Breakfast

The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich

Leah Short — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 16:08:48 +0000

Y’all. This sandwich. The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich. I don’t know where to begin other than telling you to read the recipe, go to the grocery store, and make the garlic butter tomato sauce so you have all the ingredients for the best breakfast of your life tomorrow morning. I’m not exaggerating. I chose this for our breakfast on Christmas day and it did not disappoint. It’s decadent, over the top, and you will have to practice the most self-control to not make it every day after. It’s THAT good!

On Christmas day I wanted something different than the popular cinnamon rolls, and I really wanted something savory. After reading through tons of savory casseroles that weren’t quite what I was looking for, I remembered this sandwich I had pinned over a year ago. I’m so mad that it took me this long to make it, but thankfully Pinterest did its job and when I was scrolling through, I knew this would be THE breakfast. Shout out to Pinch of Yum for the recipe!

First, you’ll want to make the garlic butter tomato sauce. It takes the longest and stores in the fridge, so make that the night before and have it ready. One thing to note, the full recipe calls for two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and we found that to be too strong. I recommend using only one tablespoon.

The next morning, you’re ready to cook the eggs and assemble. Start with toasted, buttery croissants and add a slice of pepperjack cheese while the croissants are still warm, so it starts to melt. On the other half of the croissant, add smashed avocado. Guacamole would work well here, too. On top of the cheese side, schmear a good helping of the garlic butter tomato sauce. It’s better if it’s dripping everywhere. On top of that, you’ll want to add scrambled eggs. If you want a truly messy, sop-worthy sandwich, runny eggs would be amazing here. On top of the eggs, add your super crispy bacon. Put the other slice with avocado on top and BAM! Best. Breakfast. Ever.

For the full Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich recipe, visit Pinch of Yum. Please come back and let me know if you made the sandwich in the comments. We can gush over the best breakfast together.

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The PC Muffin

Leah Short — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 19:47:17 +0000

The PC Muffin is my absolute favorite muffin from Fido here in Nashville. Funny thing is I discovered it at a different coffee shop. A few years ago I worked down the street from a coffee shop that sold Fido goodies and my standing order was a café au lait with a PC Muffin. So, so good for breakfast. I would crave this muffin daily. It’s a jumbo muffin and it’s heavy and dense and one of those baked goods that gets better the next day.

That coffee shop stopped selling Fido goodies, and yes, I could go to Fido to still get my muffin, but it wasn’t as convenient and I was just heart broken. I lucked out and found a Nashville cookbook at my library with recipe! Jackpot!

The PC stands for pumpkin chocolate chip and although that combination may sound weird, the two go very well together. See Pumpkin Brownie Swirl Pie, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Sandwich Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread for more proof! (Sorry to all those instagrammers who voted no to that combo…you’re missing out!)

I ended up making a double batch so I could share these muffins with my coworkers. It was funny to see their faces when they saw the jumbo muffin. You could make these in a regular muffin tin, but you’ll need to adjust your baking time. Now I can have them any time I want with no lines!

Yield: 10 large muffins

The PC Muffin

Fido's pumpkin chocolate chip muffin

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 3/4 cups canned pumpkin
3 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275F. (Note: I made a batch at this temperature and they weren't quite done. Next batch I baked at 300F and it worked better.)

Combine the sugars, oils, applesauce, pumpkin, and eggs in a mixer with the paddle attachment on middle speed until evenly mixed.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients, except for the chocolate chips. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, about 1/3 at a time, until evenly mixed on low speed.

Spray a large muffin tin with cooking spray or use muffin liners. Scoop about 3/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the pan after 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. The muffins may need about 5 more minutes if the toothpick has batter stuck to it.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nashville Chef's Table by Stephanie Stewart-Howard

This post contains affiliate links.

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Not-Too-Sweet Granola

Leah Short — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 14:22:03 +0000

My reign of stinginess is over. I got this recipe for granola from my boss and it has ruled my breakfast for months. I teased about it back in April on instagram…twice. Shame on me for just now sharing it. It’s the first time I’ve ever made my own granola and what a hit! I’ve actually never even purchased granola, as it never appealed to me, but my boss was eating it in a meeting one morning with blueberries and Greek yogurt and I was all about it!

I’ve tweaked her recipe a bit to my liking and you can play around with the ingredients as well. In the Fall it would be great with pumpkin pie spice. Not a fan of cashews? Swap in walnuts or add more pecans. It’s really easy to change it up to your liking or what’s in your pantry.

I also halved the original recipe. A half recipe lasts me almost two weeks, but if you’re making this for more people, it’s easily doubled. What’s great about this recipe is that it’s real ingredients and not very sweet. Hence me renaming it Not-Too-Sweet Granola. It’s tasty on its own, but it’s the bee’s knees with yogurt and fruit.

The yogurt adds creaminess and tang, while the fruit adds natural sweetness. Sweet, tangy, crunchy, creamy…it hits on all the feels and that’s just what you need to start any morning right!

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Grab & Go Breakfast Wraps

Leah Short — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 01:12:21 +0000

These days I’m all into meal planning and prepping. The weekend (especially Sunday) is my time to get everything together so I can do as little as possible when it comes to meals during the week. I get up super early for work and the last thing I’m going to do is get up even earlier to cook. Enter Grab & Go Breakfast Wraps. I can make five of these for the work week on Sunday and I literally grab and go. Seconds devoted to getting breakfast together.

This wrap is pretty simple, but what I like is you can change the meat and cheese if you want more variety. I tend to eat the same thing through the week, but by the next week, I like to change things up. My favorite version of this wrap is a hard-boiled egg with ham, dill havarti, and spinach. That’s it. No condiment, no fancy spread, no frills…but easy!

This is not an original recipe (although I added the spinach and dill havarti) but I can’t remember where the inspiration came from and asking Google was no help. So whoever you are out there, thank you for the hard-boiled egg + ham + cheese inspiration!

Important note: I make these for the entire work week and they pretty much stay tasty through day five. However, you’ll notice the havarti will soften more due to the water content in the ham the older the wrap is. I didn’t mind it, but just a heads up. Other meat / cheese combos may or may not do this.

Yield: 5 wraps

Grab & Go Breakfast Wraps

Ingredients:

5 wheat tortillas (I like La Tortilla Factory)
2 1/2 cups spinach leaves (about 1/2 cup per wrap or the amount you prefer)
5 slices low-sodium ham
5 slices dill havarti
5 hard-boiled eggs, sliced

Directions:

1. To make each wrap, layer the tortilla with spinach leaves, overlapping if necessary.

2. Top spinach leaves with a slice of havarti, followed by a slice of ham.

3. Add slices of hard-boiled eggs on top of ham.

4. Roll wrap and secure by wrapping in plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for no more than 5 days.

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Clean Slate: Barley with Pineapple, Coconut, & Flaxseed

Leah Short — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 23:36:37 +0000

My mindset about food is very familiar this time of year. I’m always trying to clean up my eating from the holiday splurge and it can go well into spring. When the folks at Martha Stewart approached me about reviewing Clean Slate, I jumped at the chance. It’s not a diet cookbook at all. It focuses on clean eating and resetting your health. I’ve never jumped on the gluten-free, dairy-free bandwagon, so I was a tad bit skeptical going in, but not all recipes are that way and some include meat. I decided to test this cookbook by trying out a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and (yes!) dessert recipe. Every recipe has a beautiful photo with it, so it was hard to narrow it down.

For breakfast, I decided on Barley with Pineapple, Coconut, & Flaxseed. Coconut and pineapple this time of year? Yes, please! I can pretend I’m somewhere tropical as I start my morning. In the cookbook, they use millet, which I couldn’t find at my grocery store, so I substituted barley. Using millet would make this recipe gluten-free. I’m a fan of oatmeal, but wasn’t sure about a big bowl of barley.

So, how’s it taste?

This one really surprised me! It’s sweet, tangy and has such great texture! I made the barley ahead of time and scooped out what I needed for each serving. It was a cinch to put together in the morning before work. I already use almond milk instead of regular milk and I loved the maple syrup flavor in this. Fresh pineapple is one of my favorite fruits and it balances out the sweet. It was almost like eating dessert! I can’t wait to get my hands on millet to try it that way. I think this combo would work great with oatmeal, too.

For the next couple of posts, I’ll be sharing what I made for lunch, dinner, and dessert. I’ve got some photo teasers for you to get excited about! I was not disappointed with any of the recipes and I can’t wait to share the dessert with you. I don’t like to mess with dessert, so this was the biggest shocker of them all!

Lunch

Dinner

Dessert

The dishes you see in the pictures above are part of the Martha Stewart Collection white dishware available exclusively at Macy’s. I used the dinner plates, lunch plates, pasta bowls, and dessert plates. Fantastic dishware for everyday use, plus they’re dishwasher and microwave safe!

* GIVEAWAY CLOSED *

Congrats to Brenda, comment #1!
Winner chosen using random.org.

One winner will receive a copy of Clean Slate along with one bottle of Martha Stewart Essentials Multivitamin and one bottle of the Hair, Skin & Nails vitamin. Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents.

Mandatory: Leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to eat clean! One mandatory entry per person. Multiple entries (except for the optional entry below) will be removed.

Optional entry: For one additional entry, tweet the following: “Win a copy of Clean Slate, a cookbook for clean eating, from @SoHowsItTaste! Enter here: http://bit.ly/1zZu162” and leave a separate comment that you tweeted.

Contest ends Tuesday, February 24, 2015, at 10 a.m. central. Please make sure you enter a valid email address as an alternate winner will be chosen if I don’t hear from you within 48 hours. Good luck!

Yield: 4 servings

Barley with Pineapple, Coconut, & Flaxseed

Ingredients:

2 cups water*
pinch of coarse salt
1 cup barley*
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh pineapple
1/4 cup large-flaked unsweetened coconut, toasted
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. whole flaxseed (I used ground)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

*Note: Use millet to make this gluten-free. If you use millet, increase water to 6 cups total.

Directions:

1. Bring water and salt to boil in medium saucepan. Whisk in barley (or millet). Return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer uncovered, until water has been absorbed and barley (or millet) is tender but still chewy, 12 to 15 minutes for barley (30-35 minutes for millet).

2. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes then fluff with fork.

3. Serve topped with milk, pineapple, coconut, flaxseed, and maple syrup.

per serving: 316 calories, 7g fat, 56g carbs, 7g protein, 6g fiber

*Nutrition based on using millet, not barley.

Source: Clean Slate by the editors of Martha Stewart Living

Disclosure: I received a copy of Clean Slate: A Cookbook and Guide: Reset Your Health, Detox Your Body, and Feel Your Best and the Martha Stewart Collection white dishware at no cost. All opinions expressed here are solely my own, as always. This post contains affiliate links.

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Skillet Buttermilk Biscuits

Leah Short — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:21:42 +0000

As a born and raised Southerner, I feel it’s my duty to be able to make biscuits from scratch. I attempted a lightened version of biscuits two years ago, and they were a big flop. You should never, ever, ever, ever try to lighten biscuits. It’s just one of those things where you go big or go home, and by going big I mean use all the butter! I love any excuse to pull out my cast-iron skillet, so when I saw this recipe for Skillet Buttermilk Biscuits, I knew I was ready to give them another try.

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Raspberry Crescent Twists

Leah Short — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 11:31:45 +0000

I absolutely love weekend mornings. I can sleep in, I can take my time enjoying a cup of coffee, and I have plenty of time to make a really good breakfast. During the week I’m scarfing down a bowl of cereal and out the door, but not on the weekends. So, why am I telling you this on a Monday? Because it gives you something to look forward to in making these Raspberry Crescent Twists this weekend!

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Sausage, Egg, Cheese, & Hash Brown Muffins

Leah Short — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 11:20:15 +0000

Last weekend I was invited to a birthday brunch and needed to bring something to share. After seeing the list was sweet-heavy on what everyone else was bringing, I decided on something savory. I wanted it to be portable, easy to make, and in individual servings (easier to photograph since I wouldn’t be taking pics at the party). It was surprisingly hard to find all of these requirements in one dish, plus add that the birthday girl doesn’t like peppers or onions. I succeeded with Sausage, Egg, Cheese, & Hash Brown Muffins! Individual servings of what you’d find in a typical breakfast casserole and easily adaptable to different tastes.

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Whiskey Barbecue Bacon

Leah Short — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 20:20:00 +0000

Oh bacon, can it get any better? Yes, yes it can! Coat strips of bacon in whiskey, brown sugar, and spices to make a quick barbecue sauce, and you have a bacon masterpiece folks. I was thumbing through the bacon issue from Food Network magazine a few months ago and instantly stopped when I saw all the ways to spice up already fabulous bacon. They had about six or so different varieties, but I gravitated toward the boozy one, plus I had all the ingredients on hand. Whiskey Barbecue Bacon did not disappoint and now I’m going to be flavoring bacon like crazy!

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Mushroom, Bacon, and Swiss Strata

Leah Short — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 15:10:37 +0000

This past weekend, my friend Shannon from Bake.Frost.Repeat. came to visit and we certainly like to get in the kitchen and make delicious goodies. I’m hardcore into getting my steps in from walking, so I knew we needed a hearty breakfast before I made Shannon walk all over Vanderbilt’s campus. I also wanted something quick so we could wake up, eat, and head out. This Mushroom, Bacon, and Swiss Strata was perfect! We cooked the ingredients and assembled the strata the night before, then kept it in the fridge overnight. It was really easy to let it bake while we were donning our walking gear.

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