Baked Blueberry Lemon French Toast

Hello foodie friends. I'm trying to drag myself away from the yard and garden long enough to make something delicious to share with you all.

Guess what? It's breakfast time again.

I know I've posted quite a few breakfast recipes over the past few months. I can't help it. I just love them! I especially love the make-ahead recipes cause I can leisurely throw them together on a Saturday night and sleep in a bit later on Sunday morning. Pop it in the oven and in less than an hour we have a delicious poppin' hot breakfast.

I used up the second to last bag of my summer blueberries of 2013 for this recipe. I can't wait for blueberry picking 2014! I'm loading up baby!

Please try this scrumptious recipe. Using the King Hawaiian Rolls gives it just a touch of extra sweetness. It's perfect for a lazy Sunday morning breakfast.




Baked Blueberry Lemon French Toast 
recipe from Damn Delicious
Printed recipe
1 (12-count) package King's Hawiian Sweet Dinner Rolls, cubed
1 cup blueberries
2 cups milk
4 large eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

For the Crumb Topping
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Lightly coat a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Place a layer of bread cubes evenly into the baking dish. Top with blueberries in an even layer, repeating 2 more times and ending with a layer of bread. (I didn't do this. I just put the bread down and threw all the blueberries on top)

In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, maple syrup, lemon zest, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour mixture evenly over the bread cubes. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the crumb topping, combine flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add cold butter and toss to coat, using your fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the bread cubes. Place into oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve immediately, sprinkled with confectioners' sugar, if desired.

4 Ingredient Moist and Delicious Chocolate Cake

My oldest son turned nineteen last week. Nineteen! I can hardly believe it. We stopped the big birthday parties at age 18, so we were planning on taking him out to dinner and then having cake at home later. I drove 30 minutes to visit a dairy farm to buy him a fruit tart (which was amazing by the way) and then realized that my youngest son wouldn’t go ten feet near a fruit tart. I know it wasn’t his birthday, but I wanted him to have something sweet to eat too so I went looking for an easy chocolate cake recipe on Pinterest.

There were lots and lots of recipes to choose from. I chose this one from Eat, Live, Run.

4 ingredient cake that is moist and delicious. 4 ingredients. No eggs, no oil. It’s crazy right?

I was skeptical about this recipe. I read the reviews. Those that made it really liked it, so I decided to give it a try.

Let me just preface this to say I made this cake 2 times in 24 hours! It was that good. It was that easy. You literally can throw this cake together in like 2 minutes.

My son had 4 friends unexpectedly show up at the house when we were about to have cake. Now that little fruit tart wasn’t going to cut it so I was glad I had this cake. All the guys loved it. Most of them had 2 pieces. You know you’ve got a good recipe on your hands when big teenage guys devour it.

Yes it uses a boxed cake mix and instant pudding. I’m ok with that. I make cakes from scratch all the time, so using a boxed mix is allowed. Heck , when you are in a hurry it’s welcome! Speaking of hurried…..so I said I made this cake 2 times in 24 hours. My youngest informed me that he needed to bring in something for a class party the next day! Yikes. Good thing I had everything on hand to make it again. He took it to school and came back with an empty cake carrier and told me “you should have made 2 cakes, everyone loved it”.

There is no oil, there is no eggs! Just 4 ingredients!

This recipe is a keeper!



4 Ingredient Most & Delicious Chocolate Cake
Printable recipe
recipe from Eat, Run, Live.
1 box – chocolate cake mix (18.25 ounces)
1 small package (3.4 ounces) instant chocolate pudding
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I don’t measure, just sprinkle until the top is full!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

In a large bowl combine the pudding mix and the milk Whisk for 1 minute, just until it thickens up a bit. Add the cake mix (just the dry mix–don’t add anything else) and stir well to combine. This batter will be very thick! I used use an off-set spatula to spread it out evenly. Scatter chocolate chips on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until edges pull away from sides. Cool, cut, eat!

Vegetable Quiche

I know Mother's Day was ages ago but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. When I'm home I'm usually outside weeding or watering or taking care of something in the yard. I love the extra daylight hours. I always feel like I'm getting gypped out of time when I come home from work during the fall and winter. Spring and summer make me feel like I'm gaining that time back. Makes me happy.

I made a lovely brunch for my Mom for Mother’s Day. I hadn’t done a brunch before. Usually I'd make dinner or just recently over the past few years we went out, but I was feeling the breakfast vibe and wanted to test out a few recipes so brunch it was!

Let me just tell you I am in love with this quiche recipe. I followed basic foolproof quiche instructions from The Kitchn and then tweaked it to my likings.

It was everything a quiche should be. The ratio of veggies to custard egg mixture was perfect. I doubles the recipe and made two. We loved it so much I'm thinking that I might make Sunday's quiche day. Cook one up and use it for breakfasts through the week.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can use whatever veggies (or meat) that you like. I used leeks, mushroom and julienned zucchini. I have a nifty julienne tool so my zucchini was like thin string of  spaghetti. It cooked really quickly too! I topped it off with some grape tomato slices and a few sprigs of fresh thyme just so it looked pretty too. It was Mother's Day after all.

Just make sure to cook your veggies before they go into the quiche. You don't want watery mushroom or spinach to ruin it.

I used a combination of mozzarella and cheddar in my quiche too cause it's what I had on hand but a nice Gruyere or Swiss would do nicely too.



Vegetable Quiche
Printable recipe
1- 9 inch pie crust
2 cups filling ingredients (whatever you like, i.e,  bacon, mushrooms, onions, spinach, etc)
1-2 cups (3 oz - 6 oz) grated cheese, like Gruyere, Swiss, or Cheddar
3 large eggs
¾ cup milk
½ cup half and half or heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
teaspoon Italian seasonings
½ teaspoon fresh thyme

9-inch cake or pie pan - straight-sided is traditional, but a pan with sloped sides works fine.

Blind-Bake the Crust: Line a 9-inch pie plate with parchment and spray the sides with non-stick spray. Roll out the pie crust and fit it into the tin. Heat the oven to 375°F. Line the pie crust with parchment and fill with pie weights or beans. Make sure the weights are snug against the sides of the pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or just until lightly brown. Remove the weights and parchment. Let cool.

While the crust is baking, prepare your quiche filling. Make sure all ingredients are cooked through and are fairly dry. (i.e., make sure spinach has wilted and that cooked mushrooms have released all their moisture.)

Sprinkle half the cheese over the bottom of the pie crust and top with the fillings. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over top.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, salt, pepper Italian seasonings and thyme until frothy. Pour the custard into the pie crust.

Bake the quiche at 350°F for 30 to 40 minutes, until the edges are set but the quiche still jiggles just a little in the center. Cool for at least 20 minutes. Quiche can be served cold, room temperature, or warmed. If serving warm, heat in a 300°F oven until just warm to the touch.