What's the story morning glory?

Sometimes you just need breakfast on the go. And of course, the healthier the better. Since my daughter is now in full eating solids mode, I try to be versatile and prepare the healthiest foods I can.

This morning, in between Chuggington episodes, my daughter's giggles, and me attempting to work out, I threw this recipe together.

Morning Glory Muffins
1 1/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk (or any milk)
2 Tbsp coconut oil (or any oil)
2 Tbsp water
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 mashed banana
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp hemp seeds
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice

Mix dry ingredients together, set aside. Mix wet ingredients together, combine with dry. Add in fruit and spices. Oil a muffin tin and scoop into each spot. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until a knife/toothpick comes out clean. ***You may have noticed I did not use eggs, I didn't have any so I was resourceful. Great for anyone with egg allergies. Or anyone who has no groceries...like me.***

They are so delicious and my 14 month old gobbled hers down. Perfect for a busy day that needs a boost of healthy energy. Enjoy!

xo Lo

Mountain Getaway

Now that my husband and I live in Colorado, trips to the mountains every so often are essential. This time my husband was bogged down with work so I decided to go all on my own. BUT that didn't mean I had to throw all my meals by the wayside. If this was truly my personal getaway for some solace, I deserved some well-thought out, delicious, soul-warming meals.

October is a beautiful time to visit the mountains, the Aspens are gorgeous hues of yellow, gold and maroon but it is quite cold so you definitely want meals that make you feel comforted.

I decided to make my breakfast for the week before I left:

Uber-Healthy Banana Bread
2/3 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 bananas
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
3 Tbsp chia seeds
1 cup oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together, add the egg into your mixer. Toast sesame seeds for depth of flavor. I always freeze my bananas once they start to brown, I throw them in the microwave for a minute or so to thaw and then they are perfect for banana bread. Add them to your mixer, once combined start with dry ingredients. Add in flour a 1/4 cup at a time, then baking soda and salt. Next add your oats and seeds. Once the batter is combined pour into a loaf pan. I use silicone loaf pans and they are fantastic, no sticking! Bake for one hour and let cool for 10 minutes before taking out of pan.

I love banana bread, my mom's recipe is delicious but sometimes I like to change it up. For this recipe I added some super healthy ingredients to help keep my energy up while I was out and about in the mountains. If you have little ones, it's super easy to hide healthy ingredients when baking. Eat while warm and you will be in heaven!



French Onion Soup
2 large onions (sliced thin)
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 carton of beef stock
1/2 cup red wine
Gruyere cheese
loaf of crusty bread

Heat your butter and oil in a medium sized sauce pan. Add your sliced onions and fold into the butter mixture so each onion slice is coated. Let the onions carmelize and cook down for 10-15 minutes or so. While enjoying your getaway with a glass of wine, pour about 1/2 cup into the onions. Let alcohol cook off and dry the onions, about 5 minutes. If you have flour on hand (I
 didn't) sprinkle a little to coat the onions, this

helps the soup become thick. Next add in the beef stock and let reduce down for another 15 minutes. While soup is cooking down, slice a few slices of bread and sprinkle Gruyere cheese on top, put them in the broiler to get all bubbly. Once soup is ready, ladel into bowls, place a slice of bread topped with the bubbly Gruyere cheese and dive in. This soup warmed up my frigid soul right away while sitting by the fire, gazing out the window at gorgeous snow-capped mountains.

Chocolate-Raspberry Tiramisu
6 oz container of marscapone cheese
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups espresso (warm)
2 packages of Lady Finger cookies
chocolate shavings (garnish)
2 packages of raspberries

Chocolate Zabagilone
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup prune juice (or Marsala)
pinch of salt

Scoop your marscapone cheese out of the container into a large bowl, set aside so it can reach room temperature. Meanwhile, beat the heavy cream and 1/4 cup sugar in a standing mixer until soft peaks start to form. Fold this whipped cream into the marscapone cheese, set aside while you make your chocolate zabagilone (mousse mixture).

Add two tablespoons of cream and chocolate bits to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often until smooth and melted. Set aside and keep warm.  Whisk the egg yolks together, add the prune juice, sugar and salt until well blended in a glass bowl. Set bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Whisk the egg mixture over the simmering water until thick and creamy, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat, fold egg mixture into chocolate mixture. Cove and chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Once chocolate mousse is chilled, fold into the marscapone mixture. Then chill this mousse completely, about another 30 minutes. Meanwhile brew your espresso and pour into a bowl, whisk remaining 1/4 cup of sugar until dissolved. Find your glass trifle container and dip your lady finger cookies into the sugary espresso mixture, place on the bottom of the trifle. Be quick when dipping the cookies because they are fragile and will fall apart fast. Once mousse is cooled, you will spoon the mixture over the first layer of cookies, top with a layer of raspberries and chocolate shavings then repeat until you've reached the top of the trifle. End with a layer of raspberries and chocolate shavings. Let cool for about six hours before serving so the layers can marry together.

You can also put this in a loaf pan if you don't have a trifle, then when you serve you'll place the solidified tiramisu on a serving platter (what I did in the picture above). My company loved this dessert so much I am thrilled to share it with my family for Christmas!

When you spend a getaway on your own, it is a perfect time to make your favorite recipes or try out new ones you can potentially share with company. As much as I love writing, it's time for me to spend some time outdoors in the gorgeous mountain air!

Enjoy! xoxo Lo

“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”

Valentines Day is right around the corner...There are some great, easy ways to show your loved one how special they are. You can focus on a sweetheart breakfast, picnic lunch, romantic dinner or sexy little surprises throughout the day.

They always say the key to a man's heart is through his stomach...so my plan was to hone in on breakfast because it is my husband's favorite meal. I wanted to start his day off by showing him how much I love him by creating a fantastic, homemade breakfast in bed.

First I started by creating a potato hash.

Fingerling Potato Hash
6 fingerling potatoes
1/4 yellow onion
2 baby portabella mushrooms
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp salt

Heat your pan on medium heat with butter, add diced onions, potatoes and mushrooms. Continually stir and add salt. These will cook for about 30 minutes.

Homemade Tortillas
3 cups flour
1/3 cup corn oil

1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt

While your potato hash is cooking make some homemade tortillas...which are WAY better than store bought tortillas. Mix the flour and oil together with a fork til the mixture becomes nice and crumbly. Then add in the salt and warm water, spoonful at a time until the mix morphs into a dough. Knead the dough with your hands for three minutes to smooth it out. Then place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes at room temperature. Once the 30 minutes are up, pinch off golf ball size pieces of the dough and roll out on a floured surface. Roll out the dough to a thin, 8 inch disc then place on a saute pan on medium heat and let cook for about 30 seconds then flip. The tortilla cooks fast and will develop little brown spots, to show it is done. This amount of dough should create 10-12 tortillas. After your tortillas are done heat up your black beans and start on cooking the eggs.

Sweetheart Breakfast Tacos
4 eggs
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
heart cookie cutter
1 cup black beans
1/2 cup shredded colby cheese
1/2 cup roasted salsa
potato hash
homemade tortillas

You can use the same pan that your potato hash is cooking in, push the hash to one side, grease the open side with butter, put your cookie cutter down and crack your egg into the cookie cutter. The egg will solidify inside the cookie cutter creating a heart shape. Cover your egg/hash with a lid until the egg is cooked to your liking. We prefer over-medium eggs, make sure the pan is on medium-low heat. The eggs should cook about 2-3 minutes per egg. When the eggs are done start to plate your breakfast tacos. Put your tortilla down first, then potato hash, black beans, shredded cheese, heart-eggs and salsa.

Serve this up and your honey will cover you with kisses...after they escape their food coma of course :)

Happy Valentines Day! xoxo Lo

Start your Winter day off right

In order to start your cold, blustery day off correctly a fulfilling breakfast is much needed. Eggs are a fantastic way to fill you up without a lot of calories or fat. Enjoy this simple yet mouth watering breakfast recipe.

Omelete

6 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
salt
pepper
3 English muffins
ground turkey
fresh berries
green onion
shiitake mushrooms

Slice disks out of the ground turkey and cook until juicy and slightly crisp. Chop up your green onions and shiitake mushrooms, add them to a pan on medium-low heat. Scramble the six eggs, whisk in milk, salt and pepper. Toast up the English muffins. Remove the onion-mushroom mixture and pour in 1/3 of the mixture, once the eggs start to solidifiy flip and add in onion-mushroom mixture plus shredded cheese. Flip one half over to create an omelette, leave for one minute then remove from heat.

Plate the omelete top with cheese and a few green onion slices with a side of turkey sausage, English muffins and berries. This meal will jumpstart your metabolism and give you energy to conquer the day!

Enjoy! xoxo Lo

Southern Breakfast with a Flair

Every weekend I wake up slowly without an alarm and dream about what breakfast might be. This particluar morning I decided to go with my Southern roots, an egg sandwich with cheesy grits and homemade bread.

Firstly, I started off by cooking my grits, I added water to a sauce pan and once it came to boil I added grits, salt and waited for them to absorb. While that was cooking I took two links of chicken, feta and spinach sausage out of the casing and made a patty then I put that onto a bit of olive oil to cook. In the meantime the grits had absorbed the water, one of the best things about grits is it is so versatile. You can pretty much add anything to them and the flavors will blend in. I decided to make cheesy grits and grated up some colby jack cheese and stirred that into my grits.

Next I flipped my sausage patties and added two thick slices of homemade white bread to the pan to get a nice crispiness to it. Once the cheese melted into the grits I added some salt and pepper to taste and put them on low heat to keep warm. Once the patties were done and bread was crisp, I removed them from the flame and cracked a few eggs into the pan. After my eggs were ready to go I plated my bread, sausage patty then egg on top with my cheesy grits on the side. Poured a mimosa & ta da!

Enjoy xo! Lo

Whippin' up a snack!

While I was running around my home washing dishes, doing laundry, vacuuming the carpets my stomach started grumbling. I looked at the clock, and completely forgot to feed myself breakfast, during my cleaning frenzy.  So I took a break, peeked inside my fridge, to see what goodies I had, to whip up into something spectacular. I had recently made a loaf of homemade white bread, I had leftover cream cheese, fresh cucumbers and soft-boiled eggs.

Instantaneously, I knew I wanted to pile them all up together, into a delightful mid-morning snack. First I toasted my fresh bread on a grill pan until it was crispy and golden. Next, slice your cucmbers and egg. Lather on your luscious cream cheese, top with cucumbers and the slices of soft-boiled egg. Sprinkle with a touch of salt and pepper and voila! Dig in...you can thank me later :)

xo Lo

Meals with Four Ingredients or Less!

My best friend mentioned to me she wanted to see some meals with four ingredients or less so here ya go D! During the week it can be hard to plan meals, your brain is often somewhere else, kids may be screaming, a home may need cleaning. Well no worries: I've got just the thing! Here are two delicious, healthy recipes you can make with four ingredients or less, and serve for breakfast, dinner or snack.

Banana Disks with Peanut Butter & Agave Nectar
1 banana
3 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp agave nectar

Slice up your banana into thick disks and scoop a bit of peanut butter on each disk. Drizzle with agave nectar (or honey) and enjoy! My mom always made breakfast for my brother and I growing up, this was one of my favorite breakfast dishes! Now I crave it for a snack or a simple breakfast. Full of protein and potassium, this dish will knock your socks off.

One Pan Chicken

4 chicken cutlets
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup onion
1 can black beans
salt
pepper

This dinner can be made in one pan! Add your frozen peas to an oiled pan, dice up your chicken and add that to the pan. Open your can of black beans and pour the beans with the sauce into the pan. Sprinkle the top with sliced onions, salt, pepper and cover for 10 minutes. Stir, cover for another 7-10 minutes and serve.

These are for you busy moms, stay at home dads, workaholics, healthnuts and college kids!

xo Lo

Egg-tastic Omelet!

I am so used to making fried eggs that every now and then I try to think of other ways to fix my eggs. On this morning I had leftover pork chops from the night before, queso fresco and dill. Omelettes are super easy, first you want to heat up or cook the inside goodies.

I poured a lil olive oil into the saute pan and added the chopped up porkchops, onion and mushrooms. Once they were cooked, I set them aside on a plate. Next, make sure the saute pan is oiled then crack two eggs into a bowl and whisk them up, add a tidbit of water and continue to beat the eggs. When the pan is hot, pour the eggs into the pan. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper and let cook for a few minutes. Once the sides start to bubble, take a large utensil and flip the omelet over. Then load up your inner goodies (for me it was pork, queso fresco, onions and mushrooms) but you can put anything in a omelet. It's important to add cheese that way there is glue to keep everything together. Flip half the egg over so it looks similar to a taco, once cheese melts plate your delicious omelet and dig in!

xo Lo

Impromptu breakfast sandwich!

Every weekend my husband and I peer into our fridge to figure out what breakfast masterpiece we'll create. We are breakfast people. No toast and OJ for us, we want meat, eggs, potatoes...the whole shebang!

On this lovely Saturday morning, we had leftover smoked salmon, whole wheat bagels, cream cheese and eggs. Instead of creating a regular bagels and lox we layered the bagel with a fried egg. Super simple! 

First thing you want to do is toast your bagel on a grill pan or in a toaster. Next fry up your egg in a bit of olive oil, sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Next smear your cream cheese on your bagel, I always add some capers then layer on your smoked salmon then top with the fried egg. When you bite into this open-faced sandwich, instantly the yolk will flow, the velvety taste will be combined with the smokiness of the salmon and creaminess of the cream cheese. D-elicious! I hope you will enjoy your next impromptu breakfast sandwich!

xo Lo

Wiatrek-Style Brunch

Every Saturday morning my husband and I love to cook brunch, while our coffee is brewing in our French press I look in the fridge to see what I have to work with. Our brunch philosophy is to grab onions, any other veggies, saute and throw some fried eggs on top...yum! Today we had, smoked bacon sausage, red potatoes, yellow onion, button mushrooms and eggs. The first thing I did was to dice up my potatoes and onions to get them on the grill pan. It is important to cook the potatoes first because they take awhile, the smaller you cube them the faster they will cook. To make yummy home fries, you want them to be crispy on the outside and a little soft on the inside. Next I decided to chop up and saute the rest of the onion and button mushrooms.

Once my base was on it's way I chopped up the sausage to add that to the extra onions and mushrooms. Add some salt, pepper and continue to stir your breakfast items. Once everything is almost done, put a bit of olive oil into a hot saute pan and crack in your eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste then flip after they start to bubble. Once you flip them, turn off your heat. I plated by putting the sausage, onion mushroom mixture on the bottom, potatoes in a sidecar plus your luscious fried eggs on top.

When you cut into this egg, the yolk will flow all over your sausage, put that and some potatoes all on your fork and dive in!

xo Lo

Breakfast for Champions

As I have mentioned before, breakfast is my all-time favorite meal of the day...and I loathe missing it. Eggs are definitely my favorite ingredient when making breakfast but this next recipe comes as a close second. Salmon Lox and Bagels, piled with lucious cream cheese, salty capers, crunchy red onion and juicy tomatoes. Plus I made a side of berry fruit salad to go with this decadent creation.

My husband and I absolutely love lox and bagels...recently we were staying at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas for our honeymoon and found ourselves ordering the Bellagio Cafe's salmon lox and bagels more than a few times for breakfast. As soon as we got back home my husband insisted that we buy everything to make our own salmon lox and bagels. This recipe showcases that:

Salmon Lox & Bagels

1 package of fresh smoked salmon
1 package of original cream cheese (none of that low-fat stuff...yuck!)
1/4 cup sliced red onion
2 Tbs capers
1/2 lemon
fresh bakery bagels (we used whole wheat but any kind is delicious)
tomatoes (we used cherry tomatoes)

Now for assembly, toast the bagels in a toaster, toaster oven, on a skillet or we toasted them on our grill pan. We lightly drizzled olive oil on each and placed face down with the press on top. Meanwhile start your fruit salad.


Berry Fruit Salad

You want to make sure you use fruits that won't perish easily. Stick to berries: cherries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. I added kiwi to this batch and it only worked well the first few days then the kiwi started to get mushy. Rinse your fruit, pat down, add to bowl, add some lemon zest, a fresh squeeze of lemon juice and your refreshing fruit salad is ready!

Back to your Lox and Bagels

Slice up your red onion into thin strips, slice your tomatoes into thick slices, once your bagels are toasted remove from pan and let them cool. Once cooled, spread the cream cheese on top (I love cream cheese so I make a thick layer), top with capers (that way they don't roll off your bagel), then add the onion, tomato and place pieces of smoked salmon at the very top. Squeeze fresh lemon to bring out the fantastic flavor of smoked salmon, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper. Then you are ready to serve!

This recipe may seem a bit odd to some of you but you must try this breakfast...with the combination of flavors it will be as if fireworks are going off in your mouth. Bon appetit!

xo Lo

My favorite meal of the day

What is your favorite meal of the day? Mine is hands down breakfast! Everything about breakfast makes me smile, the smell of coffee brewing in the wee hours of the morning, getting settled on my comfy couch with a book before anyone else in the house wakes up. Then as my tummy grumbles I decide what to make. On this particular day I was feeling a bit over-worked from having a bit too much fun the day before so I knew I needed a good breakfast fix. Pancakes with a fried egg on top smothered in Maple syrup...mmmm! This dish will get your sugar levels back on track, add some healthy protein and carbs, before you know it you'll feel back on track to conquer the day.

The recipe I used:

Pancakes:
1 1/2 cups of 1/2 whole wheat flour & 1/2 organic unbleached flour
2 large organic eggs
3 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
a pinch of salt
pinch of fresh nutmeg
1 1/4 cups of organic milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

Combine dry ingredients into a bowl and wet ingredients into a mixer. After blending separately add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together. Oil up your skillet and add 1/2 cup of the pancake batter, let sit til bubbles appear on the sides then flip and continue.

Eggs:

Grab a few large eggs
salt & pepper

Make sure your skillet is hot with olive oil in it, crack the egg gently into the skillet. Add a pinch of salt and pepper on top. Once the egg starts bubble on the sides, gently flip. Turn your skillet off, assemble your pancake on the plate, top with the egg then smother with Maple syrup and dig in!

What did you think of this recipe? xoxo Lo