Breakfast Pizza

We just returned from a trip so I didn't take the time to really plan an Easter meal.  In fact, I was tempted to skip Easter all together because I'm over the Easter Bunny and his shenanigans.  We stuffed eggs while watching Les Mis last night and hiding them was fun.  It took the kids all of about 3 minutes to find them!

I asked the kids what they wanted for Easter Dinner and they said Corn Dogs.  Works for me!

Since we'll be having a simple dinner, I decided to make brunch for my family.  For the record, Keith and I will NOT be having corn dogs, we're having pork chops and potatoes.

I decided on Breakfast Pizza.  This could end up being our Easter Tradition because the kids loved it!

I used Grands! Refrigerated Biscuits for the base of our pizzas.  I lightly floured my cutting board and rolling them out pretty thin, they will puff back up a bit while baking so don't worry that they are too thin.  I greased a cookie sheet and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.

While they were baking, I made scrambled eggs and fried some sweet Texas onion and chopped portabello mushrooms in a little bit of butter.  My husband and I love caramelized onion on just about anything!

Once the pizza bases were ready I poured a small amount of olive oil on them and then layered slices of provolone cheese on top.  The onion and mushroom mixture was next and then some eggs.  Lastly, I sliced up some prosciutto and added it to the top.

I put the pizzas back in the oven for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

I served the yummy little pizzas with some yogurt and fresh fruit.

Mommy had a little libation because it's Sunday.  Keith was nice enough to pick up my favorite little bottles of prosecco but I forgot to get orange juice.  I made do with a little sliced strawberry!

Happy Easter!

Bananaberry Fabulous Muffins

See that little girl in the header?

I named this blog after her because when she was two years old she took an interest in cooking and insisted on pushing her own cart.

She also took a liking to blue cheese at an early age.  The girl is a foodie!

We took her to California last March and made the mistake of feeding her some Porterhouse steak from our plate.  Now....she's won't eat steak, unless it's a high quality.

Now the girl is dreaming recipes and insists that we make them!  The latest one involved muffins made of raspberries and bananas.  I only added baking soda and powder because apparently...a five year olds mind doesn't realize these are important.

Please note we only added the raspberries to a small portion of the muffins because The Rookie Foodie's brother was not so sure about how this was going to turn out.  Six year olds have little faith in their sisters.

P.S. The raspberry muffins were awesome.

Mallory has named these:

Bananaberry Fabulous Muffins

3 Large ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup white sugar

1  egg

1/3 cup melted  butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups flour

In a mixer, mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg and butter together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Mix wet and dry ingredients all together! Pour into greased muffin tins, place a fresh raspberry in each cup and push down into the batter. Bake in 350 degrees F oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Brunch at 240 Union

I was relaxing in my yoga pants this morning....about to open the Denver Post when my husband asked if I'd be interested in going to brunch.

Hell Yeah! 

He's not much of a breakfast person so when he's in the mood, I jump on it.

We decided now would be the perfect time to start teaching our two 5 year olds about eating in a fancy restaurant so we went to 240 Union.

I loved my $2.40 Mimosa but I was shocked to see that they charged me $2.50 for a child's orange juice.  It would have been cheaper to order them Mimosas.....Champs on the side.

Champs.  That's what I call Champagne now because of my idol....Heather Dubrow from The Real Housewives of Orange County.

Where was I?  Oh yes,  we ordered the Deviled Eggs and they were delightful!  I wasn't really expecting much because Deviled Eggs aren't all that usually but these were different.

They had a bit of a kick to them....we debated on what it was, cayenne or Wasabi.  The green liquid on the plate was basil oil and it took every once of willpower not to lick the plate clean. I was trying to set a good example for the children.....

I ordered the Egg on Brioche with Spinach and Wild Mushrooms.  It was really tasty but I discovered that I'm not that much of a fan of spinach so I switched plates with my husband.  He had the Smoked Salmon and scrambled eggs with chive cream cheese.  I liked it very much.  Thank Honey....for letting me eat your breakfast!

We were all stuffed....but I noticed Key Lime Pie on the dessert menu and I've never had it and figured everyone would help me finish it.  This was more like a cheesecake and the lime flavor wasn't as pronounced as I was expecting but it was light and creamy.  

240 Union
240 Union Blvd
Lakewood, CO 80228
303.989.3562

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for my review of 240 Union and I would never serve my children Mimosas.

Pop Up Pancakes

Today....my first baby turns five years old. I always make a special breakfast for my kids when it's their birthday and I knew he'd like these. He ate them for breakfast and lunch. He ate them until they were gone. I made some of these in a regular muffin tin and some in a small tin and I liked the small one's better. I would reduce the baking time by 5 minutes if you do this.

bite sized

Pop Up Pancake Recipe
adapted from Make and Takes

1 cup milk
1 cup flour
6 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon of vanilla
3 tablespoons of sugar
dash salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease your muffin tins.

Place all ingredients in the blender and mix until all of the flour is incorporated.

Pour into muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden on top.  When you remove them from the oven...they will collapse a little bit.  This is fine.

The insides are hollow....so you could pipe in some whipped cream but we just cut them up and served them with maple syrup on top.  They are addictive!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins with Streusel Topping

I'm not good at cupcakes. I can't make frosting and I can't decorate so my specialty is muffins. Plus...even if you are on a diet, you can justify a muffin. It's breakfast people...and everyone needs breakfast.

I like sending muffins to work with my husband, even though he doesn't like to draw attention to himself.

My daughter is a natural cook and she loves to watch The Rachael Ray show.  It's probably a good thing that we don't have cable so that she can't watch The Food Network because she is always finding recipes for me to make.  Did I mention that my little chef turns 4 years old in 2 weeks?

This recipe is from The Rachael Ray website.  We were looking for a recipe for waffles when we found this.  I tweaked it a little and it made 24 average sized muffins.

My son, did I mention that I'm going to have two 4 year olds in 2 weeks?  My son loved these and told me that they are the best muffins I've ever made.  I think it was the chocolate chips that swayed his vote.

We'll find out what the team at Double Encore thinks about them tomorrow.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins with Streusel Topping
adapted from Rachael Ray and Plan B Mom

For the streusel topping:
1/2 cup flour
5 tablespoons butter, softened and cut into pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips

For the muffins:
1 cup sour cream
2 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons butter, softened and cut into pieces
1/2 cup chocolate chips


Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray or line with muffin cups.

To make the streusel, combine flour, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and chocolate chips until well blended. Set aside.

To make the muffins, in a large bowl, combine the bananas and sour cream. Add the cinnamon, ginger, salt, vanilla, egg and brown sugar. Combine until blended. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and butter and mix until just combined, Do not over mix. Fold in the choclate chips. Add a quarter of the streusel mixture and mix until just combined.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, fill the muffin cups and top each muffin with a spoonful of streusel, pressing lightly. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from center of muffin.

Caramel Apple Muffins

You may recall a couple weeks ago I sent Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins to my husband's office and his bosses wife also sent in muffins. Well....last week I decided to try again and was sure the universe wouldn't jack me around twice.

I got this recipe for Caramel Apple Muffins from my friend Sue and I thought...YES, these will be great! Incidentally...my children did not like them. Too sticky and too sweet.

Hubby's co-workers loved them! YAY!

Caramel Apple Muffins
Adapted from Taste of Home

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons Spice Islands®, All Natural, No Corn Syrup Added, Pure Vanilla Extract
1 cup chopped peeled tart apple
12 caramels, chopped

TOPPING:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, whisk the egg, milk, butter and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apple and caramels.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake portion comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Serve warm. Yield: 14 muffins.

Since my kids didn't care for the sweet and sticky Caramel Muffins...I decided to try a different recipe for them. These were a hit and I discovered that I don't like nutmeg.

Apple Oatmeal Muffins
from Food.com

2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oat
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tart cooking apples, cored,peeled,and chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease a 12 cup muffin tin. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs; add milk and oil, stirring until just blended. Stir in flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon, mixing until only just moistened (do not overmix).Gently fold in the apples.

Spoon batter into the muffin tin, dividing evenly among the cups. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling. Serve warm or cool; store unused portions in an airtight container.

The Lobby American Grille

 Brunch is the slutty sister of Breakfast. She wakes up late, boozes it up & slathers herself in Hollandaise. A hot mess! ~ @morocca on twitter

So this is what happened. iKeith was working very late hours and coming home well after I'd gone to bed for several days. Saturday morning, I discovered that to celebrate a job well done...the night before, he went to The Lobby with his team. I'd been wanting to go to The Lobby so we made a last minute decision I made him take me to brunch. I went to my handy yellow file folder where I keep important papers and I produced a Restaurant.com gift certificate that I had purchased a few months ago when they were on sale for 80% off.

I didn't know anything about The Lobby American Grille when I bought the certificate but it sounded nice. This could end up being the best decision I've made since I accepted iKeith's proposal of marriage back in 2004!

The Lobby

We went to their website and made a reservation and then spent a little time looking at the brunch menu. This is when we got really excited!

We decided to start with the Glazed Doughnut French Toast for the four of us to share. We all loved the crispy sweetness of the doughnut batter and I preferred the blueberry jam as a topping. My children thought the maple syrup was the best!

Glazed Doughnut French Toast

Hubby and I were excited to find Bottomless Mimosa's on the menu and they went perfectly with everything we ordered. I recommend sharing. (The food...not the Mimosa) There are so many great choices on this menu that it will be impossible for you to make a decision.

I went with the Bacon Jalapeno Frittata...they had me at bleu cheese, which I didn't think would go very well with Jalapeno but it surprisingly does!

Bacon Jalapeno Frittata

My husband was very happy with his Poached Eggs with Blue Crab Spinach Cream Sauce and was regretting his decision to share with me. This could easily be a favorite of mine because the sauce is so delicious. iKeith wanted to lick the plate but I reminded him we were in a nice place and just because he drank 3 mimosa's did not mean he could act like a 3 year old.

Eggs with Blue Crab Spinach Cream Sauce

Our 3 and 4 year old....loved their pancakes and our waitress (Heaven) was great with them.

It had more bacon...kid couldn't wait for the picture to be taken.

The Lobby American Grille
2191 Arapahoe St
Denver, Co 80205
303.997.9911
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