Brunching + “mom’s” Coffee Cake

How was everyone’s weekends?? Sadly it’s Monday, but the good news is that it’s almost over and it makes me happy looking at beautiful food pics from the weekend!

Saturday, surprisingly, I had nothing to do. I was so excited! Unfortunately I guess I thrive on a tight schedule and ended up feeling like I wasted a day, but it was still a nice day.

Especially because it started with this

I decided to get my butt to Hot Yoga on Saturday morning, but opted for the not-quite-so-early 9:00AM class (as opposed to the 7:15). This gave me time to get up, eat, and digest.

Oats:

• 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup milk
• pinch salt
• 1/2 banana
• Topped with:
• 1/3 of Natures Valley PB granola bar, crumbled
• fresh strawberries
• coconut
• regular PB
• White Chocolate Wonderful PB

I can’t get enough of that “cleaned” feeling you get after sweating the week out in a hot room. I was happy I decided to eat breakfast first too, because I was still hungry when I returned home!

Quick pita with hummus, spinach, and hot sauce to take the edge off.

And this guy for something sweet with my cappuccino

Then is was time to bake!

Sunday, my friend had some people over for a relaxing brunch. She was taking care of the main courses, so I thought a quick bread or muffin would be great to snack on before we sit down to eat!

I immediately thought of “my mom’s” sour cream coffee cake! It’s DELICIOUS! It’s always a crowd pleaser and requested at many family gatherings. So when I asked for the recipe, I was slightly surprised (but I guess not really) that she directed me to Miss Betty Crocker!

Totally one of those situations where like your Grandmother’s “famous” cookies are just the recipe on the back of the box of whatever…

Either way, I was happy it was online, although there are KEY changes to the recipe that make is My MOM’s!

Mom’s Changes:

• Use the whole container (16oz) of Sour Cream instead of just the 1.5 cups called for
• No glaze
• ADD Chocolate chips in the filling/topping! BEST PART EVER!

Of course I took it one step further and made it “healthier”, and I’m just going to call it exactly what it is:

Greek Yogurt Coffee Cake
(adapted from Betty Crocker)

Coffee Cake:

• 1.5 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1.5 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1.5 tsp Baking Powder
• 1.5 tsp Baking Soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 6T butter, softened
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white
• 1/3 cup apple sauce
• 2 cups Non-fat plain Greek Yogurt (such as Chobani)

Filling:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts**
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips**

*I didn't measure out my chocolate chips or walnuts, but just sprinkled them on each layer so I had a nice distribution (see photos), feel free to increase nuts and chocolate as needed :)

Heat Oven to 350. I greased 1 large loaf pan and 1 mini loaf pan, or you can use a bunt pan like mom.

In a small bowl mix filling ingredients together, set aside. I was making a mini-loaf, nut free, for my friend to I just mixed the cinnamon and brown sugar and added the chocolate chips and nuts separately later.

In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add in apple sauce, beat on low. Add in flour mixture alternately with Greek Yogurt, beating on low speed until combined.

Add half of the batter to your pan, then sprinkle with half the filling. Repeat.

Bake for 50min-1 hr. The mini loaf took 30-35min.

Cool for 10 min before removing from pan, then cool another 10 minutes.

At this point you’ll be so overcome by the smell that you’ll have to decide to “present” the coffee cake to guests in slices so that you can cut into it RIGHT away :)

Brunch was fabulous as you can see…

Is that not the most gorgeous fruit and cheese platter ever!??

Mmmmm Cheese

And pastries! Danish Pastry House of course!

Have you ever had a kumquat!? I never had!! You just pop the whole thing in your mouth, peel and all! Its an orange the size of a cherry tomato and bursts in your mouth the same way! SO GOOD!

The main course was…

Spinach, feta frittata!

Roasted potatoes, onions, carrots, and chicken sausage. So simple yet SO good!!

And French Toast Strata (with cream cheese)… holy mother of brunch! SO freaking good!!!

Needless to say I was full :)

p.s. my shoulders are still so sore from yoga! Must get back into it!!

What’s your favorite dish to bring/make for Brunch??

Sweat and Stew

Being sick last week really put a damper on my exercise schedule, but there’s really no sense in pushing yourself only to make yourself feel worse…I’ve learned over the years. 

Finally, after more than a week, I had my energy back on full blast and I wanted to break a sweat!  What better than hot yoga?  Tuesday night I hit up my nearby Prana Power Yoga for a nice sweaty 90 minutes and I felt stronger than usual!  Must of been all that rest ;)

Then tonight I was able to do a nice 2mile run outside before getting back to Body Pump.  Oh how I missed Pump :)  Once again the run felt great, I really needed that…although I was a bit shaky at Pump, esp. on the squats!

This weekend goals:

• Longer run (5-6mi)
• Body Pump on Sunday

Love being back on schedule :)

I received a lot of great soup and stew recipes last week (thank you!), and I can’t wait to dive into them as the temperature drops here in New England. 

Here is another one that is sure to make a re-appearance, this comes from the lovely Giada!

Beef and Butternut Squash Stew

I remember flagging this one in my cookbook a long time ago, and it came to me as I was staring at the beef in Trader Joes!

I already had a butternut squash at home and I love the flavor of fresh thyme in wintery dishes. 

This one had fresh thyme and rosemary…both of which are still thriving in our garden!

 

Giada’s Italian element comes through with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes.

This dish comes together quite simply, and leaves a lot of room for your own additions.  I followed the recipe this time, but in the future I’d like to add more veggies…maybe some carrots, and other root vegetables! 

I also read some of the comments others made on the recipe and a few people used a crock pot, another great idea.

The sauce wasn’t very thick, but a big chunk of fresh bread would take care of that.

I completed my Autumn dinner with a pumpkin beer in a glass with a cinnamon sugar rim :)

    

Anyone have a great costume for this weekend?  This is actually the FIRST time I am not dressing up or doing anything!  I’m actually kind of happy about it :)  I do love to get dressed up, but I hate thinking of and then buying a costume.  I swear no matter how cheap I try to make it, there goes $40-$50 for a one-night ensemble. 

I am looking forward to trick-or-treaters though!

Back to Yoga!

More and more little pieces of my "normal" life are coming back! I finally went to my Yoga studio tonight and when I looked at my class card the last time I went was March 19!!! Way too long!

I went for Hot Yoga but there was a substitute teacher who does more of a Vinyasa class, but the room was already hot from the class before so it was kind of Hot Vinyasa which was awesome! The normal Hot Yoga doesn't have much down and up dogs or planks so I this was great! My arms were getting so tired from all the low planks!!

So my roomie and I have officially made the switch to morning iced coffee!! I made a pot of Spring Blend iced coffee Sunday and it was A-MA-ZING! To make iced coffee we just brew a half pot of double strength coffee and then when its finished add enough ice to bring it up to the normal strength water level.I packed a KICK ASS salad today!
The goods:

• baby spinach base
• cucumber
• red bell pepper
• carrots
• red onion
• corn OFF the cob (the leftover grilled corn from last night)
• grilled asparagus from last night

I also packed a fresh tomato and avocado to cut up just before eating :) I don't like to refrigerate tomatoes if possible, it just ruins a good tomato.
I also made a quick dressing with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic, honey, and Dijon mustard.

I also enjoyed an Ellie's Cherry Walnut Bar that the roomie made last Thursday night! I've said it before but these things are SO good.
After Yoga I had a leftover Spanikopita Turkey Burger, YUM! And apple sauce...
Then maybe I had a Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie to round out the night.

AND I'm finally catching up on some TV! Watched Gossip Girl from like THREE weeks ago and a couple episodes of The Hills.

Family Brunch and Grilling!

I have to say I am SO lucky to have my family!! Every family function is a foodie's dream :)

Sunday's Birthday Brunch for my grandmother was no exception...although I was slightly disappointed that there were no scones, but I got over it real fast when I had one of these:

Homemade caramel rolls!! Caramel Rolls (or sticky buns as we like to call them), are a family staple...even 1 of my uncles makes homemade dough to whip these babies up! Usually they involve a sweet yeast dough, rolled with cinnamon sugar, and placed in a pan with a mixture of brown sugar, butter, maybe Caro syrup? Which caramelizes on the bottom while baking then the whole pan is flipped over after they are done to let the caramel drip down.

THESE however, were made with HOMEMADE CARAMEL!!! Don't know what she did (My aunt...one of them, I have 5 on this side of the fam)...made a caramel for these and they were AMAZING!!! Thank god I split it with Brian.
Other DELICIOUSNESS from the day:

Asparagus Frittata

A spinach and cheese frittata with potato crust

Poached salmon with a yogurt dill sauce
the BEST roasted vegetables I've ever had...must of been roasted at a lower temp for longer because they were SO caramelized! (potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, Brussels!)

1/2 of a chocolate croissant (I think it was Nutella in there!)...mmmmmm

One dessert: A wild berry tart by my pastry chef aunt (it was at her house)

There were also 2 black bottom pies and a gorgeous rum cake with whipped cream frosting! I wish I could have one of these at the wedding but they need to be refrigerated up until it's served so it wouldn't work out on display.

My only gripe I ALWAYS have is that I eat too much!! Oh but its SO worth it :)

Brian and I had big plans to take advantage of the GORGEOUS weather and grill out! (Hard to believe I was grilling outside yesterday when it was SNOWING all day today...grrrr).

We had a big package of chicken tenders marinating in:

• olive oil
• cider vinegar
• lemon juice
• lime juice
• brown sugar
• salt & pepper
• garlic
• I think that's it...Brian made it
  
  

It marinated overnight which made the chicken SO flavorful. We also amazingly saw some corn on the cob at WF's!! SO excited! We threw that on the grill as well.

I also FINALLY made KALE CHIPS!!

• Kale
• Olive oil
• salt & pepper
• freshly grated Parmesan
• 375 for 15 min

AWESOME!!! Now I see why these things are so popular. Brian even loved them...said they were a great substitute for potato chips and obviously much healthier :)

We were still not that hungry from Brunch but we had a little; my plate:1 1/2 pieces of chicken, corn, Kale! With a POM cocktail (Pom, lime seltzer, lime wedge)

COME BACK WARM WEATHER!!!

Yoga Update:

Finally got back into yoga on Saturday (work just gave me no time Thurs and Friday).

Brian and I did Yoga for Runners after our run! Yes it was his first time...pretty funny, but he did good. He said it was REALLY hard and he probably wouldn't normally have the patience for it. I was happy he tried it though :)

Sunday morning I did 30min Morning Flow.

Tonight I went to my 90min Hot Yoga class...I think the 90 min can make up for missed yoga last week :) Man it was SO Hot, a lot hotter than normal!! Sweaty sweaty!!