Breakfast & Brunch

It is spring and that means Easter and Mother’s Day are right around the corner and that means brunch! I love brunch at my house. Its a bit more relaxed than dinner and the menu can be a bit more forgiving-you can just throw what sounds good onto the table and no one questions it and most things can be made ahead of time. One of those make ahead dishes is the breakfast casserole and at most brunches there is always a breakfast casserole, but I am so, so sick of the sausage and cheese breakfast casserole. Don’t get me wrong I love sausage and cheese especially with green chilis, but I wanted something else so I came up with this recipe. My family LOVES salmon and it is such a typical brunch dish. Salmon with cream cheese, green onions and bagels are so good, but how do I combine the tastes with a casserole? Well, here it is…

Breakfast casseroles are something you think about for holidays, brunches or funerals and they are perfect for those occasions, but they are also perfect to make on a Sunday afternoon to have in your fridge for the week ahead. I just cut out a piece, re-heat it in the microwave and serve it to the kids for a busy weekday breakfast-it makes breakfasts so easy, but still delicious and so much better than a bowl of cereal.

I have been making this casserole for YEARS! It is so good! It needs a little bit of planning, but it is worth it.  If I am making this for the week ahead I will make it on Sunday morning and let it sit in the fridge all day then bake it Sunday night because I don’t have an hour on Monday morning to let it bake or rather I don’t want to get up an hour earlier to let this thing bake.  But, if you have the time or get up early then make the […]

Weekday breakfasts are hard! Everyone is grumpy, tired and not ready to go to school or work. But, everyone needs a good breakfast! I try to make a healthy breakfast-I notice that if they do not eat well in the morning they come home from school in the WORST mood. If I have time (it only takes about 10 minutes) I will make eggs, bacon (pre-cooked from Costco), fruit and milk.  I try to limit the sugar which pretty much knocks out all cereal or waffles or protein bars. As much as I try to get a good breakfast on the table somedays its just crazy-especially if they have to be at school before dawn for football practice so I will rely on something that I have made over the weekend that I can just heat in the microwave. A few of my favorite pre-made breakfasts are linked here: Coconut Cream Pie Overnight Oats, Green Chili Breakfast Casserole, Mini Sausage and Cheese Burrito Bowls, Breakfast Burritos. They an all be made on Sunday […]

Is there anything better than a warm buttermilk biscuit with melted butter or honey? I don’t think so! They are so decadent and have ZERO nutritional value, but they just make a Sunday morning so special.  My husband goes and picks up biscuits and gravy every single Sunday morning at a local fried chicken place and it takes everything I have to have not indulge and have one. So my boys eat them and love them and it has become a tradition in our family.

But, I started thinking how hard can making biscuits be??  So I started researching and found they are SUPER easy and they don’t even take that long to make. I mean lets face it, if I have to get up at 6:30am to make something for breakfast that takes an hour or two, I’m out! I want quick and easy, but it has to be delicious! So I promise these biscuits are easy! Serve them with some homemade gravy, honey, a slice of ham or just butter along with some bacon […]

Its April! And that means we have 2 months until summer-woo hoo!!  But, that means that we have 2 months of breakfasts and dinners to figure out-ugh! By this time everyone is tired of getting up and tired of the routine and is looking for something different.  I make my youngest son the same thing every morning- omelet with cheese, toast, berries and milk. He is SICK of that breakfast by April. So, I am shaking things up this week with a delicious Coconut Cream Pie Overnight Oats. I made a batch last night that will last all week and it was SO easy this morning when I stumbled downstairs to “make” breakfast.  I scooped out a bowlful of oats and topped it with fresh blueberries and breakfast was served!

It took me a few tries to get this recipe right, but there really is no “recipe”. Just adjust the amounts to what you prefer.  I used So Delicious Coconut Milk-it comes in a box and is either next to the milk or in […]

Its Mardi Gras season and I love the music, food and people, but I look most forward to the Brandy Milk Punch! I would rather have a glass of this punch than the King Cake-if I have to choose. It is a classic cocktail served mostly at a New Orleans brunch, most specifically Brennan’s, but during Mardi Gras it is served ALL day long everywhere. […]

Well the New Year started off with a bang and the FLU! Yes our house got the big ole FLU even with all of us getting our flu shots-those were a waste of money and pain. But, Thank God for Tamiflu! It cut the down time in half and actually protected my little one all together. I will be buying stock in that drug!

Tis’ the season to eat! It seems like every night there is another event to go to that has more food and drink. Well, we have one more week and then the diet starts!!  So until then you might as well indulge and enjoy the season!

The big meal day is right around the corner and and everyone is looking up recipes and dividing up responsibilities for the Thursday dinner, but everyone forgets about the days leading up to Thanksgiving and the days after.  If you have family and/or friends staying with you for the holidays then you need to feed them!  And they will probably expect to be fed at least once a day:)  Take a couple minutes and try to plan out the days you will have guests.  Plan a breakfast and a dinner at home and a lunch(s) and a dinner out-make your reservations now!

Well, we have hit the time of the school year where we are over the excitement of school starting, not ready for summer yet, but exhausted with all the activities and appointments EVERYDAY! This is the time when we all start saying screw it and pick up a pre-made casserole for dinner and open a box of pop tarts for breakfast.  It is a slippery slope! I have slipped down it many times.  

It’s about to be week two of school for us and that means that the routine has really started, boo hoo! This last week was especially hard down here in Texas.  Typically back to school means mom gets a break! It’s the week that grocery shopping gets done, laundry gets done, the house gets in order, hair gets cut, hair gets colored, nails get done…. it’s the week of back to normalcy, except this past week we as Texans, and the gracious people from Louisiana, stopped everything to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. People began food drives, clothing drives, animal rescue drives…we as a state dropped everything to drive down to Houston to deliver collected items, loan boats and manpower.  It was an amazing thing and showed the true Texan way of helping your neighbor! 

The main course of any holiday meal should be the star! For a brunch the main course is typically a quiche.  It is easy to make ahead of time, you can serve it warm or at room temperature, it serves a lot of people, easily, and its an egg dish. Its the perfect brunch dish!

There really aren’t a lot of rules with quiches.  You can put whatever you want into them-vegetables, meats, cheeses… Anything that you like.  This recipe has a little bit of a twist in that the crust is not the typical pastry crust.  This crust is HASH BROWNS!  And it is SO good!

There are a couple tips I want to mention when making this dish.  First, start by using pre-shredded potatoes.  You can shred your own, but why??  The ones that are pre-shredded for you in the grocery store are great!  Just be sure and dry them thoroughly.  Wring them in a towel or lay them out and let them air dry.  If they are soggy they will not crisp up […]

Yogurt parfaits are my go to breakfast.  I do not love eggs so I eat a lot of yogurt to get my day going and when the berries are in season I try to mix in as many as I can.  Adding a handful of granola makes it feel like a full breakfast, kinda:) 

We are not huge breakfast eaters so I don’t spend a lot of time making elaborate breakfasts or brunches. Although, one day, I would love to host a fabulous brunch in my beautiful English garden with the sun shining down and flowing mimosas, but that will not be anytime in the near future for us.  At this stage in our lives having three boys means that our weekends are not our own. We either have some game to attend, a practice to attend, traveling to a tournament or volunteering to try and get our high schooler his service hours. Don’t get me wrong, I love this time in our loves, but I can promise you that we are not hosting beautiful, long, lazy brunches.  Someday….

I am not a huge breakfast eater.  I just don’t like most breakfast dishes-eggs, milk, carb loaded pancakes… But I try to eat something every morning before I get too busy and forget and then become ravenous at 11:30am. I love yogurt, cottage cheese, cereal and granola.  There are a ton of granolas on the market, but if you ever look at the sugar content it is crazy! Not to mention that a bag about 7oz is normally around $8!

This recipe is not quick and easy, but it is summer and I have a bit more time and my son begged for it.  I finally gave in and dang it is good! Once again it is not swimsuit friendly, but every now and then hey you just have to enjoy food!

I have a confession, I HATE eggs.  I know I am strange, but I cannot stand them, but my entire family loves them so I make them everyday.  I have gotten pretty good at whipping up some scrambled eggs or omelets.  And the nice thing about eggs is they take about 2 minutes to make.