Monte Cristo Sandwiches

The other day, at Disneyland, we walked by a restaurant near Pirates of the Caribbean and it smelled divine! Mark decided to look it up and it seemed that restaurant's speciality was Monte Cristo Sandwiches. Mark then made it his personal mission to find the recipe online and to have it for dinner. Thanks to pinterest, he found it and we had it for dinner last night. It definitely isn't healthy and it definitely isn't something I'll make on a regular basis, but it is a fun treat every once in a while. It's kind of a cross between breakfast and dinner and would be a fun, fancy breakfast for a special day. I doubled the recipe, but I'll post the original.

Ingredients:
1 Pepperidge Farm Frozen Puff Pastry
8 slices of Black Forest Ham
4 slices swiss cheese
1 egg
1 tbsp water
powdered sugar
maple syrup, jam, dijon mustard

Directions
Preheat oven to 400
Beat egg and water in a bowl
Unfold pastry and on a floured surface roll out into a 12x12 inch square (it doesn't really require too much rolling and you need plenty of flour because it sticks!)
Cut into four 6 inch squares and brush egg mixture onto edges
Place 2 slices of ham and one slice of cheese near one corner of each square
Fold each square over, corner to corner, to form a triangle and press edges together
Brush each pastry with egg mixture and place on baking sheet
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with either maple syrup, jam, or dijon mustard

Veggie Omelette/Frittata

I got this idea from Aggie's Kitchen, but I don't have a skillet that is oven safe so mine turned in to an omelette. I never thought of putting black beans in with eggs, but it is delicious!

eggs
zucchini, chopped

red onion, chopped, or whatever kind you have
Best Black Beans, rinsed
shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
salt and pepper

I have also added bacon or sausage at times if I wanted some meat.

Saute the zucchini and onion in some evoo. Add in some black beans according to taste until warmed through. At this point you can either mix them in with some scrambled eggs for a breakfast burrito, put them in a fritatta, or place them in your omelette. Add cheese, salt and pepper. YUM!  

Veggie Pancakes

From 100 Days of Real Food

These were yummy! Tyler ate 3 and Mark had just as many and probably would have had more, but they were all gone. I made them as a side when we were having pancakes for dinner. (I needed to add something of nutritional value). It probably made about 8 pancakes. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded veggies (I like to use a mix including things like sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and/or carrots…whatever you have on hand)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon whole-wheat flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Olive oil for cooking
• I added some salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to give it some flavor.

Directions

1. Combine the shredded veggies with the eggs, flour, and salt. Mix thoroughly.
2. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. It is important that the heat is the right temperature because you want the pancakes to cook all the way through the middle by the time they are brown on the outside.
3. Once the oil has heated up add pancake size dollops of the veggie mixture into the pan. Cook for several minutes until the bottom starts to brown. Then flip and repeat.
4. Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate lined with paper towels.

Pumpkin Pie Granola

Hey sisters! I'm posting, so you all can get off my butt now. I love granola, but it's so hard to find ANY at the grocery store that's actually good for you, even if it claims that it's "healthy." Even most of the "healthy" granola recipes that I could find had a large amount of butter and oil in them. I was elated when I found this recipe that uses pureed pumpkin and apple sauce in place of any butter or oil. It does have some sugar in it, but I used stevia (like the recipe calls for), and it's not an overwhelming amount so I felt just fine about it. I've stored mine in a ziploc bag and it's still crunchy and delicious. I eat mine with cut up banana slices and some almond milk...Mmmm mmm. Oh yeah, and it's VEGAN too!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups old fashioned rolled oats (use gluten free if you're sensitive to gluten)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 3/4 cup sugar substitute of choice (or 1-2 tsp stevia or to taste)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cups pumpkin
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar free maple syrup, or honey, or agave nectar (I used honey because that's what I had)
• Optional add-ins: 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1 cup honey teddy grahams lightly crushed

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry using a spatula, (or your hands), until everything is well combined and oats are coated with wet ingredients.

2. Place granola on baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, then stir granola around. Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until the granola is golden brown and is crisp. Take the granola out of the oven, and let it cool completely on the baking sheet. Stir in additional white chocolate chips or teddy grahams at this point if desired. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

Link to dashingdish blog

Vegan Pancakes

I just wanted to share how easy it is to make pancakes without eggs or milk! I'm not a huge pancake fan..so I probably won't be making these very often. However, it's SUPER easy. Who needs those stupid eggs and milk anyway?

Ingredients

• 1 Cup flour
• 1 Tbsp. Sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 Cup soy milk (I understand if you're still drinking milk, you probably won't have this on hand, but I highly suggest it. I hate the taste of milk, but love the taste of vanilla soymilk--even the light version)
• 2 Tbsp. Vegetable oil

Just mix everything together and prepare like normal pancakes! Ta da! All done! You can make do whatever you want with them. You can add chocolate chips, blueberries, bananas, etc.