PB & J Breakfast Pizza
I’m a firm believer that pizza is a breakfast food. Cold, of course. But sometimes a girl needs some hot pizza for breakfast and that’s when you have to get a little creative.
PB & J breakfast pizza, anyone?
Joey just said, “Isn’t it weird that pb & j can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner?” I added snack to the list of acceptable pb & j eating times and said, “If by weird you mean awesome, then yes.”
I planned on making breakfast pizza but almost caved and made oatmeal after reading blogs before breakfast and seeing some good looking oatmeal concoctions. So glad I stayed strong — this was a fun change up!
I’m still on a chickpea flour kick so of course the pizza crust was socca inspired.
Sweet Cinnamon Socca Crust
- 1 1/4 cup chickpea flour
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 375*.
- Mix ingredients and pour into a well-greased round pan.
- Bake 40 minutes or until the top begins to crack.
It will look like so.
Is it just me or does it remind you of the desert? Maybe I just have my vacation to Arizona on the brain.
All I did to go from the above picture to breakfast pizza was cut the socca in half, then smear with peanut butter and jelly and top with what have you.
I used about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter but 2 would be better. If you’re me the second tablespoon doesn’t make it onto the pizza because it goes straight into your mouth, but that’s neither here nor there.
I started out simple with some banana slices.
But then I gave in and grabbed the good stuff.
I’m always nervous when I make something new for breakfast that it might not hold me over as long as my usual oatmeal bowl. Not making it through two classes before getting hungry = biggest fear. Okay, not biggest but it’s up there.
Luckily, this seemed to work fine but I enjoy that full feeling that oatmeal gives me much more. I guess I’ll just have to crumble the rest of the socca onto my oatmeal, and I’m okay with that.
Off to watch Glee!
First Timer: The Granola Edition
Before Sunday, I had always bought my own granola. **Don’t even get me started on how long it took me to pick from the 10+ dispensers of granola the Whole Foods bulk aisle has.** I thought it was about time I ventured into the world of homemade granola making, because, well why not?
What I discovered was:
1. Homemade granola is easy.
2. Homemade granola is faster than going to the store.
3. Homemade granola is tasty.
4. Homemade granola is yet another way to incorporate more oats, almonds, cashews, cranberries, chocolate and peanut butter into my life.
5. #4 is the only point that really matters.
And because it’s late and I’m tired and because you probably want to get to the granola anyways, I’ll just stop rambling and give you the goods 🙂
Nutty Cranberry Granola
Ingredients:
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 2 T dried cranberries, chopped
- 2 T cashews, chopped
- 3 T almonds, chopped
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 3 T applesauce
- 1/2 T coconut oil, melted
- 1 t vanilla
- 3 T maple syrup
**I used sweetened applesauce so I didn’t add any sugar, but if you’re using unsweetened you might want to add 1 tablespoon of sugar or sucanat.
**You can sub another liquid sweetener for the maple syrup if you’d like. I would have used brown rice syrup if I’d had any.
Directions:
- Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl (oats, dried cranberries, cashews, almonds, salt and cinnamon).
- In a second bowl, mix together wet ingredients (applesauce, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla).
- Add wet ingredients to dry, mix and spread on a pan covered in parchment paper.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.
- Let cool for at least 30 minutes (it will harden up as it cools). Store in an airtight container.
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola (inspired by Oh She Glows)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 t salt
- 2 T raw buckwheat
- 2 T dark chocolate chips, chopped
- 3 T applesauce
- 1 t vanilla
- 3 T maple syrup
- 1/2 T coconut oil, melted
- 1 T peanut butter, melted
Directions:
- Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl (oats, salt, buckwheat and chocolate chips)
- In a second bowl, mix together wet ingredients (applesauce, vanilla, maple syrup, coconut oil and peanut butter).
- Add wet ingredients to dry, mix and spread on a pan covered in parchment paper.
- Bake 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes of so.
- Let cool for at least 30 minutes (it will harden up as it cools). Store in an airtight container.
**The chocolate chips will get melty when you add the oil and peanut butter, so if you want your chocolate to stay more in tact I would suggest adding it after the granola has cooled.
I was really excited about these granolas and surprised at how easily they came together. And even more surprised at how easily I could shovel handfuls into my mouth. Just kidding, that part wasn’t surprising.
How about a picture just for fun?
That would be Huni (my mom’s puppy) stuck to the rug because her jacket has velcro on it. And of course, my mom and I just laughed and took pictures instead of helping. Don’t worry she freed herself.
Happy Wednesday!
How I Grocery Shop
HAPPY MARDI GRAS, LOVELY READERS
Is it just me or do you love the idea of a day being called “Fat Tuesday?” Bring on the food!
Anyways…
It seems like every blog I read has done a grocery shopping post (or series of posts) and I’ve found lots of helpful tips just from reading about others experiences. I thought I might add my own grocery shopping methods in the hopes that it might help someone else. Pay it forward, ya know?
Or maybe I just like to talk about myself and my daily activities.
For some, meal plans don’t work. For me, it does. My favorites folder is chock full of recipes that I come across during the week. I’d like to pretend that I pull up that list on Saturday or Sunday and just write 5 down to make for the week but honestly, sometimes I struggle with this step. I get picky, the recipes don’t seem as good as I’d originally thought, it looks too time consuming, I would have to buy too many ingredients, etc. I just have to remember that every week is not like this and hope that this step will get easier.
After I’ve antagonized for far too long over my meal plan I write the meals down and make two colums underneath: “Produce” and “Other.”
This is where things get tricky. Produce is cheap, it’s the other stuff that can add up fast. I generally like my “other” list to be shorter than my produce list, but sometimes (like this week) that just doesn’t happen. Don’t sweat it, everything will even out in the end.
Joey and I switch around between grocery stores every so often but we try to find a place where we can get everything (or almost everything) in one trip to one store. Personally, I think the money you save by going to different stores for specific items is negated by the time and gas you spend driving to two, three, four different stores. That’s just my opinon, though. Do what works for you.
My grocery store qualifications:
- Bulk section
- Organic produce (at the very least, although organic non-produce is even better)
- Specialty items (like alternative flours)
That’s really all, I’m not too picky. And for the record I just typed pickly instead of picky. I guess I would consider myself to be pickly.
I try my best to stick to my list! So when I sit down to make that list I definitely allow myself to add some splurge items, aka things I want, not need.
This week, that list included:
- Goat cheese
- Blueberries
- Dried cranberries
- Lavish wraps — don’t even ask what those are, I have no idea but they looked more fun than tortillas
- English muffins
I know, I “splurged” a whole $2 on cranberries.
Now, I don’t claim to be a grocery shopping expert and some weeks we spend more than usual but I think we’ve figured out what works for us and have a realistic budget of $60-80 for two people. We also double our recipes to ensure that we have lunch for the following day <— this is key! Plus, buying two butternut squashes insteadof one isn’t much of a price jump.
I also like to buy extra veggies, because A) They’re cheap and B) It’s a fast, simple and healthy side dish for any meal. Plus you can roast them in one big batch and have them around for the rest of the week.
So what did we get this week?
Produce:
Other:
Total: $75.52
This week was higher than usual, but we had a lot of bread/pasta stuff that added up and olive oil is so costly! Especially when you go through it as fast as we do.
I hope you guys enjoyed this post because I had fun writing it.
What’s your relationship with grocery shopping? Love or hate?
Lauren Loves Good Food 