Breakfast in a Hurry

Just like our mommies always told us, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Studies have shown if you start out eating bad foods for breakfast, or God forbid, no breakfast, then people are more likely to eat fattier foods, as well as, snack more throughout the day.  Breakfast is known to increase productivity, concentration, creativity, and hand-eye coordination.  Eating breakfast is crucial to living healthy!

Any meal should contain protein, dairy, whole wheat, and fruits/vegetables.  With this said, a cup of coffee is not breakfast.  Breakfast should fill you up and not let you crash an hour after you eat.  Also, for most of us, we are staying in bed until the very last second, so breakfast needs to be quick.  This combination make breakfast a difficult meal.

If you are like most people, planning breakfast is the last thing you want to do, especially if your brain hasn't joined your body for the day.  I have several quick breakfast ideas that you just have to throw together and eat it.  It doesn't get much better than that!

Breakfast Crunch

1 cup of Oikos Greek yogurt (fruit on the bottom)

1/3 cup of bluberries

3 large strawberries cut in slices

1/4 cup of granola

Mix all of these ingredients together.  Eat.  Enjoy!  Greek yogurt has so much more protein than regular yogurt, and when you add all of these berries and the whole grain granola, you make this a truly well-rounded breakfast.

Whole Wheat Bagel

1 low calorie, whole wheat bagel or 1/2 regular wheat bagel

1 TBSP peanut butter

Blueberries

Toast the bagel.  Slather it with the peanut butter and sprinkle the berries on top.  This is a great savory breakfast with whole grains of the bagel, protein in the peanut butter, and the blueberries add a lovely sweetness.  You can also substitute the blueberries with any fruit!  Try bananas, strawberries, or even chewy raisins.

One-Eyed Toast

1 large egg

1 slice of wheat toast

thin slathering of butter

pinch of salt and pepper

This recipe is inspired by my dad who knows how to cook approximately 5 things.  Whether as toast or as a ham sandwich like my dad makes it, this is a yummy dish!  Heat a skillet to medium high heat.  Spread a thin layer of butter on either side of your bread.  Cut a hole in the center of your bread.  As you can see, I accidentally cut my hole too big, but it was still delicious!  Lay your bread in the skillet and crack the egg in the hole.  Once the bread starts to toast up, flip it.  When the egg is cooked, remove the toast from the skillet and serve with fruit.  I sprinkled the toast with chopped parsley just for effect...it is not a quick breakfast essential!

If even these recipes are too much to for you to whip up in the morning, other options are getting a whole wheat cereal and cutting up fresh fruit in it.  You could also get some instant oatmeal and mix in some raisins, cinnamon, and honey.

I hope you enjoy this quick dishes, because breakfast really is the best part of waking up!

Buttermilk Chive Biscuits

Lately, Matt and I have gotten into a habit of coming home from school or work, sitting on the couch, and not moving until it is time to go to bed.  We will be so exhausted that we don't want to go anywhere or do anything other than sit and not talk.  

I realize that this not the healthiest way to live.  Everyone needs to be surrounded by those they love and to have uplifting conversations that are not about work, school, and the mundane concerns of day-to-day life.  With this in mind, we have begun entertaining again!  There is nothing that can give your mid-week a boost like spending time with friends you haven't seen in a while.

The food doesn't have to be anything spectacular.  I like to make something comforting and familiar for our guests.  If you create something too fancy, it can make people feel stuffy and uptight.  I wanted to have some of my special girls over for a relaxed dinner of chicken kabobs, grilled sausage and zucchini, roasted potatoes, and these buttermilk chive biscuits.  The biscuits were so yummy and easy!  They make you wanna slap yo' momma...not really, but you know what I mean.  They were really delicious!

The finished product!  Where's my butter??

In a bowl, mix 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 tsp of salt, 1 and 1/2 TBSP of baking powder.  Wisk it together until combined. 

Take 1 stick of cold butter and cut it into small pieces

With your fingers or a food processor, combine the butter with the flour mixture until it reaches a crumbly consistency.

In a measuring cup, add 1 whole egg, half a cup of sour cream with chives, and pour in buttermilk until you reach the 1 cup line.  Stir these ingredients together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Grab a cutting board and lightly flour it.  Dump the dough onto the flouring board and knead as little as possible.  The more you work the dough, the tougher your biscuit will be!  The dough is just like us, the less we work out the softer and squishier we will be :)

Flatten the dough and cut out your biscuits.

Lay your biscuits out on a silpat or a greased cookie sheet.  I like cooking my biscuits close to each other because there are less hard sided-biscuits that way.  

Bake the biscuits in the oven at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Voila!  A perfect, homey biscuit that will make your guests feel right at home.  So, call up a someone you haven't seen in a while and invite them over.  It will brighten your week and replenish your soul.