Tag: breakfast

Brioche French Toast with Bruleed Bananas, Vanilla Cream, and Salted Caramel

Well Dined | Brioche French Toast with Brûléed Bananas, Vanilla Cream, and Salted Caramel

Oh. My. Goodness.  This is the most deliciously decadent thing ever.  I don’t even know whether to call it brunch or dessert, or both.  Buttery brioche french toast, sweet pastry cream made with vanilla bean, and crunchy brûléed bananas topped with a drizzle of salted caramel.  Total epic ridiculousness.

Well Dined | Brioche French Toast with Brûléed Bananas, Vanilla Cream, and Salted Caramel

Step one is to make the vanilla pastry cream.  Bring cream to a simmer with a vanilla bean and then let steep before adding to a mixture of egg yolks, sugar, and flour and cooking until thick and creamy.  It needs to cool completely and then chill, which is why we make it first.

The next step is to make the salted caramel sauce, which is a bit tricky if you have never made one before (I hadn’t).  You have to leave the sugar alone while it melts and colors, and watch carefully for the right moment.  Then you add butter and cream.  The caramel with pop and splutter like crazy, and ball up on the end of your whisk.  You just have to keep whisking over low heat until it all comes together.  Then add in your sea salt and let it cool.

While that is cooling, make your French toast using big, thick slices of brioche (a little stale is better).

Well Dined | Brioche French Toast with Brûléed Bananas, Vanilla Cream, and Salted Caramel

BLOW TORCH TIME.  This is seriously so much fun.  Sprinkle banana slices with sugar and brown with a blow torch.  Easy.  If you don’t have a blow torch, I’m pretty sure that you can use a broiler.

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Baked Eggs in Avocado

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

Normally, I wouldn’t advertise for warm avocado.  I mean, that’s just weird.  But combined with a soft egg and runny yolk?  It becomes like butter.  This is the breakfast of champions, friends.

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

First you will need to scoop out enough of the flesh so that your eggs will fit.  Go ahead and just eat that scooped out avocado plain, yum.  Place the avocado halves into a muffin tin or ramekins to hold them in place and catch any egg drippings.  If you want, you can add a teeny bit of water into the ramekins to prevent the spilled egg from burning.

I find that the best way to get the eggs into the avocado is to crack each one into a small bowl.  Then, carefully scoop up the yolk with a spoon and place it in the hollow.  Then spoon the white on top until it is full.  Save any leftover white for another use.

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

Season with salt and pepper and bake in a 425 deg F oven for 15-20 min, until the whites are set.  The yolks might cook on top, but the bottom will still be runny.  Grab a spoon and dig in!

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

If you want to totally ignore the fact that you were trying to have a grain free breakfast and spread that sucker on some buttered toast, I wont blame you.

One Year Ago – Quinoa & Kale Crustless Quiche
Two Years Ago – Mediterranean Salad
Three Years Ago – Best Lasagna Ever

Christmas 2013

Well Dined | Christmas Wreath

Merry Christmas, y’all!  We went on a bit of a crazy roadtrip (which I will tell you about later, because there are restaurants involved) and didn’t get back til late on the 22nd, which left us in a bit of a scramble to get ready for Christmas.  We managed to get some outdoor decorations up (check out the wreath I made!), but no tree or anything indoors.

Well Dined | Christmas Dinner

We also spent all our holiday money on travel, so no presents this year.  But we did have a nice Christmas dinner (I mean, come on – how could I not, right?).  Honey Baked Ham (going store bought on the main let me focus on sides); Spinach and Gruyere Strata; Sweet Potato Gratin with Caramelized Onions; and Bacon Popovers.

Well Dined | Cranberry Raisin Tart

And a Cranberry Raisin Tart with orange zest and spices for dessert.

Well Dined | Orange Cranberry Rolls

Oh yeah, and breakfast!  Can’t forget Christmas morning sweets!  I made these Cranberry Orange Rolls by Smitten Kitchen – yum! (more…)

Overnight Oats

Well Dined | Overnight Oats

So I love muesli – real muesli like this, not the kind you find in a cereal box – but it takes a lot of work to put together.  When I started seeing overnight oats pop up on Pinterest, I thought it sounded pretty similar – raw oats soaked in yogurt with fruit – but with less work and made in mason jars.  Everything is cooler with mason jars, so I decided to check it out.  The recipe also involves chia seeds, which are uber-trendy right now, and with good reason!  They are similar to flax seeds, but don’t have to be ground to be eaten, plus they do this super cool gel thing when soaked.

Well Dined | Overnight Oats

The base of the recipe is oats, chia seeds, yogurt and milk – places in a jar and shaken.  Then you add in whatever flavors and sweeteners you want and let it set up in the fridge overnight (hence the name).  For vegans or lactose-intolerant, simply substitute your favorite products here.  Coconut milk would be especially delicious, I think.  Of course, you don’t have to use a mason jar to do this, but it’s super cute and easy to transport!

Well Dined | Overnight Oats

The first flavor I tried was Vanilla Raspberry – made with vanilla extract, raspberry jam, and fresh raspberries.  Yum!

Well Dined | Overnight Oats

Next I tried Mango Almond, with fresh mango, almond extract, and a little agave.  This wasn’t quite as awesome, mostly because of the almond extract, but still good.

I’ve also made Pina Colada with coconut extract and pineapple jam.  The options are pretty endless.  Even if you don’t like fruit, you could do peanut butter, nutella, chocolate, or coffee flavors.

Packed with fiber, protein, calcium, vitamins, and minerals – this is a super healthy breakfast or post-workout snack.  It is really filling, too.  Try it out and tell me what your favorite flavor combo is!

Overnight Oats

1/4 cup uncooked old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 1/2 tsp dried chia seeds

Combine in a container, stir in desired flavorings, and chill overnight.
For flavor ideas, check here and here.

Bend, OR Restaurants

In addition to our awesome holiday meal (read more here), we also ate out a lot while we were in Bend, OR last week.

We ordered breakfast from room service at our hotel, The Oxford, a few times and it was really good.  The french toast with berry compote, in particular, was awesome.  Right next door to the hotel is a brand new doughnut place (as in they opened their doors for the first time the Saturday after Thanksgiving) called Luvs Doughnuts.  They make small batches and sell the day-old doughnuts for 50 cents!  I had a glazed-yeast raised and Jasper had a chocolate-dipped blueberry cake doughnut – they were pretty good!  I also enjoyed my chai latte from there – nice strong flavor.

We also ate at a local breakfast/brunch institution – Chow, which is open every day from 7-2.  They focus on local vendors and sustainability and accommodate pretty much any diet.  They are happy to make up a unique dish just for you if nothing on the menu suits you.  They also have some killer guava mimosas (or man-mosas if you want a bigger drink).  This is the only restaurant I thought to take pictures at, so enjoy!

Well Dined | Chow
Blurry – sorry!

 Bagel with cream cheese, pickled veg (celery, carrots, green beans), salmon, and sprouts.

Well Dined | Chow

Chow has a number of signature egg dishes.  This one is the blackstone – with poached eggs, cornmeal crusted tomatoes, spinach, bacon, and bearnaise over polenta.  Super yummy.

Well Dined | Chow

This was the omelette of the day with house potatoes.  They make their own hot sauces here, and from what I heard the Carrot-Habanero was amazingly hot and tasty. (more…)

Apple Oat Muffins

Well Dined | Apple Oat Muffins

Let’s start the week out with something sweet, and not even that bad for you.  These muffins are mostly oats, held together by a little yogurt, and studded with chunks of delicious apples.  The are unbelievably moist and spiced with cinnamon.  Breakfast, dessert, whatever – these are going to get gobbled up fast.

Well Dined | Apple Oat Muffins

I used braeburn apples, but any good baking apple will do.  Some stores have little signs that tell you which apples are good for what.

Well Dined | Apple Oat Muffins

See what I mean?  There is more than 2x as much oats as there is flour.

Well Dined | Apple Oat Muffins

The batter is very wet, but this is a good thing.  I would dice the apples smaller next time.

Well Dined | Apple Oat Muffins

My husband practically inhaled these bad boys.  Seriously.  Go make these.  Right now.  I’ll wait…  Did you make them?  Aren’t you glad you did?

Well Dined | Apple Oat Muffins

You can invite your neighbor over for muffins and hot chocolate.  I bet they’d love it.

Well Dined | Apple Oat Muffins

They might even take one of the muffins you give them on an adventure to the airport.  Cuz who wants to eat airport food, right? (more…)

Christmas 2012

I wanted to do a big Christmas dinner, but I didn’t want to be in the kitchen all Christmas Day. I also wanted to try something different than the usual rib roast and Yorkshire pudding. So I decided to do dinner on Christmas Eve and to do some easy, low-prep dishes for Brunch on Christmas Day.

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I ordered a half fresh ham through Whole Foods to try cooking a Christmas ham for the first time, but I made a few mistakes.  I wanted to cook it in the slow cooker with brown sugar and cider to make a glaze, but I didn’t realize that “fresh ham” is not really what we consider ham – without the curing or smoke, it is more like a pork roast – so I didn’t really get the flavor that I wanted.  I also couldn’t get the whole thing to fit in my (very large) slow cooker insert, so I had to chop a chunk off – which actually ended up being a good thing because I roasted that piece and it came out better. (more…)

Coconut Pancakes

I love all things coconut, especially during the summer.  I also love all things pancake – so when I saw this recipe for sweet and salty coconut pancakes posted on G+ I just had to try it.

Coconut milk is used in the pancake batter to give it coconut flavor.  But what really makes these pancakes stand out is the coconut syrup made with maple syrup, coconut milk, brown sugar, butter, and a pinch of salt to bring in that Thai flavor combo of sweet and salty (like coconut sticky rice, or salted caramel).

These are some seriously tasty pancakes.  Really.  Make them.  Right now. (more…)

French Toast Dessert Panini

I am a little bit behind on posting, so to tide you over until I can get myself organized I will show you this super simple and and super tasty snack/dessert.  All you have to do is spread one slice of bread with peanut butter and another with Nutella, then top with some banana and strawberry slices.

Press the slices together and dip each side of the sandwich into a combination of beaten egg, milk or cream, and a little cinnamon.  Cook in a hot pan with melted butter and you are done!  Great for a late night snack, or breakfast with the kiddos – enjoy.