Brunch Time! Easy Vanilla-Almond Baked French Toast

It's been a struggle to sit still recently and just enjoy the moment. Most doctors tell me, "Enjoy medical school, you'll never get the time off that you do then!" but then I everywhere I turn, friends are publishing papers and going to conferences, getting involved with all kinds of research, and I'm...petting my new puppy. Not to say that petting my new puppy isn't amazing, but it does leave one wondering, "Should I be doing all that?"

Those who know me know that I tend to obsess. It's a double edge sword really: if I need to sit down and study, I will sit down and study for 14 hours straight; if I lose something, I'll spend a hour and a half searching for it, and if I get concerned about whether or not I need to be doing something with my career/academics, I'll sit there and mentally chew on it for days until I'm out of my mind with nervousness and I internally implode and finally calm down.

Healthy, no?

Well, I'm a lot better than I used to be with the latter two. I don't really have an hour and a half to search for stuff now, and really what good does it do me to sit there and  constantly stress about whether or not I'm doing the "right thing" for my career?

So I just try not to. I'm not super successful, but when I catch myself careening over the edge of "what about research? Ahh! What if I don't get a residency? AHH! should I be going in after hours and shadowing?? AHH!" I just stop myself, take a deep breath, and eat a damn cookie. It's all gonna be okay, and I'm pretty happy. That, my friend, is a lot right there.

Speaking of happy, this french toast makes me happy because it's so unbelievably easy.  I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs under the "Pretty. Easy." heading, and it definitely looked anything BUT easy.

 

It wasn't a lie though, it's crazy easy, and people come over and are all, "You made that?!" and you're all, "Yeah" in a bashful yet subtly cocky way. That's right, subtle cockiness will get you far. Fair warning, it's an overnight recipe, which can throw people off for the easiness factor, but trust me, it's easy. I've said easy about 8 times here, EASY.

Try it, you won't be disappointed.

Easy Vanilla-Almond Baked French Toast
Adapted from Pairs Well With Food

1 Loaf Challah Bread, sliced into 1 inch thick slices and laid out to dry for 30 min to an hour (honestly, I skip this step most of the time)
4 large eggs
2 egg whites
1.75 unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or regular)
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
0.5 tsp kosher salt
5 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1.5 cups sliced almonds
Maple syrup for serving

The night before
Put your bread in a pan for the overnight soak. Mix together the eggs, egg whites, vanilla almond milk, vanilla extract, almond extract and 3 tbsp sugar. Pour it on the bread, make sure it coats the bread evenly. Cover it, and stick it in the fridge overnight. If you're pushing it, you can soak for as short as 30 minutes and it's still delicious.

The day of
Preheat oven to 400F. Pull out your soaked bread. Line another baking dish (the one you'll bake the bread in) with parchment paper/butter the dish (<--what the butter in the recipe was for)/whatever you do to get things not to stick. On a plate, pour out your sliced almonds. Take one slice of the soaked bread, let the liquid drip off of it, and then coat one side of it with sliced almonds, and place it on your baking dish. Do this with all your bread.

Tip: I usually put the pieces of bread down into the baking dish first, then I put the sliced almonds on by hand, gently pressing them down to get them to stick.

Take the 2 leftover tbsp. of sugar and sprinkle them over the top of french toast. Bake for ~20 minutes. Serve hot with maple syrup!

Vanilla-Almond Coffee Creamer (Vegan)

I got bored of studying the day before my Medicine Shelf Exam, I'll admit it. Shelf exams are basically big exams you take your 3rd year of medical school after you finish your "rotations." So I spent 2 months doing general medicine and cardiomyopathy (heart failure) and then took a big test. But after 2 months of studying/work, etc. I didn't want to study for the test the day BEFORE the actual test...so my mind immediately went to let me make a pie.

Then my mind-brain slapped some sense into me because I really didn't have time to make a pie. But I needed to do something, so I figured an iced coffee would be perfect on a muggy summer day. Buuuuut I didn't have any milk and I didn't feel like using almond milk, so out from my mind-brain that was straining against all the information about "what test would you do next?" or "what's is the diagnosis?" or "what would you advise the patient?" came this awesome coffee creamer and it's vegan!

I'm not vegan, but I can appreciate the deliciousness that is born from creativity when you can't use the deliciousness that is milk/cream/or cheese. And this is definitely delicious. It add just a touch of coconut flavor and sweetness, will a subtle almond undertone. Try it out, get creative with the flavors, go with hazelnut, try just vanilla, or just straight up coconut. Let the
creativity out, it'll taste delicious.

Vanilla-Almond Coffee Creamer  

1 can coconut milk (full fat is preferable)
2 tablespoons sugar (this is really to taste)
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Before you open it, shake your can of coconut milk well otherwise it'll be separated and difficult to mix without it. Then just pour all the ingredients into your storage container or choice (I used a mason jar, then an old salad dressing shaker for my second batch), shake it up, pour it into your coffee, stir it and enjoy! I find it tastes best with iced coffee, but also fabulous with warm too.

For a regular cup of coffee I used around 1-2 tablespoons (eyeballs from pouring), you'll just figure out how much you like per cup of coffee. Also -- don't be disturbed if it separates a little when you pour it in, just stir it up and it'll be fine!

Peach Toast

It's been a while, I know. Things have been hectic over here. We are getting ready to move, so we're selling ALL of our furniture (moving to Texas? Need some furniture? I'm selling it all for $250), making plans for our 3 week stay in Paris (!!!), contacting real estate agents in Boston to search for apartments. Overall craziness in the Shah-Hoppenfeld household. 

So hectic in fact, that I actually forgot to go grocery shopping last week. Well, not really forgot. It was a mixture of laziness and the epiphany that we will actually have to eat all the food in our pantry before we leave in about 2 weeks. So I've been trying to get a little...creative. Hence--peach toast! 


Usually for lunch Tyler and I have a sandwich, and we end up with the ends of the bread. I've used these for a few different things--bread crumbs, croutons, but my new favorite is breakfast peach toast. Sometimes the best things in life are simple. Toasted bread, butter, sliced peaches, and a sprinkling of sugar. The toast has been a nice reminder of simplicity that can be pretty, and tasty.

Peach Toast


Slice of Bread 
Square of butter
Fresh, ripe peach, sliced
1 tsp. white or brown sugar. 




Toast the bread in your broiler or toaster. Then spread the butter on the bread and toast for a little while longer. Then place the sliced peach on top of the toast, and sprinkle the sugar on top and viola! Pan avec peaches :-) (Frenglish) 

Green Eggs

Let me tell you about my allergies. I have never really had them before. In Arizona, allergies aren't crazy because it's too hot, and in Boston...well, I don't know why I didn't have bad allergies in Boston. But good heavens, in San Antonio...it's a whole new world! 


I didn't have allergies last year, but then again 2011 was the hottest year on record for Texas, as we went through a severe drought. This year, rain galore! And the flowers are out in full force showing off their pretty little petals. Me, thinking I'm immune, have taken no precaution against allergies. I drove with the windows down, kept the doors open, walk amongst flowers, etc. 

Key example: Tyler and I at the botanical gardens eating a picnic lunch (hence why his mouth is full of food), and inhaling all the demon pollen. But the flowers were pretty!

PSC, poor stupid child, that's what Tyler calls me. I came home earlier this week and proclaimed that I was getting sick...my nose was stuffy, my head hurt, and my eyes were all watery. He patiently informed me that I was suffering from allergies...and boy does it suck. 

The week was...hell-ish to go through, with me frequently telling my students that I needed them to whisper because my head hurt that much...but the weekend was great. I literally spent all of Saturday in bed with Tyler reading books, relaxing, using a Neti Pot (they work!), and drinking lots of water. Brilliant! On such days, it's quite important to have a easy go-to snack that is healthy and filling...ergo, green eggs! 

Basically, it' a hardboiled egg with cilantro pesto on top. Quite tasty, quite easy to make all the stuff ahead of time, and just keep it in your fridge as a go-to. 


Green Eggs


Cilantro Pesto


If you're not a fan of cilantro, feel free to replace any hearty green. I've done this with baby spinach, dandelion green, etc.


2 bunches of cilantro 
3 cloves of garlic 
0.25-0.5 cups of grated parmesan cheese (honestly, you can either grate your own, or if you're short on time, use the Krafts pre-grated kind of fake parmesan) 
2 tsp. lemon juice or white vinegar
0.25 cup olive oil 
salt and pepper to taste


Wash the bunches of cilantro and trim off the ends, so you have mostly the green leaves. Place them in a food processor and pulse a few times. Then add in the garlic cloves and turn it on to full-blast. Then add in all the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust as desired. This keeps in the fridge for about a week and a half, and in the fridge for month. I make it in large batches and just unfreeze it when I need it. 


Assembly


Just take a hard boiled egg or a soft-boiled egg, peel the shell, cut it in half, and spoon out a little bit of the pesto on top. This also make a really good party finger food. 


Other Ideas


The pesto makes a good pasta sauce, pizza sauce, spread on sandwiches, salad dressing when thinned out with more olive oil and a little water, or even a good dip for veggies when mixed with some greek yogurt or sour cream. 

Coconut Cherry Millet Muffins

Most of what I post is pretty healthy. Well, in small portions at least. But this takes the cake, or the muffin I guess, for being most healthy. Millet Muffins. Before you turn away grossed out, I will tell you have made and finished these more times than I can count. More impressively, my husband, the butter-sugar-cream lover, loves these.

But first, my usual story: Today, or the past two days, have been good. My dear friend Sam, more like dear sister, came to visit us on Wednesday night. We both took a day off of work, and spent much needed time with each other. It wasn't her first time in Texas, but it was her first time in San Antonio, visiting the place we've called home for almost the past two years.

It was amazing. Tyler, Sam, and I packed up a picnic on Thursday and trekked up to the San Marcos River to play around for a few hours, watching the puppies jump in the water, going down rapids, and treading water...trying to keep away from the river weed. It was awesome. And we got our ladies-evening after that when Tyler to school--shopping, getting our nails done, and munching on those mall-pretzel snacks that are too good.

All in all, it's been pretty great so far, with the cherry on top being that she was accepted to her top-choice medical school today! You know you love someone when you feel an all-consuming happiness when they get happy too. Ahhh the sisters you make in life. Anyways, to celebrate, we went to Austin with these tasty muffins in tow.

Since they're made with whole wheat, and greek yogurt, they are both filling and have a good deal of protein in them. Experiment with putting different things in them--I really like the sour cherry and coconut mix, but you can do raisin, cranberries, rolled oats, etc

Coconut Cherry Millet Muffins
Adapted from SuperNatural Everyday by Heidi Swanson
0.5 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup greek yogurt
0.5 cup honey
2.25 cups whole wheat pastry flour***
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. lemon juice + zest of 1 lemon (zest = optional, but tastes better)
0.5 tsp. salt
0.33 cup millet
0.5 cup sour cherries
0.25 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

***Do not use regular whole wheat flour, they'll come out hards as rocks. The pastry flour is has less gluten and more carbohydrates, and therefore make baked goods softer, but is still healthier than the all-purpose flour alternative.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12 muffin tin with paper liners or just spray down the sides with oil spray. Please make sure you spray the muffin liners with the oil spray as well, or the muffins will stick to the sides of the liners and you'll lose tasty goodness.

Whisk together the melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and honey in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients, including the sour cherries and coconut flakes.

Then mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to mix them gently, so you don't flatten them too much. When they are just mixed, so there is no dry ingredients left un-wetted, start spooning them into the tin. About 2 spoonfuls per cup, or however big you like your muffins.

Put them in the oven for 15 minutes. Serve them warm with jam and butter, or room temperature as a breakfast or with soup. They keep for about 3-4 days outside! 

Raspberry Breakfast Bars

My perfect weekend usually involves a tasty dinner on Friday night. Saturday morning kind of early with coffee, a slow and tasty breakfast with the dog and the hubby, grocery shopping, reading a good book in a coffee shop, then walking the dog around our neighborhood. Lazy Sunday, more reading and coffee, some baking, some TV, and a little bit of work to remind myself of the upcoming week. 

See the theme? Lots of coffee and lots of reading. This is why I was so happy with the recent New York Times article about how fiction influences how our brain develops and how we view the world. Reading, for me, is a totally different experience than TV. It's engaging with a story on a whole new level. Being able to get into the minds of the characters, commiserating with their feelings, hating that you can see where they are coming from, slowly falling in love with a originally despicable character. It provides a totally different level of entertainment. 

More so, I wholeheartedly agree with school of thought that believe reading fiction to children at a young age, and allowing them to explore books, will help them learn how to navigate social situations in the future, and develop their empathy skills. When you read Ramona and Beezus, or a Wrinkle in Time, the evocative description allows you to enter the mind of people perhaps wholly unlike yourself, and see things from their perspective. 

Anyways, you can see what books I've read/am reading on my Chopdio page. My tastes usually run towards the young adult fantasy fiction (think Hunger Games, rather than Twilight). I'm currently reading Once a Witch, great book if you're into the Wiccan world!

Anyways, this schpeel on books and fiction was prompted by an amazing breakfast bar I made this past weekend: Raspberry Breakfast Bars!

These bars are are layered...you get the initial granola-brown sugar situation, then a burst of tart raspberries, then finished off with another layer of rolled oat goodness. Super simple, quite tasty, and healthful!

Raspberry Breakfast Bars

modified from smitten kitchen

Crust and Top Layer

1 cup all purpose flour (you can also do 1.5 cups all purpose flour)

0.5 cup whole wheat flour 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1.25 cups rolled oats

0.75 tsp. salt

0.75 tsp. baking powder

0.5 tsp. baking soda

0.5 tsp. cinnamon

0.75 unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

Filling

0.25 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 lb. frozen or fresh raspberries

1 tsp. lemon zest

0.5 tsp. cinnamon 

0.25 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp. butter melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350F

Line a 9x9 or 9x13 inch pan. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients for the crust and mix together.

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Add in the cubed butter, and get your hands in there and smoosh up the butter until you get pea-size pieces of butter mixed in with the flour, etc. Reserve 1-1.5 cups of the mixture for the topping, depending on how much you like. Now, take the rest of the mixture and dump it into the pan, and push it down into a crust. You can use the back of a spoon to make sure it's flat. 

Then in a separate bowl, mix together the filling ingredients. Mix well, and then toss that on top of the crust, and carefully, so as to not damage the crust, spread it evenly. 

Then top it off with the rest of the topping. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the whole bar situation.

Pop it in the oven for around 45 minutes. Every 15 minutes, rotate the pan. You'll know it's done when the sides are bubbling a bit. You can top it off with a sprinkle of brown sugar. Wait till it's cool, and cut them up into pretty bars!

Nigh Kayaking and Pecan Pina Colada Oats

So for the past few weeks, Tyler has been going kayaking/boating with our friend Raleigh. He'd always come back desperately tired, but full of smiles and stories of how many times he rolled over in his boat in the water, or how he went down a rapid upside down...my thoughts were always...yes, fun. Upside down in water stuck in a boat? My idea of a good time.

Now, sarcasm is difficult to determine in writing, but that was definitely sarcasm. I was baffled by his general excitement about the boating situation. Until yesterday. Yes my friends, I did it, I went boating on the San Marcos River. And it was AWESOME.

Basically, you put on a swim suit, and then proceed to add on three layers of safety gear so that fools such as myself do not drown when they flip over multiple times. Oh...and flip over I did. Twice on purpose to get me used to the feeling of being upside down in the water, trapped in a boat, and confused. Banging on the side of my boat for someone (Raleigh) to flip me up. Oh the joys.

Then...about four times not one purpose.

Time 1: Going down a mini-rapid (which in my head was honestly a class 5 or 6, yes a new category of rapid for this monstrosity). This was fine, I got flipped up, and was only mildly disoriented.

Time 2: Trying to get my boat back into the water. I got it back in part way, proclaimed "VICTORY IS MI--" and flipped over.

Time 3: Once again getting my boat into the water. This time I had it for a solid 15 seconds, before I flipped. I believe Raleigh cursed and paddled towards me to flip my sorry butt up right again.

Time 4: The epic time. I was trying to get into a current and then back out successfully...but unfortunately, as soon as I managed to get into the current, I got excited like a small puppy and forgot to paddle out. Yes, I have now learned paddling is important. Instead, I went down another rapid, backwards mind you, and then flipped over. This time, I didn't have a moment to breath in, so I was out of breath and under water. Of course, the best thing to do when you're underwater right below a rapid is to open your mouth. Yep, I did that. Yep, 3-4 giant mouthfuls of water were shoved down my throat and trachea. When Raleigh came over to once again flip me over, I proceeded to cough up a good deal of water, and then a large amount of the spinach ravioli I had for dinner.

Food for fishies! Yeah, it was pleasant. But the amazing thing, was all the while, Raleigh was totally calm! She was like, "Okay, you're going to go down that rapid backwards" or "Okay, you threw up in the river" or "Okay, let's flip you up for the...fifth time..." It was awesome, and I felt totally comfortable going out there again with her and Tyler.

Moral of the story: If you haven't gone kayaking, do it! It's fun, you might throw up, but just look at it as giving back to the fishies, for using their home space to play/flip over in. And also, when someone asks you, "Do you want to learn to flip yourself upright?" Always say yes. Always.

On to food. Specifically breakfast. So I'm not a huge breakfast poster...or even a huge breakfast fan. Someone people love it, some people hate it, I'm ambivalent.

But, I do recognize that it's healthy and therefore compel myself to eat it. One thing I've found that I really love is steel cut oats.

What are steel-cut oats you ask?

Steel-cut oats are whole grain groats (the inner portion of the oat kernel) which have been cut into pieces. They are commonly used in Scotland and Ireland to make porridge, whereas rolled oats are used in England, other English-speaking countries, and Scandinavia. They are sometimes named after the grade of cut, e.g. pinhead oats; steel-cut oats from Ireland are sometimes called Irish oats.

Taken straight from Wikipedia. What I know about them is that they have quite a low glycemic index, so they are healthier for your since they don't spike your blood sugar as much. Also, they are super easy to make, and tasty. Also, they're gluten free!

I've made tons of variations on this, but Pecan Pina Colada is latest creation, and I like it! So I figured I'd share. They are pretty malleable, so you can change the amount of the ingredients depending on what you like (sour cherries fan? Sure, toss 'em in! Hate coconut? Omit it!)

You can make these oats at the beginning of the week, and have them for breakfast every day with some greek yogurt and lemon curd or jam, or even a small bit of nutella. That's what I do :-)

Pecan Pina Colada Oats


1:2 steel cut oats to water (1 cup oats, 2 cups water)
0.25 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (or sweetened if that's what you have)
1.5 handfuls of pecans, whole or coarsely chopped
2 dried, sweetened pineapple rings, coarsely chopped

Optional but tasty:
A few table spoons of brown sugar     OR
A big dollop of honey         OR
3-4 tbsp. coconut milk         OR
1 tbsp. Butter                    

Heat your oven to about 275F

In a 9x9 pan, mix all the ingredients together. Put it in the oven for 20 minutes. Check on it, if it needs more water, add it. Should be done after another 20 minutes depending on how crunchy you like your oats. Allow them to cool, cover with foil, and stick in the fridge for the week! 

A British Breakfast

Arguably the easiest international breakfast ever. A few weekends ago, T- and I went over to a friend's house in Austin. She and her boyfriend had this lovely apartment near 6th street, and we enjoyed ourselves very much 


As a mid-afternoon snack on our second day there, our lovely yet tiny hostess suggested beans and eggs on toast, and I was like uhhhhhh, okay? 


It was awesome, and easy. It's literally eggs, beans, and toast. After returning from our mini-vacation, I desperately wanted more beans on toast, unfortunately we had neither beans nor toast in our house. BUT, we retrieved those items from the grocery store this weekend.

I am glad to say, my foray into British cooking was a success. I feel very international. I made mine with just egg whites (I really hate yellows unless they're in baked goods...seriously hate yellows) and T- with two poached eggs.


Try it, and saying things like "Cheerio" and "right then" or "tea time??" while you're doing it. (My favorite is: "Long live the queen!" interspersed with "good ol' chap)  


Beans and Eggs on Toast
1 can vegetarian baked beans 
2-4 slices of toast (I used Jewish Rye) 
4 eggs
1 tblsp butter


Put the bread in the oven to toast. Then heat the butter in a medium saute pan over medium-low heat When it's melted, crack two eggs in there. and cover so they can poach. Be sure to check on them to see if you need to adjust your temperature lower. It should take about 5-6 min depending on how firm you like the yellows (bleh)


While that's going, open up your can of baked beans and heat them in a small saucepan over medium heat. Just stir them every few minutes to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. 

To set it up, put the toast on a plate, slide your eggs on top, and then top the whole thing off with half the pot of beans! 

Use the other half for another serving! Note that this tastes fantastic with just whites as well, and you can cook/poach the whites in the same way you did the whole eggs, it will just take less time (2-3 min). 


Right then, cheerio!  

Tasty Breakfast

Biscuits with poached eggs over beet greens

So, Saturday morning is arguably my favorite time of the week. I can wake up leisurely without an alarm...T- and I can peacefully make breakfast that usually includes coffee and omlettes. But last weekend I decided to indulge. I got up and made buttermilk biscuits and poached an egg over beet greens.

If you've never had beat greens, they are absolutely delicious. T- and I are apart of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and they have been providing us with seriously tasty organic veggies. Recently we've been getting beets, and attached to them are their greens. I was about to throw them away when T- judiciously suggested I save them, and we could could them up like kale or chard or spinach.

So as my biscuits were cooking up, chopped up the beet greens cracked two eggs on top and steamed the whole thing. Two words: flipping awesome. The beet greens had a subtle flavor...they weren't bitter or stringy, just soft and flavorful...but I can't really describe the flavor.

Super delicious, super healthy -- especially with the biscuits (which are great with some butter and brown sugar). 

Buttermilk Biscuits (modified from Alton Brown)

2 cups of flour

4 tsp. baking powder

0.25 tsp baking soda

0.75 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. butter, cold

2 tbsp. shortening

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven, 450

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter and the shortening. Make sure that the butter is chilled. Mix it in with your hands -- it'll make it easier to make it into crumbly pieces. Pour in the buttermilk in the middle of the flour mixture and stir it together into until it forms a sticky ball.

Pull the dough ball out onto a floured surface, and spread it out into a 1 in. round. Use either a biscuit cutter or a glass to cut out biscuits shapes. Bake for 15 - 20 min.

Greens with Eggs

Any greens you have (kale, chard, beet greens etc) 

1 clove garlic

0.25 part of medium red onions

2 eggs 

Wash and cut up the greens. It can be any greens really...I'm not sure how spinach would do, but I know kale, chard, and beet greens turn out great. In a medium saute pan, saute up the garlic and onions with some olive oil (you don't need to do this if you don't like garlic and onions). After they turn clear-ish, toss in the greens, and turn down the heat to medium-heat. Add a tablespoon or two of water and cover the greens. 

Cook them for about three minutes. After that crack two eggs on top and cover them again. Cook until the yellows of the eggs are fully cooked, or as cooked as you want them. 

You can just pour it out on a plate, and add a biscuit...perfect breakfast! 

Enjoy!