I dragged myself from bed the day after Thanksgiving and went to my parents’ house for breakfast. While waiting for my mom to finish making the Hainan chicken rice…YUM…my aunt heated up apple cider and ginger, topped with whipped cream.
Making bread is time consuming because of waiting to let it rise for hours. This bread was kneaded and allowed to rise three times. I started in the morning and by lunch I finally had bread.
To get a nice crusty top and a chewy soft middle, cook the bread at a high heat. My loaf cooked at 450 degrees. Place the bread in the oven, and pour a half a cup of water onto the floor of the oven, quickly shut the door. This creates a steam bath that creates that crunchy, chewy crust. Wait 2 minutes and throw in another half cup of water and quickly shut the door. It was quite exciting and made me fear my boyfriend would kill me if I destroyed the oven. But it turned out better than I thought.
Mmmm bread and butter…
Other methods suggest throwing ice cubes into the oven or placing a skillet with boiling water under the rack, but it’s more fun with exploding water.
Oatmeal cookies! They’re low carb, made with Splenda brown sugar and protein power (instead of flour). Turned out to be a very soft cookie. They don’t really get crunchy because of the lack of flour so I added pecans and almonds for some substance.
1 cup Splenda brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup ground almonds
2 tbsp flax seeds
1/4 cup oat bran
1 cup vanilla protein powder
2 cups oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans
– Mix butter and sugar until creamy then add eggs. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes on a greased baking sheet.
Simple dinner for a busy Sunday.
Saute various mushrooms in butter. Splash with balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and black pepper.
Roll out a Pillsbury can of croissants. Prick the surface with a fork to prevent puffing. Layer with the sauteed mushrooms, chopped parsley and a sprinkling of salt. Bake according to directions.
I have to do away with the waffles, butter, syrup breakfast. At least cut down on it! I’m cutting the carbs and pushing for veggies and protein:
Bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, and a little bit of chopped sausage sauteed with black pepper and Worcestershire sauce; scrambled eggs with hot sauce; wheat toast.
Pineapple buns, almond cookies, sweet bean cakes, peanut cookies, coconut tarts, custard tarts
