty like a bundt cake but man it looked amazing.

Now for the glaze. Glazes amaze me at how simple they are. Usually combined with powdered sugar and some liquid or sugar and liquid boiled together in a sauce pan. SIMPLE! I love simple and easy recipes. That just goes to show you that recipes aren't as hard as they seem sometimes. Just take a minute to read it through and find out.

So this glaze was rum extract, sugar and butter. Oh how I love butter - I avoid it usually when eating but for baking, it it essential. I will sometimes use real butter - unfortunately with the cost currently and me not actually selling these baked goods, I use Blue Bonnet Regular. Seems to do the job just fine - though I have made my mothers cookies with real butter for Christmas and may I just say - cookies taste about 100x better with real butter. So I'm sure cake would too :)

So here we have the glaze, lumpy butter and then it melts down into a sugary rum glaze. I could eat just this, turn it into a candy and nibble away. But I won't because it's for the cake, which I soon realized it was A LOT of glaze for one cake. Though I believe in not wasting something or having to have it left over in my kitchen, or I'll eat it and lose my feminine physique from overdoing the sweets. I work hard to be able to splurge on occasion :)

So in the end I ended up spooning the glaze over the top of the cake, after poking numerous fork holds into the top with a long tine fork.

And this is what a slice looks like.

As you can see the glaze made it about 1/4 of the way down the cake. It was all still warm, cake and glaze, when I added. I really only at the top and sides of my slice but it was delicious none the less. It was a hit at the church too as I went home with only 2 slices left. Makes my day when people enjoy the goodies.

Buttermilk Rum Pound Cake:
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 tsp rum extract (or Rum)
4 eggs
3 cups plain flour (all purpose)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (or see substitution above)

Directions:
1. Combine butter and sugar, beat well.
2. Add flavorings and eggs, blend well.
3. Add flour and all remaining ingredients, blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed.
4. Pour batter into greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.
5. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean from center.
6. Invert cake onto serving plate to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or use butter rum sauce.

Butter Rum Sauce
Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter + 3 Tbsp
1 1/2 tsp rum extract (or rum)

Directions:
1. In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients
2. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter melts. DO NOT BOIL
3. With long-tined fork, pierce cake 10-12 times.
4. Slowly pour hot sauce over warm cake.

*Notes: I used unflavored dental floss to cut my cake - it's cleaner and doesn't shred the cake like knives can. Try it - double dog dare you!

I also did the following over the weekend.

Faux Ice Cream Balls

Faux Ice Cream Balls inside

Faux Ice Cream Balls (as I call them), I mixed some funfetti fake bake mix (yes that box of mix normal people buy) and the can of frosting together (it was probably about 1 1/2 cups of mix and 3/4 of the jar of frosting). I mixed until thick and could be formed into little balls. Then covered them in chocolate almond bark. So due to my impatience for the chocolate to harden I stuck them in the freezer and promptly forgot they were there until getting ice later that night. So I tried one and to my amazement they taste kind of like those ice cream nibs (you know the ice cream bites dipped in chocolate and are poppable, yeah those!) but home made and you can make them as big or as small as you like. Oh so dangerously delicious and so very simple. GO, DO, MAKE!

Rainbow Cake

I also like to make rainbow cake, this is diet 7-UP rainbow cake. 12 oz can of diet 7-UP, 1pkg lemon cake mix. Mix soda and mix. Separate into 6 bowls, add colors and layer in ROYGBIV style. Bake at recommended time and temp according to pan and viola! You have super moist and lower cal cake. Add a lemon glaze or whipped cream for a sweet treat that doesn't break the calorie bank. Delicious and simple yet again. So good :)

So as Mike has told you, I've helped him eat healthier and start using Myfitnesspal.com. Super helpful site, I use it on my phone all the time to track EVERYTHING I eat and do. And now I'm doing the insanity workout - yes, I am insane. ;) So if the baking trails off, it's because I'm laying on my living room floor panting for air and trying not to die. Wish me luck.

Now, go out and cook!