Ham and Mushroom Quiche

What to do with leftover Easter ham? The possibilities are all delicious, but this year I attempted my first quiche. From what I gathered doing some research on the interwebz, there were about a bazillion ways to make quiche. I stumbled along and came up with something I found pretty tasty (and it even qualified as "dinner" for Hubby which is quite a feat since he would probably say there is only one person's serving of actual ham in the quiche ;-) )

Ham and Mushroom Quiche

Serves 6

8 oz diced cooked ham

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 small red onion

4 eggs

1 cup milk

6 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 refrigerated pie crust (Pillsbury is my brand of choice)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare a pie pan for baking with the refrigerated pie crust.
2. In a skillet with some olive oil, saute the mushrooms and onion together until soft.
3. Layer the ham on the bottom of the pie shell, then the onion/mushrooms, and finally the cheese.
4. In a bowl, beat together the eggs and milk and pour over the top of the quiche filling.
5. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes until the egg is set and a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool a bit before serving.

Super easy and super delicious. I didn't use any seasoning since the various components were pretty flavorful on their own. I have a feeling you could adjust the filling for whatever veggies you had on-hand and it would be just as delicious!

Baked French Toast

Wow, it's been over a month since I've updated the blog with a new recipe!?! Okay, that's pathetic...I've tried a few new things and have been working on perfecting my Oatmeal cookies (almost there!) so I've been in the kitchen, just not blogging about it...although I have been blogging from time-to-time over at Hooked to Books (a YA book review site one of my college BFFs started and now she's got a few other folks doing reviews too).

This recipe was one that I've been dying to try and decided it would be perfect to take to my weekly Bible study Wednesday morning at church. It was my turn to provide some of the coffee table snacks and I mean really, it seemed perfect...and less dangerous than making it at home for myself where I would undoubtedly eat it all in one sitting.

Baked French Toast with Berries

Makes one 13 x 9 inch casserole pan

Adapted from Annie's Eats

8 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tbsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg

2 small French baguettes, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 10-12 cups)

Powdered sugar (garnish)

Berries (garnish)

Maple Syrup (on the side)

1. Beat the eggs and then mix in milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and spices.
2. Pour over cubed bread in a large bowl and coat all the pieces well.
3. Pour mixture into a greased casserole dish and cover.
4. Chill in refrigerator for at least two hours (or overnight).
5. Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes or until the bread reaches your preferred done-ness (some like more squishy bread that others...that freaks me out so I baked mine on the longer end of that range..next time may back it off just a bit).
6. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving with some sprinkled powdered sugar and berries on top for garnish and some maple syrup on the side.

Considering this was completely gone when I went to retrieve my dish, I'd say it was a success ;-)

Apple Muffins (or Apple Breakfast Cake)

So, I have become mildly obsessed with Pinterest. I had previously signed up and cancelled the account (at least twice) because I couldn't figure out how to make the website work for me. Then one afternoon it hit me, or more accurately the random piles of magazine clippings got to be a little insane in my "Mama Bag" (do you have one of these? A bag filled with Mama's Stuff... magazines, iPod, books, Bible, journal, Sudoku puzzles....okay, maybe just me...) I'm not really one to troll the Internet in search of ideas. I have GoogleReader that I use to save blog posts I want to keep around, I use my email drafts to keep track of recipes I wanted to try...then it dawned on me, "I could use Pinterest as a replacement for my magazine clippings!" One thing has led to another and I'm a Pinterest sell-out. I'm still not huge on trolling the incestual pool (there's a chance I made that word up...Megan will tell me if that is so I'm sure) of Pinterest pins, but I have loved having a place to store ideas from all over the place virtual and otherwise.

Anyway, back to my point...Apple Muffins. I searched for apple muffins recently and a picture on Pinterest (yes, during the trolling I just said that I don't really do...) caught my eye. These muffins had to be made, NOW! The recipe ended up being perfect for 12 muffins and one 8 1/2" loaf pan...and the results were delicious.

(And this is my photo which is not near as good as the one that sparked my interest =P)

Apple Muffins (or Apple Breakfast Cake)

Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything -->Consequently could also be my name =P

Makes 12 muffins and one loaf-pan

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 cups peeled, diced apples

Light brown sugar, for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin and loaf pans (I used parchment paper on the long sides of the loaf pan so I could remove the baked cake easily).
2. Cream together sugars, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla.
3. Add in the dry ingredients slowly until combined.
4. Gently fold in the apples.
5. Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full and pour the remaining batter into the loaf pan (I have come to do this with muffins, or make mini-muffins as well, since I only have one muffin pan and I'm impatient so I like to have everything in the oven as soon as possible...probably also comes from the fact that baking while the toddler is napping is baking on borrowed time =P)
6. Sprinkle the tops of both the muffins and the loaf with brown sugar (don't be stingy!)
7. Bake the muffins for 20-24 minutes and the loaf pan for 45-50 minutes.

I'd imagine these would be good with a caramel drizzle...but I haven't tried it...yet ;-) The bread was a hit at my women's Bible study this morning and Hubby took the muffins into work so I'd say we had a good success on our hands!

Red, White and Blue Scones

I have been wanting to try a scone recipe and when I had some blueberries and strawberries that were not going to get eaten I thought I would test out one I found this summer from Two Peas & Their Pod. I made a few adaptations, and must say the results were delicious. I have officially decided that I need a pastry cutter as my hands get warm way too fast to be able to properly incorporate the butter (so I had to chill the dough for a little bit before rolling it out). Even so I think I will be coming back to this recipe in the future!

Red, White, and Blue Scones

Adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod

2 cups flour

2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small chunks

1/2 cup fresh strawberries, diced

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

3/4 cup whole milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

6 oz white chocolate chips or melting chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 400 and prepare a couple of baking sheets*.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the butter and using a pastry cutter, or your fingers, mix until crumbly.
4. Stir in the berries.
5. In a small bowl combine the wet ingredients, then add to the large bowl stirring gently until the dough comes together.
6. Knead with your hands (you may need to put the dough into the fridge for a little bit if it is too sticky to work with at the time) until it is well combined and then turn out onto a floured surface.
7. Roll out dough and cut into desired shape(s) then place on the baking sheets.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Cool completely then use melted white chocolate to create a drizzle on top.

*Sometimes this happens to my baking mats...this is not the proper way to prepare baking sheets for baking scones...just in case you weren't sure.

Strawberry Mini Muffins

A girls weekend away requires mini muffins. No arguments about that from this peanut gallery. I believe these will do the trick ;-)

Happy Birthday Tessa =)

Strawberry Mini Muffins

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Zest and juice from one lemon
1 1/4 cup chopped strawberries

Crumb Topping

1/3 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons chilled butter, diced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease muffin tin (or line with paper liners)
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar.
4. Add in milk, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and zest until combined.
5. Stir in the flour mixture until combined, then fold in the strawberries.
6. In a small food processor combine all the crumb topping ingredients and pulse until the mixture has a coarse crumb texture.
7. Fill the muffin tins a little more than 1/2 full of batter then sprinkle on crumb topping (in total should not be more than 3/4 full) and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

These turned out a bit more moist than I had intended, and the "crumb" topping was more like a cobbler or crisp topping rather than super "crumbly"...there were no complaints from the girls though, so I'm going to say this was a win ;-)

Scalloped Bacon and Eggs

Every once in a while Hubby gets to reminiscing about meals he had growing up. After trying to rack his brain for a while on this particular brunch/breakfast-for-dinner item I went straight to the source, my mother-in-law, for the actual recipe. This was a great weeknight meal since the eggs and bacon could be prepped ahead of time. First time out of the gate I didn't make any real changes to the recipe trying to make it as close to his childhood memory as possible. It seems like we had ourselves a fine recreation on our hands when all was said and done! This would be an excellent brunch item with some fruit and muffins...or we had ours for dinner with fruit and roasted broccoli (the veggie of choice in our home). Delicious!

Scalloped Bacon and Eggs

Serves 4-6

1 small onion, chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 c milk
5 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
6 hard cooked eggs, sliced
4 oz potato chips, crushed
12 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sauté onion in butter until softened.
3. Add the flour to the mixture and cook out a bit then add milk, stirring constantly to make sure your bechamel sauce doesn't have any big lumps.
4. Add cheese and stir over low heat until melted.
5. In a greased casserole dish layer eggs, sauce, potato chips and bacon.
6. Bake 15-20 min at 350.

Mini Sweet Potato Muffins

Homemade baby food is something I've dabbled in, but find it quite tricky as of late. When it was a matter of pureed fruits and veggies, no problem, but now we have an almost 13 month old, she really needs to be eating more "normal" food. My husband and I eat dinner after our daughter has gone to bed and dinner is usually not even started by the time she eats her dinner. So far even serving her leftovers from the night before has been a major fail as she generally hates everything I've attempted to serve her, so I've been heavily relying on pre-packaged organic baby foods and finger foods which she loves. A friend turned me onto a new baby food recipe website: www.Weelicious.com and I decided to take one of their recipes for a test run given the fact that I thought it sounded pretty tasty myself, just in case my kiddo decided to resist.

Mini Sweet Potato Muffins

Adapted from Weelicious

Makes 30 mini-muffins

1 large sweet potato (yielding about 1 cup of puree)
1 c. flour
1 c. oats
1/3 c. light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 c. whole milk
1/4 c. oil
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Rinse off sweet potato then wrap in foil and place on a foil lined pan (I've had several sweet potato mishaps so the pan may be overkill for some of you...but I've had to clean up one too many sweet potato disasters in my day!)
3. Poke several holes in the potato and bake for about one hour or until tender. (I'd go ahead and let the oven cool down in case you don't get around to the actual muffins for a little while...)
4. Allow the potato to cool and then puree either with a food processor or with a fork and your amazing arm muscles.
5. When you're ready to make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350.
6. In a small bowl combine the dry ingredients and set aside.
7. In a large bowl (or stand mixer) mix together the wet ingredients, including 1 cup of the sweet potato puree.
8. Add in the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
9. Pour batter into greased mini-muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes.

These actually turned out pretty tasty in my opinion and not too sweet. My daughter liked crumbling them up and throwing them on the floor more than eating them though.

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

This is what I did this afternoon during naptime...

I was going to make straight up banana bread, but my favorite recipe calls for plain yogurt which I did not have laying around since I really only buy it for baking since I think it tastes like nothing. I remembered that a friend of mine that runs the baking site Baked Perfection (go visit, she's awesome!) had a few banana muffin recipes that I had been wanting to try. I decided to try out the Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins since I'll eat anything with peanut butter and since I failed to observe National Peanut Butter Day back on January 24th it was meant to be ;-)

I made a few alterations, namely baking mini-muffins instead of regular sized which cut the baking time to 8-10 minutes. I also added about a tablespoon of honey into the batter since my peanut butter cookie recipe uses honey as it's not so secret secret ingredient.

Delicious and just in time for my naptime cup of coffee!

Ham and Hashbrown Casserole

Both Hubby and my dad decided that this need not be relegated to being "a breakfast food" but they said they would eat it any time of day...probably due to their joint love for ham and potatoes in virtually any form imaginable. Oddly enough, this was not the first time I've made this casserole, but it was the first time I've been able to taste the results (it was a work breakfast pot-luck favorite at Hubby's office so they were the ones who had done the taste testing). I will have to say, second only to the Ham Biscuit, this is my favorite use of leftover holiday ham, for sure!

Ham and Hashbrown Casserole

32 oz bag frozen hashbrown potatoes

8 oz cooked ham, cubed

2 cans condensed cream of potato soup

16 oz sour cream

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix the ingredients together and pour into a 13 x 9 inch pan.
3. Bake for 1 hour.

Yes, it is that ridiculously simple.

Sometimes I add parmesan cheese to the top before baking...you know, if I'm feeling wild/crazy/cheesy.

Breakfast Casserole

Apparently I am into sausage lately. This is a recipe that one of my friends brought to our Thursday mom's group. Delicious and since I'm on the hunt for some Christmas morning recipes I thought I better give it a test run 0=) I think my oven runs a little hot so things were done a bit sooner than the timer, but it was still tasty!

Breakfast Casserole

(Adapted from Allrecipes.com by TT =) )

1 lb. sausage (I used Bob Evans)

1 Pillsbury crescent roll sheet

10 eggs

1/2 cup milk

8 oz shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack, but Mozzerella and Cheddar would work)

1 tsp dried oregano

1. Preheat oven to 350, lightly grease or spray a baking dish with nonstick spray then line bottom of prepared baking dish with crescent roll dough, pre-bake for 6-7 mins
2. Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain and crumble.
3. Sprinkle crumbled sausage into bottom of crescent roll dough.
4. In a large bowl, mix beaten eggs, mozzarella, cheddar, and milk. Season the mixture with oregano, and pour over the sausage and crescent rolls.
5. Bake for 25 mins at 350, reduce heat and bake at 325 for 20 mins. Eggs should be set or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Time saving tips:

• Prepare steps 1-3 and store in fridge once cooled.
• Prepare step 4 and store in fridge overnight
• In the morning, pour egg mixture onto dough & sausage and bake in preheated oven according to step 5.

Breakfast Oat Cakes

I have been making these for the past few years, but can't find the blog where I got the original recipe from...all I know was it was from some The Scott Family at church and it is amazing =)

Breakfast Oat Cakes

6 oat cakes

Estimated Point Value: 4 pts

1 1/2 cup oats

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp packed brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (or whatever you want, raisins, nuts, etc.)

honey

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and get a small baking sheet greased and ready to go.
2. Mix together the first 6 ingredients (all the dry except for the chocolate chips) making sure to break up the lumps from the brown sugar.
3. Add in all the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. (This will not look like your typical batter by any means...it's okay.)
4. Stir in the chocolate chips (or whatever add-in you choose).
5. Using a large spoon, mound up the batter and make six "drop biscuits" on your pan.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350.
7. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey while they are still hot.

These are amazing straight from the oven and pretty good the next day as well (they definitely hold together a little better the next day but the flavor is not quite as amazing). This is definitely not an oatmeal raisin cookie, so don't be expecting that...it's more granola bar-y maybe? I don't know, it's close enough for a cookie for breakfast without actually being a cookie for breakfast that I feel okay about myself after I eat them 0=)

(Not that I feel too bad just eating cookies for breakfast from time to time anyway =P)

Snickerdoodle French Toast with Warm Apple Sauce

So around 3am I decided I wanted french toast for breakfast (which I have never made before, so this was going to be quite the adventure). After some research I decided to on the following combo:

Snickerdoodle French Toast with Warm Apple Sauce
Serves 2

For the toast:
3/4 cup Milk
3 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Salt
4 slices of Bread
1/4 cup Sugar
3 tsp. Cinnamon

For the sauce:
1 tsp. Butter
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
6 Tbsp Water
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
2 Small Apples (or one large one), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Warm Apple Sauce

1. In a small sauce pan, melt together the butter and sugar for the sauce.
2. Add the water, cinnamon, and apples to the butter/sugar mixture.
3. Cook on medium-high for at least 10 minutes.

Snickerdoodle French Toast

1. In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar, set aside.
2. Mix together milk, eggs, vanilla, and pinch of salt - pour into a shallow bowl.
3. Dip bread in sugar mixture, sprinkle one side with cinnamon and sugar mixture, and put into a pre-heated skillet (medium-high heat).
4. Sprinkle the other side of the bread with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
5. Cook on both sides until toast is firm and no longer wet.
6. Serve with warm apple sauce.

I'm not an expert at french toast yet (still a little on the soggy-side), but I'm willing to give it another try and keep perfecting this new breakfast item =)