pumpkin french toast

The other day I had some pumpkin pancakes and thought, why not do this with french toast! Kurt's mom always adds a banana to her french toast (mixes it in the blender), so I figured it would be just as easy to add some canned pumpkin. It was, and even tastier!

8 slices of bread (I used whole wheat)

1 cup milk

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and dash of nutmeg and cloves (or you could just use pumpkin pie spice)

Mix together and pour in a pie dish. Dip each slice and fry in butter. Top with maple syrup or whipped cream.

Green Smoothies

We've been sick the last two weeks (my daughter, though immunized twice, even managed to catch the chicken pox). We are are still dealing with lingering coughs and runny noses so I've been making a lot of 'green' smoothies.

I have no exact measurements, just add what you like. If your kids (or you) don't like so much greens start with just a little spinach and then add more each time as you get used to the taste.

Banana Berry Smoothie

1. Fill blender with spinach and about a cup of water/juice, blend

2. Add 1-2 kale leaves, blend

3. Add one banana, blend

4. Add frozen berries (I use blueberries & strawberries- about 1 cup each), blend until smooth

Tropical Green Smoothie (This one actually turns out green)

Follow 1-3 above (I like to use orange juice with this one)

4. Add frozen mango & pineapple (about 1 cup each), blend until smooth

(I don't know why this keeps downloading sideways, sorry.)

Conference Donuts

This conference weekend instead of making cinnamon rolls we tired something new. We made our own donuts! My friend and cooking mentor referred me to this recipe at Allrecipes.com (love that site!). She told me to double the glaze, which I was glad I did; there was just enough for all the donuts. They weren't the most perfectly shaped, but they still tasted great and were a lot cheaper than Krispy Kream!

I think the oil was too hot at first. They were cooking really fast and got too dark. (I had no way to measure if it was the 350 it called for). So I turned it down and waited a few minutes before doing any more. That seemed to do the trick.

I used a spatula to slide them in the oil, but ended up just using a fork to flip them and pull them out.

I had one cookie sheet with cookie rack to place them on right out of the oil. Then I would dip them- still hot- into the glaze and on another cookie sheet w/ rack:

I kept the glaze on the stove. It needed to be reheated often as the surface cooled and started to crust over. When there was a lot of glaze that had dripped off on the cookie sheet I just scrapped it back into the pot on the stove.

Maybe next time I'll try a chocolate glaze. Mmm

Anyone else have have a good recipe or idea for donuts?

breakfast for dinner

Sometimes we have breakfast for dinner. Usually when I haven't started dinner or planned something or realize there is no food in the house cause I didn't go shopping. Usually it's something like pancakes or waffles, maybe even french toast. Tonight I actually planned to make breakfast for dinner. We had eggs and "home fried potatoes." My mom used to make this with left over boiled potatoes so really there's no recipe, you just kind of wing it. But I did found something like it in a cookbook and discovered a good way to prep the potatoes when not using left overs.

Fried Potato Cubes

(tonight's version included:)

3 potoatos, peeled cubed

1/3 ? onion diced

1/2 bell pepper

Salt & Pepper

butter

chopped dill to taste (I had some in the freezer from another time)

Place potatoes in pot of water and bring to a boil and then continue to boil for 1 min; drain. Heat butter in large skillet. Add potatoes, onions, bell pepper, salt and pepper. Cook 10-15 min until browned, turning with a spatula (wait 5 minutes before turning them so they can brown). Add dill at the end.

Challa French Toast

While Sabrina was visiting we tried this Barefoot Contessa recipe for french toast. Mmm... It was delicious. We found the Challa bread on our trip to Trader Joe's (Sabrina went crazy buying stuff to take back home). The bread totally made it so rich. I can't decide if I like this (with the orange flavor) better than regular cinnamon french toast it was that good. Anyway, if you can find some Challa or Brioche you should make this.

Rice Pudding

My mom used to make rice pudding in the crock-pot growing up. We always ate it for breakfast with jam and milk on it, but I guess it's a desert. This is an oven recipe I found that I usually make when I have left over rice from dinner. I figure it's a good high calorie, high protein breakfast for Eleanor. She and Gregory love it.

Rice Pudding

1 1/2 cups milk

3 eggs

1/3 cup sugar (I used 3 T sugar and 2 T agave, sometimes I just put in 1/4 c agave instead)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup cooked rice

1/2 cup raisins (I usually put these in, but didn't have them today)

Cinnamon

Beat eggs slightly, add milk and vanilla. Stir in rice and raisins. (I usually just mix it in the dish I bake it in. One less thing to wash.) Sprinkle with cinnamon if you like.

Put 1 1/2 quart baking dish in a 9x13 glass dish and place in pre-heated oven. Fill 9x13 with 1" boiling water. Bake at 325 for 30 min. Pull out oven rack and stir pudding. Replace and bake 20-30 min more until middle is set.

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes & Scrambled Eggs with Green Herbs

I tried these pancakes at a friends house and fell in love with them. I've added mashed bananas to french toast and pancakes before (to secretly make them healthier for the kids), but I think the diced bananas are so much better (even if Eleanor doesn't).

I was afraid to try these scrambled eggs because I've never been a real fan of dill. Growing up I would protest whenever my poor mom added it to anything. She loves it. Maybe my taste buds have grown up. Maybe I just grew up. But I thought these tasted great.

I dyed the pancakes green for St. Patrick's Day. hehe