Blueberry-Sausage Strata

Blueberry season is almost here-Yay!!

I love, love blueberries and I'm really hoping to get out and pick some to freeze and some for yummy desserts and of course for this strata!

So with that being said here is an awesome and healthy recipe to use 'em up:)

This is another recipe from the Weight Watchers Magazine.

A little forewarning-this is an overnighter;)

~

Recipe Rundown:

sweet Italian turkey or chicken sausage

leeks

fresh thyme

blueberries

whole wheat crusty bread

milk

egg substitute-or egg whites

kosher salt

black pepper

Cook the sausage and leeks together.

I had to leave my leeks big enough to take out-don't want the kids freaking out!

Blueberries!!!

I used frozen they worked great!

Cut the bread into chunks.

add some of the berries to the sausage

Place half of the bread in the baking dish and top with sausage mixture, then eggs and top with remaining bread, pressing into egg mixture to moisten.

Cover and refrigerate over night or at least 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and bake for 60 to 65 minutes.

Serve with remaining blueberries and a drizzle of syrup.

Enjoy!!!

Printable Recipe

Caramel-Pecan Pumpkin Bread Puddings

Need a great brunch or holiday breakfast idea?? This is the one to try! This bread pudding has everything you need for a holiday breakfast.... pecans, caramel and even pumpkin!! Thanks Kristi for suggesting I try it out!!!

I made the bread pudding in little ramekins but you can also make it in a 9x13-inch pan... see the printable recipe for directions.

Cut french bread into 1-inch chunks.

Whisk together eggs, pumpkin, milk, half-and-half, sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and vanilla!! Whew... that is quite a list!


Once mixture is well blended, throw in your bread chunks.


Stir until all the bread is covered in the pumpkin mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and chill 8 to 24 hours.

Spoon mixture into lightly greased ramekins.

Place on foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 50 minutes. After 30 minutes, shield ramekins with additional foil.

During the last part of the baking, prepare your Caramel-Pecan sauce. In a small skillet toast pecans over medium-low heat. In a separate small saucepan, cook butter, brown sugar and corn syrup. Remove from heat and add toasted pecans and vanilla.

Remove bread puddings from oven and drizzle with the delicious sauce! Bake an additional 5 minutes or until sauce is thoroughly heated and begins to bubble. So nummy!!!

Printable Recipe

**Recipe adapted from Southern Living October 2009

Pumpkin French Toast Stuffed with Blackberry-Caramel Mascarpone

Another Fall recipe to add to my favorites!!! This one is a divine Bobby Flay French toast that is not too sweet and just down right good!

The Mascarpone is so creamy and just melts on your warm pumpkin-y french toast! Mmmm...

The recipe calls for blackberry puree so i just made my own by throwing some fresh blackberries in the food processor.

Only takes a couple minutes to puree them!


Start making the Blackberry-Caramel. Heat the cream in a small saucepan. In another small saucepan, combine the sugar and water over high heat and cook, without stirring....


Cook about 8 minutes or until liquid is amber brown.

Slowly whisk in the warm cream, blackberry puree and cook until smooth and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. (If you want to add the blackberry liqueur, add at this time too!)

Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and extract. Let come to room temperature.

On to the french toast.... Whisk together eggs, sugar and salt in a large baking dish until smooth.

Add the pumpkin, ground spices milk and heavy cream, vanilla and rum (or maple flavoring) and whisk until smooth.

Place your sliced bread in the custard mixture and let sit for 2 minutes. Carefully turn over and let sit until bread is completely soaked through, about 2 more minutes. (You may want to take note of how many slices you are going to be able to fry at a time and only soak that amount!)

Heat oil and butter in large pan over medium-high heat until mixture begins to sizzle.

Cook the bread until golden brown on the bottom, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip! Continue to cook until the other side is golden brown, about 2 to 3 more minutes.

Remove from pan and place on a baking sheet in a warmed oven....continue making the rest of the french toast!

For the creamy stuffing... combine mascarpone and remaining cream in a bowl and mix with kitchen aid or electric mixer. Beat until fluffy and smooth!

Scrap the mixture into the bowl and fold a few tablespoons of the blackberry-caramel sauce. Put the remaining sauce back on the stove on low to reheat.

Start to assemble... Top a piece of warm french toast with a large dollop of the blackberry-caramel mascarpone.

Add some blackberries....

Cover with another piece of french toast and drizzle with the blackberry-caramel sauce. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Time to devour and enjoy!!!

Printable Recipe

**Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay

Caramel-Apple Bread Pudding

Bread pudding with the flavors of a caramel apple....Mmmmyum!

This recipe was so easy and cinnamony-delish, even better to be topped off with the caramel-nut sauce! The recipe is another from my go to baking cookbook Better Homes and Gardens

Old-Fashioned Home Baking. Which was the very first cookbook I ever purchased, from my Uncle Joe's store, when I was 14!;)

So this looks yummy right?!

I made it for my hubby's birthday breakfast-

he marked it with stars saying he wanted to try it!

How easy was that for me right!

Here is the ingredient list:

4 eggs,

2/14 c. milk

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. vanilla

1/8 t. ground nutmeg

2 c. bread cubed

1 6-oz pkg. dried apples

I used fresh-one whole apple

Caramel-Nut Sauce

Caramel Nut Sauce

In a small saucepan melt 1/4 c. butter. Stir in 1/2 c. packed brown sugar and 1 T. light corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil. Stir in 1/4 c. whipping cream. Return to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in chopped pecans. Serve warm-makes about 1 cup.

The rest of the details will be included in the printable recipe.

Have a delicious morning!!

Enjoy!!!

Printable Recipe

Maple Oatmeal Scones

I ran across this recipe in the Weekend Cooking of the Food Network magazine, saw Maple and Scones, immediately bookmarked!! I love maple!! Food Network certainly got it right... a Saturday or Sunday morning is a perfect time to whip these scones up and relax with a nice cup of coffee!! (Do a little better planning than i did though so it isn't ruined with a trip to the grocery store in the middle... seems to be a trend!!) If you love scones, you will want to give these ones a try!

The perfect size...with a little extra maple glaze on the top!

Start the scones by mixing flour, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt with an electric mixer.

Cut or dice butter. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add butter to flour mixture. And i will forewarn you, you DID read the recipe right.... you do use 1 pound of butter!!


Mix until the butter is in pea-size pieces.

In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, maple syrup and eggs. Quickly add to the flour-and-butter mixture. Mix until just blended... dough may be sticky.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface. Flour your hands and rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4 to 1 inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough.

Cut into 3-inch rounds.

Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops with egg wash. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are crisp and the insides are done.


Onto the glaze... combine the confectioner's sugar, maple syrup and vanilla.

When the scones are done, cool for 5 minutes and drizzle each scone with glaze. Garnish the tops with some uncooked oats.

Enjoy with a nice cup of coffee!

Printable Recipe

Waffles and Eggs

Here is what happens when I'm feeling kinda blah and don't feel like going to the "work" of following a recipe: whats in the fridge and what can I do with it!

I was kinda having an off day so let me know if you think this is a little crazy or not;)

The 1st thing I saw when I opened the fridge were some strawberry waffles that my hubby made for Mothers Day. They were really yummy-with chunks of fresh strawberries-Mmm!

Ingredient list:

waffles-I used 6

eggs-8

milk-1 1/2 c.

buttermilk-1/4 c.

hash browns-1 c.

cheddar cheese-1 1/2 c.

bacon -4 strips chopped

syrup-for drizzling

Preheat oven to 375* Spray a 13x9 inch baking pan. Chop the waffles into bite-sized pieces. Mix together the eggs, milk and buttermilk. Pour egg mixture over the waffles-while that sits cook and chop the bacon-then add the bacon, hash browns and cheese. Pour into the pan and bake for 35 to 40 mins. Serve while nice and hot-drizzle with syrup.

This dish had a really unique flavor-a hint of sweetness and the salty bacon-I will make it again. Maybe next time I would use sausage and add a little syrup right into the mix-if this sounds to weird for anyone just keep in mind I'm pregnant;)

Let me know if you try this one!

Enjoy and have a wonderful rest of the day!

Printable Recipe