Make-ahead Breakfast Sandwiches!

I made an amazing discovery – did you know that you can freeze and reheat breakfast sandwiches!? So of course I had to try it! I made eight of them and froze six. I just ate the first one and aside from the fact that I over-toasted the top of the muffin it worked out quite will!

This will help to ensure that I have food for the upcoming week. How did I make them?

1. Caramelized some onions with sage, thyme, and pepper. I didn’t add salt because the bacon and cheese will do that for me later. I poured a dozen eggs (beaten)* on top and baked that whole concoction for about 20 minutes. Who knew that it took such a hot oven (450F) to bake eggs?

*although next time I will use 10 eggs.

2. It takes a slightly lower oven to cook bacon (375 F) but takes about as long. Bake it and put it on a paper towel to drain. That’s what’ll crisp it up. Also, do this on the top rack of your oven for greater success. I had to do some re-arranging mid-way through. You may prefer vegan bacon, (coconut bacon, tempeh bacon), peameal (Canadian), or none at all. All are fine. They’re your sandwiches, after all.

3. Toast your English muffins just a little bit. You can use the lower rack in your oven while you cook the bacon up top.

4. Assembly. Each muffin contains: 1/8th of the onion-egg (is this a frittata?), a slice of bacon broken in half (some got a bit extra) and a couple slices of cheese. Layer in standard sandwich format.
 Sorry for the weird perspective here! (I had to wedge in beside the fridge to take this picture).

Wrap each sandwich individually in tinfoil, put them together in a (clear) bag, and freeze. To reheat them take the tinfoil off and put your muffin on a paper towel. I microwaved it for 90 seconds but I think I’ll try reducing that to 75 or even 60 seconds the next time. I toasted the top half of the muffin in the toasted oven. I thought that I’d like the crunch but the texture was too different. I need to reduce the time there, too.

Pretty delicious, though! And now my breakfast woes are solved!

Pancakes!

Specifically, banana-buckwheat pancakes (or buckwheat-banana pancakes). I used this recipe with modifications; firstly I doubled the recipe so that I’d have enough for the freezer (so that I can have breakfast during the week). And because I had two bananas that were going. I also used more milk than she suggests (possibly up to 1/3 more – not entirely sure as I went by eye) and I replaced the last cup of buckwheat flour with whole wheat flour instead.

I ate them with jam on top. Success!!

Buckwheat Pancakes

I’ve been told that buckwheat flour is very hard to find in the US – if that’s true please let me know! I buy it at the local food co-op and then keep it in my freezer for sudden pancake cravings.

It’s strawberry season now. I don’t like to eat out-of-season berries. They’re too sour as they don’t develop their sugars when they’re forced to ripen against their will. Yes, even berries have free will and they don’t want to be eaten out of turn. So that means that when the berries are in season I have to eat as many as possible to make up for the 11 months of the year that I haven’t been eating this particular kind. The yellow is mango because I’m worried that I’m catching a cold. I’ve spent way too many days riding through rainstorms on my bicycle these past few weeks.

So this morning I woke up and walked to the store to buy strawberries, eggs, yoghurt (I use it instead of milk for these pancakes) and milk for my tea. On the way back I stopped along the way to eat mulberries. This was my reward for my productivity 🙂

This recipe makes enough for two people. If you want to try it too it is:

• 1 cup yoghurt
• 1 egg
• 1tsp vanilla
• 3 tbsp melted butter

Combine these in a small bowl. Start preheating your frying pan (especially if it’s cast iron like mine). In a slightly bigger bowl combine:

• 6 tbsp flour (I used whole wheat because it’s what I had on hand)
• 6 tbsp buckwheat flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• dash cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, or other savoury spice that you like in your pancakes
• I added in 2 tbsp of wheat germ because I think that wheat germ is important. This is optional. If you do this add a little bit of extra yoghurt to make up for the dryness.

Make a well in the bowl of ‘dry’. Pour the yoghurt mixture into the well. Using a scoop-stir method combine the wet and the dry. Do not overmix!

Melt some oil (I use coconut) in your frying pan. Using a 1/4-cup measuring scoop (or a very large spoon) dollop out the pancake batter into the pan. The trick with these is that they don’t seem to bubble around the edges the way that normal pancakes do to say “flip me!” so just keep an eye on them every few minutes. While they’re cooking chop your fruit. You will be much happier with fruit on your pancakes.

I keep mine warm in the toaster oven while I wait for the rest of the batch to cook. That way I have warm pancakes when it’s time to eat!

My cookbook arrived!

I love cookbooks. It’s almost an addiction. I have far more cookbooks than I use, but I like reading recipes the way that some people read novels. So I keep getting them. This one is particularly helpful because I have a slow-cooker that I ‘inherited’ from my scatter-brained aunt. She left it behind on a trip so I took it home with me. Of course she’d lost the instructions on how to use it in her forgetfulness, so I learned how to make oatmeal and have been making that. Of course, slow cookers are good for much more than just oatmeal so I figured that I needed a cookbook. It arrived in the mail today, and a week earlier than anticipated!

Due to my work schedule I anticipate it being very useful in the next couple of weeks. Looking forward to it!

Dessert and Sunday Night Breakfast

Today after work I went to my mother’s dessert party. I finished the trifle (as I mentioned the other day) that I started yesterday. Her neighbour made the chocolate bundt cake behind it. This is the best chocolate cake that I’ve ever had. It’s an old recipe, too.

Roasted pear and raspberry trifle. The slivered almonds on top are hard to see!

The trifle was so popular that I was requested to make another one for Thanksgiving (which is in two weeks). I don’t want to make the same one. Perhaps pumpkin? The same neighbour who made the chocolate bundt cake always hosts Thanksgiving, and she requested it. How could I turn her down, when she can bribe me with chocolate cake!?

It was popular!

Once I got home I had to make my breakfast for the week. This week my fridge has lots of raspberries, and I have some bosc pears as well (leftovers from making a pear-raspberry trifle!). So I decided to make slow cooker oatmeal. I haven’t had it for a while, and I have some early mornings and long days coming up. Plus it’s a perfect autumn food (well, really, it’s also perfect in the winter and spring). It reminds me a lot of rice pudding (which I love!), although the grain is different. Here it is waiting for a final stir:

Slow cooker oatmeal, pre-cooking.

How do I make my slow cooker oatmeal? Like this!

• Grease the crockpot, otherwise the final product will stick to it pretty badly! I like using coconut oil because it tastes good. Any other oil or fat would work just as well, like as not.
• Pour in your liquid. Steel cut oats use a grain:liquid ration of 1:4. So 2 cups steel cut oats requires 8 cups of liquid. I use 6 cups of water and 2 cups of a milk substitute. This is math!
• You’ll also want to add a bit of sugar (1/4 cup) and stir it in until it’s dissolved. This is unless you prefer to add it to individual portions, of course. I like adding it to the cooking because then I can tell Fuzzy that it’s pre-sweetened and he gets less sugar than he would if he free-handed it.
• I always forget to integrate my spices properly. I use 1 tsp of vanilla and cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, and either 1/2 tsp either nutmeg or cardamom depending on what I feel like at the time. Which might be why it reminds me so much of rice pudding! If you want to integrate your spices properly (apparently I don’t want to because I always forget to do this) put them (dry) in a cup. Add a spoonful of your water/milk liquid and stir well. You’ll get a form of spice paste. Put that into your 8 cups of liquid and stir it around again.
• Now add your 2 cups of steel cut oats that I mentioned earlier.
• Then I cook it on low for 8-9 hours. I’m told not to cook it for longer than 9 hours because it’ll dry out. So usually I make it and then wake up ten minutes early to turn it off and let it cool while I go about my morning routine.
• I’m not sure how well it freezes, but I put it into containers and put it in my fridge. There! Breakfast for the week!

Breakfast