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I know I said I would never again use a Kroger recipe out of the Tennesseean, but when the title is “Go Lighter with Breakfast Classic”, it is hard to resist.  This is a light version of Eggs Benedict.  It was pretty good, of course the high calorie classic is better at 24 WW points. This one is 6 WW points.  This makes it worth it.  

Ingredients:

1/2 C greek yogurt

1 t non-fat milk

1 T lemon juice

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 light English muffins

4 slices Canadian bacon (I warmed them up in a pan, but they are fully cooked.)

1 large avocado, pitted, peeled and sliced

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine yogurt, milk, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.  Mix well and set aside.  
2. If you want use and egg poaching pan. (Our study egg poaching with Julia Child.  This method works for beautiful poached eggs and no messy egg cups to clean up.)  If using the poaching pa, butter the cups, add eggs and poach over simmering water to desired doneness.  
3. Meanwhile, toast English muffin halves.  
4. Top each muffin with a Canadian bacon slice and a poached egg. 
5. Fan avocado slices over eggs, season with salt and pepper to taste, and ladle sauce over top.   

This took very little time to make.  I served it with a sliced tomato from the farmer’s market.  

Sunday is my day of rest.  Friends are coming later and bringing snacks and wine as we spend the afternoon lounging in the pool.  For dinner we are having your choice of Adele chicken burgers, Costco salmon burgers or Adele chicken and apple sausage, all cooked on the grill.  Grilled corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes.  Later if we feel like dessert, I have peaches to grille. 

That is my version of a great day.  

These are for breakfast tomorrow, but I made them this afternoon.  They are from the WW Cookbook and are 4 WW points.  These were actually good.  I am going to have them with the green smoothie from yesterday for breakfast tomorrow.  I will make Jim bacon and eggs.  He ate one this afternoon after I finished and pronounced them good.  

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C whole wheat flour

3 1/2 T sugar

2 T ground flaxseed (I didn’t have so added chic sends instead)

1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

2 large eggs

3 T canola oil

3 T fat-free milk

1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple in juice

1 large carrot shredded

2 T green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spray 10 C of a 12 C muffin pan with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, seeds, spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  
3. Whisk together eggs, oil, milk in another bowl.  fold in the pineapple with juice and carrot.  
4. Stir in flour mixture, mix well.
5. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups, filling each cup about 3/4 full.  
6. Sprinkle tops with pumpkin seeds.
7. Bake until tops of muffins are lightly browned and toothpick inserted into center of muffins comes out clean about 25 minutes.  
8. Cool muffins in pan on rack 10 minutes.  
9. Remove muffins from pan and cool on rack completely.  
10. Muffins will keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.  

This picture with the house showing on the right begins to finally make sense as to the shape and style of the pool house.  Above the top screens will be the matching metal detail from the house.  Between the upper screens and the lower screens will be sun shades.  The temperature is dropping by the hour, so we will not see any progress for a while.  

Wednesday I have volunteered to bring breakfast items to the Guild Meeting.  I had a banana bread and a wonderful fig bread in the freezer.  The banana bread i had in a vac-u-seal bag, but the fig bread was too large.  When I started to cut the fig bread, it had dried out.  I threw it away and learned my lesson.  If too big for the vac-u-seal, cut in half.  So I pulled out my trusty 1001 Muffins, etc. and began to look for something that did not involve a trip to the grocery.  I had dried cranberries in the pantry and made these.  Actually they are very good and looked delightful piled in the middle of the tray with sliced banana bread on each end.  I took Mascarpone cheese for spreading.  

Ingredients: 

2 C all-purpose flour

3/4 C granulated sugar

1 T baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 large egg

1 C milk

1/4 C butter, melted

1 C chopped dried cranberries

Directions:

 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  If not using a convection oven, center a rack in the middle of the oven.  
2. Lightly grease or use paper cups for sixteen 2 3/4” muffins.  (I used 3 -12 cup mini muffin tins.  making 36 mini muffins instead of 16 regular.)
3. In a bowl blend together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  
4. In a medium bowl, beat the egg, milk, and butter until smooth.  
5. Fold in the cranberries.  Combine the two mixtures, blending until the dry ingredients are just moistened.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups.  I used my smallest ice-cream scoop.  
7. Bake, 15-20 minutes, until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.  (I set the times on 10 minutes for the mini muffins, they took a little longer.  
8. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5-7 minutes.  Invert on the rack to cool completely.   

In an effort to use up that bran cereal I pulled out a very old and well used cookbook of mine called Muffins by Elizabeth Alston.  She had the perfect ending as it takes 3 C of the cereal.  It is an unusual recipe as you can keep the raw mix in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks and just make as many as you need each day.  I am going to make them all and take some to our neighbor tonight as they are having us to dinner tonight. 

 Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 C granulated sugar

½ C butter, very soft or melted

1 C black coffee or water (I used coffee)

2 C buttermilk

2 ½ C all-purpose flour

2 ½ t baking soda

3 C wheat bran cereal

Directions:

1.      Put eggs, sugar and butter in a large bowl; whisk with a wire whisk to mix.  Whisk in liquids; mixture will look curdled. 

2.      Add flour and baking soda.  Whisk until just mixed.

3.      Stir or fold in bran. 

4.      Scrape batter into a refrigerator container.  Cover and refrigerate or if you want to make some right away, let it stand for 20 minutes for bran to soften. 

5.      Heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease muffin cups or use foil baking cups. 

6.      Bake for about 20 minutes or until springy to the touch in the center. 

7.      Let cook 5 minutes before serving. 

The recipe said it makes 28 regular muffins.  I did my best and was able to reduce it to 24.  They are now cooling.  Going to put together a goodie basket of muffins for our neighbor and put the rest in the freezer for company.  

I bought some bran cereal to make a Weight Watcher snack.  I hated the snack.  The cereal had been taking up room in the pantry.  So I decided to make muffins or breakfast bread.  I found it is hard to find recipes that call for the cereal as most want the grain bran.  Each of these recipes called for dates.  I had figs so I used figs.  I used the book called 1001 Muffins, Biscuits, Doughnuts, Pancakes, Waffles, Popovers, Fritters, Scones and other Quick Breads.  I have had it for years and used it a lot when we lived in CA.     

Ingredients for Bread:

1 C oat bran cereal

1 C pitted dates, chopped (figs)

2/3 C hot water

1 ½ C all-purpose flour

1 T baking soda

2/3 C granulated sugar

1 t cinnamon

½ C chopped walnuts or pecans

1 t salt

2 large eggs

2 T melted butter

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour 8 ½” X 41/2 “X 2 ½” loaf pan.

2.      In a small bowl, combine the bran, dates, and hot water. 

3.      In a large bowl, blend together the flour, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and slat. 

4.      In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and butter until smooth before stirring in the bran mixture. 

5.      Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and blend until the dry ingredients are well moistened. (I had to add more water)

6.      Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or a cake tester inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean and the top is golden. 

7.      Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan. 

Ingredients for Muffins:

1 t ground cinnamon

¼ C plus 1 t granulated sugar

1 C all-purpose flour

1 C bran flakes

1 T baking powder

½ C finely chopped walnuts or pecans

¼ C pitted dates (figs)

½ t salt

1 large egg

¼ C milk

1/3 C melted butter

Directions:

1.      Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line the muffin pan with paper cups.  Spray the paper cups.  The recipe makes 6 muffins, so I doubled it. 

2.      Set aside in a small cup 1 t each of cinnamon and sugar.

3.      In a large bowl, blend together the flour, bran flakes, baking powder, the remaining ¼ C sugar, walnuts, dates and salt. 

4.      In a medium bowl, beat the egg until foamy.  Beat in the milk and butter. 

5.      Combine the 2 mixture, blending until the dry ingredients are just moistened. 

6.      Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full.

7.      Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. 

8.      Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. 

9.      Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5-7 minutes.  Then cool completely on the wire rack. 

 

Neither of these are great, but they are using up the cereal.