Good morning, afternoon or night! It’s Friday morning and the frost is lining the trees.  A gorgeous start to the day. What a better way to start off your day than a balanced nutritious breakfast. Wow – that sounds like something from a parenting report or a TV commercial – but you know better.

I am really just making a glorious transition into today’s post. This dish is really not in need of a recipe but I thought I would share it with you as just a different option in the morning. Some folks have cereal, others do eggs and toast, maybe some oatmeal, yogurt and fruit, pancakes or waffles – which are all great choices.

Today, I wanted to share a quinoa breakfast as an alternative to oatmeal.  Before doing so, here are some quick facts on QUINOA

Quinoa Nutrition: The most protein of any grain, great source of vitamins & minerals – iron, magnesium, Vit E, potassium, amino acids, fiber – ideal for vegetarian or vegan diets.

Cooking Quinoa: Simple to cook, like rice. Cooked quinoa looks a bit like couscous, but is more substantial and slightly crunchy.

Prep & Cook Time: 5 minutes prep, 15 minutes cook time

For the dish below, I followed the instructions on the bag/box and topped it with some fresh fruit, a few almonds and a drizzle of maple syrup.  It was actually quite tasty.  I never realized the nutritional value in Quinoa until recently.  We bought a huge bag at Costco on the weekend so it is experimental time for me.

Question of the Day:

What s your favorite way to prepare Quinoa?

A couple of Frosty shots

I hope you have a great Friday, leave a comment or hit me up on twitter or even post it on my facebook.  Looking forward to hearing all the ways to prepare quinoa.  Have a fun filled weekend and I will see you on Monday.

Take care

zesty

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Every now and again you find amazing things on the internet.  The item below I consider to be one of those items.  In surfing around for breakfast ideas for last week’s delivery, I stumbled on to Steph’s site at Plain Chicken and looked repeatedly at this cinnamon pull apart bread.  I knew it was a must try.

Instructions sounded pretty straight forward and it used bought bread ( which was a bonus based on timing) and the combination of honey butter and cinnamon – really?  Do I have to go any further.  All be it is a slight change from yogurt and fruit for breakfast, but every now and again you need to go off the wall and indulge.  It helps your mind stay focused on your goals.

Trust me.

Indulge once a week and you will be happy.

Left: zoom shot of the butter prior to baking Right: Close up of the Glaze... YUM!

Lubed up all over with the honey cinnamon butter ( I could have ate the whole loaf at this stage.

Ingredients

• 1 unsliced round loaf sourdough bread
• 1/2 Cup butter, softened
• 1/4 Cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 Cup honey
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. To make Vanilla Honey Butter: Whip butter and 1/4 cup powdered sugar together until smooth; stir in honey and vanilla.  Set aside. (You can use regular butter if desired)
3. Cut the bread lengthwise into 1/2″ slices, without cutting through the bottom crust. Spread vanilla honey butter in between slices.  Rotate the bread 90 degrees and slice the bread again into 1/2″ pieces, without cutting through the bottom crust. Spread more vanilla honey butter in between new cuts. This doesn’t need to be perfect – just make sure there is lots of butter in between all the cuts.
4. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Generously sprinkle in between all cuts. (You may have extra butter and cinnamon sugar.
5. It will just depend on how large your bread loaf is.)
6. Wrap in foil; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until bread is warm.  Unwrap cinnamon bread and place on serving platter.  Combine powdered sugar and milk – adding milk until you get the consistency desired.
7. Drizzle icing over bread and serve immediately.
8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip:  I would recommend using an electric knife to cut the bread so you don’t push the bread down too much.  The first loaf I made, on the second cu,  it was hard not to push down on the sticks of bread “squashing” them.  The second loaf, I used the electric knife and made all the difference in the world.

After the glaze.... right out of the oven

Have a great weekend… ENJOY the super bowl and I will talk to you on Monday after the game.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Friday!  Welcome to the land of comfort food today.  Do you ever just look outside and it is cold, rainy and all you want to do is stay in your pajamas ( underwear) and eat comfort food?  What is comfort food to you?  For me it is usually something warm and that requires a fork or spoon.

This dish below which is pan fried potatoes with bacon mixed throughout is something I love to eat.  Whether by itself, beside two eggs, sausages and toast, or sitting beside some homemade meatloaf – I LOVE this dish.

Ingredients

• 4-6 Potatoes, diced
• 4 slices of bacon
• 1/2 Cup onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• Handful of chopped chives
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. In a large pan of boiling water, drop the potatoes in and blanch for 5-7 minutes; drain
2. Using another large pan over medium heat, start to cook off the bacon.  Cook until almost crispy and then remove from heat.  Do not clean the entire pan but remove some of the grease if there seems to be too much.
3. Add the onion and cook for 3-5 minutes until it becomes translucent.
4. Add the drained potatoes and the butter and begin to saute them over low heat.  The potatoes will begin to brown from the bacon fat and butter.  Let them cook until they are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.
5. Break the bacon up and add back in to the potatoes, stirring often
6. Toss in the chives at the end
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When frying the bacon, I save some of the fat to cook the potatoes in and I do not clean the pan before I add the blanched potatoes.  This allows the potatoes to pick up all the bacon flavor and make this dish one to remember.

Alright, the weekend is almost upon us.  Big weekend at the zesty’s.  As I type this post, the garden is being tilled, tomorrow is some tree planting, and I am doing some door and window prep for the new shed that is starting on Monday.  No rest for the weary, I just hope the sun stays out and keeps me happy.  I will talk to you on Monday. Have a super weekend!

Take care

zesty

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It’s Victoria Day in Canada.  That means three things:

No work.

Yard work.

Blog work.

I am off today and spending time with the family, Mrs Zesty just returned home last night after being gone for 5 days.  She ran the 1/2 marathon in Halifax and did a great job.  Today we are trying to stay ahead of the yard work and get the grass cut, make some decisions on the walkway as well as organize the garage and prep for the flower beds.  The weather has been so terrible the garden has not been planted yet.

I do have to catch up on some blog work at some point but may wait until later on today.

I am starving.  I was unsure what to make for breakfast as I normally have oatmeal but today I wanted to switch it up a little bit and hit you with an omelet.

I just sauteed some bacon until it rendered down, then added a little onion and a whole lotta mushrooms.  I cooked them down and seasoned with salt and pepper until they were almost cooked.  I added 4 scrambled eggs and let go until the eggs set up.  I finished it with fresh basil.

What a nice treat.

ENJOY!

I hope you have a great start to the week and I will talk to you on Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

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As I promised on Monday, a new product to show off, a new spin on my Super Star Toast, and something I am going to call  -  Fat Sandwich, Thin Bagel.  Remember my posts from  way back where I created my version of Super Star Toast I and Super Star Toast II, well today I wanted to create something similar with a whole new product.

Just this past month Dempsters has released a product called Thin Bagels.  I myself am a big fan of bagels but tend not too eat them that much due to the heaviness and extra calories.  Dempsters new line contains 100 calories per bagel and of course I was game to receive some in the mail.  Within days they sent me a bunch of coupons and 3 flavors of bagels to try.  They carry Cinnamon Raisin which I loved,  Regular which Zesty Junior devoured in 2 days, and Multi grain ( which I ate three of while testing this recipe for you).

I had a few ideas in my mind as to how I wanted to kick this bagel up and make it a fat sandwich to play on the words thin bagel.  The end result was a combination of high quality breakfast ingredients all packed into one sandwich.  Here is the lowdown.

Ingredients

• One Dempsters Thin Multi grain Bagel (toasted)
• Almond Butter
• Nutella
• Drizzle of Honey
• Banana (sliced)
• Sprinkle of Flax seed
• Dash of dry plain oatmeal
• Unsweetened coconut

Method

1. Toast the bagel, and start adding the toppings.
2. Spread both sides with a little almond butter, follow up with Nutella and sliced banana.
3. The add a drizzle of honey to act as glue for the flax, coconut and oatmeal.
4. Put the two halves together and smile with excitement
5. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Be careful putting both sides together and possibly wear a bib – it could get messy.  But oh my – this was delicious.

You need to try this.  The picture I had with the two sides put together was not great as I was in a rush and the bus was almost coming for zesty Junior.  Trust me though… I ate three of these in a row… they were that good!  I am going to be doing a giveaway soon for some free Dempsters coupons so be sure to check back.  What I really love about these bagels are how crunchy they get in the toaster.  I added a little bit of nutritional information below so be sure to check them out.

Thanks again to the Dempster folks and the folks at High View communications for letting me try this out and share them with you.  Overall it is a thumbs up from the zesty household.  Let me know what you think.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Monday to you!  Did you watch the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Curling Final last night?  It was a great game for sure and came right down to the very end.  Leading up to the game we had both Saturday and Sunday breakfasts.  On Saturday morning, I whipped up a batch of Oatmeal flax pancakes that were so goooooooooooood.  I could not wait for Sunday morning to arrive so we could eat them again.  See we didn’t finish all the batter on Saturday so I just wrapped it up and covered it in the fridge for yesterday.  DELICIOUS!

Pancakes are so simple yet very powerful.  You can do traditional white pancakes with butter and syrup, you could try a whole wheat version, you could whip up a potato pancake or you could try these.

All of the above are good but these oat flax pancakes with a hint of maple syrup will honestly make you smile… I promise.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 Cups milk or soy milk
• 1 Cup Whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. ground flax seed
• 1 Tbsp. Agave syrup
• 1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp. salt
• 1/2 Tsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. Plain Yogurt
• 1/3 Cup Chocolate chips ( optional )

Method

1. In a large bowl, blend together oats and milk and let stand 5 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, baking powder, flax, salt and cinnamon.
3. To the oat mixture, add the yogurt, agave syrup, chocolate chips and the large bowl of dry ingredients.
4. To make pancakes, use approximately ¼ cup batter per pancake. Cook over medium-high heat on a grill or lightly-oiled frying pan.
5. Serve with maple syrup.
6. ENJOY!
   
   

Zesty Tip: While it’s still hot, spread each pancake with natural peanut butter and let it melt and get oozy. Top with sliced bananas and a drizzle of real maple syrup.

OK another week is about to start so keep your chin up (or down if you are walking so you don’t trip) and have a great day.  I am getting some products in the mail this week to give a try so I should be back Wednesday with some fun information on what the mailman delivered to Zesty.  Enjoy the pancakes if you have time to make them for supper and if not try them when you can.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Good day to you!  Is breakfast your favorite meal of the day?  For me, I would have to say yes to that question.  Although I love eating at anytime of the day, breakfast is usually one of my favorites.  Whether it is cereal, oatmeal, bacon and eggs, fresh homemade bread and jam, or an super delicious breakfast sandwich – sign me up because I am ready to go.

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite sandwiches in the morning.  It is strictly just bacon, egg and cheese but it is the combination of flavors and textures that sends me over the moon.  Oh wait, maybe it is the grease from the bacon and the richness of the cheese, followed by the buttery flavored croissant that makes me smile.  Either or, I am pretty sure you will love this sandwich.

Before we get to far involved, let me state that the choice of bread can be endless.  Today I went with a nice fresh croissant ( bakery purchased) but often times I would go with just homemade bread, maybe a fresh biscuit or even an English muffin or bagel.  No rules on the bread front.

Ingredients

• 1 Croissant
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Slice of real cheddar
• 2 slices of ham( cooked )
• Black Pepper
• Mayo ( optional )
• 1 Tbsp. Oil
• 1 Tbsp. Water

Method

1. Preheat pan to medium high heat.
2. Crack two eggs in a bowl, add water and pepper and whisk together
3. Add the oil in the preheated pan and pour the beaten eggs in moving them around.  Waiting about 1 minute, until the underside of the egg is cooked, gently use your lifter/flipper/turner to get under the egg and fold it over like an omelet.
4. Place cheese slice on top of egg and let melt
5. Let cook another minute or so and remove the pan from the heat.
6. Assemble the sandwich: Slice open croissant, add the ham to the bottom slice, top with egg and cheese and complete the sandwich.
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Often times if you want a crunch, I will turn on the broiler in the oven and toast both the croissant and melt the cheese at the same time in the oven.  You could also just toast the croissant by itself and add the toppings once complete.

I hope all the US folks had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Let’s not forget that today is the final day for signing up for the book giveaway.  I will be back Monday with ( if all things go as planned on the weekend) a very cool post to share with you.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Canada Thanksgiving!

Ever have a lot of leftover vegetables from the night before and you are unsure what to do with them?  Happens from time to time and I usually create a vegetable hash, veggie cakes or a vegetable puree but today I wanted to share something slightly different.  Although this concoction is similar to a hash with the addition of a very special ingredient.  Eggs.  I love eggs and definitely could eat them everyday.

This recipe is super easy and really has no boundaries.  A quick way to use leftover food from a previous meal and also an excellent way to kick start your day with energy.  Add whatever else you may have on hand in this such as bacon, sausage, parsley or peppers – you name it.  No boundary breakfast.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. Olive oil
• Leftover smashed potatoes
• Leftover grilled carrots
• Leftover grilled corn
• 4 Eggs
• Tomatoes
• Whole Wheat Bread
• Salt
• Pepper

Method

1. Preheat saute pan over medium heat.
2. Add oil and potatoes and begin cooking through. Toss in carrots and corn and continue to saute.  Once heated through, create a couple of holes in the pan for your eggs



3. Crack two eggs in each hole you create and let cook sunny side up.



4. Cook until eggs are complete, season with salt and pepper.
5. Serve with whole wheat toast and some fresh tomato slices.



6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: A little sauce goes really well with this dish.  Sometimes I mix together ketchup, hot sauce and some barbecue sauce and serve on the side to dip into.  You can pour it on top if you really love it.

I am on the road this week to Virginia however I will be continuing to catch up on the consulting side and posting on my normal days this week.  I hope you have a great start to your week and I will touch base with you on Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

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Help The Students Event: Day 17

Heather from Hangry Pants submitted her Help The Students Event recipe in the form of an egg sandwich.  Anyone like a toasted egg sandwich with cheese?  How about an egg sandwich in under 5 minutes?  And not from take-out?  Now my ears are perked up and ready to listen.

It sounds pretty simple, the steps are super easy ( you can check them out below ) and it is healthy for you!  She opted for just egg whites and whole grain bread.  Myself I would be all over this like a plump kid on a Rolo Bar but I would like top it with some fresh tomatoes, leaf lettuce and some cracked black pepper.  I love that combination.  Follow along below for all the details.

Ingredients

• 2 – 3 egg whites
• 2 slices of whole grain bread
• 1 slice of Swiss cheese
• Other Toppings as you desire

Method

1. Cook egg whites in the microwave for 1 minute.  They will puff up.
2. If you have a toaster, toast the bread.
3. Assemble sandwich.
4. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: This will work very well with an English Muffin or a kaiser roll as well as regular bread.  I am always up for tasting bread with eggs and cheese.  One of my favorite toppings is Jam or homemade preserves.

Thanks for a quick fun post Heather.  I know there are millions of students out there that will find this post helpful.  Such a great source of protein, somewhat in expensive and tastes great.  Good Job!  I cannot believe it is Thursday already!  Have a super day and I will talk to you on Friday to wrap the week up.

Take care

zesty

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Help The Students Event: Day 6

OK OK, I know you are going to read the title and be like” what the heck”!  Why is zesty posting oatmeal?  Well despite my lack of posting oatmeal recipe(s) per se – I do eat my fair share of the wonderful grain.  Now you have likely seen many oatmeal creations especially if you read food blogs but you have never seen a zesty oatmeal creation.

Now in no way shape or form is my creation any better/different than the next person’s oatmeal, however oatmeal offers such a blank canvas and a fun texture to add flavors.

Ingredients

• Oats
• Skim Milk
• Banana
• Sliced Almonds
• Raisins
• Drizzle of Honey
• Ground Flax seed

Method

1. Follow the oatmeal instructions… lately I have been using the microwave method and adding milk.
2. Once finished, stir in the extras.
3. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: I like to make it a little thinner and let it thicken as you add in the extras.  It all depends on the consistency you enjoy.  Experiment and let me know how you get along.

What are your favorite Oatmeal toppings?

Some of mine include:

1. Maple Granola
2. Fresh fruit
3. Broken muffins
4. Chocolate Almond Fudge Clif bars
5. Any kind of nut
6. Raisins
7. Cranberries
8. Butterscotch chips
9. Chia seeds
10. Honey

Below is a series of some oatmeal creations from other bloggers that you must try.

Katheats – and her tribute to oatmeal.  She calls herself the Oatmeal QUEEN.  When you visit this page you will see why.

CarrotsNCake – Wait until you see this… baked banana oatmeal!!!  I am trying this one.

Danica Daily – Crock pot oats with peaches and blueberries…. WOW

Heather Eats Almond Butter – Some really fun oatmeal creations over here.  I spotted a recent one with chocolate!  YUM

Can you believe it is Wednesday already? Hard to believe for sure. I only have 2 more days of work and then I am off to Toronto to watch some Blue jays. Have a great day and talk to you tomorrow…. you just never know what fun recipe idea you will see.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty