Impress Your Breakfast Guests With Healthy Muffin Recipes

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It provides energy and nutrients to your body for the day ahead. It also helps to kick start your metabolism. Most experts believe that men and women who eat breakfast regularly are more likely to lose and maintain weight when compared to individuals who skip their breakfast. It is, however, important to get a healthy start to the day, and well-balanced and nutritious breakfast could be your first step towards overall health and well being. Your healthy breakfast menu should include significant amounts of fiber along with lean proteins and carbohydrates for instant energy.

Creating a healthy breakfast menu can be challenging. The task is greater when you have guests at home. While you want to make something special for them and make them feel welcome, you do not want to make unhealthy doughnuts and pastries. Muffins are a great choice. You can use healthy muffin recipes to create exotic yet nutritious choices for your guests and family members. With the healthy recipes, almost everyone can enjoy a second serving without feeling guilty about the calories.

You can go online to find several healthy muffin recipes. You can also visit the local book store to find breakfast cookbooks with healthy muffin recipes in them. Popular choices include:

Yamberry Muffins - These consist of cranberries and sweet potato. You can also use barn or whole grain flour to increase the fiber content. The recipe is rich in vitamin A and C, and other essential nutrients.Lemon-Raspberry Muffins - Another one of the healthy muffin recipes, it includes whole grain flour along with vitamin-rich lemon juice and raspberry fruits.Banana Bran Muffins - These are rich in fiber, potassium and other important nutrients. You can add nuts rich in omega fatty acids to increase their nutrient value.Cornmeal Muffins - Individuals looking for healthy muffin recipes will also enjoy cornmeal muffins made from whole cornmeal flour. You can add spices such as cinnamon and ginger which have the ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular illnesses.Buttermilk Muffins - These contain whole wheat flour, essential fatty acid-rich walnuts and pecans along with spices.

Your choice for healthy muffin recipes will essentially depend on your personal preferences. You can also consider the choice of your guests, especially if you know them well. Do not include ingredients that you or the guests may be allergic to. Most healthy muffin recipes are easy to make. You will find most ingredients at a grocery store near you. You should also prepare certain things ahead of time to save time and effort in the last minute.

You can also buy recipe mixes from regular or online stores. Make sure everything is made from highest quality ingredients. The recipe should be easy to make as well. Many bakeries also serve and sell healthy muffins in their menu. You can simply pre-order, and have them deliver the muffins to your home. Most products will stay fresh for two to three days.

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Get Yer Groats On: Make Ahead Steel Cut (Irish) Oatmeal

Irish (steel cut) oatmeal with mix-ins: chopped, toasted almonds, un-sulphered, organic dried cranberries, a dash of cinnamon and a sprinkle of granola.

Once it gets chilly, I start thinking about adding oatmeal to my breakfast rotation. A bowl of oatmeal can be delicious, warming and nutritious. If you look at the types of oats available: hulled and whole (whole groats), steel cut (Irish), stone ground (Scottish), rolled, quick-cooking or instant, they are all whole grain and bring the benefits of that with them. The downside to the more highly processed oats is that the more a grain is processed, the easier it is digested which raises its glycemic level. To counteract this, eat your oatmeal with some protein, even adding milk can help.

Steel-cut a/k/a Irish Oats Steel-cut oat can come in several sizes (grades): pinhead (the largest), coarse, medium and fine. Which grade is pictured? I have zero clue, but I suspect pinhead. 

Quick-cooking and instant oats are like rolled oats (rolled and steamed) but rolled thinner and steamed longer. Also, if you buy prepackaged and flavored instant oats, check the ingredients. They often come with a bunch of sugar, fats, preservatives and even some mighty unnatural-sounding "natural" ingredients. I like steel-cut oats for their taste, texture and nuttiness.

I toasted these almonds in the toaster oven this morning, but you can do that ahead of time, or buy pre-roasted nuts.

Even if you stick with making your steel-cut oatmeal from scratch YOUR add-ins: milk, half-and-half or cream, fruit, sugar and butter - to name a few - while delicious, might counter-balance the nutritional pay-off. 

I like the taste of steel-cut (a/k/a Irish) oats but to prepare from scratch takes 30 to 40-ish minutes, including bringing the water to a boil. Soaking steel-cut or stone ground oats the night before cuts the preparation time to 10 minutes, but if you want to cut that down to 3 minutes for one or two servings at a time, this method works well.

I bring water to a boil, add the steel-cut oats and boil - not a furious boil, but more of an "angry simmer" - for 10 minutes, uncovered, stirring a couple of times. After 10 minutes, I turn off the heat, move the pan to a cool burner and put the lid on. Then I let it sit for a couple of hours without removing the lid. After that I pack the oatmeal in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator where it will easily store for 5-7 days. 

RECIPE: MAKE AHEAD STEEL-CUT (IRISH) OATMEAL

Servings: 4-6

• This method works best when you want to serve one or two people. If you're serving a group, use the link at the end of this recipe to a recipe found on Food and Wine's site ("Method: Feeding a Group: Quicker Cooking Steel Cut Oats by Soaking Overnight")
• When I am adding items to the oatmeal (fruit, nuts, granola, etc.) I serve about 2/3 - 3/4 cups oatmeal per person.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups water
• 1 cup steel-cut oats
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation (Make-Ahead)

1. Bring 4 cups water to a rolling boil in a 2-3 quart pan. Add the salt stir the water and then pour in the steel-cut oats. Stir for a few seconds. 
2. Adjust the heat so that the mixture is at a low boil. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring a few times.
3. After 10 minutes, stir once or twice and remove the pan from the heat and cover with a tight-fitting lid and move it to a cool burner. Let this sit for a minimum of and hour (check after one hour) until, well until it looks like oatmeal. Spoon the oatmeal into a container with a tight-fitting lid. You can store this in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 5-7 days.

To Serve:

For each serving, spoon 1/2 to 2/3 cups into a serving bowl. If the oatmeal's too stiff, add liquid by the tablespoon - water, milk (dairy or non- ) and stir until the oatmeal is as loose as you prefer.

Mix-Ins Before Reheating

Dried fruit, fresh fruit (I like grated apple or pear), spices (cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, etc, five-spice powder - go crazy!) to taste, a dash of vanilla (or other) extract. Sugar or some other sweetener as preferred. It's up to you. I don't add them, but if I did I'd use pure maple syrup, brown sugar or fruit preserves.

Cover each bowl and reheat in the microwave on full power for 1 minute. Check after one minute and stir. Return to the microwave and reheat for another minute.

Mix-Ins After Reheating - ENDLESS!

Granola, toasted nuts, toasted coconut, fresh fruit, peanut butter... I could go on.

Method: Feeding a Group: Quicker Cooking Steel Cut Oats by Soaking Overnight

• Overnight Oatmeal with Almonds and Dried Cranberries Contributed by Grace Parisi in Food and Wine, December 2008

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Buttermilk Chronicles Part 1: Buttermilk Peach Smoothie

On my way to breakfast at Lynn's house yesterday - buttermilk biscuits, eggs, sausage gravy and fruit - I bought buttermilk for the biscuits. A quart. Why doesn't buttermilk come in pints and half-pints as it did in my childhood so I don't end up with left-over buttermilk? There are a lot of uses for buttermilk, but none of them were on my menus for the upcoming week. All I remember about buttermilk from my childhood is that my dad loved drinking it straight (with a little black pepper) and, as a child, I hated the taste. I had consigned myself to using powdered buttermilk for spur-of-the-moment biscuits ("Buttermilk Biscuits") when I had neither buttermilk nor milk (to transform into a substitute with lemon juice or vinegar).

Why I continued to hold this childhood prejudice against buttermilk I don't know. I love yogurt - the tangy-er the better. I make my own yogurt on the tangy side. Lynn talked me into taking the remainder home and I vowed to use it. This morning I made a buttermilk peach smoothie and I pronounce it... DELICIOUS! Will I buy buttermilk just for smoothies? YES!

I don't use ice in my breakfast smoothies because I think it dilutes the flavors. If all of the ingredients are frosty cold right from the refrigerator, or the fruit is frozen, it's absolutely chilled enough for me.

RECIPE: PEACH BUTTERMILK SMOOTHIE WITH NUTMEG AND LIME

Serves: 1
 - The lime and nutmeg were fun but this would be delicious on its own. I'd may even skip the agave syrup the next time.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium peach (any sweet juicy fruit will do, about 3/4 to 1 cup total)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon agave syrup (optional)
• 1 squeeze lime juice (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
• 1 small pinch kosher salt

Preparation:

• Wash the peach, remove the pit and chop (with peel) into a large dice. If desired, place in a bowl and freeze for 15-30 minutes. Go ahead and stick the serving glass in there as well.
• Add the all of the ingredients to a blender and puree for 1 minute. Serve in a chilled glass.

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Saturday Breakfast: Bacon, Tomato and Avocado Breakfast Sandwich

Nothin' special here - except for the taste: toasted English muffin, smashed avocado, sliced Early Girl tomatoes and bacon. Grapes on the side.

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Saturday Breakfast: Potato and Sausage Hash Topped with an Egg

...or "Put a Bird (Egg) on It"

Really, there's no egg theme here, nothing to look at, eh? - even though this is my second post in a row with an egg-topped dish. There will be more egg-topped food upcoming (Uovo in Purgatorio) but not right away.

Last Friday night we made chicken breasts stuffed with pancetta/tarragon chicken sausage, mushrooms, leeks, garlic and thyme. With some of the mixture left over it seemed like a good time to revisit breakfast hash on Saturday.

Yeah, the rolled-up stuffed chicken breasts were delicious, but we were cooking up a storm with no time for pictures. I'm not holding out on you. I wouldn't do that to the few people I know who read this plus the two people I don't know. Next time we'll document it.

Recipe: Potato and Sausage Hash Topped with an Egg

There are no hard and fast amounts of ingredients called-for. You can add herbs,garlic, roasted chiles, substitute green onion for onions, add-in some cheese at the end - it's up to you. The really important thing is that your diced potatoes are beautifully browned. Balance the heat so that you can spread them out and leave them alone for a few minutes before you turn them.

Serves 4

Equipment: A really big saute pan/skillet or two big pans - you want color on the potatoes and don't want them so deep in the pan that they steam to the point of collapse before they have browned.

Ingredients:

• 5 medium-sized russet potatoes diced (small, approximately 1/3"). Unpeeled is just fine (and preferred!) as long as you've thoroughly scrubbed them.
• Approximately 2 cups fresh sausage of choice (we used two sausages) removed from their casing.
• 1 small onion, diced
• Oil - neutral oil with a high smoke point (we used canola)
• 4 large eggs - fried or poached
• Salt and pepper

Preparation:

• Place the diced potatoes in a microwave-safe glass bowl large enough to be able to stir them easily. Microwave on 50% power for about 5 minutes.  Stir and repeat - for 2 minutes. Set aside. You can skip this step - it will just take the potatoes longer to cook.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a saute pan or skillet in which you will ultimately be cooking the potatoes over medium/medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering and there are little wisps of smoke coming off the surface. Add the sausage, breaking it up with a spoon or heat-proof spatula but don't move it around so much it doesn't color.  You want to brown, not 'gray' the meat. Adjust the heat as necessary to keep it from burning. As the sausage browns, break it up to the extent that pleases you.
• When the sausage is browned and cooked through, take the pan off the heat, spoon out the sausage from the pan and drain. Pour the oil and left-over fat from the sausage into a heat-proof bowl and reserve - any solids will end up on the bottom of the bowl after a couple of minutes. Use a crumpled paper towel to thoroughly wipe out the pan. Replace the pan on the burner, add 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved fat in which you cooked the sausage and heat on medium until the oil shimmers. Add the diced onion and a dash of salt and pepper. 
• Cook the onion, adjusting the heat if necessary, until the dice is translucent and most of the edges are light brown. Scrape those out of the pan over top the sausage you cooked and drain. Again, pour the remaining oil/fat out of the pan and wipe it out thoroughly.
• Add enough oil to the pan to coat the bottom. Start with 2 tablespoons. Add potatoes to a depth of no more than 1/2". Toss to coat and then adjust the heat so that you can leave them for about 4-5 minutes at a time until you turn them with a wide spatula. Continue until the potato cubes are tender on the inside with a golden brown crust and then add the sausage and onions back into the pan to warm.
• Cook the eggs to order - fried or poached is best. Serve the hash topped with an egg.

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Olive Oil-Fried Egg with a Balsamic Glaze on Arugula

I saw a picture of this dish along with a reference that it was on the brunch menu at Foreign Cinema restaurant in San Francisco. The dish looked delicious! I've never eaten brunch there but have had a few very good and (one in particular) very memorable dinners there. Shortly after I saw the picture, I made the egg, sans arugula (delicious!) and declared it a winner preparation but wanted to see what it tasted like with delicate, bitter greens. I really love the taste of the greens combined with the egg yolk and the (very) slight sweetness of the balsamic glaze. You can use arugula, endive, cress or young dandelion greens or something less bitter like butter lettuce or mache torn in small pieces if you're not a fan, as I am, of the aforementioned greens.

This can be served solo, on top of the greens or on a piece of grilled or toasted bread - or on a slice of grilled toasted bread topped with the greens... I've seen variations that include mushrooms as well. How runny I like my eggs depends somewhat on what accompanies them. For this dish I like them just barely over. It works best when the yolk is somewhere between completely runny and somewhat runny - it's up to you.

Like any quick-cooked egg dish, it should be served immediately so it's good to have the greens ready (not too far in advance) and on the plate when the egg is ready. Reducing the balsamic vinegar takes just seconds. Make sure you wipe out the skillet thoroughly to mitigate the splatter - there will likely be some balsamic splatter no matter how careful you are.

If you're using delicate greens here are a couple of tips that apply to this - or any other similar preparation. To clean them, after picking off the thicker stems, submerge the greens in very cold water and VERY gently swish them around. Dry them thoroughly in a salad spinner.

One of the best ways to dress them is a 'broken' (not emulsified) vinaigrette where the greens are tossed with the oil before the vinegar is added. In this case, right before you start cooking the eggs,  wash and dry your hands thoroughly and then place the greens in a large enough bowl so that they are not crowded.

Pour 1/2 to a scant 1 teaspoon of olive oil in the palm of one (impeccably clean) hand, rub your hands together and then use them to gently toss the greens and distribute the oil on the leaves. Add a little more at a time if you think you need it. Season with a pinch of salt.

Note - it took me far too long to learn - and remember - the difference between a skillet and a sauté pan, and if you don't know you can find out here. 

Recipe: Olive Oil-Fried Egg with a Balsamic Glaze on Arugula

Visually inspired by Foreign Cinema's version
Serves 2
Equipment: 8" skillet, well-seasoned or non-stick

Ingredients:

• Arugula Salad
• 2 handfuls of arugula, washed and thoroughly dried with any thicker stem ends pinched off
• 1 generous teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
•  Olive Oil-Fried Eggs with a Balsamic Glaze
• 2 large, fresh eggs (remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes in advance of cooking)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preparation:

• Toss the prepared arugula gently (by hand - as described in the head notes) with the olive oil 1/2 teaspoon at a time. The leaves should be very lightly dressed. Season with a pinch of salt and toss to combine. Taste to confirm the seasoning. Divide the arugula between two plates and set aside.
• Heat 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick 8" skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Crack the eggs into the skillet (or into a small bowl and then into the skillet) and let them cook for about 30 seconds to set the whites swirling the pan very gently once or twice. The white will get bubbly the edges will begin to brown. Season the eggs with salt and pepper. Tilt the pan carefully and baste the yolks with the oil and cook the eggs until you're happy with them. Place one egg on top of each plate of arugula.
• Remove the pan from the heat, pour out the oil and thoroughly wipe out the interior with a crumpled paper towel. Before placing the pan back on the heat, pour in the 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (remember that it will splatter) and reduce for about 15 seconds. It's likely that you won't have to put the pan back on the heat source and that it will retain enough heat to reduce the balsamic.
• Drizzle each of the eggs and arugula with the reduced balsamic glaze and serve immediately.

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Saturday Breakfast

Cheesy scrambled eggs on a warm Acme croissant, merguez, Toulouse, chicken-prosciutto sausages from Golden Gate Meats and Dirty Girl strawberries

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