In the Kitchen – Healthy Egg McMuffins

There is always a crazy rush in the morning before leaving for work between Mr. H and I. (Mostly because I sleep in until the last possible second, I am not a morning person!) Usually I end up running out of the house without breakfast and lucky to have grabbed a drink. Mr. H usually does the same, but grabs breakfast from his favorite cafe or Dunkin Donuts. Well not eating breakfast is not so great for you & buying breakfast every morning can really add up quickly so this year one of my resolutions was to try to be more prepared so the mornings go a little smoother as well as save a little money. I had seen these make-ahead healthy egg mcmuffins quite some time ago on pinterest but sort of forgot about them until last Sunday when I realized we needed breakfast for the week. The great thing about these egg mcmuffins is that they are totally customizable to your taste. I like my food more plain while Mr. H needs more than just an egg and cheese, so I made them plain and then in the morning when you reheat them Mr. H just adds what he wants. It doesn’t hurt that these make at home egg mcmuffins will also save you some calories, which I’m sure is on every resolutioners check list right now.

 

 

Ingredients:

• eggs
• english muffins
• american cheese
• salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Cook eggs in jumbo muffin tin or ramekins (regular muffin tins work but the egg will be smaller and quite thick like mine)
2. You can break the yolk so that you get a more authentic taste like McD’s
3. bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes
4. while eggs are baking separate muffins & place cheese slice on bottom muffin
5. once eggs are done you can place on top of cheese & wrap individually in tin foil.

You can add bacon, sausage or whatever you’d like at this point as well. Place them in the freezer and just defrost in the fridge the night before you want one. I place mine in the toaster oven for about 10 minutes in the morning and then add salt and pepper to taste.

 

I hope you enjoyed this quick make ahead breakfast! I have been loving bringing these to work and eating breakfast on my own time and not rushing to eat at 5 am. I can’t wait to post what I have cooking in the kitchen next week. One of my resolutions was actually for the blog! I will be introducing The Baking Challenge 2013 next weekend & explaining my thoughts behind it.

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In the Kitchen – Cinnamon Roll Casserole

Usually for Christmas Eve we have dinner at my house, but this year due to downsizing our house before we move my sister volunteered to have it at her house. This was her first time ever doing it and it was a huge success and a wonderful evening. Mr. H and I went over first thing in the morning to help out as much as possible so I volunteered to make breakfast for everyone. Of course I decided that I wanted to make breakfast for all of us the day before so I didn’t have very much planned. Thankfully I hopped on Pinterest and knew I had a few things that I could try. I made a cinnamon roll casserole that was absolutely delicious. There are definitely a few things I’d like to tweak on the recipe the next time I make it but really you can do whatever you like to this and it will still taste fantastic! Mr. H already said that he wants sliced apples on it next time.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of melted butter or baking spray
• 2 cans (12.4 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2  teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2  teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (I did not measure this out, I just poured some over the rolls)
• Icing from cinnamon rolls

Directions:

• Heat oven to 375°F. Pour melted butter into ungreased 13×9-inch baking pan.
• Separate both cans of dough into 16 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into 8 pieces; place pieces over butter in dish.
• In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Beat in cream, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended; gently pour over roll pieces.
• Bake 20 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.
• Place icing in microwave 15-30 seconds until warm enough to pour over rolls. (REMEMBER TO TAKE METAL TOPS OFF, I almost forgot)
• Pour icing over rolls, serve & enjoy!

 

I hope you all had a lovely holiday & a happy New Year! Follow me on Pinterest & pick what I make next!

In the Kitchen – Banana Cupcakes

I will admit with the holiday weekend I have been very lazy in regards to the blog, I apologize! But I do have a new recipe that has been a hit with the taste testers! Mr. H has been eating at least one of these cupcakes every morning. Now I don’t think it’s a great breakfast food, but there’s no arguing with Mr. H. This weeks inspiration came from Annie Eats, which I found of course through Pinterest. I changed her recipe just a little bit & since I was being lazy this week I did not make the caramel frosting that she uses, although some day I may attempt it, I just used the whipped cream topping I used for the Pink Lemonade Pie.

In the Kitchen-PuppyCakes

This weekend at my job we had an open house and I was in charge of making cupcakes that visitors could have for free. For those of you who don’t know I work at animal hospital & of course I couldn’t just put out plain ol’ cupcakes, baking is in my blood and someday I will open my own bakery! This weeks In the Kitchen is inspired by a pin I found on Pinterest. It didn’t have any source or any instructions so I winged it all, but I have to say it came out pretty darned good!

Ingredients:

• any kind of cupcake you’d like. Since I was making so many & didn’t have much time I used a box mix
• chocolate frosting
• smarties (eyes)
• Nutter Butters (ears)
• Nilla Wafers
• Junior Mints (nose)
• Black gel frosting, you could also use an edible marker for this

Directions:

1. Bake cupcakes & let cool
2. Frost with chocolate frosting
3. Split Nutter Butter cookie in two and use as ears
4. Place Smarties & Nilla Wafer as eyes & nose
5. Put some frosting on back of Junior Mint and add to top of Nilla Wafer
6. Dot eyes with black gel & draw mouth on wafer

These cupcakes are super easy to make & would be great to make with kids! There wasn’t a single cupcake left at the end of the event and kids were coming up to me telling me they were the best cupcakes in the entire world. Also if you receive the Derry Newspaper keep an eye out as the cupcakes and a puppy should be featured!

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