Tiramisu Oatmeal.

Time for one of my favorites, Tiramisu Oatmeal.  As always, I changed a couple of things with the recipe, most notably that I used milano cookies in place of the ladyfingers, and again used french vanilla instead of greek yogurt.  Oh, and I used a lot more chocolate chips.

*I would reccomend that if you use milano cookies, that you place them on top of the oatmeal first and then carefully drizzle the Grand Marnier sauce over them.  They're very difficult to move when saturated.

Coconut Cream Pie Oatmeal.

Coconut Cream Pie Oatmeal

This was a great breakfast.  Next time I'd use sweetened coconut, which I didn't do this time around.  I'd probably toast it too, (3-4 minutes on a cookie sheet in a 350° oven) for even more flavor.  I did end up making a bit too much of the cream sauce as well, and would tone that back a bit.  I've discovered that I do not like greek yogurt, and so have been using fat-free french vanilla yogurt instead.  If you like a bit of tang, stick with the greek, but if not, plain or slightly flavored yogurt works rather well.  All around, it was a breakfast I very much liked, and will make again soon.  Enjoy!

Colorful Nachos.

I came across the photos of the recipe in my library and couldn't believe I forgot to share!  Hubby and I have been enjoying this off and on as an after church lunch since November, when I found the recipe.  It's fairly quick, and very easy, and oh so rewarding in the end! And, bonus, it's a lot healthier than most nacho recipes out there. (I like to tell myself that, anyway.)

Ingredients

1. 1 lb ground beef


2. 1 (1 1/8 ounce) package taco seasoning(you can get this in low sodium, and there's no noticeable difference, I highly reccomend it.)


3. 1 (16 ounce) can refried bean (Hubby and I are not fans of refried beans, so we just leave these out.)


4. 2 cups monterey jack and cheddar cheese blend


5. 1 (12 ounce) bag nacho cheese flavor Doritos


6. olives, sliced (optional)(we opt not to use these!)


7. tomato, diced (optional)(we like to use 3 or 4 romas, diced, without the seeds or juice(not as runny or gooey then!))


8. green onion, sliced (optional)(lots of these!)


9. jalapeno, sliced (optional)

Directions

1. Brown ground beef until all pink is gone.


2. Add taco packet plus 1/2 cup of water and stir until mixed in well.


3. Add can of refried beans to taco meat and add water until a good spreading consistency is reached (depends on how thick your beans are.).(Again, we leave the beans out, so this step is skipped. No harm comes of it, I assure you!)


4. In a 9x13 casserole dish, spread out half of the bag of doritos. Top with 1/2 of the meat/bean mixture and 1/2 of the cheese. Put any optional toppings on now.


5. Place the 2nd half of everything on top of the first layer in the same order.


6. Bake in a 350* oven for about 15 minutes until all the cheese is melted.


7. Serve with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. (Or none of the above.  Hubby and I prefer the nachos as is, out of the oven.)

PB&J Oatmeal.

The delayed update feature on Wordpress has become my friend.  Over the next week or so, you'll be recieving regularly scheduled updates bringing you up to speed on the oatmeal challenge, and other recipes thrown in once in awhile. Enjoy!

PB&J Oatmeal

This oatmeal was lovely and light.  It was comprised of what has become the base recipe, (1 cup oats + 1 cup milk + 1 cup water, add banana and flaxseed meal/wheat germ when it begins to simmer.  Add vanilla, and sugar, if desired. Serve) topped with a dollop of both peanut butter and my favorite, strawberry preserves.  It was a refreshing breakfast after the fiasco that was the apple fritter oatmeal pancakes.  We made these the day before, and were sorely disappointed.  You had to almost burn the outsides of the pancakes to get the insides almost cooked, and the flavor was very bland.  I wouldn't recommend them.  Have a free day, and make up your own oatmeal concoction instead.

Baked French Toast while you wait.

While I am editing the backlog of oatmeal photos, I thought I would leave you this lovely recipe for baked french toast. My cousins, Tony and Alex, (great guys who will forever be kids in my book, even though Tony is 16 and Alex is 12(I think)) gave me this recipe for my wedding shower.  I should explain.

My mom was wonderful enough to petition all the people we know, (and some we don't), for recipes to give me for my wedding in a recipe box, to get me started cooking for two. Tony and Alex submitted this recipe for that.

Anyway...I hadn't tried it yet because it's a huge recipe for two people. For some reason, it never occured to me to halve the recipe, but I tried that this week, and it worked wonderfully. We had it for dinner, but it could be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch....you get the idea.

Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

6 T. butter

1/2 c. maple syrup

1/4 c. brown sugar

8 slices bread (or texas toast)

7 eggs

4 T. milk

1/2 t. vanilla

fresh fruit (optional)

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar, and syrup in a 9x13" pan.  Set in a 375° oven to melt.  Add one layer of bread, pushing bread together tightly.  Beat eggs, milk and vanilla, pour over bread.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375° (or until bread is firm).  Remove toast onto plate by flipping over so glazed side is up.

Serve with fresh fruit.

This is the full recipe. From the pictures above you can see I did this in an 8x8 pan, and it worked fine, though I did have to really wedge the bread in.  I used 4 eggs, and frozen fruit, thawed, but otherwise, the recipe halved 'as is'.