Breakfast Muffins

Being newly married, we are learning to compromise and big one comes with what we eat. We're both pretty picky so I'm limited as far as choices in types of meals. Neither of us are big spicy people, Brian loves his buffalo chicken but we can't handle Thai food like my Dad. My dad was stationed in Thailand when he was in the Navy and got to love the spicy food. I must have missed that growing up because I am total wimp when it goes to spice.

Anyways, I've been experimenting a ton with recipes. I'll try one, we'll decide what we liked about it and I'll change what we didn't. One recipe that Brian loves are my super easy breakfast muffins. They are certainly a crowd pleaser. I brought them to our small study group class at church on Sunday and they were a hit.

Brian loves those Jimmy Dean D-lights Breakfast Sandwiches, but as newlyweds on a budget those sandwiches are just too expensive and hard to find in the flavor he likes. They don't sell them at Publix, our local grocery store. They also don't sell them at BJs in bulk in his flavor. At Target, I can find them for $8.00 for a box of 4, which is ridiculous! So, I came up with my own!

Since the sandwiches are basically batter with add-ins, I started with your basic bisquick mixture. Now I've made two sizes of these muffins, regular and mini. Brian likes a better sausage/cheese to batter ratio than I made with the bigger muffins, so I stick with the mini these days. But they are super yummy for a hot breakfast in the morning that is quick.

 So, with the mini muffin size, I start with a half mixture of the Bisquick to make 24 mini muffins. The ingredients are just 1 cup Bisquick, 1/2 cup milk and 1 egg, exactly what you would find on the box.

Once you have the batter ready, spoon enough of the batter into each muffin section to just cover the bottom.

Then you'll want to get your add-ins ready. I usually start cooking the sausage first in order for it to be ready by the time I need it. I use Jimmy Dean sausage since I can get in bulk at BJs. You can use whatever you like, from a different brand to a different meat, or a veggie version.

Spoon enough of each add-in to just fill the tin. I added in the sausage and shredded cheddar cheese. I plan on experimenting with some other add-ins when I get time. Brian loves pepperjack cheese, so that's one way I plan on mixing it up. You could also just make them with the batter and have mini pancake muffins for a morning you don't want to cook but have the pancakes.

Once you have all your add-ins in, spoon about half a tablespoon of the batter over the top. It doesn't need to be completely covered. The great thing about pancake batter is that it expands as it is cooking.

Then, pop it into a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven and cook for 20-25 minutes. Take them out and you have the yummy goodness shown below.

What I do is freeze a big batch whenever I make them and Brian has breakfast for a few weeks. He loves them since he's getting a hot breakfast and I love them since it's a bargain and I can freeze them.  He takes them out as he needs them and pops them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds or 1 minute for the big ones.

Green Smoothie

We are always trying to find ways to be healthier since sweets seem to call our names. We both don't get a lot of time to exercise except for on the weekends, so we definitely need to eat well. On that track, Brian requested that we try green smoothies. I thought that it would get us our veggies and our fruits, so great idea. Here is the one I tried. I mostly made up the ratios as I went along since I was making in the Magic Bullet that we got for our wedding. It's definitely more of a regular blender job but I thought that the amount per serving I used worked to make a great tasting smoothie.

Ingredients:

1 cup baby spinach

1/2 cup organic fat free yogurt

3 strawberries

1/2 banana

1/2 orange

1/2 apple

They are right when they say that you can't taste the spinach very much at all. I like the flavor of spinach and thought it might be more of a factor, but it definitely is more of an underlying one. 

With the Magic Bullet I had to add the fruit in a little at the time since it didn't all fit, which is why it's more of a regular blender type of smoothie. But, it was quick to make, only took about 10 minutes, which is great since being healthy is typically seen as something that isn't quick or fast like being unhealthy ( fast food ).

I used the Magic Bullet since it can be made in travel mugs, which is so simple. It's all ready for the morning!