Kefir and Muesli, Cruesli or Granola

The best cold breakfast ever!!!

This is one of my favorite combos.  If you've never tried it, do yourself a favor.

Kefir, if you're unfamiliar, is a smooth yogurt-like liquid with a slight tangy effervescence.  It comes from fermenting milk (or coconut milk) with kefir grains - a symbiotic blend of yeast and bacteria.   It is great for intestinal health and tasty to boot.

Muesli is a breakfast cereal made of rolled oats, fruit, nuts and sometimes chocolate....
Cruesli is a name brand granola/muesli type cereal from Quaker sold in Europe. I picked up a few boxes the last time I was visiting.  Yes, I bring back food from my travels.

The combo above is a classic vanilla (kefir) and chocolate (Cruesli) pairing, but the combinations are endless.  This past week we picked up some banana granola and mixed it with strawberry kefir, which was equally delicious.

As they say in The Netherlands, schmecklekker!

The Giant Garlic Spaghetti Monster

aka The Spaghetti Sandwich

I've been wanting to make this for a while, and actually found a recipe for a spaghetti sandwich in this awesome kids cookbook- Cooking with Herb: The Vegetarian Dragon.  When I recently had a big craving for spaghetti and meatballs, I decided to go for it.  I made one adjustment though,  I used egg noodles instead of a longer stringier pasta like spaghetti, fettucini or angel hair.  The fluffy egg noodles took some of the 'weight' out of the dish allowing for more face stuffing! 

Quantities are vague hear, because I assume everyone has their own way of making spaghetti and meatballs.  For the record, I used a 12 oz bag of basil egg noodles, almost a full jar of Newman's Own Marinara, and one 12 oz bag of veggie meatballs.  For the garlic bread, I just followed the directions on the box but homemade garlic bread is easy to concoct if you have some bread, garlic and butter lying around.  Here's a good recipe from a fellow blogger. Oh, and we were able to eat off of this for almost a week, so, let's say serves 8-10.

Ingredients

Noodles (spaghetti or egg noodles work well)
Tomato Sauce
Pesto
Meatballs (Try a great meatless version- Nate's Zesty Italian 'balls)
Garlic Bread (Trader Joe's frozen variety was used in this experiment)
Provolone

Directions
Boil up some water for the noodles.  Heat up your tomato sauce and meatballs in another pot.

 Add a heaping spoonful or 2 of pesto to your tomato sauce.  Drain the noodles and heat up the garlic bread in the oven with provolone on top for extra cheesiness.  Mix noodles with the sauce and meat balls.   When the garlic bread is done, top a piece of garlic bread with  some saucy noodles.

Top with another piece of garlic bread.  Smash down real hard.  Try to fit it in your mouth, then give up and eat it with your hands and a fork like a normal person.  

You Want Some Fries With That Breakfast?

Just a little suggestion -  When you don't have home fries or hash browns on hand to complete your greasy diner-style breakfast at home, use french fries.

This little plate is graced with fried eggs and sausage patties with leftover fries from the wonderful 5 Seasons Brewery.  I think I dig it even more then the typical breakfast potatoes. 

Bon appétit!

Mini Coconut Ice Cream Sandwich with Whipped Cream and Raspberries

A Midnight @ Mom's House creation.

I recently found myself at my mom's house for the weekend while she was out of town.  Like many moms, she has a large amount of random fresh foods, condiments and dry goods at any given time.  It's easy and almost necessary to get creative with food in her kitchen, since nothing appears to have been purchased with the intention of being combined together.  

Voila! 

Within 2 minutes I had whipped myself up an extremely satisfying and delicious treat, and it was something that I may not have ever thought of on my own.  

Ingredients

1 mini Ice-Cream Sandwich (I recommend So Delicious Coconut)

1 dollop or squirt of whipped cream

1 small handful of fresh raspberries

Directions

Remove Ice-Cream Sandwich from wrapping.  Apply whipped cream.  Sprinkle with berries. 

Thanks Mom!

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Sticks

So easy and delicious, I can't believe I haven't done this before!

Ingredients
3 slices cinnamon raisin bread
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk or cream
dash of almond extract
butter for pan frying

Directions
Purchase (or make!) some thickly sliced or unsliced cinnamon raisin bread.  If unsliced, slice into 3 two inch slices,  and then cut each slice into a 2 inch wide strip.  In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk and almond extract.   Heat frying pan or griddle to Med-Low heat.  When pan is hot, melt the butter in it- enough to coat the bottom of the pan.  Dip each strip of bread, making sure to coat each side and the ends and place in pan.  Cook each side for about 5 minutes.  You may need to reapply butter if you're working in smaller batches.  If you're making a lot at once, keep a ceramic plate in the oven @  200-250 F and store the cooked strips in there until you're ready to serve.  Serve with fresh fruit and maple syrup for dipping.  Dust with powdered sugar or some extra cinnamon if you like.
Enjoy!!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas with Creamed Spinach and Cheddar

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Mmmmmmm......

Ingredients

1 Sweet Potato

1/2 Onion, chopped

2 cups Spinach, cooked or frozen

1 tbsp Lime Juice

1 8 oz can Black Beans

1 12 oz jar of Enchilada Sauce (we used Trader Joe's)

1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning

1 tbsp Cream Cheese or Plain Yogurt (for creaming the spinach)

1 tsp garlic, minced or powdered

5-6 small Tortillas

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

6-8 oz Cheddar Cheese

Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Cube sweet potatoes and boil until you can pierce easily with a fork then drain.   Saute onions with olive oil until translucent, then take them off the heat.  Mash the sweet potatoes and and mix in the onions, lime juice, black beans and taco seasoning.


The creamed spinach- if you have an amazing creamed spinach recipe, or just happen to have some laying around in your fridge, use that.  I made a quick concoction out of cooked frozen spinach that I heated up and mixed with cream cheese, garlic and a pinch of salt.  

In a baking dish, pour half of the bottle of enchilada sauce.

Place a tortilla in the dish and coat both sides with enchilada sauce.  Fill with the sweet potato mixture, top with the creamed spinach, and roll it up!  Repeat until all of the filling is used (makes 5-6 enchiladas depending on how big you decide to make them).  Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on top and spread out evenly.  Top with cheddar cheese.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until sauce is bubbling.  
Dig in! 

Cadbury Creme Egg Ice Cream

Yowza.   I made a version of this last year with homemade frozen custard and some additional mini chocolate easter egg candies -- and it was fantastic -- but the Cadbury creme flavor did not carry through.  So, I decided to try a more direct version that is much simpler and you can quickly make at home (without an ice cream maker).  The idea was to mix in the crushed Cadbury eggs in a cold bowl with your favorite flavored ice cream (sort of like those franchise places with the frozen marble).  As you can see, we experimented with vanilla, but based on our findings other simple flavors would be just as tasty.

Ingredients
1 pint Vanilla Ice Cream (or FroYo)
3 Cadbury Creme Eggs
1 ceramic bowl (frozen for at least 1 hour)
2 wooden spoons

Directions
First, place a large ceramic bowl in the freezer for at least one hour.  Remove from freezer and scoop out contents of ice cream pint.   Place 3 cadbury eggs on top of the ice cream and start whacking with the wooden spoons.

Once the eggs have been mostly desecrated, start mixing and folding the ice cream until the chocolate is thoroughly mixed but you can still make out the yellow clumps of cream in the concoction.  At this point, you may want to pop the bowl and it's contents back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to prevent melting.  Once the ice cream has firmed up, you can plate some in a bowl and store the rest in the empty pint container.

A friend of mine also pointed out that using a cracked egg on top of a single serving bowl of scooped ice cream would also be worth trying...

ENJOY!!!