Food Thursday: Brunch Plans

Easter is just around the corner and I’m starting to come up with a brunch menu in my head. I don’t have anything firm yet but I’m contemplating a finger-food sort of meal. I’m curious to see if I can come up with enough brunch items that don’t require a fork or a spoon. This oldie but goodie got me thinking along these lines: Mini Bacon Potato Frittatas (soooo good).

In my menu searching I dug up this idea. I’ve made it before but it’s been a very long time. I do believe it started as a Cooking Light recipe – which means it’s even a healthy (ish) addition to my potential brunch menu – but when I searched online, the sour cream coffee cake they have posted is different than mine. Whether you make it for brunch or a teacher’s breakfast or just because it’s Thursday – I hope you enjoy it.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 egg whites
1 cup low fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
cooking spray

1. Combine first two ingredients and set aside.

2. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until creamed. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Mix for another minute or so. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and combine with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating well between additions.

3. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Pour half the batter in. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over the batter. Spread remaining batter in pan. Top with remaining brown sugar/cinnamon mix.

4. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Note: I like to add nuts to the brown sugar/cinnamon mix – any variety of small chopped nuts will do – but my husband doesn’t like them so they aren’t included in the recipe. You, however, might be more open to the nut family and if so – a 1/4 cup of nuts added to the brown sugar/cinnamon makes a lovely topping.

Food Thursday: Crock Pot French Toast

Last week I was planning out my Easter brunch menu and remembered that I have a crock pot cookbook that talks about making all sorts of things in the crock pot. Things like desserts even and dressings. So, I decided to try and adapt a french toast casserole recipe to work in the crock pot and the result was so easy and made the house smell so good and tasted so yummy… we officially declare it a winner!

Crock Pot French Toast

1 loaf of french bread
10 eggs
3 cups of milk
1 TB vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup of sugar mixed with 1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup crushed pecans and/or oatmeal for topping – optional

1. Slice the bread into inch thick slices.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and salt.
3. Grease the entire inside of your crock pot well with Crisco. Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of the cinnamon sugar mix and half the brown sugar into the bottom. Put half the bread slices on top of the sugar. Pour half the egg mixture over the bread. Repeat the entire layer – cinnamon sugar, brown sugar, bread & the rest of the egg mixture. Smush the bread down a bit to make sure it’s soaking up the liquid. Sprinkle a little more cinnamon & sugar on top. Add your toppings if you want them.

ready to bake!

4. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. If there is still liquid in the crock pot, uncover and cook for another 30 minutes or until all liquid is soaked up.

Note on the greasing: sugar turns into a sticky mess when it heats up, do NOT skimp on the Crisco. I used butter instead and wasn’t very liberal with it… I had to soak & scrape a mess out of that crock pot. So please, slather that Crisco on!

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If you like this recipe, you should check out Version II. Easier clean up and my family likes this one better:
Crock Pot French Toast II.

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I love this idea of having breakfast ready when you wake up and it doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen so you can do it any time of year. Yum!

Food Thursday: Easter Brunch

I’ve been planning and tweaking my Easter brunch menu for a couple weeks now. We will start with plenty of appetizers. I’m going to feature two egg-based dishes. I’m playing around with some sort of french toast-like casserole, perhaps with mini-chocolate chips included for my girls who gave up chocolate for Lent. I’m considering trying my hand at Hot Cross Buns – something I’ve never made before. There will be prosecco cocktails and orange juice and desserts galore. It’s going to be quite the joyful celebration – as it should be.

I love planning a menu – whether it’s for a holiday or a casual get-together or one of my crazy themed pitch-ins. I almost have as much fun figuring out what I’m going to make as I do eating it – almost. This Easter, I’m most excited about this brunch idea from Paula Deen:

Brunch Stuffed Peppers
4 yellow bell peppers
1 cup frozen country style hash browns, thawed
1/2 (16-ounce) package bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 large eggs
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar-Monterey Jack cheese blend, plus more for garnish
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup biscuit mix
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the top 1/2-inch of each pepper. Discard the tops and seeds. Arrange the peppers, cut side up, in an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Fill the bottom of each pepper evenly with hash browns and bacon.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, cheese, milk, baking mix, sour cream, green onion, salt, and pepper. Whisk until combined. Evenly distribute the egg mixture into each pepper.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out dry, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, garnish with cheese and serve immediately.

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In related Easter news – I wrote all about how to boil the perfect egg so you can dye it and still use it for delicious deviled eggs later. Check it out.

And in other related Easter news – do a search for ‘brunch’ in my handy-dandy search box (over there on the right) and you’ll find a handful of other ideas that would be just right on your holiday table. Mmmmm.

Food Thursday: Holiday Brunch

There’s something about a holiday meal that makes me crave brunch. Maybe it’s the going to a big church celebration and then wanting to come home and eat. With this particular egg-oriented holiday, maybe it’s a craving for eggs. Whatever it is, I’m making brunch this year. What am I making? Oh… probably a pork tenderloin, some fresh veggies and this. This potato-y, egg-y casserole that is out of this world. (I’ve now ruined the surprise for my Easter guests – Hi Grandma!)

Rosti Casserole with Baked Eggs
Taken with gratitude from Cooking Light – see it’s healthy too – 350 calories per serving even!

– 1 1/4 cups Greek-style yogurt (I’ve used plain regular in a pinch)
– 2 TB flour
– 1 medium size turnip (or 2 small) peeled and grated
– 1 1/4 cup (5 oz) shredded Gruyere cheese (look in the deli section)
– 1/3 cup butter, melted
– 1/4 cup chopped chives
– 1 1/4 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 1/4 tsp nutmeg
– 1 (30 oz) package of frozen shredded hash browns
– 8 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Combine yogurt and flour in a large bowl, mixing well. Add turnip, Gruyere, butter, chives, salt & pepper, nutmeg and potatoes to yogurt mixture.
3. Spray a 13×9 inch baking dish with cooking spray and spread mixture into it. (a lasagna pan works a little better if you’ve got one.)
4. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Remove from oven. with the back of a spoon make 8 indentations in the potato mixture. Crack 1 egg into each of the indentations. Return dish to oven and bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes until the egg whites are set.

If you want to be all fancy you can garnish each piece (8 of them so everyone gets an egg) with extra chopped up chives.

Happy, Happy Easter everyone!

By the way, are you curious as to what Rosti means? (there’s an umlaut over that ‘o’ but I don’t know the HTML to produce it and I don’t feel like looking it up.) It’s a Swiss word meaning crisp and golden. Specifically: A Swiss potato cake made from layers of sliced or grated potatoes, fried until ‘crisp and golden’ which is exactly what ‘rösti’ means in Switzerland. I’ll tell you what else it means – yummy. You’re welcome.

Side note #2 – I posted a recipe on my Parent Magazine blog that has been featured here before if you want a second brunch option. Check it out!

food tuesday: garden vegetable quiche

I’m having Easter brunch at my house this year (I almost always have people over for Easter but not always a brunch). I haven’t figured out what I’m serving yet (probably should get on that). But I’m toying with the idea of bringing out the recipe featured below. I made it for Easter a few years back and it was very good.

Garden Vegetable Crustless Quiche
straight from the pages of good ol’ Cooking Light. Their version uses all the low fat options and has a wine recommendation at the bottom. There are just some things I can’t do low fat – cheese is one of them.

1.5 cups egg substitute
3 large eggs
1.5 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1.5 cups shredded monterey jack cheese, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (16 oz) carton of cottage cheese
cooking spray
4 cups sliced zucchini (3-4 of them)
2 cups diced potatoes with onion (Simply Potatoes makes an easy option)
1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 8 oz package presliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced

preheat oven to 400.

Beat egg substitute and eggs in a large bowl until fluffy. Add 3/4 cup cheddar, 3/4 cup jack, milk, flour, baking powder, salt, and cottage cheese.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add the veggies – zucchini thru mushrooms – and saute for 5 minutes or until tender. Add the veggies and parsley to the egg mixture. Pour mixture into a lasagna pan or 9×13 dish coated with cooking spray. Top with remaining cheese. Arrange tomato slices on top.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 (don’t take the dish out) and bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and set.

cook’s note: this is an easy one to substitute veggies – maybe some spring asparagus? spinach?