Coconut Banana Chia Pudding

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Everyone’s a little lazy in the morning right? It can be a lot of work to get a whole meal going early in the morning before the day starts. Everyone raves about some overnight oats, but I just can’t do it. I’ve tried to like them, but I can’t. I’ve even heard them being referred to as “prison food”. Like overnight oats, this is a super low effort breakfast, snack, or dessert, but somehow more palatable. Coconut banana chia pudding is lightly coconut-y and banana-y and naturally sweet from the blended in bananas.

You can even pair this coconut banana chia pudding with some overnight oats (if you actually like that stuff) or use it on a topping for an acai bowl! I like having this chia pudding layered with some fresh fruit or fruit preserves and/or topped with some granola and hemp seeds.

Ingredients

Coconut cream – You’ll want to use one of the high fat coconut creams. This definitely gives more flavor (fat = flavor!). Don’t use coconut water.

Bananas – Use a banana to a stage of ripeness to your preference. The banana is really where our sweetness is coming from, so I wouldn’t recommend using green bananas. If you like a sweeter chia pudding, use a banana that’s starting to spot, but I wouldn’t recommend a completely black/overripened banana, as that may cause your chia pudding to ferment.

blend up your banana + coconut cream
mix in the chia
thickened overnight!

Coconut Banana Chia Pudding

Print Recipe
Overnight chia pudding that's great for breakfast or a fiber-full dessert
Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Keyword banana, chia, coconut, pudding

Equipment

  • blender or immersion blender

Ingredients

  • 1 can coconut cream around 16 ounces
  • 2 bananas ripe or extra ripe
  • 1/2 cup chia seeds
  • salt

Instructions

  • Blend together coconut cream, bananas, and a pinch of salt until smooth.
  • Add chia seeds to the coconut banana mixture and stir well, ensuring that there are no clumps of chia seeds. Clumps will prevent chia seeds from absorbing the liquid and plumping up.
  • Leave in the refrigerator overnight.
  • Enjoy the next morning on top of some yogurt, in some overnight oats, with some granola, top it with fruit, or have it on its own!

Have it for breakfast alongside some Mushroom, Spinach, & Cheddar Frittata or if you want more banana, try Banana Bread.

Mushroom, Spinach, & Cheddar Frittata

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What is a frittata? Really a frittata just a crust-less quiche – a big portion of fluffy, baked scrambled eggs and there’s no crust. It’s perfect for using up leftover veggies in the fridge and is great for feeding a crowd. Starting the frittata veggies in a cast iron lets you put the frittata straight into the oven and after it’s done, it can go straight to the table for serving. Serve it with some toppings like avocado, hot sauce, or salsa.

Ingredients

Heavy cream – Makes the frittata extra decadent! Feel free to substitute with alternate milks.

Meat – You could definitely add some proteins like sausage, chorizo, or bacon to this!

Vegetables – Other veggies that would be great in a frittata are onion, peppers, kale, or broccoli. You’ll just want to make sure to cook out your veggies to reduce the amount of water in the frittata so it doesn’t become bland and mushy.

Cheese – Top it with any cheese you like, or skip it all together!

mushrooms
spinach
wilted
eggs
cheese
fluffy!

Mushroom, Spinach, Cheddar Frittata

Print Recipe
Fluffy baked eggs with sautéed veggies and cheese.
Course Breakfast, Main Course
Keyword breakfast, eggs, frittata, vegetarian

Equipment

  • 1 10" oven safe pan

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mushrooms diced
  • 3 cups spinach packed
  • 1/4 cup thyme
  • 12 eggs
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Instructions

  • In an oven safe pan, on medium heat, sauté mushrooms in some olive oil until wilted and all liquid has been cooked out.
  • While mushrooms are cooking, mix eggs with heavy cream and salt and pepper.
  • Preheat oven to 350F
  • Add spinach to pan and stir until all spinach has wilted. While stirring, mix in a pinch of salt and pepper with the thyme to the mushrooms and spinach.
  • After spinach has wilted, turn off the heat and pour in egg mixture.
  • Gently stir eggs with spinach and mushrooms.
  • Top with shredded cheddar cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
  • The frittata will be very puffy when removed from the oven and will slowly deflate.
  • Optionally, top with more thyme and allow to rest 10 minutes before serving.

Need to supplement your breakfast? Have some Banana Bread or Blackberry Rhubarb Muffins.

Cinnamon Apple Rhubarb Loaf

Posted on by Amanda Leave a comment

Goodbye summer. :’-) Apples are in season and that means fall is coming. As much as I love summer, fall might have be my favorite season. There’s a mix of sunny and cloudy days and the weather starts cooling down. I can break out my fun sweaters and fluffy coats and I can start baking whenever I want, not having to worry about how hot the kitchen will get. At dinners with friends, more red wine and darker beers come out, and desserts get a lot spicier (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, etc). This loaf is a little cakey, the tiniest bit tart, and full of cinnamon to transition you into fall.

Ingredients

Apples/Rhubarb – When baked, I think apples and rhubarb end up having a similar texture (tender but mushy), so you can only tell the difference in the loaf if you were to pick each piece out and eat them separately. The apples are a sweeter mush while the rhubarb is a more sour mush. If you don’t like rhubarb, just do all apple!

diced & sliced
wet ingredients
dry ingredients
apples, rhubarb & stray blackberries
mixed
apples, fanned

Cinnamon Apple Rhubarb Loaf

Print Recipe
The transition baking loaf to get you into fall.
Makes 2 regular 9×5 loaves or 4 mini 6×3.5 loaves
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword apple, bread, cinnamon, rhubarb

Equipment

  • loaf pans 2 regular 9×5 loaves or 4 mini 6×3.5 loaves

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 cups flour all-purpose
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 2 cups apples diced, +extra sliced to top
  • 2 cups rhubarb diced

Instructions

  • Mix oil, eggs, vanilla, cream, water, sugar, cinnamon, and salt until well combined.
  • Add flour and baking powder. Mix until streaky.
  • Add apples and rhubarb until fully mixed.
  • Grease baking pans.
  • Divide batter among baking pans.
  • Fan apple slices over the top of each loaf and dust with cinnamon.
  • Bake at 350F for 75 minutes until golden brown. Test with a toothpick.

Interested in a different kind of loaf? Try Zucchini Bread, Banana Bread, or Pumpkin Pull Apart Bread.

Blackberry Rhubarb Muffins

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Have I mentioned how much I love summer? Fruits are so abundant and vegetables just go absolutely wild. Rhubarb grows like a weed and some varieties of blackberries in Washington are actually a weed. They’re spiny and apparently very difficult to get rid of if you have an overgrowth in your yard, but they certainly produce lovely fruit. If you have any summer fruits that just can’t be consumed fast enough, add them to this muffin recipe or a sweet treat.

These fruity muffins have a sweet, crunchy topping and their fluffy base is filled with tart rhubarb chunks and juicy blackberries. If you don’t like rhubarb, you might even like them in this application. I gave them to some friends and they thought that they were apples! This recipe could also be adapted to a large baking dish as a coffee cake-esque dessert with a crunchy topping.

Ingredients:

Fruit – The blackberries and rhubarb could really be substituted for any fruit that you might like! If swapping the fruit filling, keep the total volume of fruit the same (3 cups). If using no fruit, increase the quantity of milk to 1 full cup. Some other fruits that might be lovely in this would be raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, apples, and peaches.

Topping – The crunchy topping is entirely optional. If you just want a fluffy fruity baked muffin, skip the topping. If you’re keeping the topping but want this muffin to be a little bit more of a balanced meal, adding a few tablespoons of hemp hearts would be a great additional source of protein and fiber in these muffins.

liquid ingredients
add flour & fruit
scoop
crunchy topping
bake!

Blackberry Rhubarb Muffins

Print Recipe
Have it for breakfast, have it for dessert, I don't judge.
Keyword blackberry, breakfast, dessert, muffins, rhubarb
Servings 2 dozen muffins

Equipment

  • 1 muffin pan

Ingredients

Muffins

  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 cups flour all-purpose
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 cup blackberries
  • 2 cups rhubarb 1-inch cubes

Topping

  • 1/2 cup flour all-purpose
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup walnuts chopped
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Instructions

  • Make the muffins first. Mix oil, eggs, vanilla, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and salt until well combined.
  • Add in flour and baking powder. Mix until almost completely combined. If flour is still a little streaky, that’s totally ok.
  • Add in blackberries and rhubarb and finish mixing. Mix until just combined.
  • Using a quarter cup measure, scoop batter into greased and/or lined muffin tins.
  • After scooping all the muffin batter, the topping can be made in the same bowl, or can be made separately to your preference.
  • For the topping, mix all ingredients together and scoop about 1 tbsp of topping onto each muffin. Muffins will look very full but you’ll get some really lovely muffin tops!
  • Bake at 350F for a total of 60 minutes. Bake covered for the first 40 minutes and uncover for the last 20 minutes. Verify done-ness using a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's done!

More rhubarb? Make Blueberry Rhubarb Jam or Blueberry Rhubarb Pound Cake.

Like the crispy topping? Put it on top of a Banana Bread or Zucchini Bread.

Cheesy Egg Strata

Posted on by Amanda Leave a comment

Summer is for brunching! Restaurant patios are open and everyone is trying to soak in the vitamin D while they can in the PNW. When you’ve maxed out on summer activities and need a weekend to relax, try doing brunch at home. I love to make strata when I have leftover bread or am going to a potluck (especially if it’s brunch themed). I typically save my sandwich bread butts, random sourdough loaf pieces, and chunks of focaccia in the freezer so I’m always ready to make a sweet or savory (aka strata) bread pudding. This recipe is for the most basic strata. Feel free to mix it up! I’ve made other variations of this strata with other mix-ins like mozzarella, pesto, rosemary, thyme, sundried tomatoes, salami, turkey, sausage, chicken, spinach, asparagus, and broccoli. Add what makes you happy!

Ingredients

Heavy cream/milk – I think this ratio of heavy cream and milk gives the most flavorful custard to your strata without being too bland. If you would like to use all milk and no cream, feel free to substitute, but it may not have the same level of flavor and richness.

Bread – Use any bread you have! I always save my pieces of stale bread in the freezer so my strata ends up being a variety of bread pieces like sandwich bread, focaccia, and sourdough crust.

Cheese – This is the basic strata I make since I can always find a block of cheese in my fridge or freezer. Feel free to add any kinds of mix-ins as you see fit!

bread & cheese
blend the liquids
pour
soak
bake!

Cheesy Egg Strata

Print Recipe
Perfect to feed a crowd at brunch! Requires simple ingredients and is so customizable!
Course Breakfast, Main Course
Keyword breakfast, brunch, strata

Equipment

  • 1 11 x 13 baking dish

Ingredients

  • 5 cups bread cubed or torn
  • 12 eggs
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 cups cheese shredded
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper

Instructions

  • If not cubed already, cut or tear your bread into bite sized pieces. Mix in a baking dish with the cheese and any other mix-ins you might like.
  • Mix eggs, heavy cream, milk, salt, and pepper until fully combined.
  • Pour liquid mixture in with the bread and gently mix to ensure that each piece of bread is coated in the milky egg mixture.
  • Cover and leave to rest in the refrigerator overnight or at least 4 hours.
  • Bake uncovered at 350F for ~30 minutes until top is browned, strata has puffed, and center is not jiggly. If the top is browning too quickly, cover with foil.

Want to make your own bread for strata? Try My Favorite Focaccia.

Need a side? Have some Savory Asparagus Galette.

Serve a brunch dessert after like Peach Galette.

Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Rolls

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Now that we’re at the tail-end of pandemic, sourdough isn’t quite as “in” anymore, but it certainly is still super tasty! I was lucky to be gifted some sourdough starter from my coworker. My starter traveled to me from Ohio and had been maintained for almost 50 years! As I’ve been experimenting with creating the perfect loaf of sourdough bread, I’ve found myself leftover with a lot of leftover, “inactive” starter. I’ve been experimenting with the discard and it’s perfect for cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients

Sourdough discard – Make sure that you’re using discard that hasn’t been fed yet! The “sourness” of your cinnamon rolls will depend on the last time you fed your starter. If you have been regularly been using your starter, your rolls will not be very sour. If you haven’t been using the starter and it’s been sitting in the refrigerator for a few weeks, your cinnamon rolls will be more sour.

Cinnamon – A lot of cinnamon roll recipes really only have cinnamon in the filling. I think that cinnamon rolls are the best when there is cinnamon in the dough as well.

Icing – I generally tend to skip the icing when it comes to cinnamon rolls and I’d continue with this cinnamon roll recipe! I generally like my desserts to be on the less sweet side so I think these are perfectly sweet.

yeast
mix the yeast + milk
flour-cinnamon-salt
mix!
rise overnight
buttered up
cinnamon & sugar
roll
cut
2nd rise

Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Rolls

Print Recipe
Fluffy, soft cinnamon rolls perfect for sourdough discard
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword breakfast, cinnamon, dessert, rolls
Servings 24 cinnamon rolls

Equipment

  • 1 Stand mixer optional

Ingredients

Dough

  • 1/2 cup milk warmed
  • 1 cup sourdough discard
  • 2.5 tsp yeast
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling

  • 1 cup butter softened, divided
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar divided
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon divided

Instructions

  • Bloom yeast in milk. Stir mixture.
  • When mixture starts to foam, add sourdough starter, eggs, butter, and sugar.
  • Mix until thoroughly combined.
  • Add flour, salt, and cinnamon and mix until just combined.
  • Leave dough to rise in the refrigerator overnight.
  • The next day, split the dough in half. Roll out to ~9×16" rectangle.
  • Spread half the softened butter evenly onto the dough.
  • Sprinkle half of the brown sugar and half of the cinnamon onto the dough. roll dough into a log and cut into 12 rolls.
  • Repeat dough rolling, butter spreading, sugar/cinnamon spreading with the second half of the dough.
  • Place cinnamon rolls in a 9×16" pan, leaving space between the cinnamon rolls.
  • Leave in the refrigerator to rise again overnight.
  • The next day, remove from the refrigerator ~30 minutes prior to baking for cinnamon rolls to come to room temperature.
  • Bake at 350F for ~20 minutes, when tops are golden brown. Serve warm!

Try some other desserts! Beet Cinnamon Rolls or Peach Galette

Light, Crispy, Fluffy Waffles

Posted on by Amanda Leave a comment

Waffles > pancakes, right? When there’s a weekend morning where there isn’t too much going on, I like to make waffles so it feels more like a special occasion. These waffles happen to be vegan and you can’t even tell. They’re exactly how I like them: light, crispy, and fluffy. Serve with a side of eggs and bacon and top them with whipped cream, berries, and powdered sugar. Most recently I topped mine with a bananas foster-esque syrup of rum, banana, and brown sugar. Make extra waffles and you can even freeze them! Throw them in the toaster for a quick breakfast.

banana foster-esque

Ingredients

Cornstarch – The combination of AP flour and cornstarch leads to a light, crispy waffle. If you don’t have cornstarch, you can use all AP flour. Your waffle just won’t be as crispy if you used cornstarch.

Maple syrup – I like waffles that already have a maple-y flavor to them. With the aroma of maple in the batter, I usually don’t even need maple syrup on top.

Flax eggs – This was a happy accident on a day I wanted waffles but didn’t have any eggs left. Flax eggs are much healthier than the usual chicken eggs and you really can’t tell the difference in this recipe. It helps bind all of the ingredients together without making the batter taste “eggy”.

Soy milk – Another happy accident. I needed to add some moisture to my waffles and didn’t have any other milks available. Feel free to substitute with cow milk, macadamia nut, cashew, almond, etc. Use what you have!

Vegetable oil – Since these waffles don’t have any butter or other rich, fat content in them, the vegetable oil provides an extra richness and moisture to the waffle and helps them crisp up.

flax seeds
flax “egg” mix
dry mix
add wet to dry
mixed batter
pour into waffle maker
light and toasty!
stack!

Light, Fluffy, Crispy Waffles

Print Recipe
These waffles are everything I want when I think of a waffle: light and crispy. They also happen to be vegan friendly!
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword vegan, vegetarian, waffle
Servings 4 waffles

Equipment

  • waffle maker

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 3/4 cups soy milk
  • 5 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 flax eggs 2 tbsp flax seeds + 6 tbsp water
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  • Prepare flax egg. Mix together flax seeds and water. Leave aside to thicken.
  • Mix together dry ingredients of AP flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  • Mix together wet ingredients of sugar, soy milk, vegetable oil, flax eggs, maple syrup and vanilla.
  • Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix!
  • In a heated waffle iron, scoop 1/2 cup of the waffle batter mix in to the waffle iron.
  • Cook for ~5 minutes until just light and crispy.

Want a different dessert-y breakfast? Try Pumpkin Pull Apart Bread or Banana Bread.

Need ideas for lunch? Try Pumpkin Panang Curry with Spinach and Paneer or Chicken & Cabbage Dumplings.