breakfast Archives | Page 2 of 4

Triple Berry Spinach Smoothies

October 4, 2016 by Abby

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CarnationBreakfastEssentials #CollectiveBias #sponsored

Triple berry spinach smoothies are the perfect deceptively-nutritious, surprisingly-delicious way to make your mornings easier.

Mornings. Ugh. Am I right?

Maybe it’s because I never seem to get enough sleep, or maybe it’s because I’m still adjusting to getting three kids ready to go every morning. Maybe I just suck at mornings.

Lately, though, I’ve been feeling like a bit of a mornings ninja. I’ve been religious about laying out clothes the night before- often on Sunday, for the entire week- for the kids and me. I’ve been getting lunches made and backpacks ready to go, water bottles filled and in the fridge.

Triple berry spinach smoothies are the perfect deceptively-nutritious, surprisingly-delicious way to make your mornings easier.

The one thing I’ve been doing that has made the biggest difference is making smoothie packets for the freezer. On Sunday night, I fill five freezer bags with the ingredients I’ll need for smoothies each morning. Everything goes in the freezer and, in the morning, I just add the contents of the bag, milk, and Carnation Morning Essentials® to the blender. Breakfast is ready in less than two minutes.

My triple berry spinach smoothies are met with approval by the entire family, which is a feat in itself. As a mom, I consider it a huge win that I can whip them up so quickly, and that my kids are actually happy about eating something that’s so good for them. Convenience, nutrition, and taste all in one? Yeah, I’m definitely a mornings ninja.

Triple berry spinach smoothies are the perfect deceptively-nutritious, surprisingly-delicious way to make your mornings easier.

There are a few other awesome things about these triple berry spinach smoothies. First, you can completely adapt them to suit your family’s needs and preferences. Any kind of milk will do, and you can change up the fruit, too. I like to use Carnation Breakfast Essentials® in Chocolate, but you can stock up on whichever flavor you prefer. Second, they’re nutrient-packed, thanks to the spinach and the Carnation Breakfast Essentials®. It’s so convenient to simply open a packet and have all those vitamins and minerals at the ready.

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Oven Roasted Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese

August 11, 2016 by Abby

Oven roasted potatoes with bacon and cheese are the perfect quick, easy, and delightfully delicious side dish for any time of day.

I started writing this post a few months ago, sometime around the start of my third trimester of pregnancy. I craved carbs something fierce- even more fierce than usual- while I was pregnant with Q, and many nights I couldn’t think of a good excuse not to make some sort of potato dish and call it supper.

I ate Parmesan garlic roasted potatoes more than a few times, along with home fries. I had these oven roasted potatoes with bacon and cheese plenty of times, too.

The recipe is surprisingly quick and easy to make. Because the potatoes are cooked in a skillet still hot from frying the bacon, they cook quickly and develop that coveted softness on the side while becoming crisp on the outside. After the potatoes are cooked through, they’re sprinkled with crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese and returned to the oven to let everything melt together.

I often eat them just as they’re pictured, but they’re also great served with salsa, green onions, or diced avocado.

Oven roasted potatoes with bacon and cheese are the perfect quick, easy, and delightfully delicious side dish for any time of day.

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Banana Bread Protein Bites

August 4, 2016 by Abby

Banana bread protein bites are full of big banana flavor and filling protein. No gluten, dairy, or added sugar here!

I used to make energy bites pretty often, way back before we had kids. I made homemade granola bars, too. It was a period when we had more time than money and I enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen, discovering homemade versions of store-bought favorites. The energy bites and granola bars I made were a hit, but sometime around baby number two’s arrival, it just became easier to buy that type of thing.

Fast forward to now. We just welcomed baby number three, but that hasn’t deterred my desire to feed my family more homemade snacks and fewer processed ones. For J and the kids, I want something they enjoy eating and don’t necessarily recognize as healthy. For myself, I want nutritious, calorie-dense snacks that give me the boost I need while nursing.

Banana bread protein bites are full of big banana flavor and filling protein. No gluten, dairy, or added sugar here!

That’s where these banana bread protein bites come in. First, they’re gluten-free (assuming your oats are). They don’t contain dairy or added sugar and, aside from the honey and peanut butter, they get their sweetness mostly from the ripe bananas. The bites themselves aren’t overly-sweet; they won’t be confused with a dessert, but they’re also unlikely to be turned down by my toddlers.

Banana bread protein bites are full of big banana flavor and filling protein. No gluten, dairy, or added sugar here!

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Summer Berry Crostata

August 1, 2016 by Abby

This summer berry crostata is a rustic homemade dough packed with juicy strawberries, plump blueberries, and the perfect complement of spices.

I’m taking a short blogging break to soak up time with my sweet newborn baby. Things won’t be silent around here, though; I’ve got some awesome bloggers lined up to step in and share some great content. Today, Lecy from A Simpler Grace is here sharing a must-make summer berry recipe.

I’m so excited to be here, on Winstead Wandering, and sharing my Summer Berry Crostata with you today!

This summer berry crostata is a rustic homemade dough packed with juicy strawberries, plump blueberries, and the perfect complement of spices.

One of my favorite things to do is cook traditional Italian food and the only thing I love more than that is baking Italian pastries. Ok, maybe eating Italian pastries ranks up there too. I created this crostata recipe for a cookbook draft I’m working on and it’s one of my family’s favorites, so when Abby asked me to share a recipe with you all, I knew this was the one!

The term crostata might sound fancy, but it’s really just a free-form tart or pie and can be filled with a variety of things, but summer fruits are the best!

This summer berry crostata is a rustic homemade dough packed with juicy strawberries, plump blueberries, and the perfect complement of spices.

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Easy Waffles

May 30, 2016 by Abby

No obscure ingredients here- just a simple recipe for quick, easy waffles that are fluffy, flavorful, and ready in a snap.

I’ve discovered the secret to crisp-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside waffles. It’s all in the cooking time, y’all. I used to make waffles and, as soon as they started to turn golden, I’d remove them from the waffle iron and call it good. But they were always limp and not at all what I knew great waffles should be.

So I let them cook longer, until the golden brown got darker and began to approach more brown than golden. They weren’t burnt, not by any stretch, but they were done. These waffles had that crispy exterior that one expects from superior waffles, along with a fluffy inside. That’s a good waffle.

That’s the cooking technique, but what about the recipe itself? I went through a few of those, too. Some were complicated, calling for yeast or white vinegar or egg whites. Those ingredients are fine, they just weren’t what I wanted in a recipe for easy waffles. When I found and made this one, I knew I’d found the last easy waffles recipe I’d ever need.

I made a few tweaks, like subbing whole wheat flour for some of the white. It gives the waffles a little more body and a little more depth of flavor. You could absolutely use all AP flour. Either way, you’ll end up with fool-proof, easy waffles that are ready in a snap. Perfect for weekend breakfasts or a quick weeknight meal.

Don’t have a waffle maker? We’ve owned- and been happy with- this inexpensive waffle iron for eight years. We recently bought my grandmother this rotating one for her birthday and she loves it.

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33 Perfect Summer Strawberry Recipes

May 18, 2016 by Abby

Forget Christmas- everyone knows strawberry season is the most wonderful time of year. Here are 33 perfect summer strawberry recipes to help you celebrate.

If you’ve hung around here for a while, you’ve probably noticed the abundance of strawberry recipes I’m posting and sharing. Maybe it seems a little redundant, but not to someone like me who loves strawberries. Because I know the internet is filled with people who share my strawberry love, I decided to gather a ton of mouthwatering summer strawberry recipes from a few of my favorite bloggers.

You’re bound to find the perfect recipe for any meal or occasion.

33 Perfect Summer Strawberry Recipes

Drinks & Frozen Treats

Strawberry Lemonade Granita from Winstead Wandering

Strawberry Watermelon Agua Fresca from A Savory Feast

Strawberry Mint Julep from Feast + West

Boozy Strawberry Milkshake from The New Baguette

Strawberry Basil Frozen Daiquiris from Cake ‘n’ Knife

Strawberry Lemonade Shandies from Feast + West

Mango Strawberry Smoothie from Hip Mama’s Place

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Iced Caramel Coffee

May 9, 2016 by Abby

Save your money and skip the expensive coffeehouse drink. With just three ingredients, you can make your own iced caramel coffee right at home.

This is a recipe that I had in the queue on my old blog; I just never got around to posting it. Somehow, in all the times I’ve made it since starting this one a year and a half ago, I never snapped new pictures and took the time to write down the steps. In honor of hot summer days and early-rising children, I decided to make it happen.

The “recipe” for this iced caramel coffee is probably as loose a recipe as I’ve ever posted. Basically, you can combine coffee, milk, and caramel syrup and get a passable version. But because I cold-brew the coffee, and because I know some people appreciate precise measurements, I’m sharing all the details here.

Before we get to that, though, let’s talk about your coffee vessel. The mason jar in these photos isn’t just a prop; I actually use these jars to make and drink my coffee. Screwing the lid on the top to shake everything up is a super easy way to get it all mixed together. These screw on lids with straws turn the jar into a fun drinking container. See? You can be trendy and practical.

Let’s talk about the cold-brewing method. The hot water is what adds a lot of the bitterness that people dislike about coffee; by brewing with cold water, you get a smoother flavor. Of course, you could definitely brew a pot of coffee the regular way and stick the leftovers in the fridge. Cold-brewing is just what I, as a non-coffee lover, prefer for this drink.

The same goes for the syrup and the milk: You can use whatever you have and prefer. I love Torani salted caramel (it’s only 100 calories for two tablespoons), but you can use any flavor or brand you want. I usually use almond milk, for the flavor and for the low calorie count, but I use regular milk, too, if that’s all we have around. Basically, the possibilities are as endless as your imagination (and budget).

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Breakfast Calzones

May 4, 2016 by Abby

With store bought dough and a few classic breakfast staples, you can whip up a batch of easy, satisfying, portable breakfast calzones.

Another breakfast recipe means another recipe that we don’t actually eat for breakfast. Like so many recipes before this one, we enjoy these breakfast calzones for supper. We’re just suckers for bacon and eggs; top it with cheese and wrap it in dough and we’re powerless to resist.

Like so many of the recipes I share, this one can be completely customized depending on what your family likes and what you have on hand. Swap sausage for the bacon, load it up with veggies, or add a few spoonfuls of salsa. Whatever you decide to include on the inside gets all wrapped up inside the handy dough pocket, making these breakfast calzones ideal for breakfast- or lunch or dinner- on the go.

I imagine these little pockets would be fairly freezer-friendly, but I’ve yet to give that a shot (though I can vouch for the freezability of these homemade pizza pockets). Let me know if you give it a try with this recipe!

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Potato Crust Sausage Quiche

April 18, 2016 by Abby

With a unique and crunchy potato crust, this sausage quiche is easy enough for a weeknight meal and fancy enough to impress just about anyone.

For the longest time, I assumed quiches were way too fancy for my taste and for my cooking abilities. One day I realized they’re mostly just a really big omelette, minus the complicated flipping part. They’ve been a staple at our table ever since.

Like a lot of the “breakfast” recipes I share, we usually enjoy this sausage quiche for supper. It’s super easy to make, especially when I use shredded hash browns and sausage from the freezer (I typically cook a pound of sausage at a time and freeze the half I don’t use). The cook time is longer than most dinner recipes I make, but the hands-on time is minimal.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it’s totally customizable to the tastes of the people you’re feeding. My husband doesn’t care for most vegetables, so it’s easy for me to include veggies only on my half. Of course, you could leave out the veggies entirely, or skip the sausage and double up on the vegetables.

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Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches

April 4, 2016 by Abby

Breakfast isn’t just for morning anymore. These bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches are easy and filling enough to be enjoyed for any meal of the day.

Bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches will always remind me of my childhood. My mom has made hundreds of these in the last twenty years for me, my siblings, and an endless array of friends. She can crank them out at an unbelievable speed.

J and I hadn’t been dating long when, as an admirer of all things breakfast, he fell in love with these breakfast sandwiches. They’ve been a stable meal in our home ever since we got married.

Of course we love the obvious: crisp bacon, perfectly-cooked eggs, and melted cheese, all sandwiched between the buttered nooks and crannies of a toasted English muffin. We also love that these guys can be prepared in about 15 minutes. We use whole wheat English muffins and, when we want to be even healthier, we’ll skip the bacon.

We rarely eat them for breakfast; for us, they’re the perfect easy, filling weeknight meal. I love them served with sliced fruit and fresh home fries. They’d be perfect with store-bought hashbrowns, too.

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