Cinnamon Rolls

My sister-in-law is a wonderful cook. She recently graduated from USU with her Master's Degree in Dietetics. I really admire her hard work and talent.

For Conference weekend, she wanted to make cinnamon rolls. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to practice my food photography so I whipped out Charlie (the name of my faithful camera) and snapped away as she kneaded the dough, twisted the rolls, and whipped up some of the tastiest cinnamon rolls ever.

Ingredients:

• 2 TB yeast -- dissolve in 1/2 c. warm water and let froth with sugar
• 1/2 c. oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 5 1/2 c. flour
• 1 stick butter

Frosting:

• 1/3 c. butter
• 3 c. powdered sugar
•  Add 1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 TB milk

Instructions:

Mix oil, sugar, eggs, and salt by hand w/yeast. And 1 cup very warm water or milk.
Add 5 1/2 c. flour -- not heaping or level
Mix 4-5 min until smooth and elastic.
Roll approx. 1 rolling pin wide and 3 pins long.
Spread w/melted butter, cinnamon sugar, and brown sugar.
Roll in tight jelly roll and cut into 1-1/2 in thickness. Place on greased cookie sheet.
Let raise, covered until double in size.
Bake 400 for 10-13 min.
Frost while slightly warm.

YUM!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

We are on a water restriction here in Cache Valley. Too much rain, too much snow melting has caused flooding all over the Valley and has backed up the sewer line. So I apologize my dishes aren't done.

But these chocolate chip muffin are probably the thing I've made the most since being married. As Connor put it one morning, "These are what our kids and grand-kids remember about you. They are your legacy." I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but the original comes from How to be Lovely.

I love them for their moistness (is that a word?) rich flavor, and chocolate-y goodness. They definitely aren't healthy but who cares.

Breakfast To-Go

The alarm goes off at 6:30 am but I actually don't get up till 7:20. It's that way A LOT of the time. I love breakfast foods but often don't have time to make something.

Once I tried the smoothie deal but cutting up all that fruit took so much time. I gave up eating breakfast and that just made it hard for me to concentrate at work.

Until I remembered this bad boy that I drank the morning before my 1/2 marathon:

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie

• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 Tbs cocoa powder
• 1/3 c. yogurt (optional)
• 1-1/2 c. milk (I like mine more liquid-y)

It's sweet but not sugary. And it gives me protein, which is definitely needed in the morning. Put it in my pink blender bottle and I'm off!

Puff Pancakes & Sweet Syrup

One of my favorite breakfast foods to make on Sundays is German pancakes, or as I call them, puff pancakes. They are super easy and don't use a lot of ingredients:

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 c. milk
• 1 c. flour
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 5 Tbs butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. As oven preheats, put the butter in an un-greased 9×13-in. baking dish and place in oven, just until melted.
Place the eggs, milk, flour, salt and vanilla in a blender; cover and process until smooth (or if you're feeling lazy, mix by hand). Pour batter into baking dish.
Bake, for 20-25 minutes or until edges are golden brown and puffy.

This is my favorite new syrup recipe. I wanted something different than maple one Sunday so I invented this: (well I like to think I invented it)

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 c. butter
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• dash of vanilla 

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Don't let it boil, just melt.
Slowly add sweetened milk until thick. Whisk in vanilla.
Simmer until it's the consistency of syrup.

So yummy! And perfect for a Sunday brunch.

When done, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar and syrup.

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Personally, I don't like baking. But this recipe from Kirbie Craving's (original post here) was to die for! My muffins didn't turn out nearly as pretty as her's but they tasted just the same:

Ingredients:

muffin base:

• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar 
• 1 large egg 
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
• 2 tsp baking power 
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil 
• 3/4 cup fat free milk 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

cinnamon swirl

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 3 tbsp butter, melted and hot 

vanilla glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar 
• 1/4 tsp vanilla 
• 1-2 tbsp milk 

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a regular muffin tin with cupcake liners (12 total).
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and egg until combined. Add in remaining muffin base ingredients and whisk until batter is smooth.
Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full. You will have leftover batter which you will add later
In a small bowl, mix hot melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. The mixture should have the consistency of a thick liquid. Add a small dollop of mixture into each muffin cup (about 1/2 tsp each) and swirl it a few times into the batter with a fork, careful not to let it completely mix. You want the cinnamon sugar mixture to remain as swirls in the batter. You should only use less than 1/2 of your cinnamon sugar mixture for this step, reserving the rest for later. Add remaining muffin batter to muffin cups, covering the swirled mixture. Each muffin tin should be about 2/3 full and you should have enough batter for 12 muffins.
At this point, your cinnamon swirl mixture is likely getting a little more solid. If this is the case, heat it in the microwave for a few seconds, so it becomes very fluid again. Add mixture into something with a narrow spout to pour out of, like a syrup dispenser, a beaker, or a small liquid measuring cup. You want something that will control the flow and pour just a thin line of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Make a cinnamon spiral on top of each muffin (like in photo). If your mixture gets too thick, you can always reheat it again for easy pouring.
Bake for about 20 minutes until muffins are puffy and knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let muffins cool in baking pan.
While muffins are cooling, make the glaze. In a small bowl, mix powdered sugar, vanilla and 1 tbsp milk. Whisk until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add a little more milk, careful to not add too much at once. Once your glaze reaches the consistency you desire, drizzle on top of muffins. Serve once glaze is set.













DELISH!

College Student Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and gravy are one of my favorite breakfast foods. Growing up my mom would make homemade gravy and biscuits that were baked in heaven. When I got married, I realized that I couldn't make biscuits like her. I didn't have time, for one thing, and I just didn't have the skill set to do so. But yesterday I started craving it so I decided to figure out a cheap easy way to make this home kitchen favorite. And it was delicious! Here's what I came up with: