Blueberry Pancake

One eats a lot of eggs on the Whole30. Which is fine for the first... Five days and then I am simply over it. I loved my oatmeal with butter, raisins, and a splash of maple syrup in the mornings, but I haven't had oatmeal in 27 days! I can't believe it's already been 27 days.

Anyway, the weekend is the time for me to explore new breakfasts and be a little more relaxed. During the week I usually fry up two eggs, have some sausage, and some fruit. I try and do different things on the weekends to mix up the breakfast routine.

So today I made this:

A blueberry egg pancake. It was delicious and tasted so much different than eggs. With the addition to cinnamon (yum!) and the blueberries, it totally rocked my world. It's simple, quick, and probably something I will make during the week as well. I need quick, easy, and satisfying during the week. 

The whole process took me about 6-7 minutes to do and the clean up was the bowl used for whipping the eggs, plate for the end result, and the fork and spatula. We use cast iron skillets in our house, and luckily the skillet I use is so nicely seasoned it hardly leaves traces of anything on it.

I am not the best flipper of eggs in the world, but luckily this process was pretty easy. I used a tiny skillet as I was only doing two eggs and coconut oil seems to work the best when trying to flip food.

I am so grateful for all the resources out there for Whole30 recipes. And since this is my second time doing it, I am more comfortable with knowing what I can eat that it makes me do a bit more exploring. I often times take someone's recipe and alter it to my tastes. As long as I have the basics down, I add or subtract certain ingredients depending on what I am feeling. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Next time I am going to make it with four eggs, as two just didn't seem enough. I imagine this would be good with blackberries and strawberries too!

Blueberry Egg Pancake

2 eggs (or 4 depending on how hungry you are)

1-2 tsp of cinnamon (I used more cause I live cinnamon)

1-2 tsp of black pepper 

A small spoonful of coconut oil

A handful of blueberries (or diced strawberries or blackberries)

In a small skillet (I used an 8 inch cast iron) add the coconut oil and let get warm on medium heat.

While the coconut oil is melting, whisk the eggs, cinnamon, and black pepper together to make an omelet like consistency.

Once pan is nice and warm, pout egg mixture into skillet. Keep an eye on the eggs as you don't want to cook them too fast. When the eggs become baked on the bottom with a bit of uncooked egg on top, (about 2-3 min depending on how your oven is) add the blueberries. 

Carefully flip the eggs onto the next side and let cook for another minute or two.

Grab a plate and flip the pancake, blueberry side facing, onto it. 

Grab a fork, a cup of tea or coffee, and enjoy!

Gluten-free baked oatmeal

Let me tell you about my new favourite breakfast. It's delicious, easy to make, has lots of fruits, and is a nice warm comfort food as the days are getting colder and shorter. We had this two times this weekend because it's just really delicious, and I wanted to share with you all this recipe. Meet my gluten-free baked oatmeal:

fresh out of the oven, gluten-free baked oatmeal.

I know it doesn't necessarily look pretty or sexy or anything like that, but sometimes, things are delicious and moist and so unforgettable that a picture just doesn't do it justice. I did try to make it look somewhat presentable, but the thing with baked items that are in a dish, it just doesn't turn out the way you want it to. 

These are all the main ingredients you need! Amazing!

Life has been a little intense for me this year, so I apologize for the lack of posts. I hope to start doing some more soon since I've been experimenting with dishes lately. This dish in particular requires so few ingredients, it doesn't take me more than 10 minutes to whip this dish up. All the ingredients that you need are in this picture above. Look at that. You can even eliminate the banana if you'd like, making it only be 8 ingredients. When was the last time you did baking and only needed 8 ingredients?



All the dry ingredients.

What's nice about this dish is that I choose to only use one bowl. You put the dry ingredients first and mix them up, and then once that's done and you've added the dry ingredients to the baking dish, you can use the same bowl for the wet ingredients. It lessens the amount of dishes to clean, and it is also just easy. I am all about easy recipes these days, especially with the cold weather--I tend to want to hybernate and do less now that it's winter time.

dry ingredients on the bottom and topped with frozen fruit

Berries are not really in season, and even if they were, I would still use frozen berries for this dish. Because they are hard, it allows for the (kind of) long cook time without them exploding or burning. Of course when you cook berries, you for sure want there to be some juicy explosions, but I also enjoy seeing the actual fruit and being able to bite into it, instead of it all being just a jellied mess. 

Wet ingredients all whisked together

I added butter to mine, to add a bit of a richer, creamy flavour. You can add vegan butter if you can't eat real butter, or you could not use any at all, and get the same delicious results. The first time I made this was for a mindful meditation brunch, and we had a lot of people who were lactose intolerant, so I opted to not use any sort of butter or butter replacement and it was all gobbled up.

The final step: pouring wet ingredients onto dry

Besides that this dish is ridiculously delicious, I like how it all comes together and is very changeable. You could add any sort of fruit you want, you can add coconut, dry fruit, nuts, use different types of milk, add chocolate... the options are endless to add twists to this recipe. My partner and I have been enjoying it the same way since I made it the first time (with the addition of butter), and I actually prefer to not have the banana, so I will probably not use bananas unless they are really ripe (we had just bought some bananas and they still had some green on them, and I personally like my bananas to be a bit ripe).

Fresh out of the oven

It isn't the most photogenic thing I've ever made, but don't let that stop you. As I've been baking and cooking, some of the best recipes I've made have looked quite... questionable. However, I also try to have a good attitude and that lovin' feeling when I make food--I think it helps. I think people can taste a difference in food when you know it's being cooked with a good attitude and good feelings. I have also learned that when I am in a bitter mood, my food usually is of lesser quality.

A quick show before it's all consumed.

This will most likely become a weekend regular at my house It does take about 40 minutes to bake, but the aroma that comes from the oven while this is baking is heavenly. This is a great dish to have for brunch or to just have. I've been finding real comfort in oatmeal lately (having it for breakfast every day with raisins, butter, and a wee bit of maple syrup), and this is a nice way to shake up my oatmeal breakfast after eating it the same way for 5 days.  I hope you enjoy this as much as we do in my house!

Ingredients:

2 c. Gluten-free oats

.5 c. Brown sugar

1 tbs. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 c. Milk of your choosing

1 egg

1 tbs. vanilla extract

3 tbs. butter, melted (or vegan butter)

1 package frozen fruit (I used mixed berry for variety)

1 banana (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Spray or oil a baking dish. I used both a 9x12 and a 9x7 and I prefer the smaller one--makes the food thicker and not so thin and spread out. It also bakes a bit better.

In a medium mixing bowl, add oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Whisk thoroughly. Add this mixture to your prepared pan.

In the same bowl (I am all about using as few dishes as possible), mix together the milk, egg, vanilla, and butter. Make sure to whisk this really well to get the egg nicely incorporated into the mixture.

Put the frozen fruit on top of the oat mixture in pan, and slice the banana if using and add to this mix.

Pour the wet ingredients over the oats in an evenly fashion to make sure everything is nicely coated. Let it sit for about 30 seconds to let the wet ingredients seep into the oats.

Bake for 40 minutes and enjoy! This is a huge hit and doesn't last long.



Breakfast Chia Seed Pudding

 

I am currently quite obsessed with chia seeds. Have you heard of these delicious things?! If you haven’t, I suggest you start reading up on them soon and start incorporating them into your diet daily. 

 

This breakfast chia seed pudding is delicious and packs you with a ton of important nutrients to start your day. When we first purchased chia seeds, I added them to my yogurt and granola, and I just couldn’t stand it. However, after doing some research and realizing that chia seeds turn into this delicious tapioca consistency when mixed with liquids, I knew it was going to be something I tried to eat every day.

You can do plenty of things with this breakfast chia seed pudding. I particularly like adding the powerful antioxidants of fresh blueberries for an extra boost in the morning. It’s also quite delicious just as it is. It reminds me of vanilla yogurt, but with a tad bit of texture.

 

Breakfast Chia Seed Pudding

Ingredients:

4 tbs. of chia seeds

¾ cup of your choice of milk (I used Oat Milk because that’s what we have, but I am sure regular milk, almond milk, coconut milk, etc. would work great).

1 tsp. of pure vanilla extract

.5 tbs. of maple syrup, agave, honey, or whatever sweetener it is you like (note, I am not sure how much stevia you should put in, so test it out if that’s your go-to sweetener).

Directions:

Mix all ingredients into a mason jar with a lid and shake, shake, shake it! Store in fridge for about 30 minutes and shake, shake, shake it again (sometimes seeds sink to the bottom leaving all the milk on the top, so we want to make sure we continue to shake until it is well combined).

Store in fridge overnight and you’ll have a delicious, nutrient packed to-go breakfast in the morning. Add your favourite nuts, fruit, or shredded coconut to taste.

If you'd like to do this during the day for a mid-day snack, it should take about 3-4 hours to set up. Make sure you look for a tapioca consistency and that the chia seeds are now clear and gelatin.