Mom's Breakfast Casserole

I rarely eat heavy breakfast foods, though I really, really love them. One of my favorites is something my mom throws together every now and then, her breakfast casserole. It's quite easy to make and I'm sure it's not original, but it's yummy just the same. :)

Mom's Breakfast Casserole

• 2 potatoes, diced
• 1 tube of breakfast sausage (used some other sausage since we can't find American breakfast sausage here)
• handful of shredded cheese
• 8-10 eggs depending on the size of your casserole dish
• onions, diced, optional

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cook sausage on stovetop until browned.

Spray casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Cover bottom of dish with potatoes. Layer the breakfast sausage on top. Sprinkle cheese over entire dish.

Whisk eggs in a separate bowl. Pour slowly filling in all the space between potatoes and sausage.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a knife comes out liquid-free.

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High Fiber Sugar Free Bran Muffins

I've been looking for a recipe for these that doesn't taste like crap or is super high in calories. I was thinking that I would have to modify an existing muffin recipe when I found an article for someone who was looking for the same thing who luckily, already experimented to find something that works. Yay! Less work for me! I was hoping it would be completely from scratch, but since I already had some FiberOne cereal laying around, I figured why not? I plugged these babies into my WW recipe calculator and guess what? ONE point! (Unless you add raisins or nuts or something. Then they're two points.) So without further ado, I give you "I Can't Believe These Are Healthy" Bran Muffins.

High Fiber Sugar Free Bran Muffins (my changes are in italics)

• 1 1/4 cups of Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 1/2 cups of Bran (used FiberOne)
• 1/2 cup of Oatmeal, not the instant kind
• 1 cup of granulated Splenda
• 1/2 cup of Non-Fat Dry Powdered Milk
• 1 1/4 cups of Skim Mil
• 1 Egg (large)
• 1/4 cup of Canola Oil (used applesauce)
• 1 TBSP Baking Powder (yep, that's tablespoon)
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• Non-fat Cooking Spray for pan
• I added 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir together flour, splenda, powdered milk, baking powder, baking soda and salt (and cinnamon and nutmeg) in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine bran cereal, oatmeal and skim milk. Cover bran and oatmeal with as much of the liquid as possible and let stand for about 5 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Once bran is softened, add egg and oil, beat well. (You don't need an electric mixer, wooden spoon works fine) Add the flour mixture, stirring "only" until combined. DO NOT OVER MIX! Batter will be lumpy. Put even amounts of batter into 6 muffin tins (I used 12 to get them to 1 point) that you coated with non-fat cooking spray.

Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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I'm not a huge fan of bran muffins but I wanted to find an easy way to get more fiber in my diet. And for a bran muffin, I think these are the best I've ever had. They are fluffy, they rise, and they don't have a cardboard feel or taste like bran muffins usually do. They're super filling too. Eat one or two of these for breakfast (or a snack!) and you're good to go!

I'm Makin' Waffles!

I woke Kevin by clanging around in the kitchen in my desire to make some waffles. We've made waffles before with Bisquick, but they always turned out flat. This time I was looking for a recipe that promised fluffy waffles and came across this waffle recipe from Mr. Breakfast.com.

Waffle House Waffles (my changes are in italics)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (used Chappati Atta wheat flour)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups milk
• 8 Tablespoons melted butter (used margarine)
  
• 4 large eggs - separated (used only 3 yolks because I messed one up)
• I also added 1/4 tsp of vanilla and a packet of stevia
  

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, egg yolks, melted butter and milk. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold 1/3 of egg whites into batter, then fold in second third. Once incorporated fold in the last of the whites. Cook according to the instructions for your waffle maker.

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I don't think these turned out quite like Waffle House waffles, which I think can be attributed to the wheat flour, but these were pretty darn good, a somewhat healthier option, and WAY better than using Bisquick. I'm sure they'd taste even better using the all-purpose flour but I like to "healthify" when I cook. I cannot stress enough the importance of beating the egg whites. I think that makes this recipe fluffier than other waffle recipes, so don't skip it!