Breakfast

Name: Crab Cake Eggs Florentine (Sous Vide)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 prepared crab cakes; 4 English muffins; Old Bay Seasoning; 4 large eggs; 1 tbs olive oil; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 4 cups baby spinach, loosely packed; kosher salt; 1 tbs apple cider vinegar; 1 tbs shallot, minced; 4 egg yolks; 2 tbs lemon juice; 1/2 tsp kosher salt; 2 tbs water

Crab Cake Eggs Florentine (Sous Vide)

April 24, 2019 by laurenpacek Leave a Comment

Crab Cake Eggs Florentine is a delicious, decadent, and downright fancy brunch dish. Sous vide-ing the hollandaise sauce and eggs makes things so much easier!

Even though you might not immediately know what the difference between Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine is, you’re probably familiar with both of these popular brunch dishes. They both involve a toasty English Muffin, poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. Florentine has spinach instead of Canadian bacon or ham (a la Benedict). Now you know.

Both options are so good. I opted for Eggs Florentine here. That spinach means it’s healthy, right? No? Okay.

I figured that pretty much the only thing that could make this dish better is the addition of a crab cake. And don’t forget the Old Bay. I professed my deep love of Old Bay here, in this post about Air Fryer Chicken Wings.

This post contains affiliate links.

This is the first sous vide recipe on this blog!

So, what is sous vide? Sous vide means “under vacuum”. Basically what you do is place uncooked plastic pouch (and vacuum all of the air out) or maybe a glass jar and cook the food in a water bath at a precise temperature. I know, it sounds kind of weird. But if you have more questions, I suggest that you head over to the blog A Duck’s Oven. She’s an expert!

After a little hemming and hawing, I ended up getting this Anova model. I’ve been really happy with it. So far, we’ve made steaks (several times), stuffed burgers, along with the hollandaise sauce and soft poached eggs in this post.

I’m pretty excited to share this first sous vide recipe with you all. Stay tuned for more in the future!

This is a fancy looking recipe, but don’t be daunted!

I know that there are kind of a lot of steps involved in making this recipe. Despite this, all of the steps are very easy. Even the hollandaise sauce is super easy. Basically, all you do is dump the ingredients in a jar, let them cook in the water bath, and blend! Easy peasy. And honestly, the payoff at the end of this recipe is sooo worth it.

Before we get to the recipe, I need to make a couple of plugs:

The beautiful plate in these photos was made by Matt Hallyburton. Please head over to Hallyburton Pottery and check out what he has to offer!

The recipe for the sous vide hollandaise sauce comes from Chelsea over at A Duck’s Oven. Go check her blog out for lots of tasty recipes (especially those involving sous vide)!

Crab Cake Eggs Florentine (Sous Vide)

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Crab Cake Eggs Florentine is a delicious, decadent, and downright fancy brunch dish. Making the hollandaise sauce and eggs using sous vide makes things so much easier!

Ingredients

Sous Vide Hollandaise Sauce

1 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tbs shallot, minced
4 egg yolks
2 tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbs water

4 large eggs

Garlicky Spinach

1 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups baby spinach, loosely packed
kosher salt

Everything Else

4 prepared crab cakes
4 English muffins
Old Bay Seasoning

Instructions

To make the Sous Vide Hollandaise Sauce

Using your immersion circulator, preheat the water bath to 167 degrees F.
Add all of the ingredients to a wide-mouthed Mason jar. Screw the on lid to just “finger-tight.”
Once the water has preheated, add the jar. Make sure all of the ingredients are completely submerged under the water line. You might have to stack a mug or something on top of the jar to keep it from floating up and around in the water bath. Cook for 30 minutes.
Remove the jar from water bath. Remove the lid. Insert the immersion blender into the jar and blend until the hollandaise is smooth and thick (should take about 2 minutes).
If you'd like to thin it out a bit, you can add some water and blend again.

To make the Sous Vide Soft Poached Egg

Using a slotted spoon, gently slide the eggs into the bottom of the preheated (167 degrees F) water bath.
Allow them to cook in the water bath for 12 minutes.
Again using the slotted spoon, remove the eggs to an ice bath (to stop the cooking) for a about 1 minute.

To make the Garlicky Spinach

Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat.
Add the garlic and sauté just until fragrant.
Add the baby spinach, one handful at a time (and stirring occasionally), until wilted.

Season with kosher salt, to taste.

To assemble everything

Heat the prepared crab cakes according to package directions.
Toast the English muffins and place 1/4 of the cooked spinach on the bottom half of each English muffin. Reserve the tops for sopping up the egg yolks and hollandaise.
Place a crab cake on top of the spinach.
Place one soft poached egg on top of each crab cake. To remove the eggs from their shells, you want to gently crack into the bottom of each egg. Once you peel away the shell at the bottom of the egg, the soft poached eggs will slide right out.
Drizzle some hollandaise on top of the poached egg and dust with a little Old Bay seasoning.

Notes

If you prepare the crab cakes, spinach, and English muffins while the hollandaise sauce and eggs cook, you can have this fancy brunch on the table in about 30 minutes of active cooking time!
Hollandaise sauce cannot be reheated. Trust.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 665 Total Fat: 37g Saturated Fat: 7g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 27g Cholesterol: 529mg Sodium: 2131mg Carbohydrates: 45g Fiber: 4g Sugar: 4g Protein: 38g

Looking for other breakfast and brunch recipes?

Gluten Free Banana Bread

January 30, 2019 by laurenpacek 7 Comments

This Gluten Free Banana Bread is dense, moist, and studded and topped with crunchy pecans. Know what’s even better? I subbed real maple syrup for brown sugar to make this banana bread refined sugar-free, too!

Part of me likes the idea of baking with less refined sugar. I’m thinking about giving dates a try as a sweetener. For, you know, nutritional reasons and whatnot.

Then again, part of me just really likes maple syrup. The real stuff. No Mrs. Butterworth’s here. I used this bourbon barrel aged variety (found at Costco), but use whatever kind that you like!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that this banana bread is made with brown butter. Who doesn’t like brown butter? It is 10/10.

I’ve been slowly tiptoeing into the gluten free baking world, and definitely want to increase my GF repertoire. So far I’ve shown you Gluten Free Muesli Muffins and Coconut Macaroons. And now this gluten free banana bread!

5 from 5 votes

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

50 mins

Butter cooling time

15 mins

Total Time

1 hr 15 mins

Course: Bread, Breakfast, Brunch

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12 slices

Author: Lauren Pacek

Ingredients

For the brown butter

8 tbs unsalted butter

For the banana bread

2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour, see notes
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup real maple syrup
2 eggs
2 large bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup pecans, chopped

For the topping

1/4 cup pecans, chopped
2 tbs real maple syrup

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with a strip of parchment paper sling. Allowing an inch or so of parchment paper to hang over the long edges. Spray the pan and parchment paper with cooking spray and set aside.

To make the brown butter

Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and cook for about 3 minutes (stirring pretty much constantly) until the butter has browned.
Pour the brown butter into a bowl. Make sure to scrape all of the toasty, brown bits into the bowl as well.
Let the brown butter cool slightly for 10-15 minutes.

To make the banana bread

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the maple syrup, eggs, mashed bananas, and vanilla extract.
Once the brown butter has cooled slightly, whisk that into the wet ingredients, too.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Fold the wet and the dry ingredients together, but don't over mix. Add the chopped pecans and stir until distributed throughout the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula.

To make the topping

Sprinkle the remaining chopped pecans evenly over the top of the batter.
Pour 2 tbs over the pecans.
Bake the banana bread for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick, when inserted into the center, comes out clean.

Recipe Notes

Notes:

I use King Arthur's Gluten-Free Measure for Measure flour

Looking for more banana bread recipes? (Of course you are) How about Hummingbird Banana Bread or Healthy Chocolate Banana Bread? How about some banana bread with chocolate chips and oatmeal? AND. Let’s not forget Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Cookies!

Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats

November 28, 2018 by laurenpacek Leave a Comment

These Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats are healthy, delicious, and endlessly customizable. Even better: they take hardly any time at all to make AND are almost entirely hands-off.

When making oatmeal for the week, my go-to recipe has been this one for Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats. The only downside to it is that it takes several hours to cook. When pressed for time one Sunday, I decided to try making oatmeal in the pressure cooker.

Just like the slow cooker method, this method is almost entirely hands-off. The resulting oatmeal is tender (but still has a nice texture) and is basically a blank slate. You can flavor your oatmeal and add whatever nuts and fruit you’d like. But without a doubt, the biggest benefit of using the pressure cooker is that everything cooks very quickly.

The proportion of oats:water was taken from The Kitchn; the method is based on my trial and error.

Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal

Prep Time

2 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Pressurization & depressurization

30 mins

Total Time

12 mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch

Cuisine: American

Servings: 5 servings

Author: Lauren Pacek

Ingredients

For the steel cut oatmeal

1 1/4 cups steel cut oats
3 1/4 cups water
pinch kosher salt

For the toppings (optional)

milk of choice
sweetener of choice
nuts
fruit

Instructions

Spray the insert of your electric pressure cooker with cooking spray.
Add the steel cut oats, water, and salt to the pressure cooker.
Pressure cook for 8 minutes on high pressure. Allow the pressure to release naturally.
Top your oatmeal with whatever toppings you desire.

Recipe Notes

Notes: For toppings, I went with almond milk, brown sugar, sliced almonds, and pomegranate arils.

Have more time on your hands to prep for breakfast? Consider this Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal, instead!

Looking for other recipes to make in your electric pressure cooker? I gotchu.

This Pressure Cooker Chicken Ropa Vieja is tasty and versatile
Pressure Cooker Carnitas are a favorite in my house!
This Pressure Cooker Green Chicken Chili will help warm you up now that the temperatures are falling

Gluten Free Muesli Muffins

November 13, 2018 by laurenpacek 3 Comments

These Muesli Muffins are gluten free AND refined sugar free! In addition to being a bit on the healthier side, they’re plenty tasty.

Muesli is sort of like granola in that it’s made up of oats, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, etc. However, it’s not baked. Check out this article from The Kitchn for more info.

It’s good hot or cold (I like mine cold with almond milk + frozen blueberries) and you can make it with whatever component parts that you fancy. Eating it will make you feel healthy AF. Good stuff.

And as it turns out, muesli also lends itself well to healthy-ish muffins!

These muffins are full of oats, almonds, and grated apple. They are sweetened with real maple syrup but are kept bright and zingy with the addition of lemon juice and zest.

The recipe for these Gluten Free Muesli Muffins comes from Bon Appetit.

5 from 1 vote

Gluten Free Muesli Muffins

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

40 mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins

1.5 cups gluten-free white rice flour (see notes)
1 cup almond flour (or almond meal)
1 tbs flaxseed meal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
2/3 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
1 Pink Lady apple, grated
1/2 cup skin-on sliced almonds
1/4 cup gluten-free old-fashioned oats

For the topping

1 tbs virgin coconut oil, melted
1 tbs pure maple syrup
1/4 cup skin-on sliced almonds
1/2 cup gluten-free old-fashioned oats

Instructions

To make the muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Set aside.
Whisk rice flour, almond flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl until no clumps remain. Set aside.
Whisk eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice, 2/3 cup maple syrup, and 2/3 cup of coconut oil in a large bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk to combine. Add the apple, 1/2 cup almonds, and 1/2 cup oats; mix to combine. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling each to the very top.

To make the topping

Mix remaining 1/4 cup almonds, 1/2 cup oats, 1 tbs maple syrup, and 1 tbs coconut oil together in a small bowl to combine.
Sprinkle the topping evenly over each muffin.
Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick, when inserted into the centers, comes out clean.

Recipe Notes

Notes: The original recipe calls for oat flour, but I couldn't find this at my grocery store. White rice flour served as a good sub.

Need more Fall muffin recipes? How about Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, or Apple Oat Streusel Muffins?

Jumbo Blueberry Muffins

July 19, 2018 by laurenpacek 8 Comments

These Jumbo Blueberry Muffins are BIG, full of sweet blueberries, tangy lemon zest, and have domed tops that are also crunchy (thanks to the addition of turbinado sugar)!

Sometimes a regular sized muffin just will not do. Sometimes you want a big ass muffin like you’d get in a coffee shop. Know what I’m saying? When that desire strikes, look no further than these Jumbo Blueberry Muffins.

The recipe is based on one that I’ve used before (see these Bakery Style Double Chocolate Muffins). Naturally, I swapped out chocolate for fresh, sweet blueberries and zingy lemon zest.

You may have started to catch on, based on recent posts in the past, but I’ve taken to photographing some of the major ingredients in my recipes. These blueberries deserved a chance to shine on their own!

Of course, you can always make regular-sized muffins from this recipe. I’ve included baking instructions (as the times will vary) for both regular and jumbo muffin varieties.

5 from 3 votes

Jumbo Blueberry Muffins

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

32 mins

Total Time

47 mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 8 jumbo muffins

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
1 pint blueberries, reserving a few for topping muffins
Zest of 2 lemons
Turbinado sugar, for topping muffins

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners (or spray with cooking spray) and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for a couple of minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well.
With the mixer on low speed, alternate between adding the dry ingredients and yogurt.
On low speed, fold in the blueberries and lemon zest.
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling them all the way to the top. Top with some extra blueberries and turbinado sugar to make them look extra pretty.

If making jumbo muffins (makes 8)

Bake the muffins at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for 22 more minutes, or until slightly browned on top and a toothpick/knife, when inserted in the center of each muffin, comes out clean.

If making regular-sized muffins (makes 18)

Bake the muffins at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for 15 more minutes, or until slightly browned on top and a toothpick/knife, when inserted in the center of each muffin, comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for a couple of minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Hummingbird Banana Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

April 16, 2018 by laurenpacek 6 Comments

This Hummingbird Banana Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting is a delicious mashup of a Hummingbird Cake (a Southern classic) and banana bread.

After making Carrot Cake Cupcakes recently, and realizing that I had an overabundance of overly ripe bananas (as usual), I got to thinking about other dessert recipes that used lots of fruit and or vegetables.

After some searching, I landed on Hummingbird Banana bread. This recipe is full of crushed pineapple, shredded coconut, chopped pecans, and bananas. The pineapple and bananas keep it really moist, while the coconut and pecans keep things interesting in terms of texture. It’s all slathered with some sweet, but not too sweet, cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with more chopped pecans.

This recipe comes from A Latte Food.

5 from 1 vote

Hummingbird Banana Bread

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

55 mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 2 loaves

Ingredients

For the bread

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
8 oz crushed pineapple, with juice
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups bananas (about 3-4 medium-sized), mashed
1/3 cup pecans, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Instructions

To make the bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9x4-inch loaf pans with cooking spray or butter. Set them aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and kosher salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla extract. Next, add the egg, one at a time. Beat until combined.
Add the pineapple, shredded coconut, and mashed bananas to the wet ingredients. Mix until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir until they are just combined.
Add the pecans and stir until they are just distributed throughout.
Divide the batter between the two prepared loaf pans.
Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick, when inserted into the center, comes out clean.
Allow the loaves to cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes before removing them from the pans to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To make the cream cheese frosting

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until they are well combined. Add the vanilla extract and mix.
Add the powdered sugar and mix until well combined.
Spread the frosting over the cooled loaves. Sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Recipe Notes

Notes:

The listed preparation time does not include the time required to let the banana bread cool.
Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Want more banana bread-y recipes? Take a look at my Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Banana Bread, Healthy Chocolate Banana Bread, and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Cookies!

Make-Ahead Cinnamon Rolls

April 11, 2018 by laurenpacek Leave a Comment

Make-Ahead Cinnamon Rolls: have sweeter words ever been said? I really do not think so.

In my opinion, nothing quite beats a warm, homemade cinnamon roll on a lazy weekend morning. The only thing that makes that experience better is not having to wake up hours in advance so that you can let the dough rise, make the rolls, let them rise again, bake them, and then eat them.

This recipe allows you to do a lot of the prep work the night before, saving you valuable time the next morning. You can sleep in, luxuriate on the couch with a cup of coffee, and still have your cinnamon rolls in a reasonable amount of time.

The night before, you’ll need to make the dough and assemble the rolls. Cover them tightly with plastic wrap and tuck them into the fridge until the next morning. Once you wake up, remove them from the fridge and let them sit on the counter for about half an hour. This ought to give you enough time to preheat the oven, make a cup of coffee, and scroll through your Twitter feed.

Next, pop the cinnamon rolls into the oven, let them bake up golden-brown, and slather them with cream cheese icing. And there you have it: homemade, make-ahead cinnamon rolls in a fraction of the time.

Though I have made these in anticipation of a work-from-home snow day for just my husband and myself, these are really great for when you have company. Doing the heavy lifting the night before allows you to spend time with your guests after everyone wakes up, rather than being stuck in the kitchen. A group of friends are coming to stay with us over Memorial Day Weekend, and I know that I’ll be making these for them.

The basic recipe for these cinnamon rolls comes from Jo Cooks. I modified the baking instructions so that they can be made in advance–up to the night before you want to bake them!

Make-Ahead Cinnamon Rolls

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

1 hr 25 mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12 cinnamon rolls

Ingredients

For the Dough

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup milk, lukewarm
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour

For the Filling

1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 tbs cinnamon
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

For the icing

6 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

To make the dough

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. The yeast should start to froth and bubble a bit.
Add the sugar, butter, kosher salt, eggs, and flour to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until well incorporated.
Pour the milk and yeast mixture over the flour mixture. Using the dough hook, mix until everything is well incorporated.
Spray a large bowl with cooking spray (or lightly coat it in vegetable oil). Place the dough into the bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

To make the filling

Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl.
Add the room temperature butter and mash everything into a paste. Set aside.
To make the rolls
Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray or butter
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is approximately 16 inches long and 12 inches wide. The dough will be approximately ¼-inch thick.
Spread the filling evenly over the dough.
Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
Cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch slices, and place in the prepared baking pan. Cover the baking pan tightly with plastic wrap. Pop the rolls into the fridge overnight.
To bake the cinnamon rolls
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Remove the cinnamon rolls from the fridge and let them rise for about 30 minutes
Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until they golden brown.

To make the icing

While the cinnamon rolls are baking, with an electric mixer, beat the butter, powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla extract, and kosher salt together in a medium-sized bowl.
Slather the hot cinnamon rolls with icing.

Recipe Notes

Notes: The preparation time does not include the time that the rolls spend in the fridge overnight.

If you want to make the cinnamon rolls right away, rather than letting them rise overnight, follow these instructions:

Once you have placed the unbaked cinnamon rolls in the prepared baking pan, cover the pan with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the rolls to rise for about 30 minutes, or until they have doubled in size.
Bake the cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.
Make the icing and ice the cinnamon rolls as directed above.

Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins

September 29, 2017 by laurenpacek 3 Comments

These Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins are sweet, flavored with Fall spices, and incredibly moist thanks to the addition of roasted sweet potatoes.

Up until today, it has still been HOT in North Carolina. Despite what the thermometer says, it’s Fall in my heart (and according to the calendar).

Pumpkin gets a lot of attention this time of year. I’m as guilty as the next guy of this, too. I love pumpkin. I’m a certified basic bitch, okay?

BUT there are other seasonal vegetables that deserve our attention. Take the humble sweet potato, for instance. They’re naturally sweet and delicious, a vibrant orange color, and perfect in baked goods.

These muffins are super moist, just like a pumpkin quick bread, and the honeyed pecans add a nice bit of crunch. They’re perfect for breakfast or a snack.

These muffins will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container.

Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

40 mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12 muffins

Author: Lauren Pacek

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup apple sauce, or vegetable oil
2 cups sweet potato, about 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, roasted and mashed
3/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped, plus more for topping the muffins
honey, for drizzling onto muffins

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves together. Set aside.
In another medium-sized bowl, combine the sugars, eggs, oil, and mashed sweet potato until smooth.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. Fold in the pecan pieces.
Divide the batter between the muffin cups (they will be very full). Top with a few more pecan pieces. Drizzle the top of each muffin with a little honey. The honey helps the pecans on top to get candied a bit while baking.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.
Allow the muffins to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

In search of additional sweet potato goodness? Check out these Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies! Or maybe you’re on the hunt for more breakfast treats? Try these Sweet Potato Waffles with Candied Pecans on for size.

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats

February 7, 2017 by laurenpacek 4 Comments

This Slow Cooker Oatmeal (made with steel cut oats) is a healthy, filling, make-ahead breakfast for the entire week!

I have good intentions. I really do. Like, every weekday I intend to get up early enough to make myself a healthy breakfast before running out the door. Does this always happen? Definitely not.

Meal prepping really helps with this issue. I make a big batch of something on Sunday afternoons (like these Make-Ahead Omelet Muffins), portion it out, and then all I have to do is grab something from the fridge on my way out the door.

This winter, slow cooker oatmeal has been my go-to. Mix some ingredients up in the slow cooker, set it, and forget it. And you can change up the flavors however you see fit, which helps to prevent breakfast boredom. Plus, it’s healthy. Win-win-win. Just heat the oatmeal up in the microwave and you’re off and running.

Before making this for the first time, I had concerns about how the consistency of the oatmeal would hold up over the course of a work week. No need to worry, though! Because the steel cut oats retain their slightly chewy texture, rather than just turning to mush.

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

6 hrs

Total Time

6 hrs 5 mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6

Ingredients

Basic steel cut oatmeal:

1 1/2 cups steel cut oats
1/2 tsp kosher salt
6 cups milk and/or water

Optional add-ins:

Spices (cinnamon, pumpkin spice, etc.)
Sweeteners (maple syrup, agave nectar, honey, brown sugar, etc.)
Toppings (nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit)

Instructions

To make basic steel cut oatmeal

Place the steel cut oats, salt, and milk/water in a greased (either butter or cooking spray) slow cooker and whisk to combine.
Cook for 2-3 hours on high or 4-6 hours on low. Stir everything around once or twice during the cooking process.

Optional add-ins

If you'd like to dress this oatmeal up a bit, feel free to add spices and/or sweeteners of your choice along with all of the other ingredients. I generally don't add any of the suggested toppings until I'm ready to eat.

Recipe Notes

Notes: Cow's milk, almond milk, water, and a combination of any of those 3 work well. Other non-dairy milks—such as coconut—may also work, though I haven't tried using them.

Chai Spice Chocolate Chunk Muffins

October 11, 2016 by laurenpacek 2 Comments

These chai spice muffins, studded with dark chocolate, are perfect for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee or tea.

So, there have been a lot of muffins (see Apple Oat Streusel, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, Gluten Free Muesli, and Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins) with big Fall flavors around here lately. For this I will not apologize. Also can we talk about how my computer does not recognize “streusel” as being an actual word?

Continuing on the Fall Flavor Train, these muffins are pretty aggressively spiced, resulting in prominent chai spice flavor. I feel like pumpkin spice gets all the action, but we shouldn’t forget about chai. It’s spicy and warm, and perfect for this time of year.

This recipe is based on the one from these Bakery Style Double Chocolate Muffins.

Chai Spice Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

35 mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch

Cuisine: American

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
2 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
3.5 oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for 2-3 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well.
With the mixer on low speed, alternate between adding the dry ingredients and yogurt.
Fold in the chopped chocolate.
Scoop the batter into the lined muffin tins, filling them all the way to the top. Bake the muffins at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for 15 more minutes, or until slightly browned on top and a toothpick/knife, when inserted in the center of each muffin, comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for a couple of minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.