Back To School Breakfast

My two oldest went back to school today so it was a big morning at our house.  One in 11th grade and another in 3rd. So I wanted to make something special. It needed to me yummy of course, but I also wanted it to have a little nutrition in it too so this is what I made.

It's a recipe for Blueberry-Swirl Coffee Cake but my kids like their food in muffin form better so I made it in muffin cups instead of a pan. I realize that it is a cake and therefore not terribly healthy, but at least I got a fruit in there, hehe.

Over the summer my now third grader was shopping with daddy and saw this magazine and insisted that they buy it for me because in her words, "mom always likes cooking healthy things" How cute is that? I love her!

Needles to say, I am glad they bought it because it's full of nice recipes and pretty pics.

This is where the recipe came from. I made this one other time and called it breakfast :) This summer while Rikard's family was staying with us I made it, and they all loved it too.

I didn't have lemon zest so I substituted almond extract and it was delish!

To make it into muffins instead of the cake I just layered it in the tins same as you would in the pan and sorta swirled it around with my finger. Worked fine.

 Maybe the best part about making this into muffins was that I had extra blueberries in the end. Of course I could not waste these sugared little beauties. They fit beautifully in a small baking pan and luckily I had a little batter left. Oh baby!

 I could eat the whole pan! Good thing it's small! It's almost like pie, maybe like a buckle? Whatever it is, it is definitely delicious! I may plan this little accident again by increasing the blueberries and decreasing the batter. It would be heaven with vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce over it. But then I couldn't call it breakfast.

Here's the recipe:

Blueberry-Swirl Coffee Cake

2 1/2 c fresh or frozen blueberries

1/3 c packed light brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c (1 stick) butter

1 c granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1 tbs grated lemon zest

2 1/2 c self-rising flour

1 1/4 c reduced fat milk

Preheat oven to to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 13x9 inch baking pan. Toss 2 cups blueberries with brown sugar and cinnamon until blueberries are covered.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add egg and egg white beat another 2 minutes. Add lemon zest. Reduce to low speed and add flour alternately with milk, one-third at a time. Scrape sides down and do not over mix.

Spread half the batter into pan and sprinkle with blueberries. Spoon remaining batter on the top and swirl with knife several times. Sprinkle remaining blueberries on the top .

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging, about 40-45 minutes. Cool pan on wire rack 15 mins before serving.

I baked the muffins for 15-20 minutes. They needed to be in muffin cups because the ones that were not fell apart when I was trying to remove them from the pan. They also didn't work well as mini muffins. Maybe they would have if I would have used mini muffin papers but I didn't have any so they came out in a heap. Still tasted good but looked like a disaster :)

Enjoy!



Mandy

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Here is another winner.... Rikard said it goes in the top 3 so that has to mean its pretty good!  I can never tell if the things I make really taste good, or I just think they do because I work so darn hard making them. So Rikard is my test dummy, I swear he would try poop if it looked good enough... Just saying!

The only thing I might change with this is I would rather a graham cracker crust, I am not a big fan of chocolate... Maybe due to the fact that the night before I made this I ate an entire pack of Oreos... YUCK! I have had my feel of chocolate cookies!!!

Ingredients


• 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs

• 3 tablespoons white sugar

• 1/4 cup butter, melted

• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries

• 2 tablespoons white sugar

• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

• 1/2 cup water

• 2 cups white chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 3 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.

2. DOUBLE THIS PART ITS WORTH IT TRUST ME! SO GOOD! In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to boil, and continue boiling 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds. (I didn't strain mine...)

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt white chocolate chips with half-and-half, stirring occasionally until smooth. (Honestly I just threw them in to the microwave... Worked just fine!)

4. In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour half of batter over crust. Spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over batter. Pour remaining cheesecake batter into pan, and again spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over the top. Swirl batter with the tip of a knife to create a marbled effect.

5. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until filling is set. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.

AND how can you resist fresh whipped cream with vanilla bean in it! Oh God the little fat kid inside of me is screaming to get out...

Frozen Rasberry Cobbler (By Dawnie)

This was a huge hit a couple of weeks ago when we had a dinner party. Its so easy but Shhh dont tell. Let everyone think you are an amazing cook and worked all day to make this dessert! Its especially good with vanilla sauce all over the top.

The best part is I always use frozen berries... its so much cheaper!

Ingredients:

• 1 Stick butter
• 1 1/4 cups Sugar
• 1 cup Flour
• 1 teaspoon rising agent (Baking powder)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups rasberries or any berry (frozen or fresh)

Instructions:

• melt the butter in the microwave.
• In another bowl stir together 1 cup sugar, rising agent and the flour
• Slowly add milk to sugar and flour mixture
• finally adding the melted butter
• Now butter the baking dish and dont be stingy the butter is the best part!
• pour the batter in the dish
• sprinkle the berries over the top of the batter (I sometimes push the berries down into the batter a little so I can get as many as I can!)
• Sprinkle the remainding 1/4 cup sugar over the top
• bake in a 350 degree oven for an hour or until perfectly golden and bubbly
• I sprinkle a little more sugar ten minutes before its dont to make it a little crispy! YUM!

ENJOY!

Love,

Dawnie