Chocolate Banana Breakfast Cake

This is an amalgamation of two fantastic grain free recipes. I had been making a breakfast bake by the Wannabe Chef for quite some time and have made many variations, including a reduced egg and a banana free version. I always loved the recipe and saw it as a good base for a cupcake. Recently, I came across this paleo chocolate cupckae recipe by Elana's Pantry which turned out fantastic! They tasted like a more rich and decadent version of the breakfast bake. I wanted to bring the two recipes together to make another go-to variation of my favourite breakfast bake. By simply adding cocoa powder and some coconut oil to the original breakfast bake recipe, mission was accomplished.

Chocolate Banana Breakfast Cake adapted from the Wannabe Chef

1 medium banana
2 eggs
2 tbsp coconut flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

1. Mash banana in a bowl and beat in eggs.
2. Add coconut flour and cocoa powder and mix until fully combined.
3. Add coconut oil and mix well
4. Scrape into a microwave safe glass dish (the shallower the better) and microwave for 3-4 minutes until the top is set. Turn out onto a plate. If your dish is a bit deep, the bottom may be a bit moist/mushy, and you can microwave it on the plate for another 30-60 seconds.

The cake can be eaten on it's own, topped with nut butter and other goodies, or sliced in half to make a sandwich out of it. I prefer a bit of nut butter but often just eat it on it's own. Now you can feel good about eating cake for breakfast!

Blueberry Buckwheat Porridge

Buckwheat porridge sounds so homely and plain. Yet to me, it sounds warm, comforting, and delicious. Buckwheat porridge isn't something I would have been itching to try until I was forced to find a replacement for my beloved morning oats. I recently have had to eliminate some foods from my diet in order to determine potential food sensitivities. It has been more challenging than I thought it would be, and while I thought breakfast would be my biggest challenge, this buckwheat porridge has replaced my regular oatmeal without any hesitation. The flavour is much more earthy than oats, and has a texture that is reminiscent of cream of wheat, but heartier.

For this recipe, I use raw buckwheat groats that I grind myself in my food processor. I don't make it super fine and leave some half crushed groats. This gives a nice texture to the porridge. As a time saver, I grind a batch of buckwheat when I have some extra time and store it in the freezer.

Blueberry Buckwheat Porridge slightly adapted from Meghan Telpner
Serves 1

1/3 cup full fat coconut milk (I use the canned variety, which is very thick. If you are using a thinner milk, use more, substituting out some of the water)
1 cup water
1/4 cup ground raw buckwheat groats
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
2 tbsp ground flax
1 heaping tbsp almond butter

1. In a small sauce pan warm the coconut milk and water until dissolved. Do not let it get too hot at this point.
2. Whisk in the buckwheat groats, increase the heat to medium, and continue to whisk. Once the mixture is simmering, add blueberries, turn down to low and heat for 5-8 minute, stirring occasionally.
3. Transfer into a bowl, stir in ground flax, and top with almond butter.

This recipe provides a solid base from which you can add almost anything your heart desires. You could add fresh berries instead of frozen, preferably post-cooking. You could add maple syrup, shredded coconut, or dried fruit. The possibilities are endless. Since the stove top is required, this isn't the fastest breakfast out there but it is relatively quick. I have made this in the microwave to save time, but it doesn't achieve the same smooth consistency, since it is difficult to stir frequently using the microwave.

So the next time you have the 10 minutes in the morning to make a hot breakfast, I suggest you give this one a try.

Dutch Pancakes

Breakfast is my favourite meal, yet I tend not to include too many breakfast recipes around here. It is most likely because unless it is the weekend, I don't have time to try a new recipe or take pictures of the finished product. Last weekend I managed to make something new. When I say something new, I mean that I had never made these before, but I have eaten them once, quite a while ago.

Last year we had an exchange student spend 8 months at our school. His name was Bas, and he was dutch.  He always talked of these dutch pancakes. Finally he got the recipe from his family back home, and made them for my roommates one evening. It is a very basic pancake recipe which can be adorned with all type of toppings or fillings. I chose peanut butter of course.

They were dense and thinner than regular pancakes and I really enjoyed them. I asked for the recipe, and received this email from the Bas man:

Dutch Pancakes

--email quote begins--

- 500 gram (2,5 cups) of flour

- 750 ml Milk

- 4 eggs

- spoon of corn oil

Mix this together till the batter is smooth, and fry the pancakes in a frying pan with a little piece of butter (or you can use that stupid oil-spray if you like). Wait till the batter is allmost dried up, and than flip the pancake. Let the other side fry a little while and then the pancake is ready, keep it warm.

Pancake options:

- plain (serve syrup en powder sugar)

- apple (put slices of apple in the batter when it's wet)

- bacon ( cook slices of bacon and put them in the batter when it's wet)

- cheese (put them on 1 side of the pancake when the batter is almost dried up, then flip the other half over the cheese half)

- raisins/blueberries/other stuff like that

- spinach (only eaten by veggie-freaks. Highly unrecommended by Old Dutch Pancake Guru's, since it severely damages the taste of the pancake)

--email quote ends--

I know, the picture does nothing for those pancakes, but I hate leaving out a visual.

The last pancake option listed in the recipe was definitely a jab at my roommate Jenna's "veggie freakiness" where she added spinach to the cakes. Don't worry Bas, I would never add spinach to these.

However, I did add syrup on one, and peanut butter and banana on another. I think I would also try goat cheese next time.

While I have not posted much in the last month, I have actually come across some great recipes. I have been fairly busy, but I am hoping to be able to share them with you soon.

Is it too soon for me to say: 2 months until Christmas!

Cinnamon Spiked Chickpea Flour Breakfast Bars

This recipe is the result of a friend looking out for me. My Housemate and good friend Jenna, knew I was on the hunt for a delicious use for my chickpea flour. While I have had one success, it has been mostly failures. On Sunday, she sent me a link to a recipe on the Edible Perspective. It was for a gluten-free "bread." I knew immediately I wanted to make it and made it later on that day.

I made minor tweaks mostly due to what I had on hand. The original recipe was gluten-free, but with my wheat bran addition these are no longer gluten-free. The texture resonated with me as more of a "bar" so that is what I am calling it.

Cinnamon Spiked Chickpea Flour Breakfast Bars slightly adapted from the Edible Perspective

3/4 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp olive oil
1/6 cup chopped dates
1/6 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup wheat bran
1 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine all ingredients in order and stir to combine.
3. Pour into a well greased 9x9 pan
4. Bake for 35-45 minutes until crackers and browned on the edges.

These seemed a bit more crumbly than those from the Edible Perspective, but I'm sure it has to do with the bran addition, or the olive oil substitution for coconut oil. I have to get my hands on some of that stuff.

I was a bit hesitant to replace the buckwheat flour (which I didn't have) with more chickpea flour as I thought I would find the chickpea flavour overbearing. I also wanted to make sure it was sweet enough for me based on my past experiences with chickpea flour. That is why I made sure to replace the dried fruit I didn't have with some chocolate chips. On my first bite I wasn't too sure but it really grew on me. It is great with peanut butter on top, and made a great quick breakfast for this busy week. Also, do not be shy with the cinnamon! I am happy to report, that with this recipe, I polished off 2 mason jars of pantry items! Again, it felt like checking off items on a to do list.

This will be my last post before I head off to Italy. I will not be blogging during my trip. Upon my return I will be finishing my move back into my parent's house, but hopefully I will be able to bring you a new post with a new recipe shortly after my return. While I won't be blogging, I will be tweeting, so you can follow me @foodforfuel to keep up to date!

See you in September! (wow, already?!?)

Steel Cut Oats with Dates

Those of you who follow me on twitter, or who follow me in real life, a.k.a. real-life friends/family, know this is a big week! I am working on my research study for my thesis (will be half done data collection after this week), am moving home for a year (I haven't lived at home for more than a few months in 6 years), and am heading to Italy on Friday (I have never been across the ocean).  I have been preparing for a while. Slowly moving some things home, packing here and there, planning for the trip, etc. etc. I have also been trying to reduce some of my pantry and freezer stocks. This has caused me to be a bit more creative as well as reduce my grocery lists. I have also had some help from my parent's garden for supplying me with fresh veggies.

While this week is all about quick breakfasts since I need to be at school by 6 am most days, I had some leisurely mornings last week. This allowed me to cook up the rest of the steel cut oats I had laying around. I also managed to use up a few dates in the process.

Steel Cut Oats with Dates

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup steel cut oats
4 small dates, chopped

1. Bring water to a boil. Add oats and stir.
2. Bring back to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
3. When the oats are 1/2 done (5-8 min) add the dates and stir in.
4. Continue to simmer until desired consistency is reached.

These oats were the perfect sweetness for me. I rarely sweeten my hot oats, and usually just top it with a dollop of peanut butter, so this was a treat! It was the perfect amount of sweetness as it was subtle and throughout the oats, due to cooking the oats with the dates. Even with the dates, I still topped it with some peanut butter. It's my favourite.

I made this a couple times and in this picture I used steel cut with some rolled oats since I didn't have enough of each. I finished off two canisters on this breakfast. To me, emptying canisters feels like checking off an item on a to do list. Call me crazy!

I will have at least one more recipe before the end of the week. Todays post is about leisurely breakfasts, but the next one will be a breakfast recipe for those rushed mornings. Stay tuned!

Banana Chocolate Chip Chickpea Flour Pancakes

In about 5 weeks, I will have completed part of my research study for my Master's thesis, move out of my current house and into my parent's house, and depart for Italy for a 2 week trip with my Nonna and cousin. I am really excited for it all to happen, but I feel like a lot needs to happen in the next 5 weeks. One thing that needs to happen is that I need to use up a lot of my pantry and freezer items. This will not only make my move easier, but I will reduce the risk of wasting food and I will save some money. I am going to start making the conscious effort to use up what I have and attempt to make-due rather than taking those oh so tempting grocery trips.

What have I done in the past few days to accomplish this:

1. I made some granola. I made a version similar to the crunchy quinoa granola, but I added some oats and different nuts.
I have lots of yogurt in the fridge that needs to get eaten in the next week or two. Normally I add some fruit and I am good to go. However, I want to save some of those frozen berries for in the future when I may not have any fresh fruit available to me. Plain yogurt is a bit boring on it's own however so I made this high protein and fairly low sugar granola. It also used up lots of nuts that I had as well as some dried cranberries which I will not eat on their own.

2. Used up that big bag of frozen vegetable scraps.
For the past few months, I had been keeping some veggie scraps in a ziploc bag in the freezer. It had a little bit of everything. I kept aspargus ends, parsnip tops, carrot peelings, bruised zucchini, mushroom stems, and wilted celery. I had been doing this since I wrote this post on wasting less food, but I have not kept everything. I figured it was about time to make the vegetable stock I was keeping these veggies for. Soup is literally the last thing I would want to be making this time of year, but it had to be done. I will write about making vegetable stock in the near future, and what I end up using it for.

3. Developed a yummy pancake recipe using chickpea flour.
Once my oats run out, pancakes are the next order of business for breakfast, which will also help with using up some flour. However, I'd like to save my wheat flour for baking bread, and I have a lot of chickpea flour to play with. I wanted to figure out a good recipe that is quick and also delicious. After first trying chickpea pancakes with blueberries, I knew I needed to up the sweet factor if I was going to enjoy them for breakfast. My first try was a great success and after one more tweak I have settled on the following recipe.

Banana Chocolate Chip Chickpea Flour Pancakes
serves 1

1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk (I think the sweetened soy milk might be neccessary)
1 banana, chopped
1 tbsp dark chocolate chips - an extra tbsp doesn't hurt ;)

1. Whisk together the first three ingredients.
2. Slowly add the soy milk, whisking in to remove any clumps.
3. Stir in the banana and chocolate chips.
4. Heat a greased pan on medium heat, and add 1/4 of the batter to the pan (I like to cover the pan). Once the bubbles no longer close up, it is time to flip the pancake. After 2 minutes or so the pancake should be about done.
5. I eat them plain or with a bit of almond butter on top.

These pancakes are really good, especially the bites which have lots of banana and chocolate. I have a feeling the use of the chickpea flour is an acquired taste, and definitely needs to be sweetened to be used as a pancake flour. I have been having these for breakfast for the past few days and have really been enjoying them. It is a great way to use up my chickpea flour as well as some frozen bananas kicking around. If you don't like banana, adding a tbsp or two of coconut is also good.

12 Grain English Muffins

Today is exactly one year since I made my blog not by invitation only and opened it up to the world, beyond just my close family and friends. It was the greatest decision I ever made to just dive into the blog, really not having any idea where it would take me. This will be my 84th post since first begining on June 1st 2010. I honestly can't say whether I thought I would still be blogging about my food 'experiments' a year later, but I can tell you there is no end in sight. This blog affords me the opportunity to share my experiences in the kitchen (and sometimes in the garden). I hardly get in culinary ruts because I am constantly looking for something new to do in the kitchen and then share it with all of you. Thank you everyone for reading and thank you to all those who inspire me every day!

As I have shared before, I have been baking my own bread. It has been probably a month since I have purchased a pre-sliced bagged loaf of bread. While baking bread is slightly time and labour intensive, it is definitely worth it. While I have yet to bake a perfectly sliceable loaf, I have not given up. In the meantime, I wanted to try baking other bread products that I love. Up there on the list are english muffins. I had saved a few recipes that I had found online and finally had some time to make them today. They have a lot of rising time involved but are fairly easy to make.

I followed this recipe on A Full Measure of Happiness. I made a couple changes: I made regular sized muffins (it made 15 muffins), used 12 grain flour instead of whole wheat flour, used sucanat instead of sugar, used half the salt, and soy milk instead of cows milk. These modifications seemed to work okay.. The general procedure for making english muffins is to make the dough, let it rise, roll in out, shape some muffins, let it rise and then bake. I have also seen some recipes for doing them in the pan, but I think I will stick to the oven.

They turned out wonderful! They didn't have as many holes in them as the store bought ones, but they have a much better flavour.

I was surprised with how many muffins the recipe made and will be freezing most of them. I bet if I did a cost analysis on this they would be more inexpensive than the store bought variety. I will definitely be playing around with this recipe in the future, for cinnamon raisin, blueberry, and even cheese english muffins. I'd also like to try and get them a bit more fluffy, maybe with rolling them out thinner and letting them rise more. I tend to be a little impatient, especially when the dough becomes deliciously fragrant.

Iced Ginger Tea with Lemon

While May has been quite a rainy unspring-like month, we have had a few really warm days that tell us Summer is on it's way. In the summer I often turn to refreshing drinks during the day time, as a way to spice up that usual cold glass of water. I usually go on 'streaks', where I drink a particular concoction every day for a few weeks. Last summer it was lemon water. Every morning, and sometimes in the afternoon, I'd have a large glass of water with half a lemon squeezed into it, with lots of ice. Very refreshing and a good dose of vitamin C. Last summer I also experimented with Iced Green Tea. I loved having a pitcher of it in the fridge, as you cannot really make iced tea on demand. I'm not big into sweet beverages so adding just a bit of frozen fruit does the trick.

A few weeks ago I made some ginger tea as a way to use up some ginger I had laying around. I loosely followed this recipe. I didn't like it so much warm, but after chilling it in the fridge and adding some lemon I loved it! The lemon neutralizes a bit of the spice of the ginger and makes quite a refreshing beverage.

The easiest way to make this is to:

1. Slice the ginger, add some cold water, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat and then let sit on the stove until it is warm to touch.

2. Transfer to a pitcher (removing ginger pieces) and put in the fridge.

3. Once chilled, add the juice of 1 lemon (for about 4 servings).

The more ginger you add, or the longer you let the water simmer, the stronger the ginger flavour will be.

Again, I don't sweeten this usually but a few frozen raspberries add some natural sweetness.

I am looking forward to experimenting with some more iced tea combinations as the summer approaches.

I also would like to share that I baked my first yeast bread last week without the use of a bread machine. I made the Oatmeal Sandwich Bread from Good to the Grain. I had to make a substitution so the bread was a bit crumbly but the flavour was still amazing! It was great on its own with some jam or peanut butter. I saved a butt end of the loaf to make a stuffed french toast similar to this. The long weekend is a great time to experiment with new breakfast recipes and I am totally taking advantage. I have recently played around with chickpea flour and I have an idea for a pancake recipe which I am hoping turns out so I can share it with you all.

Hopefully everyone is having a great long weekend and have managed to get into the outdoors a bit. Here is a shot I took on Saturday from Princess Point in Hamilton.

Not the nicest scenery but it was nice to be outside. On Mother's Day weekend I got a nicer shot from the Bayfront on the other side of the bridge.

One thing is for sure, the rain is sure making the grass green.

Shrove/Fat/Pancake Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday, also known as fat Tuesday or pancake Tuesday has came out of nowhere for me ever since I went off to school and no longer live at home. Every year my Dad usually made us pancakes for breakfast, always to my Mom's dismay as that was her (now ruined) idea for dinner. Traditionally this day exists to have one more glutonous day, using up fat, dairy and sugar before Lent begins, where one is not supposed to receive pleasure from food. As a kid and teenager I always gave up chocolate and chips (my two vices) for lent. I have not given up anything for Lent in a while but as spring (and summer) nears I tend to try and eat a bit better anyway. I will still be celebrating pancake Tuesday, but thanks to this recipe, not fat Tuesday.

This pancake recipe is adapted from my go to recipe for Healthy Spelt Pancakes for One from Oh She Glows, and is not an overly sweet or rich pancake. The recipe is so simple, versatile, and nutritious. I also happened upon an article from the Globe and Mail that was rather timely. It suggested to whip egg whites to achieve fluffiness instead of using baking soda. I usually add an egg to the OSG recipe so I thought I would try this egg whipping idea a try.

Raspberry Spelt Pancakes adapted from Oh She Glows

1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk (any milk really)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup frozen raspberries, defrosted
1 egg

1. Wisk together spelt flour, cinnamon, and baking powder.
2. Beat egg with electric mixer until foamy (~ 1 min).
3. Mix together milk and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add raspberries and mix in.
4. Fold in egg until combined.***
5. Ladle onto hot greased pan. Flip once bubbles no longer close when popped.

Makes: 4-5 pancakes.

*** Ok, so here is the deal. The whipped egg ended up thinning out the batter tremendously, which means I had to add some more flour (~1/8 to 1/4 cup) at this point. I do not recommend whipping the egg for this recipe, and just mixing it in with the wet ingredients.

 
The pancakes were very thin and did not have much fluff. Maybe the tip on Globe and Mail only works with your standard pancake recipe. This is not your standard pancake. I think I will stick to my usual method. Since these are not overly rich, I suggest you be creative with the toppings.

Topping Ideas:
1 small banana, sliced
1 frozen banana, processed into banana soft serve
maple syrup
peanut butter
nuts

I topped mine with banana soft serve and peanut butter. 

Since they were so thin I bet this would make a great crepe batter recipe. I have never looked into how crepe batter is made so this is really just a guess.

While I didn't celebrate fat Tuesday with this recipe, the gigantic cinnamon buns that my professor brought to class today surely made it a traditional fat Tuesday. On that note, you may not see any cookies, cakes or treats on the blog for the next..oh...40 days. You will see a new pasta recipe coming up in the next couple days though.

I hope everyone enjoyed some pancakes today!

Weekend Breakfast

I Love Breakfast. It is my favourite meal of the day. During the week my breakfast doesn't vary too much but on the weekend I like to switch it up a bit. With usually no time limits I am able to make pancakes or french toast or something more elaborate like that. On Saturday morning I laid in bed with my laptop watching tv (a very relaxing feeling by the way) thinking about what to make for breakfast. I knew I wanted something different to start my day.

I headed over to Oh She Glows because I am always envious of her breakfasts. I saw her recipe for a Grilled Cashew Butter and Blueberry Sandwich. Now, here is the problem. I took a week off from peanut butter. Hard to believe but I went 4 days without it! (ok so I failed at making it a whole week..but baby steps!). This was only accomplished because I didn't actually have any in the house (the only way this could be accomplished). I liked the grilled sandwich idea but I wanted to throw some eggs into the mix, and had to make a substitution for the peanut butter. This resulted in a Goat Cheese and Jam French Toast Sandwich.

Goat Cheese and Jam French Toast Sandwich

2 slices of bread
soft unripened goat cheese
jam (I used pomegranate berry)
1 egg
splash of milk

Spread the goat cheese on one slice and the jam on the other. Put the slices together like a sandwich (these are very complex directions, so pay attention ;). Beat the egg with some milk in a bowl. Dip each side of the sandwich in the egg mixture and place on a medium-heat pan. After a few minutes (peak to see when it is nice and browned), flip the sandwich (being careful that the two sides down separate) and cook the other side.

This sandwich was soft and sweet and wonderful. I felt like I was eating dessert for breakfast. I think I would prefer the edges more toasty next time so maybe baking it would be better?...hmmm. Has anyone ever had baked french toast? Is it crispier?

Looking at the weather for the week it is going to be rainy, then cold, then possibly snow for the first time this season here in southern Ontario :). I guess this means I should share another soup recipe soon!