Oatmeal Pancakes

I love Monday's off. Just another excuse to make breakfast. I love breakfasts which is new for me. Normally I am not a breakfast person because I have so many other things to do in the morning and I am not a fan of Bisquick anything but growing up Bisquick was the go to breakfast so that is what I think of when I think of making breakfast. However, that is starting to change. As I make more breakfast foods for me I am starting to enjoy it more and more.

These pancakes are an adaptation from all recipes. I really liked the idea of adding oatmeal to my pancakes to make them healthier. With no oil, no sugar, the substitution of egg beaters, adding banana, raisins, and whole wheat flour these are actually pretty healthy. Next time I think I will add a little Splenda because these do taste a little on the healthy side rather than the yummy breakfast side. However, they were VERY filling. I also only blended half the batter and next time I will blend all of it because I want them to be less dense. Maybe more milk? The batter was nice and thick and they were pretty fluffy but I wanted a few more air pockets without adding more baking soda or baking powder. Hum...All in all I will be going back to this recipe again when I want a nice big breakfast. Recipe below reflects the changes I will make next time.Ingredients:

• 9 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 oz vanilla yogurt
• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup egg beaters
• 3/4 banana
• 1/3 cup non-fat milk
• 1 tbsp Splenda

Mixins:

• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 1/2 box raisins (snack size box)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch all-spice

Directions:

1. Add all wet ingredients to the blender. Mix in the oats by hand and allow to soak for about 10 minutes.
2. Add all other ingredients except the mix-ins. Blend until smooth.
3. Heat griddle to low-med heat.
4. Split the batch in two portions, into one half mix the blueberries. Into the other half mix in the mix the raisins, cinnamon, and all spice. (Blueberry pancakes should have some spices as well, perhaps some cinnamon)
5. Pour about 1/4 cup servings onto the griddle and cook until brown on the sides. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes depending on the heat of the griddle. (I would cook these slower then your normal pancake)

Makes about 9 pancakes: Calories per pancake - 100

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I have done so much baking recently. I just love the smell of sweet things cooking in my oven. These cookies were the result of a bad day that I was hoping to make better with a little something sweet and homemade. These cookies fit the bill. Besides, while I really wanted peanut butter, Miles much prefers these cookies.

Ingredients:

• 8 tbsp light butter
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup egg substitute
• 3/4 cup Spenda
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Soak raisins in warm water for 10 minutes.
   
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, butter flavored shortening, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container.
   

Makes 38 mini cookies: calories per cookie - 32

Cinnamon Bread - French Toast

This blog is really turning into a breakfast blog. I am not sure why I enjoy blogging about breakfast more than any other meal but I think it is partially because the pictures turn out so much better when taken in the light of day. Breakfast is really the only meal where most of what I make is made from scratch. Dinner often involves a pre-made sauce or pasta, or it involves a piece of meat that is seasoned and grilled. There just isn't that much that goes into dinner and meals that involve more difficulty are made so often that I don't really find them blog worthy. Trust me, I keep you from a lot of bad or boring meals.

So anyway, this post is about french toast but it is also about the bread I made to make the french toast from. I have been longing to have french toast. On the rare occasion that we go out for breakfast I ALWAYS order french toast. Of course when we do go out the french toast I order is always made from really interesting and wonderful bread. I didn't want to make my own french toast using regular wheat bread and then be disappointed but at the same time I have been looking for a bread recipe that isn't very high in calories, and that I could add yummy things to, for weeks without any luck. Well today I found something I figured I could alter.This recipe from Blissfully Delicious wasn't intended to be made into french toast but it looked so wonderful that I figured I would give it a try. I used light butter and substituted some apple sauce for some of the butter. I also used a combination bread flour and all purpose flour, egg whites only, and I used maple syrup instead of honey as that's that I had on hand. Oh, and I didn't wash it with an egg glaze. I guess with all these changes it isn't even really the same bread but the idea started with Blissfully Delicious so that's where the credit goes.

Ingredients for the bread:

• 6 tbsp warm water
• 3/4 tbsp granulated yeast
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 6 tbsp egg whites lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp apple sauce
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp Splenda
• 4 tbsp light butter melted
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cups + 6 tbsp bread flour
• Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix water and yeast and allow to sit while you combine the next ingredients.
2. Combine egg whites, apple sauce, salt, maple syrup, butter, and Splenda in a large bowl. Whisk for about 1 minute to combine the ingredients and make the egg whites nice and fluffy.
3. Add the yeast and water mixture to the other wet ingredients. Then add the flour and mix with the whisk until combined. Do not over mix.
4. Cover and place in a warm location for 2 hours. The dough should double in size while sitting.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Lightly flour your working surface and move the dough to the work area. Add more flour if needed to make your dough manageable. Roll the dough into a large square.
7. Sprinkle cinnamon over the dough to your taste preference. Roll the dough into a log an place an a baking tray wrapping the sides of the log around until they touch on one side of the log.
8. Bake for 35 minutes checking after 30 minutes so as to not over cook.

Makes 12 servings - 100 calories per slice

Ingredients for French Toast:

• Bread from above recipe
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3/4 cup non-fat milk
• 3/4 cup egg beaters
• Cinnamon and nutmeg

Directions:

1. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk in the eggs. Add cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Whisk to combine all ingredients.
   
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.
3. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. Serve hot.

Makes 12 servings - calories per serving - 125

Apple Cinnamon and Blueberry Muffins

I made the blue berry muffins from my blog again this morning but instead of making just blueberry I split the batter in half and mixed half with blueberries as before and half with apples and cinnamon. Last time I made these I used Splenda packets in combination with real sugar but last time I was shopping I picked up some granulated Splenda so I decided to try just using the Splenda this time.

These were excellent. Miles loves blueberry but he actually enjoyed the apple cinnamon muffins over the blueberry. The topping was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I only made 4 muffins this time and we scarfed them down. You can actually see the steam coming off the inside of the blueberry muffins.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 6 tbsp Spenda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp apple sauce
• 2 tbsp egg whites
• 1/4 cup non-fat milk
• 3 tbs frozen blueberries
• 1/4 apple
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  

Topping:

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/2 tbsp butter - light version
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners. I used my Silicon bake-ware so I did not need to grease the muffin cups.
   
2. Combine flour, Splenda, salt and baking powder in a medium sized bowl. Place apple sauce into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg whites and enough milk to fill to 1/2 cup. Mix this with flour mixture.
   
3. Split the mixture putting half into the measuring cup. Into the measuring cup add blueberries and fold in gently. Put mixture into two of the muffin tins.
4. To the other half of the batter add 1/4 of an apple, peeled and cubed. Add the cinnamon and mix together. Split into 2 muffin tins. You should now have two blueberry muffins and two apple muffins. The tins should be between halfway and two thirds of the way full.
   
5. Mix topping ingredients with a fork in a small bowl until grainy and sprinkle muffins with crumb topping mixture. Sprinkle the cinnamon muffins with a little extra cinnamon.
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Makes 4 muffins: calories per muffin - 145

Snickerdoodles

I wanted a none chocolate cookie so I decided to make snickerdoodles. My first attempt didn't go so well. I am still getting used to cooking with applesauce, splenda, and light butter. Sometimes making lower calorie switches just doesn't pan out.

This time I used a sugar cookie recipe from Delish-Blog but because snickerdoodles are supposed to have cream of tartar I doubled the baking powder called for in the recipe. I also used Splenda and light butter. These turned out MUCH better than last time. I might even go for an all Splenda cookie next time...if I can be brave enough.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Splenda Granulated "sugar"
• 1 1/4 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 7 Tbsp (1 3/4 sticks) Light butter, softened
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg

• Sugar and cinnamon mixture (about 2 tbsp each)

Directions:

1. Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl
3. Mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and the egg and mix until well incorporated.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Using wet palms roll into 1-2 tbs sized dough balls. Roll the dough balls in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Place on a silpat and flatten slightly.
5. Cook for 10 minutes.

Makes 12 cookies: Calories per cookie - 100

Cinnamon Rolls - with Raisins

I spent all Saturday cooking and looking at food blogs. Every time I looked at another blog I wanted to cook something else. After making muffins, macaroons, grilled sandwiches, and wanting to make a half dozen other things I finally settled on cinnamon rolls. I have been craving breakfast foods -hence the muffins- and last weekend Miles and I made waffles and pancakes. I can't justify having cinnamon rolls without Miles so I decided to freeze these (from all recipes) for a later date.

Ingredients:

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 tbsp white sugar + 3 packets of Splenda
  
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour

• 5 tbsp light butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture with the sugar, salt, egg and 1 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest in a warm place for 10 minutes.
3. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Smear the dough with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon, raisins, and brown sugar. Roll up the dough along the long edge until it forms a roll. Slice off and discard the ends. Then cut into the roll into 12 equal size pieces and place them in the pan with the cut side up.(At this point you can wrap the pieces in saran wrap allow to rise for 45 and then freeze)
   
4. Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or cover and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake rolls until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Servings 12: calories per serving 165