Breakfast Tips from Midwest Dairy (+ a Giveaway!)

School has been in session for a couple of months now so you would think we would have our routine down. And some days we do. But other days...

Those other days can be hectic. And cause frazzled nerves (on my part) and a bad start to a long school day (for Brenna). And while I may have the best plans for a good breakfast for Brenna, some days I fail. Sometimes spectacularly.

Because a nutritious breakfast has been linked to sustained energy levels throughout the school day, improved attendance, higher math and reading scores, increased creativity and an improved memory I am taking a few steps to plan breakfast in advance- just like I do with dinner.

I wanted to share these tips from the Midwest Dairy Council which are designed not only to save time, but also help that ensure kids take on the day with a healthy and balanced breakfast:

· Set out cereal boxes and bowls the night before, add milk in the morning, and enjoy
· Divide mini pretzels, nuts, and dried fruit into baggies the night before to sprinkle over yogurt
· Bake a fresh batch of muffins with your kids over the weekend to grab on the way to school
· Stock up on self-serve options such as individual flavored milks and granola bars
· Heat nutrient-rich leftovers for a quick, non-traditional breakfast
· If kids don't have time to eat at home, take advantage of school breakfast programs

One thing I do is make pancakes, waffles or French Toast on Sunday, cool them and freeze individually. They are easy to toss in the toaster or microwave in the morning and top with fruit and yogurt for a quick, warm breakfast.

Win a Cool Touch Griddle Contest is now closed
Congratulations to lucky comment #5!

To help you get your mornings off to a great start Midwest Dairy is letting me give away a Cool Touch Griddle and a bundle of Midwest Dairy goodies- including an insulated shopping tote.

To enter just leave your best school-morning breakfast tip or your favorite eat-on-the-go recipe in the comments. One comment per person.

Want more entries?

1) Tweet this giveaway. Leave a comment with the link to your tweet. (copy and paste: Tweet as often as you wish.

2) Share this on your facebook page. Leave a comment with the link. One link per day, please.

Contest ends October 17, 2010 at 11:59pm. Contest open to US residents only.

I am also excited to announce that Midwest Dairy is an official sponsor of the I_Blog Conference!

Bonus!

Pumpkin Pancakes recipe from Midwest Dairy!

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients
2 cups low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt


Preparation
In small mixing bowl, briskly combine vanilla yogurt, maple syrup and cinnamon until yogurt becomes looser texture. Reserve.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. In a medium bowl, combine milk, butter, egg, pumpkin and yogurt, mixing well. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir until just moist. Do not overmix. Batter may be lumpy. For thinner batter, add more milk.

Lightly coat a griddle or skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium. Using a quarter-cup measure, pour batter onto hot griddle. Cook until bubbles begin to burst, then flip pancakes and cook until golden. Serve warm with maple yogurt topping.

Disclosure: Midwest Dairy gave me a dairy bundle (but not a griddle). I was not told what to write and all thoughts are my own.

Pumpkin Clove Pound Cake with Eggnog Italian Buttercream Frosting

This is the companion recipe to the Chocolate Pound Cake recipe I just posted. It's a great alternative to pumpkin bars and will receive oohs and aahs from family and friends.

This is a time consuming cake to make, taking about 1 1/2 hours. It's so worth it.

For the cake:

3 c extra fine granulated sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (3/4 c)
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
2 3/4 c sifted all purpose flour
1/4 c turbinado sugar
1 T baking powder
1 1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 t table salt
1/8 t ground allspice
1 can (15oz) pure pumpkin
5 T heavy cream
1 T honey
1 T dark rum (optional)
1 T vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 with rack in center.

Cream the sugar and butter together in a stand mixer with paddle attachment on low for 5 minutes.

Add eggs and yolks one at a time, letting each incorporate before adding the next.

Whisk dry ingredients (flour, turbinado sugar, baking powder, cloves, salt and allspice) together in a separate bowl.

Combine wet ingredients (pumpkin, heavy cream, honey, rum and vanilla) in another bowl.

With mixer still on low add the wet and dry ingredients alternately to the egg mixture, beginning and ending with dry. Scrape the sides of the bowl to the bottom and mix on medium speed for 20 additional seconds.

Coat a Bundt pan 3/4 full (don't overfill) with a non-stick flour spray (try the pan release recipe I use) and bake 55-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out nearly clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes then invert onto a flat surface and cool completely.

Wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for one day or freeze for up to one month.


Italian Meringue Buttercream

Boil:
1 c extra fine granulated sugar
1/4 c water

Whip; Add:
5 egg whites
1/4 c extra fine sugar

Slowly pour syrup into meringue; Beat in:
4 sticks unsalted butter, cut to tablespoon pieces, at room temperature

Mix in:
1/2 c melted and cooled semi-sweet chocolate and 1 t vanilla

Boil sugar and water over medium heat until it reaches 245 degrees (I don't have a candy thermometer so I just watched it very closely and when it started to boil I took it off the burner). As it cooks begin meringue so it will be ready)

Whip whites with a wire whisk in a stand mixer on high until they reach stiff peaks, 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle in 1/4 c sugar; beat to incorporate.

Slowly pour hot sugar mixture into meringue in a steady stream with mixer on high. Pour between bowl and whisk.

Continue to beat the frosting for 10-12 minutes until the outside of the bowl has reached room temperature and the frosting is thick and glossy white.

Beat in butter by tablespoons; should take 2 minutes. Don't worry if the butter is cooler than the batter and causes separation, just continue to beat and it will come together.

Mix in 2 T dark rum, 1 t vanilla extract and 1/2 t ground mace for eggnog flavor.

To Build:

Split the cake in half horizontally with a long serrated knife using a gentle sawing motion. Cut into the center and continue around the cake. Swirl frosting beyond the edges so it spills out, set top layer and swirl with more frosting.

Sprinkle the frosting with mace or pumpkin pie seasoning or cinnamon if desired.

Cream Cheese Swirled Pumpkin Pie

I adore pumpkin pie. I like it plain, no whipped cream. It's perfect just the way it is.

I also really like the Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake that I make, so this pumpkin pie with cream cheese was a no-brainer. We had the leftovers (not that much was left over) for breakfast... Mmmm...

The recipe came from the Hy-Vee Seasons magazine- a free quarterly magazine they give out at the registers.

All you need:
12 ounces Hy-Vee cream cheese, softened
1 c. Hy-Vee sugar
3 tbsp Hy-Vee flour
1 (15 oz) can Hy-Vee pumpkin
3 Hy-Vee large eggs
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 frozen Hy-Vee deep-dish pie crust, unthawed
1 tbsp Hy-Vee skim milk

All you do:

1. Beat cream cheese, sugar and flour together on low speed until smooth; reserve 1/2 cup cream cheese mixture for later use.
2. Add pumpkin, eggs and pumpkin pie spice to cream cheese mixture; beat on medium speed until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Pour into frozen deep-dish pie crust.
3. In a small bowl, stir milk into reserved cream cheese mixture. Microwave on HIGH 20 to 30 seconds or until slightly softened and creamy. Spoon over pie filling and swirl in S-shaped curves with knife.
4. Bake at 375ºF for 60 to 65 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean. Cool completely and refrigerate before serving.

Layered Pumpkin Muffins

I have a great fall treat for you!

Layered Pumpkin Muffins

These were so yummy! The girls and Doug absolutely LOVED them. (Don't they look nice by Brenna's "gorgeous"?)

The recipe is from Kraft and was actually a layered pumpkin loaf. I decided to make muffins because they are single serving size. Keeps me from over-indulging. Well, in theory.

So, here's the recipe for the loaf:

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 egg whites, divided
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups flour
2-1/2 tsp. CALUMET Baking Powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, 1/3 Less Fat than Cream Cheese, softened



PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease a nonstick 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Mix pumpkin, 1 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 3 of the egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened. Set aside. Beat Neufchatel cheese, remaining 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar and the remaining egg white with wire whisk until well blended.
SPOON half of the pumpkin batter into prepared pan; spoon Neufchatel cheese mixture evenly over the batter. Cover with remaining pumpkin batter.
BAKE 1 hour to 1 hour 5 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife or thin spatula around edges of pan to loosen bread; cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove bread from pan to wire rack; cool completely.

For muffins: follow all directions. Fill muffin cups about 1/2 full, place a teaspoon of cream cheese filling in the center then fill to about 2/3 full. I had a lot of cream cheese mixture left over. Either try to cut the filling recipe down or double the recipe for the batter. A sprinkling of turbinado sugar on top will create a yummy muffin top (I have to remember to do that next time!)

Seriously yummy! A new fall treat for us!

I finally made this as a loaf:

I prefer it as muffins, personally, but it's super yummy no matter how you make it!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

I know I have been inundating you with lots of pumpkin recipes lately. I can't help it! It's fall and we really like pumpkin!

So I am bringing you another!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

The recipe is from Kraft. So is the photo as the last one I made was kind of shiny and didn't photograph well. To see one that I made-along with some other goodies- click here.

Yes, I make this quite a bit. Yes, it's that good. Don't let it scare you! It's quite easy! I promise!

25 NABISCO Ginger Snaps, finely crushed (about 1-1/2 cups)
1/2 cup finely chopped PLANTERS Pecans
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dash ground cloves



PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Mix ginger snap crumbs, pecans and butter; press firmly onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 9-inch springform pan.
BEAT cream cheese, 3/4 cup of the sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Remove 1-1/2 cups of the batter; place in small bowl. Stir remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. Spoon half of the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half of the reserved plain batter. Repeat layers. Cut through batters with knife several times for marble effect.
BAKE 55 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 16 slices. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

Pumpkin French Toast

I'm not sure why, but breakfast food in the evening always seems so decadent. As child I can remember that dinner just seemed more "fun" when it was pancakes than when it was hamburgers.

And that feeling carries over into adulthood. I just love breakfast food at night. So last week I decided to treat the family to

Pumpkin French Toast

I actually pulled this recipe from a Glad Press 'n' Seal ad in an issue of Everyday Food about 2 years ago. So yummy!

You will need:

1 loaf brioche-style bread (I used French bread from the bakery)
1/4 c sugar
1/4 t ground cinnamon
pinch coarse salt
1/2c canned pumpkin puree
1/2 c half & half (I used whole milk)
4 large eggs
2 T orange juice
1 t grated fresh ginger (OK, I used the powdered stuff)
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t grated orange zest (Yeah, like I have that!)

Directions:

• Trim ends of bread; cut crosswise into 12 - 1" slices
• Combine sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in pumpkin, half & half, eggs, OJ, ginger, vanilla & orange zest. Pour into a large pan (I used a 9x13 baking pan).
• Add bread slices to pan, turn to coat. Cover (with Glad Press 'n Seal- aha! The ad tie-in is revealed!) and refrigerate over night (about 8 hours)
• When you are ready to prepare, heat skillets, add butter. When butter is sizzling "toast" the bread about 2-3 minutes on each side. (The butter gives great flavor and the nice "golden" color. It is actually better than a spray for this recipe.)
• Serve with maple syrup.

YUMMY!!!