brunch Archives - A Byte of Life

The Gluten-free Gobble Waffle // Krusteaz Blogger Bake-Off

The folks over at Krusteaz asked me to be part of their “Krusteaz Blogger Bake-Off” to promote their new line of Gluten-free boxed mixes. They sent me two boxes each of their four new gluten-free mixes and all I had to do was create a brand new recipe that’s never before been created. My reward, the joy and satisfaction of writing a new recipe and a chance at winning their grand prize of a Crate and Barrel Gift Card. Kitchen time, a great topic for a blog post, recipe writing… I’m IN! Just to keep you reading, this is the ultimate Thanksgiving leftovers recipe! Read on!

I took a few days to look over each of the boxes, researched the recipes that have already been created and submitted and then did what I usually do when I want to talk about recipes; I called my trusty recipe consultant (aka mum) and talked through a few ideas. I received two boxes of each mix below and there were two that caught my eye: the cornbread and the pancake mix. I went through a few recipe ideas and this one just came to me the day after Thanksgiving when I took a box of the pancake mix home to make brunch. We had two gluten-free guests so I figured what better time to test a gluten-free mix than with a full house AND a few gluten-free eaters sprinkled in! We took a poll and everyone preferred waffles to pancakes so we were off. I made three batches of waffles so we could test flavors and have some fun with the mix-ins.

The first batch was just plain waffles with the mix. In the second batch I mixed in some fresh homemade apple sauce and the third was the crème de la crème: the gobble waffle. Now, before I get too far into the gobble waffle I wanted to talk about the plain and the apple sauce waffles for a minute. We made the plain waffles so we could test the taste and texture of the mix. I’m happy to report that all four men fully approved! If I hadn’t broadcast that they were gluten-free no one would have noticed! The plain one had a nice simple taste that was great with or without syrup. Delicious, tasty, crunchy on the outside and everything a waffle should be. The batch that had the homemade apple sauce added into the batter beat out the plain waffles by a landslide. The flavor of the cinnamon and pureed apples were a perfect addition to the tasty batter and were just amazing. It had the taste of white cake batter! But, this was all before the gobble!

What is the gobble waffle you might ask? Well, the gobble waffle is the ultimate Thanksgiving day left-overs brunch recipe. It combines a box of the tasty, simple, pantry-ready Krusteaz Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancake Mix with some left over turkey, gluten-free stuffing and a bit of gravy and/or cranberry sauce in place of syrup. Just when you thought that left-overs couldn’t get any better, you discover something like the Gobble Waffle. It’s crunchy, tasty, thanksgiving goodness all in one brunchy bite. My mum has used the Krusteaz pancake mix for YEARS but I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about the gluten-free mix. They just have that association of being not quite “there” for taste and texture but both the cornbread and the pancake mix blew my socks off! My gluten-free waffles were specifically requested for Christmas leftover brunch so you know they’re good! Thanks for being my secret weapon Krusteaz!

You can click THIS link to learn more about the mixes, find recipes and a retailer near you. I’ll be stocking this amazing, tasty gluten-free mix in the pantry for SURE!

*Krusteaz Gluten-Free GIVEAWAY*
Krusteaz has agreed to partner on a giveaway! Stay tuned this week for details!!!

Gluten- Free Gobble Waffle
Prep time: 5 minutes | Total Bake/Cook time: 10 minutes
Servings: 6-8 people |Level of difficulty: easy

Ingredients
1 box of Krusteaz Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancake Mix
2 cups cold water
2/3 cup almond milk
1 1/2 tbsp oil
4 egg whites
Leftover turkey
Leftover Gluten-free stuffing ( Recipe here using Krusteaz Gluten-Free Cornbread Mix)
Gluten-Free Gravy or cranberry sauce to use in place of syrup if desired

Directions

Get out your waffle iron and pre-heat it. Pour the dry mix into a bowl and mix in the cold water, almond milk, oil and egg whites. Break up the turkey into small pieces and add into the waffle mix. Add the left over gluten-free cornbread stuffing and mix. Pour onto pre-heated waffle iron and cook until golden brown.

Serve with heated gluten-free gravy or cranberry sauce!

Vegan Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

It’s 3:15 am… a time of… well not really day OR night… it’s a time no person should ever experience let alone when they’re SO worn out and sleepy all they want to do is go back to sleep. I’ve you’ve been following A Byte of Life, you’ll have read the post on Spain (also found here) which was a MOST incredible trip! We were seriously debating how long we could just fall off the grid and NOT come home! But alas, common sense or something to that nature won and we got on the multiple planes home. Oh hey jet lag, how are you? Are YOU the reason I’m up at 3:15am!?

Turning to my tried and true comfort, I started googling for recipes. If I can’t sleep I may as well bake right!? My love for lemon poppy-seed is almost as strong as my love for a good bottle of red wine, and thankfully, the mister LOVES a good lemon poppy-seed ANYTHING! The request was made and I had a mission ahead of me: your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a delicious lemon poppy-seed baked good that’s not super sweet and melts in your mouth Well, now that’s a fun challenge!

Vegan Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
—-
1/4C canola oil
1/4 C honey
1/4C applesauce
1/4 C soy milk
zest & juice of 1 lemon
—-
2 C Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs poppy seeds
1 C fresh blueberries (put in freezer for about 30 minutes before using)
—-
Pre-heat oven to 375
Combine the oil, applesauce, soy milk, honey , lemon juice and zest in a bowl
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the poppy seeds and mix to combine.
Add to the wet ingredients and incorporate
Fold in frozen blueberries. Note that the batter will be thick
Place into a greased loaf pan, sprinkle raw sugar on top
Bake at 375 for 35 minutes(turning once half way through cooking)

Tasting notes:
It’s not your typical fluffy, white flour, white sugar lemon loaf you’d get at Starbucks. This is a more rustic bread and it was quite good! The gluten-free flour lends to a bit more of a mealy texture. Next time I’d add a bit more lemon juice. It’s not a sweet bread at all, so you’d need a lemoncello glaze, or blueberry jam/lemon curd/clotted cream to make it more pastry-ish.

All in all, it’s a good solid rustic breakfast bread…and…I better go taste another slice before posting this review 🙂

Quick Healthy Breakfast

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals. I LOVE everything breakfast related…scones, muffins, breads, eggs, savory roasted veggies! There’s something so relaxing about a good cup of coffee to get your day started that can only be enriched by a delicious breakfast to accompany it! You might find it odd, then, that breakfast is one of the most stressful times of day for me during the week.

Living in Seattle I’ve grown accustomed to seeing grey drizzle outside which makes it THAT much harder to crawl out of a warm bed. Once I do finally drag my lazy butt out of bed the last thing that I want to do is race the clock to get out the door and off to start my day. The typical morning looks something like: WakeupgetreadygetbreakfastCOFFEEneedfood! This leaves me a ball of stress when it comes to breakfast during the week. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who needs some good, healthy and QUICK breakfast options! Well rest assured I’ve got your back!!!

Quick Breakfast Sandwiches from Macheesmo (Photo from Macheesmo.com)

I used to love grabbing one of the English muffin breakfast sandwiches from Starbucks because they were quick and mostly healthy. Until I realized one morning as I unwrapped that wonderful warm bag and got the first whiff of my toasted breakfast sandwich as I sunk my hungry little face into the sandwich…I have EVERY ONE of these ingredients at home! Why did I just pay $3 for something that I could have literally made so easily before walking out of the house. Getting on the budgeting bandwagon I decided that with some planning ahead I could have a delicious breakfast at home while staying budget and health conscious! It just takes a little planning ahead!

Off to the recipe boards I went googling, blog scouring, pintrest-ing away and here is a little showcase of the handiwork. Above you’ll see the English muffin breakfast sandwich from Macheesmo and I LOVE that he illustrates how you can make them ahead and freeze them! Such a time saver!! You can find the recipe here: Quick Breakfast Sandwiches from Macheesmo.

One of the best things I found to equip my kitchen for mornings was a little Egg plan! It was the PERFECT size for an English muffin breakfast sandwich! Simply heat the pan, scramble an egg and let it cook while toasting your muffin and continuing to get ready! SO EASY! One tip for the pan is that it can be a little larger than some English muffins so the egg will hang over the side of the bread a little which I actually don’t mind. Oh, and I’d only use one egg… two can get a little… souffle over the pan-ish! 🙂

My Pintrest Boards (if you need a little more inspiration):

Update: I JUST found 365 days of breakfast and I LOVE it!! LOVELY breakfast food photography that could make you hungry even after a Thanksgiving feast! I LOVE scrolling through their photos and getting some inspiration for breakfast meals!

And since we ALL love food pictures, here are a few other ideas for quick breakfasts:

Make your own fruit on the bottom yogurt cups — Make your own fruit on the bottom yogurt cup

Breakfast Banana Split with Yogurt and Jam

Featured Blog of the Day on Foodista!!

Well, after what seems like weeks away, endless airports, taxis and train, we’re finally home from our two weeks of gallivanting around Spain! The house is buried under piles of laundry to be done, the camera is glaring at me with thousands of pictures to sort and days of e-mail to catch up on, we’re home! I’ve posted a quick preliminary write-up on our two weeks in Spain which you can read here.

A Byte of Life featured as the Blog of the day on Foodista

BUT, the point of this particular post is to announce that A Byte of Life was featured as the Blog of the Day over at Foodista last Thursday! I didn’t have time to write a post in time since that was our 20 hour travel day home but I was HONORED to be included as a featured blog! Foodista is great for recipes, pictures, community and inspiration! You can also follow them on Facebook.

View the Foodista feature post here (its real time so you might have to scroll down to see the post). They chose to feature “Seafood Breakfast for Dinner: Potato Parsnip Pancakes with Shaved Crab, Poached Eggs and Breakfast Cocktail Sauce“.

Thanks Foodista!! It’s an HONOR!!!

Seafood Breakfast for Dinner: Potato Parsnip Pancakes with Shaved Crab, Poached Eggs and Breakfast Cocktail Sauce

Living so close to Pike Place Market truly does spoil us. Brunch, being one of my favorite meals to cook and eat, has recently become a fun tradition to try new recipes and variations on the good old favorites. We decided to do a seafood brunch Sunday morning so down to the market I went only to returned with fresh AMAZING crab from the Pike Place Fish Market. Not only do they stock a wonderful inventory of fresh, quality fish but they are notorious for throwing the fish great distances, much to the amazement of the crowd. It was a quite a feat to even make it the few blocks home before digging into “sample” the crab meat which I KNEW would be amazing. Even with my high expectations I was blown away. The freshness and quality of the crab was evident in how rich, buttery and just wonderful it tasted.

As I started preparing the brunch, grating the parsnip and potato and setting aside to drain, mentally setting the table and project managing the meal, starting the cocktail sauce… pause here. I opened a jar of our much loved Pike Place Fish Market cocktail sauce, mashed up a little avocado because I love them with both eggs and crab and started the grinder for some fresh coffee grounds to mix in. DON’T turn up your nose yet! It’s quite delicious and thanks to a trip to Seatown for Mother’s Day happy hour, Tom Douglas has me hooked on cocktail cause with coffee grounds.

I mixed and I blended, mashed and molded. Calling my trust taste tester over, I scooped up a bit for each of us and we had the same response when we tasted…it’s missing something. After much deliberation it was decided that a “kick” was missing. Imagine how dejected I was that I would need to make ANOTHER trip to the market and postpone making brunch until my taste tester made a most wonderful suggestion: let’s have the left over fajitas for lunch and have breakfast for dinner! What a brilliant idea! In our afternoon chores we picked up some fresh horseradish root and then it was game time! Breakfast for dinner, yes please!

Seafood Breakfast: Potato Parsnip Pancakes with Shaved Crab, Poached Eggs and Breakfast Cocktail Sauce
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1/2 lb crab meat, already cooked
eggs (one for the pancakes and one to top each pancake)

For the Breakfast Cocktail Sauce
1 Jar Pike Place Fish Market Cocktail Sauce
2 tbsp Fresh bold roast coffee, ground at a medium grind
Fresh Lemon, squeezed into the sauce to taste
Fresh horseradish root, exterior layer removed, soft white flesh grated and chopped

For the Potato Parsnip Pancakes
3 medium mini gold potatoes, grated
1 medium sized parsnip, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
fresh cracked salt & pepper to taste

Grate the potato and parsnip in a colander and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Let stand for about 20 minutes. I also take one more step and lay out the grated vegges on a paper towel and pat dry.
In the mean time, make the breakfast cocktail by combining all ingredients to taste. Cover and let stand in the fridge.
Place grated vegges in a bowl.
Heat some oil in a skillet over medium/high heat
At this time, heat a sauce pan with water to poach the eggs
Lightly beat one egg and add it to the veggies, seasoning with fresh cracked pepper to taste.
Add a scoop of the mixture to the hot skillet, forming into a patty once in the pan and cook until brown on one side (about 8 minutes) then flip and cook the until brown on the other side.
Place pancakes on paper towel to drain excess oil and serve.
Poach eggs in boiling water for 90 seconds to 2 minutes depending on how you runny you like your yolk. Remove from water with a slotted spoon and place in a small ramekin to drain for a few seconds.
Plate up the potato parsnip pancakes and top with the breakfast cocktail sauce. Top with shaved crab, squeeze a bit of fresh lemon and place your poached egg on the top. Garnish with a bit more cracked pepper and dried parsley.
Enjoy!!!

Vegan Coffee Cake

Vegan coffee cake

Recipe from: thecleaneatingmama.com

ingredients

For the crumb topping:
1/3 cup melted non-dairy butter, such as Earth Balance
1/2 cup turbinado sugar or brown sugar
1 cup spelt flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
For the cake:
1 1/2 cup spelt flour
3/4 cup natural cane sugar, organic if possible
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teasp salt
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flax meal + 3 tablespoons water)
1/2 cup non-dairy milk of your choice
1/8 cup apple sauce
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Prepare the crumb topping – melt butter, set aside to cool. In a medium bowl combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Then add butter and mix until ingredients are fully wet. You will have globs of sugar mixture
Prepare the cake – Combine flax and water first. Then in a medium bowl combine milk, apple sauce, vanilla and flax egg. Mix well. Then add dry ingredients. Mix until all flour has been combined, but be careful not to over mix.
Pour batter into a 9 x 9 baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Now evenly add your crumble to the top of the cake batter.
Bake for 40 minutes. Check with a toothpick to make sure cake has fully cooked.

Weekend Breakfast: Potato Pancakes, Poached Eggs & Avocado Sauce

Potato Pancakes, Poached Egg, Avocado Sauce

Recipes for me serve as general guidelines for inspiration, so this meal is the result of a recipe for avocado sauce and a fridge of leftover ingredients from cilantro lime marinated chicken skewers and homemade potato skins.

It was super easy to make and, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, I LOVE cooking weekend breakfast and brunch! Today’s religious experience was so simple and flavorful! It even got the complement comment “this is SO good! I feel like I’m on vacation! “… Now that makes a chef happy!

The crispy texture of the pancake mixed with the creamy avocado sauce and the runny egg is just to die for! The lime in the avocado sauce and the spices made for a very refreshing meal. I couldn’t believe how the flavors and textures mixed. Don’t get me wrong, I knew it would be good but I was actually surprised at how incredibly delicious it was! I regret that I have only one stomach! You can play around with different spices and ingredients, and you might get extra points if you find a way to mix in some tequila! 🙂 Breakfast drink anyone!?

Potato Pancakes, Poached Eggs & Avocado Sauce
a rough step by step guide

Potato Pancake & Poached Eggs Ingredients
Potato
Milk (you can use regular or an alternative)
Cheddar Cheese, grated (regular and/or alternative)
Eggs
Fresh Salt & Cracked Pepper
Cilantro (to garnish, if desired)
Green Onions (to garnish, if desired)
Sour Cream (to garnish, if desired)

Avocado Sauce Ingredients
Avocado
1 lime
Fresh Salt & Cracked Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Cumin
Garlic, minced
Cilantro

Heat pan for potato pancakes. I swear by my Calphalon Crepe Pan! It heats evenly and the non-stick makes for quick and easy clean up!
Mash together the potato, milk, salt & pepper to taste. Make sure to get it as smooth as you can without any potato lumps. While the potato pan is still heating, chop the green onion, cilantro and grate the cheese.
To make the avocado sauce, mix together all listed ingredients to taste until smooth. Be mindful on the cumin, it’s a strong flavor and can easily overpower the flavors if you’re not careful!
The potato pan should be hot by now, scoop in the potato and carefully flatten and shape into a circle. Cook until crispy on one side and flip. Add the cheese and allow it to melt. Once the cheese is fully melted, move to plate and smear avocado sauce on the top.
Once you flip the pancakes, start the water for the eggs boiling and poach the eggs for 3 minutes. Have a small ramekin handy to drain the water from the eggs. I LOVE the CorningWare Ramekins, they’re so stylish and the perfect size for poached eggs. After 3 minutes, don’t let the eggs overcook, remove the egg with a slotted spoon and rest the spoon over the ramekin to allow the last drops of water to fall. If you don’t do this, the water will soak into the pancake and make it soggy.
Place the poached egg on top of the avocado adorned pancake, and garnish with cilantro, green onion, sour cream, and spices as desired. You can add a little salsa if you wish, I wanted to bring out the flavor of the avocado sauce so we didn’t use it for this breakfast.

Vegan Coffee Cake

The crumble topping was good, not too sweet and had a balanced cinnamon spice-ness. The cake was pretty simple. I like a more fluffy cake, but in it’s defense, this one did have a ‘melt in your mouth’ quality to it. Overall, it’d say its a solid cake, but it’s not necessarily the most amazing one ever. I’ll be experimenting with different recipes to find the ultimate and will keep you all posted!!

Vegan Coffee Cake
(Adapted from Usually Vegan)

Ingredients
Topping
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 c.+ tbps canola oil

Cake
3/4 cup soy-dairy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup (half sugar, half honey)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F
Grease an 8 in. pan,
In a mug, mix milk for the cake and the vinegar; set aside to curdle (trust me… you’ll know when it’s curdled)
Mix dry ingredients for topping well in a bowl. Slowly drizzle in canola oil by the tablespoon, using your fingers to swish around the mixture until crumbs form. Alternate drizzling and mixing until all the oil is used and large crumbs have formed.
Mix cake ingredients together. For this recipe, I just threw it all in a bowl and I”m wondering if maybe that lent a hand to the non-fluffy nature of the cake. next time I’ll try mixing the wet ingredients together, including the curdled milk, and separately mix the dry ingredients then combine.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle crumbles on top.
Bake for 35 to 40 min. or until a knife inserted through the center comes out clean
We were supposed to let it cook for an hour before eating it, but let’s be real, who can wait an hour when the house smells like coffee cake!