Breakfast

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’ve been getting into bad breakfast habits again. I find myself getting a calorie-loaded egg and cheese bagel more often than usual or I’ll end up skipping breakfast altogether and be so starving by 10am that I’ll eat handfuls of miniature Reese’s peanut butter cups out of the candy bowl in the office next door. It’s terrible. I decided it was time to make some muffins that I could keep stored away for a quick grab-and-go each morning. Rather than deprive myself of that morning chocolate I’ve been getting used to, I thought these Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffins would be a perfect transition back into normal breakfast eating.

A simple muffin batter is jazzed up with a splash of red wine vinegar and chocolate chips, which are also used to top of these puffy cocoa gems. I used regular chocolate chips in place of mini-chocolate chips because I had them on hand but I can only imagine how rich and chocolatey these muffins would be with little bits of melted chocolate in every bite. These muffins satisfy any chocolate urge you get and are perfectly light enough to eat with your morning coffee. Now I can actually feel a little less guilty about eating chocolate for breakfast.

Also, I want to take a moment to wish my cousin-more-like-a-little-brother Ben a very, very Happy Birthday today! Check out his novel, Harvitz, As To War, here.

The ingredients:

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.

Combine water, red wine vinegar, canola oil, vanilla and egg in a separate bowl, stirring well. Stir in half of the chocolate chips and add mixture to the well in the flour mixture. Stir just until moist.

Coat 12 muffin liners with cooking spray and divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Top remaining chocolate chips evenly over batter.

Bake in a 400°F oven for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

Whole-wheat flour for 3/4 cup white flour
Regular chocolate chips for minichips

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine

Pineapple-Mango Yogurt Smoothie

Have you ever had one of those weekends where you just had too much? Too much food? Too much drink? Too much fun? That was the weekend I had last weekend. When my friend in Florida came home to spend Father’s Day with her pop, we decided to take the opportunity to get the girls together and have some fun. From Friday afternoon until the wee hours of Sunday, we partied. And hard. I decided it was probably necessary to get something healthy in my body and pronto!

The Pineapple-Mango Yogurt Smoothie I made was both tasty and filling. Frozen pineapple and mango chunks are blended with non-fat vanilla yogurt, non-fat milk, and a little sugar. As I spent Sunday resting and relaxing, I sipped on this and felt refreshed. I liked it so much, I made another one for breakfast on Monday. What is it about smoothies that somehow just make you feel better?

Pineapple-Mango Yogurt Smoothie (makes 1 smoothie)

1 cup frozen pineapple
1 cup frozen mango
6-ounces non-fat vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons sugar or Splenda
1/2 cup non-fat milk

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Add more milk if necessary to reach desired consistency. If you prefer to use fresh fruit, simply add 1 cup of crushed ice.

The ingredients:

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth.

Add more milk if necessary to reach desired consistency.

Fried Egg BLT Sandwiches

Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches were a once-in-a-while meal at my house growing up. But since I didn’t eat tomatoes as a kid, my BLTs were more of BLMs – bacon, lettuce and mayonaisse. When I did start eating tomatoes, I was a vegetarian so my BLTs became LTMs – lettuce, tomato and mayonaisse. Now that I’m no longer a vegetarian and can eat a real BLT (although I guess technically it would be a TBLT – turkey bacon, lettuce and tomato), it never occurs to me to make one. When I saw the recipe for Fried Egg BLT Sandwiches, it was like a light bulb when off. Why hadn’t I ever thought to do this? I’ll eat an omelet with tomatoes and spinach and a side of bacon and toast for breakfast, so why not make a sandwich out of it?

Toasted bread is topped with spinach, a tomato slice, bacon, and a fried egg. The recipe calls for focaccia but my store was out so I substituted a whole-wheat English muffin. I’m sure the focaccia adds a bit of pizzazz but really any kind of bread will do. I also used the spinach instead of arugula but only because I had spinach on hand. If you don’t like arugula’s peppery flavor, any leafy green will be a good substitute. Eaten open faced, this sandwich is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and is especially perfect for a light bite. I’m now proud to say that I am officially a BLT eater. Or an EBLT eater. Whatever.

The ingredients:

Prepare bacon according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and swirl to coat. Crack eggs into the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Cover and cook an additional 2 minutes or until whites are set.