Lemon Blueberry Breakfast "Bars"

These were a little sweeter than we normally go for breakfast, but they are filled with good things like local organic blueberries and yogurt....so the justification was made. :) I am not normally a fan of blueberries, something about the texture throws me off. But I could eat this dish every day. It doesn't necessarily set into a real bar, but as you can see it holds it's shape. I guess you could put it under the category of a trifle. Whatever it is...it's good!
I got the idea from My Stepmother, who served a similar dish while we were in California. Very light and refreshing, perfect on a hot day. I knew instantly I wanted to recreate it when we got home. My version is egg free, and soy free (check your ingredients thoroughly), and it's mostly organic. It was so easy to make that I let the kids help. Not only did they help make it, but they helped gobble it up. I will be making it again today.


1/2 package Bunny Grahams
1 Pint organic blueberries divided
6 tbs Sugar divided
1 package cream cheese
2/3 cup plain organic yogurt
2 tbs organic butter melted
2 organic lemons


Crush the Bunny Grahams and mix with 1/2 pint of blueberries, 2 tbs sugar, and the juice of one lemon. Stir together and pour into an 8x8 baking dish.

Soften the cream cheese and whisk until smooth.

Whisk in the butter slowly, then whisk in the yogurt slowly. The mixture should be creamy and smooth.

Stir in the juice from the second lemon and stir in the remaining 4 tbs of sugar one at a time, adding more or less to taste.

Pour the yogurt over the berry graham cracker mix and pour the second 1/2 pint of berries on top.

Refrigerate overnight to help it set....or eat it right away if you can't handle the wait....
Guess which one I did?

Egg Free Pumpkin Spice Waffles with Maple Yogurt Dipping Sauce

I'm a big fan of yogurt. I eat it every day. Sometimes as a breakfast food, other times I mix it into sauces, dips, desserts or use it as a garnish. You should never feel like you have to sit down and eat an entire bowl of yogurt to reap it's benefits, and neither should your kids. Even though my kids eat yogurt by itself, I still work it into their food other ways. It's packed with protein and probiotics that I feel good about giving them. This dipping sauce would also be fantastic with french toast, apple wedges, or even just licked off of the plate....as my son did. Seriously though if you saw how cute he was you would understand why I let him get away with it. While this is a great dish for toddlers, I feel I should note that you should never give maple syrup to your child before the age of one.

Here is the recipe for my pumpkin spice waffles.

And here is the recipe for maple yogurt dipping sauce

2/3 cups organic vanilla yogurt
2 tbs maple syrup
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Just mix it all together and have at it.

Pumpkin Spice Waffles (egg free)

Happy Monday!! Our week has been kind of crazy. We have been back and forth at the doctors trying to figure out why little man is so...well...little. His sissy eats the same types of food (less even with her sensory issues) and has never had problems with her iron or sodium levels like he does, so that left us perplexed and referred to about a bijilion specialists. The doctors all agree that he has allergies to food, but what that food is, and whether that is the only problem is being debated. So this week we go in for his second round of testing for Cystic Fibrosis.....which has nothing to do with waffles...and really not much to do with food at all. I just felt like sharing.

I really enjoyed these waffles, they weren't as light and fluffy as you would expect from a waffle made with eggs. However, given the choice between these and no waffles at all....I would definitely take these.

Also completely unrelated, Mother's day is coming up....................hunny.....

The dry ingredients
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tbs sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom

The wet ingredients
3/4 cup pumpkin
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 tbs maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

In one bowl whisk together the wet ingredients. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined. Follow the directions on your waffle iron for some super yummy waffles. Fight the urge to make these every day. Seriously, we've had these twice already.

Creamy Cran-apple Fruit Salad

I can't eat a lot of oats anymore....insert super sad face here-----> :(. I miss oatmeal mixed with almond butter and honey on a cold winters morning, the smell of granola baking in the oven, and of course oatmeal cookies. It was a very difficult adjustment at first, oatmeal is a fantastic and filling breakfast, and a great choice if you are watching your sodium.
What you see in the picture is my current breakfast, that I enjoy almost every day. It's simply 2/3 of a cup of plain organic yogurt (you can use French Vanilla if you can't handle the plain yogurt taste), 1 chopped up apple or other organic fruit, 1-2 tablespoons of dried cranberries, a few shakes of cinnamon, and during the spring I add a drizzle of local honey. Mix it all up and eat. It is that simple.
My daughter is insisting I say "Hi" now....so "Hi" from my three year old who has apparently finished her lunch and is wishing that I go play with her.....we are going to do puzzles.

Vegetarian Loco Moco

Loco Moco is a Hawaiian dish that usually consists of rice, a hamburger patty, gravy, and it is topped with a fried egg. I made this version with brown rice, my vegetarian breakfast patties, and vegetarian gravy....no egg.....no substitution for the egg....but it still tasted really good.

Creamy Vegetarian gravy

3tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups milk
liquid smoke to taste

Melt the butter over medium low heat, and whisk in the flour and seasonings. Cook for about two minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste, then dump in the milk all at once while whisking. Cook until thick and bubbly (not boiling), whisking occasionally. Add more salt and liquid smoke to taste.

Onion gravy variation
This is the gravy I made last night. It has...hmmm...well lets just say "a texture" to it. :) Didn't bother me one bit (mostly because I love the taste of onions), but if you are a texture person and don't like the idea of lumps in your gravy, then this is not the recipe for you. I just caramelized some onions and blended them in my food processor with the milk. I reduced the butter, and flour to 2 tbs each, because the onion acts as a thickener. And I left out the garlic salt. Other than that the process to make it is the same.

Vegetarian Breakfast Patty (soy free)

I don't know how I feel about these. The hubster loved them, but to me the texture was off, and I think I will use more brown rice next time to get that chewy, hearty texture one expects from a breakfast patty.

What you need
1 onion
1 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas
1 cup brown rice
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp sage divided
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt divided
1 cup breadcrumbs
olive oil for frying

Dice the onion and saute with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp sage until golden brown. Add half of this mixture, along with the clove of garlic, black pepper, cream cheese, garlic salt, chickpeas, and 1/4 tsp sage to your food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour this mixture into a bowl and stir in the brown rice, bread crumbs, the rest of the onions, and salt and pepper to taste. Shape this mixture into a log and refrigerate. Slice and pan fry when ready to eat.

This made a decent post workout snack, but there is room for improvement. I will let you know how it turns out in dinner. I'm making vegetarian Loco Moco.

Pumpkin Toaster Pastries

I bought a jar of pumpkin butter a while back, because I love all things pumpkin, weather it be flavored or shaped. The problem is I had no idea what to do with it. I didn't want to waste it all on toast and sandwiches, so I figured when the right thing came around I would know. Well when I saw this recipe for toaster pastries it hit me, WHY has nobody come out with a pumpkin flavored toaster pastry??? So I whipped* up a batch of the crust, which is basically a pie crust recipe, and filled it with a mixture of pumpkin butter, cinnamon, and a wee bit o' brown sugar thickened with corn starch. The only changes I made to the crust were replacing half of the flour with whole wheat flour, and halving the size of the pastries. Also by the time I had finished measuring, mixing, rolling, and cutting, I was so ready to be done baking (I really hate baking), that I didn't take the thirty seconds to make them pretty around the edges with my fork....
it didn't really matter that they came out ugly as a monkey's backside, these things were good. They made the house smell fantastic, and the crust was so tender and flaky oozing with pumpkin and cinnamon goodness. I ate a half of one straight out of the oven**. You are still stuck on that reference about a monkey's backside aren't you?? Well nobody ever said selling things was my strong suit. In short, these are good. If you have the time you should try them. If you don't have the time, but can find a good organic pre-made pie crust you could use that for a quicker option.


*And by "whipped" of course I mean spent a good hour of measuring, cutting in butter, rolling, and asking the hubster to roll, in between feeding, changing, and otherwise distracting the kiddos.

** Whatever you do, RESIST the urge to eat these straight out of the oven. Because, by the time you get to the third or fourth bite, you will really be kicking yourself....delicious lava.