Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Starting Our Mornings with Healthy, Quick Breakfasts

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Whether you send your kids off to school early each morning, homeschool your kids, don’t have kids, have kids too little for school, have adult children living with you, have kids who are grown and living on their own (did I catch everybody?) – we all need a good breakfast. Most of us need a breakfast that is fast and easy. We’d also like it to be nourishing. And filling. And tasty.

So how can we get mornings off to a great start?

Have a plan!  It doesn’t need to be elaborate, it doesn’t need to take much time. Simply think ahead toward what will be filling and nourishing for your family. Make a list of some favorites. Here are some of ours:

Pull it out of the freezer! So many great (and inexpensive) breakfast foods can be made ahead of time and frozen for healthy convenience. Some of our favorite breakfast freezer foods are:

If you haven’t tried freezing muffin batter so that you can quickly bake muffins without any effort, you’ve got to try it. It’s my favorite time saving, freezer cooking method yet!

Make it the night before! I have found that while I’m making dinner for my family in the evening, I often have a few extra minutes while I wait for water to boil, meat to brown, or vegetables to steam. During those few minutes, I try to do some prep work toward our breakfast for the next morning. Read more about this idea here.

No time to make breakfast in the evening? How about after you get the dinner dishes cleaned up, you set out bowls, spoons, and Homemade Grape Nuts Cereal or Easy Homemade Granola?

What do you do to make healthy breakfasts simple at your house?

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I can’t wait to reveal our new Let’s Do This! Getting Ahead in Your Real Food Kitchen eCourse and the {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook on Monday! With these resources, you’ll be equipped with loads of recipes that will help you get ahead, save money, and save time – all while feeding your family healthy food. From breakfast to dinner to snacks – you’ll have all kinds of new recipes, ideas, and guidance to help you get ahead in your real food kitchen!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins Become…Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread

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It happened last week as I was mixing up a triple batch of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffin batter for the freezer. You’ve tried that by now right? Putting muffin batter into the freezer to help save time and so that you can have easy, fresh muffins? (Nope, I just can’t let it rest.)

Making a triple batch of the muffins was a great idea, as we eat at least 18 muffins at one time. However, a triple batch requires 3 muffin pans that hold 12 muffins each. I only have 2 muffin pans. Therefore, I filled my two muffin pans and put them into the freezer. I then poured the remaining batter into a bread pan, baked it for 50 minutes at 350°, and we ate it for breakfast the following morning. Update: I’ve since purchased these little gems, but still, this bread idea is a great one.

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Find the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe here.

It was a tasty experiment. I figured – banana bread makes good muffins. Apple bread makes good muffins. Surely chocolate chocolate chip muffins would make good bread. And so it did.

I used sour cream instead of milk, which if you recall, is a great substitution to make muffins and breads more moist. So very good. And even better when eaten with fresh berries.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread
 
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Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • ⅓ cup sucanat
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • ⅔ cup milk or sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Stir together dry ingredients.
  2. Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg.
  3. Fold in chocolate chips.
  4. Pour into well-buttered loaf pan.
  5. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

 

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Which do you prefer – muffins or quick bread loaves? Do you find that most recipes work for either/or?

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How To Make Muffins Moist and Fluffy

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Now that we know we can freeze muffin batter to make muffin baking even easier, let’s talk about how we can make them even more tasty! Today I am going to teach you how to make muffins moist and fluffy!

How to Make Muffins Moist and Fluffy

 

I love baking with whole wheat flour, but sometimes find that my muffins are a little heavier than those made with white flour. They also seem to get dry quickly (which isn’t usually a problem at my house because we eat them all right out of the pan, but still).

How to Make Muffins Moist and Fluffy

Recently I discovered that if I use sour cream in place of milk in a muffin recipe, I get a super moist, fluffy muffin! The switch is very easy. If a recipe calls for 3/4 cup of milk, I simply use 3/4 cup of sour cream instead. Occasionally, I need to add a bit more sour cream to moisten the muffin batter.

The first time I tried this idea (on Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins), I didn’t tell anyone in the family that I’d made a change. (And for the record, these were made from frozen batter that I’d set in the fridge the night before, yay!)  I served the muffins on a Sunday morning, which means that each of us were in and out of the kitchen at different times, grabbing breakfast as we had time. One by one, the boys found me getting ready for church and would ask, “Did you do something different with the muffins? They were better than ever!”

Aha! So they noticed. And they liked the change. Score!

I will be adding sour cream to muffins more often. And of course, I will forever and always be making the batter and freezing it ahead of time. Now I have moist, fluffy, tasty, healthy, and convenient muffins.

Confession time:  Who read the post about making muffin batter for the freezer and promptly went and mixed some up? Ever tried subbing sour cream for the milk in a muffin recipe?

Need More Muffins Recipes?

What is your favorite muffin recipe?Yum

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Blueberry Pancake and Waffle Syrup

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This little gem of a recipe has been tucked away on my Whole Wheat Waffle page for years. But I decided it needed to be brought out of hiding. Everyone must know about this. And you should also whip some cream and plop it onto your waffles with this Blueberry Syrup because then, you will experience bliss.

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Wondering how to make Whipped Cream? You’ll want to click over here to learn the easiest way I’ve found to make it. You can even make it ahead of time to pull out just before serving! Now anytime I serve waffles with fruit topping and whipped cream, my boys call them “Super Mama Waffles!”

Blueberry SyrupYum

Blueberry Pancake and Waffle Syrup
 
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Ingredients
  • 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
  • ¼ sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice)
Instructions
  1. Stir blueberries and sucanat together in a saucepan over medium heat for about 10 minutes until syrupy.
  2. Serve as is, or blend to make the syrup smooth.

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Trying to get ahead? Make this syrup ahead of time, refrigerate or freeze, then rewarm when ready to serve.

Other fruity recipes you’ll love:

Of course I can’t provide you with syrups and toppings without also providing you with pancake and waffle recipes:

And we can’t talk about toppings without also mentioning that Peach Syrup, Raspberry Syrup, and Blueberry Syrup are wonderful on ice cream. Check out this post detailing how to set up a Brownie Sundae Bar. Wouldn’t it be nice to offer any of these fruit syrups as an option?

As you can see, once you know how to make a Fruit Syrup, your options for serving it are many. Such a tasty way to enjoy fruit!

Blueberry Pancake and Waffle Syrup

What’s your favorite way to top a waffle?

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Homemade Grape Nuts Cereal

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A huge thank you to Michelle for telling me about this recipe idea!!

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First of all, I have to ask – because I know you’re all dying to know the answer to this as well:  Why is this cereal called “Grape Nuts” when there are neither grapes nor nuts included in the list of ingredients? Haven’t you always wondered about that? Who named this cereal? And why, if they were going to call it something random like this, did they not call it “Pickle Sprouts” or Olive Berries?” How about “Banana Seeds?” I mean, if we’re going for titles that don’t make sense…

Yeah, don’t waste much time pondering that paragraph.

At the Colorado Springs Meet & Greet, we talked about everything from kids and media time to cereal. When Michelle told us she made a cereal like this, we all got super excited!

Homemade Grape Nuts

Looks like the real deal, huh? This cereal is pretty tasty with berries!

Homemade Grape Nuts is super easy to make, and I personally think it tastes better than the boxed stuff. Can you guess my kids’ first question when I introduced them to this at breakfast? “Looks good, but why is it called Grape Nuts?” I don’t know, Son. I don’t know.

Homemade Grape Nuts CerealYum

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
1 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
2 cups buttermilk (or milk mixed with 2 Tablespoons vinegar)
2/3 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix all ingredients together, beating well until smooth. Spread mixture onto a parchment paper lined (or well buttered) cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes in a 375° oven. Remove cereal from the oven, and cool completely. Once cool, grind in a food processor until it becomes “crumb like.”

Return crumbs to cookie sheet or a large baking pan. Bake in a 250° oven for one hour or until crisp, stirring every 15 minutes.

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I found it easiest to bake the crumbs in a dish with sides (my 10×15 pyrex) so that I could stir more easily.

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Cool the cereal and store it in an air tight container in the pantry (for about two weeks) or freezer (for up to two months).

5.0 from 3 reviews
Homemade Grape Nuts Cereal
 
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Ingredients
  • 3½ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
  • 1 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
  • 2 cups buttermilk (or milk mixed with 2 Tablespoons vinegar)
  • ⅔ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together, beating well until smooth.
  2. Spread mixture onto a parchment paper lined (or well buttered) cookie sheet.
  3. Bake for 15 minutes in a 375° oven.
  4. Remove cereal from the oven, and cool completely.
  5. Once cool, grind in a food processor until it becomes "crumb like."
  6. Return crumbs to cookie sheet or a large baking pan.
  7. Bake in a 250° oven for one hour or until crisp, stirring every 15 minutes.(I found it easiest to bake the crumbs in a dish with sides (my 10x15 pyrex) so that I could stir more easily.)
  8. Cool the cereal and store it in an air tight container in the pantry (for about two weeks) or freezer (for up to two months).

The geek in me decided to do the math to see if this was not only a High Five Recipe, but a Real Food Dollar Menu recipe as well. Sure enough! It took about $2.00 to make a batch of this cereal – using all organic ingredients. This makes about twice as much cereal as you would find in a regular sized box of Grape Nuts. When’s the last time you were able to buy a box of whole grain, organic cereal for a buck?

Looking for more meals on our Real Food Dollar Menu? Here are the recipes I’ve shared so far:

Tell me you’ve always wondered where Grape Nuts got its name.  And by always, I obviously mean, “Yes, I’ve pondered that for a second or two once in my life.”

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Cranberry White Chocolate Breakfast Cookies

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Just in case you’ve never tried this before. Just in case you hadn’t thought of this idea. Just in case you want a breakfast or snack that will make you pass out cold on the floor because it is so delicious.

I thought you should know that the Giant Breakfast Cookie recipe made with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips are really, really wonderful. I used about a half cup of each (instead of raisins or chocolate chips) when mixing up the dough. I almost sort of felt guilty eating these and serving them for breakfast. But then I got over it and helped myself to a second one.

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Where do I get white chocolate chips? I found some at Vitacost that aren’t necessarily as good for you as green beans, but aren’t as horrible as those that have hydrogenated oils. We won’t eat these every day for breakfast, but when we do, I will enjoy myself very much.

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What other tasty combinations have you figured out to add to the Giant Breakfast Cookie recipe?

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Breakfast Pizza {Real Food Dollar Menu}

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Our boys discovered that you can use my Whole Wheat Pizza Crust to make an awesome Breakfast Pizza. They also discovered that if you work ahead in your math book, you will finish ahead of schedule. On the contrary, if you avoid doing math some days, you will have to do double the lessons on the days you’d really rather go outside and play with your brothers on the trampoline.

But back to the pizza.

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Make it just like you would a regular homemade pizza, using this crust recipe. Top it with salsa, scrambled eggs, cheese, and any other toppings of choice – like veggies and meat.  Homemade Turkey Sausage is great on this pizza!

Bake it as directed. Serve with fruit.

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Without adding meat, I found that it cost about $4.52 to make this meal, which filled my family of six. That’s about 75¢ per person, for a meal that actually sticks with them for several hours!

Easy, delicious, filling, versatile, inexpensive, and healthy. What more could you want? (Except maybe to be finished with math lessons for the year.)

*I calculated my cost based on the food sources and prices I have available to me. Most of the ingredients I use are organic. Your cost may be slightly more or less depending on where you find your ingredients.

Looking for more meals on our Real Food Dollar Menu? Here are the recipes I’ve shared so far:

Stay tuned for many more recipes and ideas for our Real Food Dollar Menu!

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Simple Almond Flour Muffins

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This was my first time to “play” with almond flour. Wow, is it awesome to work with!

I had ordered a package from Vitacost to experiement with. It is not an inexpensive ingredient by any means. But I know that using alternative flours occasionally to give my family variety is a healthy choice. Plus, I’d heard that almond flour is awesome. It is so true!

These simple muffins went together quickly, and the end result was amazing! The muffins taste like a cupcake – super light, sweet, and airy.

You can make your own almond flour if you prefer. Simply grind almonds in your food processor until a fine flour has formed. Just be sure you don’t grind them too long, or you’ll end up with almond butter!

Simple Almond Flour MuffinsYum

2 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together almond flour, baking powder, and sea salt. Add eggs, melted butter, honey, water, and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Spoon batter into 12-15 paper-lined muffin cups. Bake in a 350° oven for about 20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

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Have you done much baking with almond flour? What are your favorite recipes using this fun ingredient?

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Breakfast Cake Muffins

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One reader, Kim, left a comment months ago sharing that she’d made my Breakfast Cake recipe into muffins instead of baking the batter into a cake. It sounded so good that I decided to try it right away!

And then I forgot. For months.

I think it’s actually been well over a year since she left that comment. That’s practically like trying the idea right away, right? Yeah, well…

Turns out these are an easy, yummy, freezable, on-the-go breakfast muffin that is hearty enough to keep us satisfied until lunchtime. Thanks for the idea, Kim! Next time you share a great idea like this one, I’ll try to get around to trying it before thirteen months go by. Sheesh.

Breakfast Cake MuffinsYum

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups whole rolled oats
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, melted
¾ cup buttermilk or milk
¾ cup honey or 1 cup sucanat
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips, raisins, or other dried fruit  (We like Enjoy Life Soy Free Chocolate Chips)

Stir together flour, oats, salt and baking soda. Add butter, buttermilk, honey, eggs, and vanilla. Fold in chocolate chips, raisins, or other dried fruit.

Spoon batter into 18 paper lined muffin tins. Bake in a 400° oven for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

Give these a try. Don’t wait a year like I did. :)

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

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 This recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins looked too good to pass up – and it was super easy to makeover with healthier ingredients. We all loved the results. (Except for Malachi, who didn’t try them because he doesn’t like peanut butter. He’s missing out!)

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Have a recipe you’d like me to try and make over?
Submit your recipes on this Real Food Recipe Makeover Submission Page.

It probably goes without saying that these muffins taste awesome with a glass of milk. They are easy to make ahead of time and serve the following day. (Although they really do taste best right out of the oven. Doesn’t everything?!)  These muffins freeze well. They make a great snack. I love recipes like this! It doesn’t get any easier!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
 
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Ingredients
  • 6 Tablespoons butter, melted
  • ½ cup natural peanut butter
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2¼ cups whole wheat flour
  • ⅔ cup sucanat
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan, melt together the butter and the peanut butter.
  2. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and sucanat.
  3. Add melted butter and peanut butter, eggs, and milk.
  4. Stir until well combined, then fold in the chocolate chips.
  5. Scoop batter into 18-24 paper lined muffin cups.
  6. Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

Notes:

  • I use homemade peanut butter. It is amazing, so if you haven’t tried your hand at making peanut butter, learn soon! You’ll love it and it’s much easier than you think!
  • I use freshly ground flour made from hard or soft white wheat. Soft wheat works best as it is lighter and fluffier (more like white flour – except still nourishing).
  • Make these muffins even more moist by subbing 1/2 cup of milk for 1/2 cup of sour cream.
  • Make these muffins ahead of time, freezing the batter like this. You’ll love this time-saving trick!
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Are you a chocolate/peanut butter fan?

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