National Food Days

While September is National Breakfast Month, February is National HOT Breakfast Month. Given that I am a bona fide breakfast fanatic, I feel that breakfast not only deserves two months, but it’s well within reason for it to have 10. Seriously, what’s not to love about breakfast food? Waffles with syrup seeping into its crevices, pancakes with butter melting down the sides, blueberry muffins with their warmth and sweetness, scrambled eggs with Monterey Jack cheese, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs with cornbread, French toast with cream cheese and orange marmalade nestled in between its delectable layers..

Let’s make that 12 months breakfast deserves.

In honor of National HOT Breakfast Month, I’m going to feature a new breakfast recipe or idea each day of the month. These recipes will be perfect for breakfast OR supper (ironically my favorite time to enjoy breakfast food). The recipes will be quick and easy, gluten-free, and packed with flavor and goodness in each bite. Quite a few of the recipes will feature some of my kitchen staples:

• Krusteaz Gluten-Free Mixes
• Krusteaz Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour
• T-fal Non-Stick Skillet (review upcoming)
• T-fal Waffle/Sandwich Removable EZ Clean (review upcoming)
• Eggs (color me obsessed)
• Bacon
• Berries – I’m crazy about blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries and work them in any chance I have.

I’ve declared my great love for Krusteaz Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour on the food blog before. I’ve even posted recipes for Cranberry Pecan Cookies and White Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies using this perfect gluten-free flour. It’s a staple in my gluten-free kitchen. In fact Krusteaz is synonymous with gluten-free baking as far as I’m concerned. Mind you, all of their products aren’t gluten-free, but the ones that are could not be any better.

That’s why I immediately jumped on their gluten-free mixes:

• Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancake Mix
• Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffin Mix
• Gluten-Free Honey Cornbread Mix
• I just saw on their website that they now have a Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Brownie Mix – O.M.G. I’ll be looking for that at Meijer’s today!

A few days ago, I wrote about the Gluten-Free Honey Cornbread Mix in my recipe for Sloppy Joes Cornbread Pizza (other level delicious). If (like my cornbread loving husband) you can’t get enough of the flavor of great cornbread, you’ll love this idea for putting a breakfast spin on the Cornbread Mix – serve it with scrambled eggs or a breakfast casserole. Cornbread is delicious with butter and jam or even apple butter. Use it in place of toast for extra flavor.

Plus, let’s face it, there’s just something so right about the way cornbread looks in an iron skillet. Krusteaz Honey Cornbread Mix is the best cornbread mix I’ve ever had (gluten-free or not) and is as good as homemade cornbread. To get a crunchier bottom, use bacon grease in the skillet instead of shortening or oil. It gives it wonderful flavor, too. This is the mix I used (along with the bacon trick) for my stuffing last Thanksgiving and it was AMAZING.

Have you ever taken a slice of hot cornbread and covered it with buttermilk? I remember seeing my grandmother and mom tear cornbread into pieces, place the pieces in a bowl and pour buttermilk on top. When I was a kid, I thought they were nuts. When I got a little older, curiosity got the better of me and I poured some buttermilk on hot cornbread – poking holes and letting it seep down into the golden goodness. Words CANNOT tell you how delicious this is. These ladies were onto something!

Krusteaz Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffin Mix

Blueberry muffins are, in my opinion, one of the most perfect comfort foods in the world. Maybe it’s my fascination with berries, but I could eat them every single day of the year. They can be a little time-consuming, though, if you make them from scratch – but, unfortunately, most mixes are closer to comedy than comfort. The little dry things that pass for blueberries amaze me, and not in a good way.

Krusteaz Gluten-Free Blueberry Mix uses plump little blueberries (packaged in a separate can in the box) that you drain, rinse, and simply throw into the batter.  This mix couldn’t be any simpler and it couldn’t be any more delicious.

The muffins aren’t just quick, easy, and delicious, they have a little extra magic we gluten-free eaters RESPECT – they’re as good the second day as the first. For whatever reasons, this is often rare with gluten-free baking (whether from mixes or scratch). Somehow, with each subsequent day, the flavor deteriorates. I can’t vow for day three because they certainly didn’t stick around that long! I actually made myself hide one away so I could test it’s “next day/leftover” flavor. It passed with flying yummy colors.

These guys are phenomenal.

I didn’t this particular time, but you can toss in chopped pecans or walnuts and/or white chocolate chips for fun.

For easy cleanup, use paper liners – I’m not sure why but cleaning a muffin pan is near the top of my most hated kitchen chores. Paper liners keep the peace.

Krusteaz Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancake Mix: Two Meals/One Mix

I have used (and loved!) Krusteaz Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancake Mix for pancakes – they’re perfect each and every time. I recently bought a new T-fal Sandwich Waffle EZ Clean, however, and was anxious to use it, so I made the Waffles recipe on the back of the box. The recipe calls for 1/2 the box but I wanted to see how the mix would do refrigerated overnight, so I doubled the recipe, using the whole box.

I made some blueberry waffles for my husband and I last night (above) and they were stupendous. Seriously, they were out of this world delicious. Served with eggs over-easy and bacon, it was a supper we raved about all night. BTW, T-fal is as good as it gets for making breakfast or anything for that matter. I’ll go more into their goodness in upcoming posts, including an in-depth review of my newest T-fal non-stick fry pan.

Also, I wanted to let you know that later this month, in celebration of Pancake Day (March 3rd), Target will offer 15% OFF select non-stick cookware in stores and online. The sale will take place from Feb 27th – March 3rd. I’ll remind you as the dates draw closer.

To add berries to your waffles, gently stir in the desired amount after you’ve combined the other ingredients.

My husband was floored when I told him the waffles were from a mix. When he picked himself up, I told him the blueberry muffins we’d had a few days prior AND the cornbread for the Sloppy Joes Cornbread Pizza were also from mixes. He looked at me like I had two heads but I finally convinced him by showing him a box. He agreed with me that Krusteaz was in a class all their own.

I refrigerated the rest of the mix overnight and this morning decided to add a few extra ingredients for fun. I chopped up a few handfuls of almonds and threw them into the mix. Then I added a tablespoon of healthy chia seeds (pictured below).

I was really anxious to see if this mix did well refrigerated overnight because for anyone with busy mornings knows that putting together even a simple mix can FEEL time-constraining. Whereas making the mix the night before (maybe even while you’re in the kitchen making supper) and stashing it in the fridge is much more time-friendly.

I was thrilled to see (make that taste) that the waffles are every bit as good the next day.

Two delicious meals/One quick and easy mix? Come on, what’s not to love about that!?

Homemade Whipped Topping

I wouldn’t dream of serving waffles without homemade whipped topping – it just wouldn’t feel right. To make a wonderful topping (so much better than the stuff in tubs or cans), simply use your blender and combine 1 cup heavy whipping cream and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar until very stiff peaks form.

So there you have it… quick and easy ways to use and LOVE Krusteaz gluten-free breakfast mixes. These are simply out of this world. In the coming days, you’ll see Krusteaz  and T-fal, for that matter, pop up in more breakfast recipes. In the meantime head over to the Krusteaz website for recipes and more information. You can find these mixes in most grocery stores. I find them, without fail, in Kroger and Meijer’s.

 

AMAZON:

• Find Krusteaz Gluten-Free Mixes on Amazon
• Find T-fal on Amazon