Breakfast Quesadillas

I am always looking for breakfast ideas I can prep ahead and take to work with me.  Often I'll make my Baked Oatmeal or overnight oats but this weekend I made Breakfast Quesadillas and prepped an extra for work on Monday.  

I love making egg scrambles on the weekends or days when I'm home from the office for my breakfast but it's more difficult to make the time on work days to make a hot breakfast and eat it before I go.  So I decided to give these Quesadillas a go.  

The were easily heated up in the toaster oven on the toast setting or bake setting; either would work well.  I heated them until slightly crispy and cheese is bubbling again.  These Breakfast Quesadillas made for a rare hot and cheesy breakfast in the office!  YUM!  The only thing that could have made these better was if I had brought a little salsa with me too.  Next time :)

Breakfast Quesadillas

Total Time: 30 min.
Prep Time: 15 min.
Cooking Time: 15 min.
Yield: 2 servings, 1 quesadilla each
Portion Fix Container Count:  1 Yellow, 1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Blue

1 tsp. olive oil
1 portobello mushroom, chopped
1 medium Orange (or red) bell pepper, chopped
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 whole wheat tortillas
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Heat oil in medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add mushroom and bell pepper; cook, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until peppers are slightly soft. Reduce heat to medium-low.
3. Add eggs; cook, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until eggs are set. Remove from heat.
4. Top each tortilla evenly with egg mixture and cheese.
5. Fold each tortilla in half; cook in medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, for 4 to 5 minutes, turning once, until cheese is melted and tortilla is golden brown.

Tip: You can cook quesadillas you are going to eat or serve, and you can tightly wrap the others and refrigerate for 3 to 4 days (or freeze them). This is a great way to have breakfasts prepared in advance. 

Fixate Protein Waffles

Tonight was a breakfast for dinner kinda night! So I decided to throw together a batch of protein waffles from the fixate cookbook! We topped them with homemade blackberry jam!  #YUM

I'm currently following the Country Heat Program which I am really enjoying, and the Meal plan mirrors that of the 21 day fix so I've been referring to my Fixate cookbook for inspiration in addition to the New Fixate Cooking show on Beachbody on Demand!  Having so many recipe ideas and inspiration at my finger tips keeps me on track.

In the Fixate Cookbook these waffles are paired with chicken for a Chicken and Waffle combo as you will see in the photo below.

Fixate Protein Waffles

Ingredients

4 large egg whites, beaten to form stiff peaks
2 cups oat flour *
2 Tbsp. flaxseeds
¾ cup vanilla protein powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
A pinch of sea salt

Instructions

Pre-heat waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or using a mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

In a medium bowl, add oat flour, flaxseeds, protein powder, baking powder, vanilla, and almond and mix to combine. Add the egg whites and gently fold to incorporate.

Drop by 2/3 cupful onto hot waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer's directions, until golden brown and crisp.

Serve immediately with your favorite topping.

Notes

*Oat flour can be made by grinding an equal amount of regular uncooked oatmeal in a blender or food processor until it forms a powder.

Adapted from the FIXATE cookbook

Iced Coffee

We are on holiday right now in Patksville, enjoying the beach and the sun ☀️

Today we hit the beach after lunch and Had some left over coffee in the coffee pot from this morning which inspired me to make an iced coffee when we returned. ☕️

Trailer made Iced Coffee

Ingredients 

Ice

Splash of maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

Splash of milk or cream 

Cooled coffee

Directions

Add the ingredients in the order listed, at your preference (more milky, less sweet etc) stir and enjoy! 

White Cheddar and Broccoli Stuffed Chicken

This week my meal planning has been on point!  Yay me!!  Through July I found we were really winging it and not planning ahead as we normally do during the school year so before we headed to the root cellar grocer on Monday (Holiday day) afternoon I made my meal plan and grocery list for the rest of the week.  On Tuesday we enjoyed homemade turkey burgers with veggies for dinner and last night I made these lovely white cheddar and broccoli stuffed chicken roll ups!  

Everyone really loved these and they were super easy to put together too. I made a small pot of brown rice as a side dish for the boys along with some veggies to complete the meal and I was surprised to see the kids gobble it up!  

White Cheddar and Broccoli Stuffed Chicken

Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast very thin
1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped broccoli fresh or frozen

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

Garlic powder

Paprika
1/2 tbsp Olive Oil 

Toothpicks

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If your chicken breasts are not already thin, pound them with a mallet or rolling pin until thin. This makes the chicken easier to fold in half. Place them in a baking dish or parchment lined baking pan.

Pulse fresh broccoli in the food processor to make very small pieces, the smaller the better.  Or chop broccoli into small pieces.

Coat chicken with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.

Sprinkle white cheddar cheese evenly on top of the chicken breasts. You can save a little bit to add to the top after you fold them if desired.

Sprinkle chopped broccoli evenly on top of the cheese. The smaller you chopped your broccoli, the easier it stays on when you fold it.

Fold your chicken breasts in half and secure with 1-2 toothpicks each.

Brush the tops of the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle with more sea salt and pepper.

Place Chicken into the Oven.  Cook for about 20 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

If desired sprinkle chicken with the remaining cheese and then bake uncovered for an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted. 

Vanilla Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

Make your own guilt-free ice cream with bananas and peanut butter. Yum!

I made a big batch of "Nicecream" as it's commonly referred to, using frozen bananas, almond milk, vanilla protein powder and peanut butter this weekend!

I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I was very pleasantly surprised. I froze the bananas weeks ago and stored them in a big ziploc bag awaiting a warm weekend when we wanted ice cream!  

The best way to freeze the bananas is to slice them up and place them all onto parchment paper on top a cookie sheet.  This ensures they don't all clump together in the freezer bag.  I do all my berries the same way, freeze on a cookie sheet and then transfer into a freezer bag once frozen.  Do you do this too?

Initially I had made the ice cream without the intention to "Swirl" it with peanut butter BUT once I had that Jar of peanut butter in my hand it just kinda happened!  Boy I'm glad it did!  The swirl put it over the top!!  

The recipe is very versatile and I can easily see myself making several versions over the summer months.  

Vanilla Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

Yield: 5 servings, about ½ cup each

Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 scoops Vanilla Protein Powder (I used Vanilla Shakeology)
2 medium frozen bananas (cut into chunks before freezing)
2 Tbsp. all-natural smooth peanut butter plus 2 Tbsp to swirl in

Preparation:
1. Place almond milk, Shakeology, bananas, and 2 Tbsp peanut butter in high-powered blender (such as a Ninja or Vita-mix); cover.
2. Blend on low for 5 seconds; increase power to high and continue blending for 30 seconds until smooth.
3. Pour mixture in a large glass bowl and swirl in extra 2 tbsp peanut butter; cover.
4. Freeze for 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, before serving.

Peach Pie Waffles

Peaches are a summer time treat!  I picked up a few at the Root Cellar on Monday and had them ripening in the window for a few days as they were a little firm yet.  But I knew I had to use them up this weekend and the boys requested waffles for breakfast on Sunday morning so these Peach Pie Waffles were born!  Last summer I made my grandma a peach trifle for her birthday and learned that Cardamom is the spice for peaches, so in it went into these waffles.  

These little peaches were almost too ripe as I had a hard time extracting the pit without squishing them too much.  But boy were they sweet.  I am never sure if the kids will love or reject my creations and I almost contemplated making a few plain waffles just in case.  But I bit the bullet and made the whole batch with peaches.  

These golden babies paired beautifully with a drizzle of honey to sweeten the batter and we topped our waffles with FATSO butter and pure maple syrup.  If you haven't heard of FATSO butter I posted about it last week on my facebook page and have been using it in my bullet proof coffee, and for anything that I would normally use butter.  It is a nutrient dense butter with 7 added super fats!  

FATSO Butter contains Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Ghee, Avocado Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, MCT Oil, Organic Hemp Seeds, Cacao Butter and Hymalayan Salt!  

I can't fund much in the way of info or a company website for the company but they also have a peanut butter! 

I've gotta say taking a photo of a stack of Waffles is not the easiest, I need more of a photo set up to get a good photo of these lovely peach filled waffles.  But for now I did the best I could before they got completely cold!  I gotta eat them too!  

Next time I'll top mine with a big scoop of plain green yogurt.  I almost did this time as well but I decided to try them just with butter and maple syrup like the boys were.  They really tasted like I was eating peach pie for breakfast which is how the recipe got it's name.  I'm pretty sure that if there are any peaches left over this week I'll be making another batch of these over the weekend!  Addicted!!!  

Peach Pie Waffles

Ingredients

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom 

2 Eggs

1 Tbsp Honey

1 3/4 Cups Almond Milk (or regular milk)

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

1 Tsp Pure Vanilla

3 small ripe peaches sliced

Directions

• Mix together Whole wheat Flour, Baking Powder, cinnamon and Cardamom. Set Aside.
• In medium mixing bowl, whisk eggs with Almond Milk, honey, Olive oil and Vanilla.  
• Add sliced peaches to dry mixture. Stir gently to coat. 
• Add wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir to combine. 
• Spoon batter onto hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown. 
• Top with sliced peaches, maple syrup, Greek yogurt or butter. Enjoy! 

Bursting Blueberry Scones

Mmmmm.....  Scones! 

We have our 3rd lacrosse tournament in a row this weekend so us parents chipped in for coffee and brought breakfast snacks for the first game of the day. I made a double batch of blueberry scones last night for the parents. 

Our team and parents are awesome this year and we have gotten together for a tailgate party and camped together for our other tournaments this year. We are a young team against 4 stronger and older teams, so we knew it wouldn't be a winning weekend for us but we wanted the kids to have a great weekend! It's important to keep the kids spirits up and keep them motivated so we made a plan....

Gord and I came up with a real life star chart rewards system for the boys! 

Most of us have used a star chart to motivate our kids at one time or another to accomplish a task whether it’s potty training or staying in bed all night as little ones or helping with chores around the house when they are older.  It’s a proven method to motivate them and a visual representation of their progress.  

 

So…. At this mornings game we had 5 stars in the stands for parent or sibling volunteers to hold up after EVERY shift.  

Each shift could earn a max of 5 stars per shift for never giving up, working hard and giving it their all.  

The plan was that they would never receive fewer than 3 stars (we don’t want to demotivate them) but they actually never received fewer than 4! We had a great game and they all worked hard! 

 

After a shift is over and the kids go off the floor, the parents collectively decided how many stars 3,4 or 5 would be given for effort and hold them up for the kids to see with a BIG CHEER!!!  

 

I marked down the stars given after every shift and tallied them up at the end of every period to share with the team.  The goal was 75 stars for the game total!  

They earned 89 🌟s for their first game!!! 

Our kids worked so hard and really held their own in the first game! We have decided to stick with the stars for the rest of the weekend because it really seemed to motivate them!! 

The prize is a BIG water fight after the last game today!

Blueberry Scones

Ingredients

Dry Mixture

2 cups Whole Wheat flour

1/3 cup organic cane sugar 

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp Hymalyian sea salt

3/4 cup coconut oil 

1 cup blueberries

Wet mixture

1 large Egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup almond milk

Topping 

1/4 cup almond milk

1/8 cup organic cane sugar

Directions

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and sea salt into a large bowl. 

With a spoon stir in coconut oil until the mixture is crumbly. 

Add in blueberries and set aside. 

Mix together egg, almond milk or vanilla and pour over top flour mixture. Stir until dough comes together, transfer to a floured surface, knead 3-4 times. 

Separate dough into 2 small balls, pat flat and cut each into 4 pieces. 

Place scones on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Brush each scone with almond milk and sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.