Would You Try This Burger?

We love trying new and different food combinations, and my husband and I are always watching the Food Channel to come up with "Do It Ourself" recipes.  So needless to say we were watching a show the other night and saw a burger...

Yes, that is infact a glazed donut!  This was super easy to do, and although it was very delicious, it's not something that we would make all the time, well not unless we want to have a couple of bypasses in the next few years.  

It was just something that we both wanted to try.  So try we did.  

First cut a glazed donut like you would a roll.  Place face down in a frying pan.  There really isn't a need to use butter in the bottom of the pan, as long as you use a non stick pan.  Brown the bottom of each side.  This will make the donut all the easier to hold onto when biting into the sandwich.

Cook the burger to your desired "doneness".  Place on top of one side of the donut.  Add your cheese, and bacon.  

Serve.  

The explosion of both sweet and savory was, I have to say incredible.  The sugary glaze from the donut had quite the contrast from the saltiness of the bacon and burger.  

Reminded me more of a breakfast sandwich really.  

We made a few other burgers last night as well...  You'll just have to wait and see what the others were!  

Easy Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake

 

This was super easy to make, and made the whole house smell so yummy!  While my daughters didn't have school this past Tuesday due to Election Day, I thought it would make for a great morning treat. 

 

Here's what you'll need:

 

2 packages Pillsbury Grands Bisquits

Cinnamon

Light Brown Sugar ( roughly 3/4 Cup)

half stick of Butter, Melted

powdered sugar

a few tablespoons of water

 

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly dust each bisquit with cinnamon.  Place each bisquit upright into a bundt pan, overlapping each one with the next.  Mix melted butter with the light brown sugar, and drizzle over the top of all the bisquits. 

 

Place into oven, and bake.  This took about 35 minutes to completely bake, just because they were so thick. 

 

While the bisquits are baking, take several tablespoons of water, and add powdered sugar.  Mix well.  Depending on your taste, you may want a thicker or thinner icing.  Continue to add either water or powdered sugar until desired thickness is reached. 

 

 

Once removed from the Bundt pan, take icing mixture, and drizzle over top while warm. 

 

 

 

 Serve!  

 

( After I poured the icing over the top, I realized that I should have mixed the sugar slightly longer!  It was still delicious!)

 

 

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs ~ Every Time!

I'm one of those cooks that can prepare a fantastic gourmet meal, but when it comes to ordinary things like hard boiled eggs, well, I leave that up to my husband!  My egg's would always come out a little gray on the outer edges of the yolks, or a little bit soft in the center.  His hard boiled eggs, on the other hand...  are perfect every time!  Here's how he does it:

 

Place eggs into pan, fill pan 1 inch above eggs with cool water. Leave uncovered.

 

Heat until the water comes to a fast boil.

 

Take eggs off of burner, cover pan, and let eggs sit in hot water for 18 minutes.

*Watch your time carefully, it is exactly 18 minutes!*

 

Once 18 minutes is up, strain water, and rinse with cold water 3 times.

 

Peel and enjoy the perfect hard boiled egg! 

 

 

Notice, I am not the greatest when it comes to peeling eggs either!  The husband has banned me from peeling any more eggs! 

 

 

Fresh Picked Blueberries = Incredible Muffin Recipe!

We have a blueberry farm right down the road from our house, and the other day was our very first trip to pick blueberries.  The girls had a great time picking blueberries.  In the hour that we were there, we managed to pick just over 9 pounds of blueberries. 

With so many blueberries, we decided to make a short trip to my mom's house and hand over one of the bags.

So with just over 5 pounds of blueberries, I knew that I had to come up with something good, no, great to make. 

Living in Rhode Island, you can't drive more than a mile or two without passing a Dunkin Donuts shop.  One of my favorite treats are their blueberry muffins.  Looking at so many blueberries, and thinking of those wonderfully delicious muffins, I knew that the first thing we had to make were Blueberry Muffins.  So here's the recipe:

Blueberry Muffins

Makes 6 large or 12 medium size muffins

Ingredients

1 Stick salted butter at room temperature

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

3 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups blueberries

1/2 cold milk

raw sugar (optional)

additional butter and flour for greasing and flouring the muffin pan

2 additional tbsp of flour for blueberry coating

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Grease and flour the muffin pan. 

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium size bowl.  Place blueberries in a separate bowl with 2 tablespoons of flour.  gentle mix together, coating all the blueberries with flour.  By doing this step, it will help  to keep your blueberries in place during the cooking process, instead of sinking down to the bottom of the muffins. 

Cream together softened butter, and 1 cup of granulated sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time.  finally add in vanilla. Once combined, slowly add flour mixture, until evenly combined.  It is important to not overmix. 

Once combined, using a spatula, gently fold in blueberries.  Fill each muffin cup 3/4 of the way with batter.  Top each muffin with raw sugar.

Place pan into heated oven for approx. 25 - 30 minutes for large muffins, or 20 - 25 minutes for smaller muffins.  You can insert a cake tester into the center of several muffins to ensure they are done.  Cake tester should come out clean.  Transfer to wire rack once they are done to complete the cooling process.  (If you leave them in the muffin pan to cool, the blueberries may continue to cook, causing them to be slightly bitter.)

Once completely cooled, muffins can be individually wrapped and placed into freezer.  Otherwise, they will stay fresh for up to 3 days in an air-tight container. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Smoothies!

I had this super great smoothie last week when I was asked to attend a Shaw's Fall Sampling Event.  Now let me just first say that during the months of September through November December, if it's at all possible, I could very well turn into a pumpkin. 

My downfall... The Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Iced Coffee.  It's a drug...  one where I will actually leave the house, just for the iced coffee. 

It's.  Been.  9.  Days.

Since I last visited my Dunkin Donuts. 

I was introduced to this incredible Pumpkin Smoothie by Jennifer Shea, the Registered Dietitian for Shaw's.  I think I had three of these sweet treats while at the event.  Needless to say, I have been preparing a blender (or two) every day since then.   So I thought I would share the recipe:

Cinnamon Pumpkin Smoothie

6 ounces Honey Greek Yogurt

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Canned Pumpkin Puree

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1 - 2 Tablespoon Honey

4 Ice Cubes

( I have also added Silk Milk to thin it out a little.)

Directions:  Place all ingredients in to blender, and puree until smooth.

French Toast with Blueberry Compote

I love my french toast, but I also know that maple syrup really isn't the best choice for someone like me, trying to lose some weight.  Instead of giving up some of my most favorite foods, I have been looking for ways to make the same recipes, just healthier.  Last week, I came up with this great tasting topping for my french toast... Blueberry Compote.

1 cup blueberries
1/8 cup water
1 teaspoon of whole wheat flour

I omitted the sugar.  I figured blueberries are sweet enough, and I can skip the added calories that the sugar would add.  Place blueberries and water into small sauce pan, and bring to boil.  Slowly add the flour, stirring constantly.  While you are stirring with a large spoon, mash blueberries.  You will see this thicken.  You may want to add a small amount of water, depending on the desired consistency. 

Spread compote on top of french toast and serve. 

In the time it took to make the french toast, the blueberry compote was done.  I was pleasantly surprised at just how incredibly good this was.  I didn't miss the maple syrup one bit.