Apple Turnover Toast

This is one of my favorite breakfasts or nighttime snacks.  It still gives you a similar taste of an apple turnover, but it is healthier than the original, so you can feel good about eating it!

What you need:

1 half an apple

1/4 cup -fat cottage cheese

1 slice of whole wheat toast

Cinnamon and sugar

What you do:

1. Toast your bread.  While that is toasting, dice the apple into small squares. 

2. Once the bread is toasted, let it cool for a minute. Spread the cottage cheese evenly over the toast.  

3. Next, add a layer of apples and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Enjoy!

Birds in a Nest (Eggs in Toast)

This is one of my favorite things to make for dinner. Yes, I said dinner, but breakfast for dinner is quick, easy, and delicious! It also looks cool.

What you need for 2 servings...or one if you are me:

2 eggs
2 pieces of wheat toast
butter
seasoning (I used one with everything in it, but salt and pepper are fine too)

What you do:

1. Heat a pan on medium heat. Add a pat of butter to melt while you are preparing the bread.
2. To prepare the bread, use a round biscuit cutter or a glass to cut a hole out of the center of each piece of bread.
3. Butter the bread on both sides then place inside the pan.
4. Crack one egg into each hole in the bread. Let cook a few minutes on each side, depending how runny you want the yokes. Be careful when you flip them, sometimes they stick to the pan.
5. Season to your liking and enjoy!

Tips:
*If you are cooking bacon or sausage too, use a bit of the grease from that instead of butter in the egg pan. This adds a bit more flavor.
*The circles of bread that are left over make a good small sandwich for little ones, or toast.
*If you are nervous about cracking the egg directly into the middle of the bread, crack the egg into a bowl first then slowly pour it into the middle of the bread.

Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

My friend Tobie and I share a love of baking. So we decided to try our hands at cinnamon rolls. She got inspiration from a great website called The Pioneer Woman. Tobie used the recipe for her cinnamon roll dough and then we added our own twist to it. We had to limit our creations to just 3 flavors of cinnamon rolls, reserving our other fantabulous ideas for when we open a bakery, after we win the lottery of course.

So Tobie made the dough the night before and then it looked like this in the morning.


Then we made our game plan. Three kinds of rolls: Brown sugar & Cinnamon, Apple Butter & Cinnamon and Apricot-Orange Almond. Really, the possibilities are endless, but like I said we had to limit ourselves. The dough we used was a very light dough, not too chewy either. It had a great texture to it. My favorite were the Apricot-Orange rolls, they weren't too sweet yet had a lot of flavor.

Basic Method for Cinnamon Rolls:
1. Melt some butter in a saucepan on low heat. We ended up using about 1 stick for all 3 kinds. Grease some pans to put the rolls with melted butter- round cake pans work nicely. Sprinkle flour on a smooth surface for rolling the dough. Don't forget to dust the rolling pin too, to prevent sticking.

2. Separate the dough into sections, we did 3 since we were doing 3 fillings. This makes it easier to roll. You will want to roll the dough into a rough rectangle shape until its about 1/4 inch thick.

3. Brush on melted butter all over the rectangle.
4. Add the filling evenly, trying to cover the entire surface. The one pictured is the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon.

5. Next start on one of the long ends, and roll the dough into one log.

6. Using a sharp knife and a sawing motion, cut the dough into 3/4 to 1 inch thick pieces. We started by trimming the funny ends off and then started to cut nice-looking pieces. The funny end-bits became our tasters. Place rolls into the pans, about 1/2 to 1 inch apart since the dough will rise a bit.

7. Let the rolls sit 20 to 30 minutes to rise, then bake at 400 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.


And now the fun part....the fillings!!!

#1 Brown Sugar and Cinnamon
Mix together about 3/4 cup brown sugar and 2tbsp ground cinnamon. Add a pinch of ground nutmeg or allspice (or both) and combine.

#2 Apple Butter and Cinnamon
Apple butter can be found in the jelly/jam section of the grocery store-or use any flavor spread you want. Spread the apple butter first on the dough. Then use the leftover brown sugar mix from the first batch and sprinkle it on top of the apple butter.


#3 Apricot-Orange Almond
I had an apricot-orange jam from Trader Joe's that we used to spread on the dough first. Then we took some toasted almonds and chopped them up and sprinkled them on top of the jam. Yummy!