Breakfast Sammies

Joey and I have had trouble remembering to eat breakfast daily. It's the most important meal of the day- hellur! We needed something that will keep us full until lunch and have a on-the-go quality without being fast food. Enter - the freezer breakfast sammich.

I sent Joey this picture of these Egg Rings from Williams Sonoma - these were a splurge/impulse buy -I  could pretty much hear him swooning over text. If you don't want to blow a ridiculous amount on egg rings (we have been talking about them for weeks so it was time to splurge), muffin tins work pretty good too.

I got the Whole Grain english muffins, but any type of bread you want will work fine too!

6 English Muffins (or bread of your choice)

6 eggs

6 slices American Cheese (or any cheese of your choice)

3 slices turkey bacon (news flash: Joey didn't know it was turkey bacon until I told him, HA!)

6 baggies

patience :-)

 Overall this will take you about 20 minutes to do. How to help pass the time? Watch Scandal DVR at the same time. ;-)

Start by cooking your turkey bacon - you want to cook this all the way through!! Probably about 5 minutes on each side and then drain on paper towels. Then give it a rough chop. Set to the side until you are ready to cook up your eggs.

Scramble your eggs in a bowl. Add some pepper if you want. There is salt in the bacon already that will help season the eggs.

The egg rings!  Heat a non-stick pan to medium heat. Spray your ring and pan with nonstick cooking spray!! I learned this the hard way. 

About 1/4 c is one egg. Add some bacon in your egg scramble. This is where the egg rings get a little complicated. I didn't want to flip super runny eggs so I covered the pan and hoped that the egg would cook through better that way, and it did! So while there was still a little runny-ness on top, it was easy to remove the egg ring and give the egg "patty" a quick flip. 

(Or muffin pan at 350 for 20 minutes) When building sandwich using muffin tin eggs, I slice them hortizontally to cover more of the english muffin, if you go that route!

It's not beautiful but it definitely does the job! When finished, place on plate and let cool for a few minutes. 

 The best part! Building your sandwich.  I used american cheese slices, but you can use whatever your heart desires. Slice your english muffin with a serrated knife. Add egg and cheese.

Seal your breakfast sandwich and put in the freezer for breakfast for the week!

When ready to eat, wrap sandwich in a paper towel and heat for 45 seconds, check if it is hot enough for your liking, and enjoy! The cheese gets really melty and delish.

These are super awesome to grab and go to work everyday, because if you are like me, I get ready in the mornings for work by the minute. Sleep is not wasted in our house.

Chocolate Chip "Granola" Bars

I'll get straight to the recipe, these are delicious!

They are gluten free when made with "gluten free" oats/oat bran.

You will need:

3 large bananas mashed (preferably ripe bananas)
1.5 c Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oat Bran
1/2 c old fashioned rolled oats (gluten free)- i use Trader Joe's
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon (whichever flavor you like - I prefer cinnamon)
1/2 c pepitas
1/2 c sunflower seeds
3/4 c chocolate chips (to be vegan use "Enjoy Life" chips)

Mash bananas together in large mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in vanilla.
Mix in rest of ingredients until combined.

Spray 9x13 pan with pan spray and press mix into pan evenly.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Cool on counter or in fridge and once cooled cut into "granola bar" slices.

These are really awesome and easy to make. And pretty healthy to boot!

Homemade Granola Bars

These 'granola' bars are so. freakin. good.

These are inspired by the Paleo Mom Chewy Granola Bars. I have changed some ingredients to accommodate an almond-free diet. I actually think these turn out better using peanut butter since there is more oil in PB than almond butter to hold them all together.  Also these are *technically* not granola bars, more 'nut bars'.

I recently made these without coconut flakes and coconut oil adding cranberries and golden raisins instead and they were super delish. So, if you have a coconut allergy, these will still work. Nut allergy? Erm, not so much - but you can check these out and be just as satisfied.

This recipe is adapted from the Paleo Mom. She has great paleo recipes that are fairly easy to make and are really delicious.

Recipe: Makes 12-15 bars depending on how you want to cut them:

1/3 pepitas - roasted and salted(shelled pumpkin seeds - I found these in the bulk section at a specialty grocer) pulsed
1/3 c sunflower seeds - roasted and salted
1 1/2 c walnuts - chopped
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 c garbanzo bean flour (trust)
1 tbsp ground flax seed + 1 1/2 tbsp water (mix and set aside to make a "flax goop")
1/3 c coconut oil (coconut free use red palm oil) melted
1/4 c peanut butter
1/4 c honey
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 c Enjoy Life chocolate chips
2 c coconut flakes (coconut free use 1 c dried cranberries, 1 c golden raisins - or any dried fruit you prefer chopped up)

Preheat the oven to 325.

Mix together flax seed and water  in small bowl and set aside to make a "flax goop"
Pulse pepitas in food processor or magic bullet a few times to break them up, set aside - if you don't have a processor or magic bullet, just use a knife and

In a large bowl, whisk together peanut butter, flax goop, coconut or palm oil, and honey.
Add garbanzo bean flour and baking soda and mix into paste.

Add in the nuts, coconut (or dried fruit), seeds, chocolate chips and stir together. I use a wooden spoon and use some arm work with this - make sure you mix very very well.

I buy the aluminum 9x13 pans  at the grocery store to put these in, but you can use your own 9x13. You will want to spray non-stick spray into pan first, then spread evenly. I use a piece of parchment paper and use my hands to press down on the mixture to make it stick together and flatten.

You will bake these for 22 minutes. After you get out of the oven, let cool on stovetop or in fridge. They will harden better in the fridge and make it easier to cut into bars.

Try not to eat all of them at once. These are killer.