Alpha Chi Brunch

A few weeks ago I hosted an Alpha Chi Alum group at my home for a morning meeting.  I loved the treats that I served and wanted to share in case you need an easy brunch menu that can be (mostly) done ahead of time.

Easy Monkey Bread Breakfast Ring

Note: In the future, I will probably tear my biscuits in half before putting them in the pan because putting them in there whole means you get a huge piece when you get one to put on your plate.

When I made it: Morning of because it's EASY to throw together

Poppyseed Bread

Note: I'm not sure if I just read the recipe wrong or what but I used the disposable bread pans and since they were small I split the recipe up into six of them.  That still gave me fantastic bread but gave me very short slices.  I would recommend using those pans but filling each one up before moving on to the next pan.

When I made it: Day before and warmed in 300 degree oven before serving

Fiber One Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Note: These are fantastic and one of my go-to muffins for weekend mornings.  The mix made almost 50 mini muffins though so make sure you need enough before you start making mini ones instead of regular sized ones!

When I made them: Day before and served them room temperature (could also reheat)

I also had two friends bring items and they brought a bowl of sliced fruit with dip and a breakfast casserole.  I served lemonade (for the kids), orange juice, and water.

Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

This month is turning into the month of breakfast recipes!  This is another one from our Christmas morning brunch.  It was good to feed a crowd.  I felt like it could have used a little more salt and pepper but it was still great the way it was.

Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

8-10 servings

6-8 Strips of Bacon

1 Onion, peeled and chopped

1 clove Garlic, peeled and minced

1 Red or Green Pepper, seeded and chopped

1 2 lb bag frozen Hash Browns

1 1/2 cups Shredded Cheese

12 Eggs

1 cup Whole Milk

1 teaspoon Dried Dill

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

1. Spray crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Cook bacon until crisp, cool, then chop into 1/2 inch pieces.  Set aside.

3. Saute onion, garlic, and bell pepper for 5 minutes.

4. Place 1/3 of frozen hash browns in the bottom of the crock pot.

5. Add 1/3 bacon, 1/3 of the onion mixture, and 1/3 of the cheese.

6. Repeat layers, ending with cheese.

7. In a large bowl mix eggs, milk, dill, salt, and pepper. 

8. Pour over ingredients.

9. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. 

From A Latte' with Ott, A via Pinterest

Blueberry Crumb Bars

On Christmas morning we invited our parents and siblings over for brunch to see Charlotte's toys and so that we got to see everyone on Christmas day.  I made a few things and one of them were these Blueberry Crumb Bars.  They were very easy and so wonderfully good!  I made them the day before and served them cold and they were great!  The longer they sit the more sour the blueberries get so I wouldn't make them too far ahead of time but the day before was perfect.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup shortening

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 pinch ground cinnamon (optional)

4 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

3 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and cinnamon, if desired. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the shortening and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

From Jam Hands via Pinterest

Bite Sized Cinnamon Rolls

My Mom made numerous breakfast options for us when we celebrated Christmas morning with them and one of the things that she made were these wonderful mini cinnamon rolls.  They are made with crescent roll dough and are wonderful!  I especially love that they can be made ahead of time and just rewarmed or you can serve them right after adding the icing.  Either way, they're great and easy!

Bite Sized Cinnamon Rolls

1 can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

4 T Brown Sugar

1 t Cinnamon

1 T Butter

1 T Flour

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

2 t Milk

1. In a small bowl mix together a tablespoon of slightly melted butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and flour.

2. Open crescent rolls, taking half of dough, and separate at the vertical seams.  Press the diagonal seams of dough together so that the dough is smooth. (keep other half of dough in the fridge)

3. Spoon half of the cinnamon mixture onto dough.  Roll short side up then continue with the remaining dough.

4. Cut 2 inch slices and place all the rolls on a cookie sheet.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

6. When rolls have cooled, mix powdered sugar and milk.  Add more sugar/milk to get frosting to the consistency of your liking.  Drizzle the sugar over the rolls and then serve or let dry.

From Life's Too Short to Skip Dessert via Pinterest

Baked Cinnamon Breakfast Puffs

I was looking for a breakfast recipe to make for Tuscaloosa and remembered that I had pinned a doughnut hole like breakfast.  So Charlotte and I mixed it up and got it ready the Friday before and we cooked them Saturday morning.  It was an extremely easy recipe to make, even with a two year old sous chef!

A few notes on these.  They are kind of dense, they reminded me of the Pioneer Woman's French Breakfast Puffs if you've ever made those from her cookbook.  But the beauty of these is that they're much smaller so they're less overwhelming than I feel like the French Breakfast puffs (which are huge) can be.  But they are very good and were just as good reheated on day two as they were eaten straight out of the oven.  Also, I made them the day before and took them to Tuscaloosa in a cooler and we cooked them the next day.  That didn't seem to hurt them at all, so I bet they would freeze well -- cooked or uncooked.

Baked Cinnamon Breakfast Bites

Makes 2 and a half dozen bites

1 1/3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 cup Rice Krispies, coarsely crushed

2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup Sugar, divided

3 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup Butter-flavored Shortening

1/2 cup Milk

1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/4 cup Butter, melted

1. Mix flour, cereal, 2 tablespoons cereal, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

2. Cut in shortening with pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Add milk and stir until just moistened.

4. Roll dough into approximately 2 1/2 dozen 1 inch balls.

5. Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar in another bowl.  Drop balls into melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar.

6. Place balls onto a greased pan.

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.   Cool for a few minutes in the pan on a wire rack before removing from pan.

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Yet again, another Pinterest find.  Seriously, if you haven't checked out Pinterest and don't mind being sucked into a bottomless pit of ideas, go and check it out.  It's amazing...and a huge time waster....but still, amazing!

When I saw the picture that came with this pin I knew I wanted to try it.  I've been kind of blah about breakfast foods recently and have been jumping back and forth to things that only really sound good for a day or two.  So I really wanted to try this.  One negative about this cake is that it's hard to have all the ingredients on hand to make it any time.  It calls for buttermilk and unsalted butter which aren't staples at my house (the unsalted butter should be, but hasn't been).

So I made plans to pick up what I was lacking at home but then couldn't find a good time to make it.  Another downside is that it's not a really simple recipe so it wasn't something that I could simply whip up in the morning unless I wanted to get up and make it way before Charlotte got up and, lets face it, at 30 some odd weeks pregnant, that's not going to happen!

Finally, Jason suggested that he'd watch Charlotte after dinner so that I could make it then and just reheat what I wanted to eat each morning.  Stellar idea!  I started cooking and after a few measurement problems (I am pregnant remember and sometimes counting to 7 is hard!) I finally got it cooking.  It took a little longer than the 35 minutes the recipe called for but once it came out it looked delicious.  Jason and I had it for dessert that night and it was fantastic.  The next morning I heated up two pieces for Charlotte and I but Charlotte wouldn't touch it so she missed it and that left more for Jason and I!

I would highly recommend this recipe.  It's a really dense cake but it's not too sweet and perfect for breakfast or for a more tempered dessert.  It was good reheated for about 40 second in the microwave in the morning's but was also great fresh out of the oven.  Next time I might mix it the night before and bake it in the morning, but either way it's a great dish!

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Makes 1 square dish

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature

7/8 cup + 1 T sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter with 7/8 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.  Fold in the blueberries.

4. Grease a 9 inch square pan with non-stick spray.  Spread batter into pan.  Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar.  Bake for 35 minutes (or more).  Check with a toothpick for doneness.  Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Apple Dumplings

Last weekend I was in charge of putting together the food so I went in search of some new recipes. I found a recipe for Apple Dumplings in the breakfast section of my Alabama Rich in Flavor cookbook and decided to try it out for breakfast on Saturday. I omitted the Mountain Dew that the recipe calls for because I figured we'd get enough caffeine the rest of the day and even without it they were great! I would highly recommend making this for breakfast or topped with ice cream for dessert.


Apple Dumplings
Serves 8

2 10 oz cans Crescent Rolls
2 or 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
2 sticks butter, melted
1 c Sugar
1 t Cinnamon
Place two crescent rolls together to make a rectangle. Fill with apples and fold up like a package. Repeat with remaining crescent rolls and apples. Place, seam side down, in a 9x13 baking dish. Combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon; pour over rolls. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

The Pioneer Woman's Monkey Muffins

Monkey Bread is perhaps one of my favorite breakfast foods. It's so yummy and sweet and gooey that I just eat it up! So the Christmas after we got married I decided I wanted a bundt cake pan so that I could make Monkey Bread. Being the good Santa that Santa at our house is, he brought not only the pan but a mix for Monkey Bread from Williams-Sonoma. So later in the winter I set out to make the Monkey Bread and I kid you not, I think it took me one entire Saturday to make it. So time consuming! Of course, super delicious when it was actually finished but that was a lot of work!

That experience is what made me giddy when The Pioneer Woman put up a recipe for Monkey Muffins. Basically, it's a shortcut for Monkey Bread! I planned to make them for the day after Christmas morning but I was sick so I finally made them New Years morning. I made them after feeding Charlotte when she got up and they were ready right when we were ready to eat breakfast! Super easy and so, so, so good. We ate the leftovers the next morning and they might have been even better because they had more time to soak up the sweetened, condensed goodness! If you're a Monkey Bread fan you have to try Ree's adaptation!
PW Monkey Muffins
Servings: 12
Ingredients
Leftover Bread Dough (or Refrigerated Biscuit Dough, Cut Into Thirds)
Butter
Sugar
Ground Cinnamon
Sweetened, Condensed Milk

Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Add 1/2 teaspoon butter to muffin tins. Sprinkle in sugar and cinnamon.
Roll dough into walnut sized balls (or cut refrigerated biscuit dough into thirds). Place three into each muffin tin.
Top with 1/2 teaspoon butter. Sprinkle on more sugar and cinnamon.
Allow dough to rise, if applicable, or just go ahead and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.
Remove from oven and immediately drizzle plenty of sweetened condensed milk over the top of each one. Be generous! Allow rolls to sit for a little while to absorb sweet, sticky milk.
Scoop out with a spoon and serve to hungry humans.
My Notes:
- I used one can of flaky biscuit dough. I ended up putting probably 4 or 5 smaller balls in each muffin place instead of just three.
- Once these have baked they come out of the muffin tins and stay together beautifully so if you wanted to serve them they would be easy to serve.

Cinnamon Roll Bake

My mom made this for us a few weeks ago before the Mississippi State game and it was great! A good twist on normal cinnamon rolls! She got this recipe from Southern Living's December issue. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Bake
3 egg yolks
2 large eggs
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (16-oz.) package frozen cinnamon rolls (she used Sister Schubert)
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

1. Whisk together first 7 ingredients until blended.
2. Break apart cinnamon rolls, and chop. Place in a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish. Toss raisins with rolls in dish. Pour egg mixture over top; dot with butter. Cover and chill 4 to 24 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 325°. Bake casserole 55 minutes to 1 hour or until set and golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.