Tuscan Eggs

I am always looking for and thinking about new, fun things to make for breakfast. Recently I came across a delicious recipe at Kalyn’s Kitchen that I have been excited to try out. She has a lot of recipes that you should check out…many of which are gluten free and/or low-glycemic.

I made a few adjustments to it that I thought would fit us better, and we really loved it! It was so tasty! I loved the Italian flare of this breakfast!

TUSCAN EGGS

*Adapted from Kaylyn’s Kitchen

Serving Size: 2 people

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 3-4 cloves garlic pressed/minced
• 1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp finely chopped oregano
• 1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Dice your onions, cut up your oregano, and press your garlic.
• Put the olive oil in a skillet and heat over medium heat, adding the onions in and sauteing them.
• Add the garlic after the onions have been in the skillet for a few minutes. Cook for a minute or two, and then add the diced tomatoes and the oregano.
• Cook until the tomato mixture thickens. I let it cook for close to 10 minutes.
• Add the eggs into the skillet and let cook until the whites are becoming white and not opaque. (Depending on how done you want your eggs, will depend on what you do next. If you like the yokes to be runny, you will want to make sure to move onto the next step while the yoke is still a bit runny. If not, cook longer.)
• Add the Parmesan cheese…I sprinkled it all over, not just on the eggs.
• Turn your oven onto broil. Unless your pan can tolerate the high heat, leave the oven door open and your handle out as you broil the dish for 1-2 minutes.
• Enjoy!

Strawberry & Cream Cheese Baked Stuffed Apple with Cinnamon Honey Drizzle

When I made the blackberry stuffed apple yesterday, I had some more ideas up my sleeve of what I could do with a delicious baked apple. I couldn’t resist trying my idea out this morning. Hubby and I both loved it…it is really rich (so was yesterday’s creation), so eating half of it was ideal for me. I really can’t decide which baked apple I liked more….they are both keepers.

This is what it looked like before it went into the oven…

Fresh out of the oven…

The inside…

STRAWBERRY & CREAM CHEESE BAKED STUFFED APPLE WITH CINNAMON HONEY DRIZZLE

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

Serving Size: 1-2 people

Ingredients:

• 1 Apple (I used red)
• 1 extra large strawberry (you may need more depending on the size of your apple)
• Cream Cheese
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp coconut oil

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Clean and core your apple, taking out extra so that there is room to stuff it.
• Clean and cut your strawberry into small pieces.
• Stuff some of the strawberries into the apple.
• Put a think layer of cream cheese over the strawberries.
• Melt the coconut oil (takes 20-30 seconds in microwave.)
• Combine coconut oil, honey, and cinnamon, mixing well.
• Drizzle some of the cinnamon honey mixture into the apple.
• Add more strawberry slices and cream cheese until apple is full.
• Drizzle the rest of the cinnamon honey topping over the top of the apple, letting it run down the sides.
• Cook for 30-35 minutes, depending on how soft you want the apple.

Blackberry Stuffed Baked Apple with Crumble Topping

For some reason when I went to bed last night, I was thinking about what I would make for breakfast in the morning, and this rich, fruity idea is what came to mind!

Though I had no idea if this combination was a good idea, my first bite told me it was! Breakfast? Sure, why not!? Dessert? Definitely! 🙂

All cooked & ready to eat!

Here is what it looked like when I cut into it…

BLACKBERRY STUFFED BAKED APPLE WITH CRUMBLE TOPPING

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

*Serving Size: 1-2 people

Ingredients:

• 1 Apple (I used red)
• Blackberries (enough to stuff the apple with…this will depend on your apple. Plus, some to put around the bottom of the dish)
• 1 Orange
• 1 1/2-2 tbsp Almond Flour
• 1/2-1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1-2 pats of butter, softened

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Wash and core the apple. Make sure not to break out the bottom of the apple or what you fill it with will leak out. You will want to take out more than just the core, so that there is enough of a hole that you can put plenty of goodies inside.
• Place the apple inside of a small baking dish (I used a Pyrex one).
• Wash the blackberries and start filling the apple with them until about half full.
• Slice the orange in half and squeeze out some juice from one half into the apple and over the blackberries.
• Make your crumble topping by adding together the flour, cinnamon, and butter.
• Put some of the crumbles on top of the blackberries.
• Now add more blackberries to the apple until it is full.
• Squeeze more juice from the orange over them, and then add more of your crumble mixture over the top. 
• With any leftover room in your small baking dish, place blackberries around the bottom of it, using the other half of the orange to squeeze juice over them.
• Add the crumble topping to these as well.
• I added a little bit of water to the bottom of the dish since orange juice is sticky, and I didn’t want everything to get crusted to the bottom. (I don’t really know if I needed to do this.)
• Bake for 30 minutes. (The apple still had crispness to it at this point, so if you prefer softer then cook longer.)
• Serve hot, and enjoy!

Avocado Basil Scrambled Eggs

A simple breakfast recipe that’s very full of taste. The cream cheese makes the eggs nice and creamy, and the basil in it is delicious! I have to admit, I was a little surprised by that, but we both thought the basil was the finishing touch on this meal!

AVOCADO BASIL SCRAMBLED EGGS

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

Serving Size: 2 people

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• 1 tbsp cream cheese
• 2 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
• Black pepper
• 1 avocado
• 1 tomato

Directions:

• Finely chop the basil.
• Cut the avocado in half and scoop out one side.
• Dice the tomato
• Slightly melt the cream cheese (I did this in the microwave.)
• Mix the eggs, cream cheese, pepper, small pieces of the avocado from the half you scooped out, and basil.
• Cook slowly over low to medium heat in a skillet.
• Serve on plates with cold tomato and avocado slices (from the other half of the avocado).

Blackberries with Homemade Chocolate Strawberry Sauce

What better thing to go with some creamy scrambled eggs than a bowl full of fresh blackberries that are drizzled with chocolate strawberry sauce?! We loved it this morning!

BLACKBERRIES WITH HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY SAUCE

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

Serving Size:2 people

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 containers of blackberries
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• Enough fresh strawberries to make 3 tbsp of them pureed
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Directions:

• Wash and cut up the strawberries and puree them in a food processor.
• Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil.
• Combine the pureed strawberries, coconut oil, honey, and cocoa, mixing well.
• You might want to warm the sauce up a bit in the microwave…I liked the cold fruit mixed with the warm sauce.

Note: you will have extra sauce with this recipe…keep some in a container in your refrigerator to use with other fruits for snacks, breakfast, or dessert. If you don’t want the extra, then cut the sauce ingredients in half.

Egg Stuffed Sweet Potato

Again, another “Lori creation” from the random things we had around the house to cook. Tomorrow is hopefully my grocery shopping day. 🙂

First of all, I can’t believe that this is the third time that I have gotten my husband to eat sweet potatoes! He pretty much said the exact same thing this morning as we sat down to eat. When I asked him if he liked this dish, I think he was just as shocked as I was when he said, “Yes.”  🙂

I really had no idea what I was doing when I made this….just another fun experiment with some unusual ingredients!

EGG STUFFED SWEET POTATO

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

Serving Size: 2 people

Ingredients:

• 1 extra large, or 2 sweet potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 1-2 tbsp cream cheese
• About 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1-2 tbsp almond flour (optional)
• 1-2 tbsp butter, melted (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Put some holes in your sweet potato, place it on a microwavable safe plate, coat with the melted coconut oil and heat until completely cooked and soft.
• When it is finished, slit the middle and move the sweet potato around a bit on the inside to leave room for the eggs.
• Take little chunks of the cream cheese and put them in the sweet potato.
• Pour in both eggs, making sure not to break the yokes.
• Add small chunks of the the rest of the cream cheese on top of the eggs.
• Pour the maple syrup over the eggs.
• Sprinkle the almond flour on top (optional)
• pour the melted butter over the almond flour. (optional)
• Cook for about 20 minutes.

Chocolate Hazelnut Dark Chocoloate Chip Mufffins with Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce

Remember my last post when I said that I had something up my sleeve that I needed homemade hazelnut spread for? Well, this is what was up my sleeve! I wanted to make us something yummy for Valentines and the rich, yet smooth flavor of chocolate and hazelnut was my inspiration. I didn’t have any heart shaped tins, so I made mini-muffins instead.

I actually tried two versions of these: one with the chocolate chips, and one without. We liked them both, but here is what you need to know: you taste the chocolate hazelnut even more when you don’t add the chocolate chips in, so how you would make them depends on what you are going for.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT DARK CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS WITH CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SAUCE

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

Serving Size: 12 muffins or 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1 tbsp coconut flour
• 4 tbsp homemade chocolate hazelnut spread (plus extra because this will be the sauce you pour over your muffins.)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Mix the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
• Mix the coconut milk, 4 tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread, honey, and eggs in another bowl. When thoroughly mixed, add this to your larger mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
• If you are going to add chocolate chips, add them now and distribute evenly around.
• Grease a muffin pan and pour in the batter.
• Take your extra chocolate hazelnut spread and pour some over the top of each muffin.
• Let cook for 20 min.

Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

I had a creation up my sleeve yesterday that I really needed something like Nutella for. I had actually never heard of such a yummy thing until about a year or two ago, and I fell in love with it instantly!

Though my research on Nutella told me that it falls into the low-glycemic category, when you look on the container, the first ingredient is sugar. It has some things in it that I was pretty positive could be substituted with lower glycemic and healthier options. That is when I came across a recipe at Chocolate Covered Katie. I adapted it a bit as I went along…taste tests always help to figure out if you need to add anything more. Besides splitting the recipe in half due to the fact I didn’t need that much, I added a bit more vanilla, left out the salt, used honey instead of her other sweetener suggestions, and added more sweetener (honey) than she had on her recipe. I have my adapted recipe below, but you might want to play around with it yourself. You may not need it as sweet, or you may want it sweeter. We loved the way it turned out!

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SPREAD

*Adapted by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen from a recipe at Chocolate Covered Katie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup hazelnuts
• 5 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup almond milk

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Put hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes.
• After roasting, you need to take the skins off of all the hazelnuts. A lot of them will come off really easily, but I did have some that were extremely stubborn. So, be prepared that due to stubborn ones, this could take a little longer than you hoped. 🙂
• Once you have the skins off, put them into a food processor. Be patient with this. It will take a lot of processing until you get to the butter-like consistency that you want to be looking for. At first you are probably going to be thinking, “There is no way this is going to turn to butter!” But, trust me, it will! 🙂
• Once you have reached a butter like consistency, add in your other ingredients and continue to process until smooth and mixed thoroughly.
• Now you are ready to eat some, or use it to cook with!

Muffin Pan Omelettes

Here is what my creativity got hubby this morning for breakfast: mini omelettes in a muffin pan! The avocado and feta added both a richness and a smoothness to the taste that I loved!

MUFFIN PAN OMELETTES

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

Serving Size: 3 people

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 2 cloves of fresh garlic, pressed
• Black pepper
• 1 avocado
• 1/4 of an orange pepper (can be substituted with any color)
• a handful of kale, ripped in small pieces
• 1 Roma tomato diced
• Feta cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Chop up all your vegetables/press your garlic
• Grease a muffin pan
• Put a little bit of the orange pepper, avocado, and kale in the muffin holes.
• Crack the 6 eggs into a mixing bowl. Add the 2 cloves of garlic and black pepper. Mix well.
• Pour some of the egg mixture into each muffin hole.
• Add more of the vegetables, then add more egg to each.
• Top it off with some crumbles of feta cheese.
• Cook for 20 minutes.
• Serve immediately, with fresh, diced tomatoes on top.

Orange Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins with Chocolate Orange Sauce

From as little as I can remember, every Valentine’s Day my dad would get both my mom and I a heart shaped box of chocolates. I looked forward to it every year!  Once I opened mine I had one mission: take a bite out of every single piece until I found the one I was looking for….the one filled with orange cream. 🙂

To me, there is no greater combination than orange and chocolate!

As I have been thinking about this, I just knew that I had to experiment and try to come up with a muffin with this very combination. So, that is exactly what I did yesterday, and I am so happy with how they turned out!

I took a picture of the inside of the muffin, so you could see what it looks like. I love being able to see the orange zest in it. 

• Servings: 12 Muffins
• Print

*Created by Lori at Creating Beauty in the Kitchen

For muffin:

• 2 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1 tbsp coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tbsp orange zest
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

For Sauce:

• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

(I ended up with extra sauce, so you probably won’t need it all. I saved mine to pour over some fruit!)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Mix the flours, baking soda, salt, and zest in a large bowl.
• Mix the eggs, orange juice, coconut milk, and honey in another bowl. When mixed well, then combine them with your dry ingredients.
• Add in the chocolate chips and mix thoroughly so they are spread throughout.
• After greasing the muffin tin, pour the batter in.
• Meanwhile, make your sauce by first melting the coconut oil.
• Combine the melted coconut oil with the orange juice, honey, and cocoa. Mix well.
• Pour some of the sauce over each muffin.
• I normally cook my muffins for 20 minutes, but this one I ended up cooking for 24. I think this was due to the extra liquid in it.
• When finished cooking, let cool, and then eat! 🙂