Haus Egg McMuffins

Food Category: G-Rated, Bum Lovin'
Difficulty: Easy

If you need help working the griddle magic, here's a recipe for McMuffins. We are having these tonight because I bought English muffins yesterday at the Shoppette for 50% off & had everything else to make them on-hand.

I basically followed the above recipe with the following exceptions:

• 3-4 deli thin slices of ham lunch meat, instead of Canadian bacon
• extra sharp cheddar cheese
• one slice of heat & eat Oscar Mayer bacon

Laze-E & I had poached/grilled eggs while MiniMe had scrambled. I used my big can of Contadina crushed tomatoes from last night's minestrone for the egg mold for both types of eggs. For the poached/grilled eggs, I covered the can with foil to get some steam action going.

These Haus McMuffins are around 300 calories each, give or take, depending on these cheese. You could shave a few calories by using low fat/fat free cheese. Whole wheat muffins would be great but I haven't seen those here in Belgium.

I did look-up the nutritional value on a real Egg McMuffin & it's (surprisingly) 300 calories also. But the Haus brand taste better & are way cheaper, so why bother with the Golden Arches?

Leftover potential: I only make what we are going to eat, but should you have leftovers, they could probably hang in the fridge for a few days. Heat & eat for a quick & easy breakfast.

Orange Chicken & Rice

Food Category: Easy, PG, High-5

Difficulty: Easy

Stir-Fry Fresh Veggies

Sautee sliced onion, snow peas & Napa cabbage (that's what I had in the fridge from the night we had Asian Salads) in evoo & remove from pan.

Orange Chicken

Cook according to package directions. I also added a few small pieces of the Tyson chicken strips the girls had for dinner.

Add back the stir-fried veggies & a package of microwave steamed veggies.

Serve with:

Rice made in the rice cooker.

All said and done the "quick" meal from the freezer ended up being almost as much work as cooking from scratch. The portions were very skimpy, the taste "just okay" & not really worth the expense ($4.29).

Next time, I'll make something more along the lines of this Tyson's Sweet & Sour recipe. I may even use cut up breaded chicken strips (or nuggets!) so that it's more like real take-out. It really depends on how much we need to watch calories that particular night.

Ok, so dinner wasn't anything to brag about, but breakfast was! Check out the pancakes MiniMe & I made this morning. We used a medicine syringe to make the faces & had a Spook-tacular time.

Breakfast

Category: PG, Southern Comfort

Difficulty: Easy

Breakfast for Dinner or Brinner

reduced fat Jimmy Dean sausage

Pillsbury frozen Southern Style biscuits

scrambled/pan fried eggs

Kartoffelpuffer

fresh fruit: pineapple, apples, green/purple grapes, oranges, banana

If you are fortunate enough to live in Germany (or close enough to shop there on occasion) you are in luck with the Kartoffelpuffer. You should be able to find them in the freezer section at any old grocery store. They can be cooked by pan frying or heated in the oven. Traditionally, they are served with apple sauce or a garlic sauce that is a cross between Ranch dressing & a creamy garlic sour cream-ish dip.

Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus (Potato Pancakes with apple sauce)

I'm close enough to Germany, that I have the frozen kind ready to rock-n-roll in the oven. I do need to figure out how to make these from scratch for when I can't just buy them at the source. I've seen a few Omas make them at fests & have a pretty good idea what needs to be done. I promise I'll experiment soon & post a recipe/technique.

Kartoffelpuffer at a fest. Just one more reason to live in Germany.

If Kartoffelpuffer are out of the question because you live in Texas, hash browns make a decent substitution.

If (& I mean IF) you can limit yourself to one biscuit, 2 sausage patties, one egg & one kartoffelpuffer, you won't be doing excessive damage to the thighs. Fill up on the fresh fruit, not the sausage.

Leftover potential: biscuits, sausage & kartoffelpuffer can be reheated for tomorrow's breakfast. Extra fruit can be frozen and eventually make a reappearance in fruit smoothies.