Author Archives: metamegan

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

This recipe all started last week when I was being stingy with the vanilla glaze for the donut holes. I didn’t want to throw the leftover glaze away, but eating it with a spoon also seemed like a bad idea. The only solution was to bake a cake to use as a glaze receptacle.

I had been wanting to make the Lemon Cornmeal Cake from breakfast:recipes to wake up for (sic) – but it’s so complicated it wasn’t a contender for FBF. There’s whisking, then whisking over a double boiler… come on. I decided there had to be an easier way to make it, so I came up with a plan. Follow the recipe for Mother’s Day, then remake it in a more straightforward fashion for Fancy Breakfast Friday.

Both methods had mixed results.

For one – I didn’t actually follow the recipe for Mother’s Day – I added blueberries and glaze. It was OK. Fine really. Kind of corn-mealy. Not worth whisking over a double boiler, and I didn’t even bother to figure out the science of why that would even be necessary. I made it the day before and it was a nice addition to the breakfast in bed spread.

On to recipe No. 2. This time I decided to follow the recipe on the cornmeal box, and increase the sugar, and add lemon and blueberries. These were also fine. Pretty good as they came out of the oven. OK for an afternoon snack. Incredibly dry the next day. You can see Jack has a giant glass of milk, and is kind of procrastinating eating this muffin.

Blueberry Lemon Cornmeal Muffins: *adapted from the kroger brand cornmeal box

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (the recipe calls for 2 T)
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 egg
lemon zest from one lemon
juice from half a lemon
3/4 cup frozen blueberries

To make:

Preheat Oven to 450. Fill 12 muffin tins with liners. Zest the lemon into a bowl with the sugar and rub together until very fragrant.

Squeeze half a lemon into the milk and let it sit while you mix the dry ingredients. Add the oil and egg to the milk and whisk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Spoon into 12 muffin tins. Top muffins with 3-5 blueberries each.
Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, until brown on the top.

Eat all of them immediately.

Monday Work Out

It’s been a while since I shared an embarrassing story so I have a real doozy for you. I’m also excited to show off my new logo and my drawing skills. I spent several months trying to draw some cool swoopy hair and two Ms to stand for MetaMegan with a Wonder Woman feel to it. My old logo was a drawing I found* on the internet 10 years ago, and I thought it was time to get my own logo before I became a famous blogger and/or author.

So I drew and drew and the drawings were, well… terrible is a strong word. I could just get it to the point where I knew what I wanted but I wasn’t close. I finally sought out a professional! My good friend Cassy made the new awesome logo. (See above – it’s just the head, not the part that I befouled with my pre-school level scribbles.) See Cassy for all your marketing needs.

So – what is this picture about? I needed a drawing to illustrate what happened to me during Body Pump at the gym recently. It was kind of hard to explain otherwise. I’ve told the story a couple times and people just shake their heads. Screen Shot 2016-05-16 at 4.16.26 PM

So I thought my story needed pictures. Or to be less embarrassing, but too late for that! I was gathering all the equipment needed for Body Pump – a step and risers, a mat, weights, etc and I was being careful to bend at the knees because my back had been bothering me. As I carefully bent at the knee to put the risers on the floor, I’m not sure how this happened, but my knee went through one of the risers and remained there as I tried to stand up. Apparently the insides of the risers are made of shards of glass because I got a huge cut on my shin. I thought I was going to barf from the pain, and fortunately, at that moment, I realized I had left my water bottle in the hallway. I casually hobbled out and tried to walk it off, suppressing tears, shame, and obscenities.

It didn’t look that bad, so I went back into class as though nothing had happened.

Everything seemed OK until the tricep dips. I had my legs crossed and when I uncrossed them, I noticed that I had blood all over the back of my leg. (From the wound on the front of my leg.) Again, I casually left the room, this time to dress my wound. (People never leave the room during Body Pump. It’s not done.) I usually cheat at tricep dips so people probably thought I was just really trying to get out of them this time by leaving for five minutes and coming back as if nothing was wrong.

And that’s the story. I did the rest of the workout, put my stuff away and left. I wanted to share the story with someone, but I am not friendly with anyone in the class, and it was kind of a complicated story. How does something like that happen? Has it ever happened to anyone but me? It’s been about 10 days now. I’m not healed yet, but I think eventually I will be.

*found = stole from

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Donut Holes

I once thought I would be really into cake pops but after my first cake pop adventure, I realized that well… cake decorating is not really my forte. (If I had been brave enough to post about my Lamb Cake #fail I would link to it now. Side note – my lamb cake from two years ago was amazing.) I didn’t come to the cake pop realization though, until after I had asked for a cake pop maker for Christmas so I needed a plan B for this appliance.

Donut holes are the answer… to so many questions… but in this case, donut holes are the answer to “What should I do with my cake pop maker.”)

I spent about an hour on Pinterest trying to find the perfect recipe, only to finally read this piece of advice: Just use the recipes that come with the cake pop maker. This is good advice.

I made the chocolate and I did a half version of the vanilla recipe. I also made the recipe for vanilla glaze. I glazed some, used some sprinkles, did some powdered sugar and got about 4.5 dozen make in the hour before the boys got up. The cake pop maker makes 13 at a time, and it takes 4-5 minutes per batch. To make sure I had enough time in the morning, I mixed the dry ingredients the night before.

The boys were excited, and said it was the best Fancy Breakfast Friday ever, which they say about half the time. Dave said the chocolate version was a little dry, so I might try again and cook for a slightly shorter time. I served this with another Skoop smoothie for a side of protein.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Cherry Galette

The trick to serving pie for breakfast is to make it “healthy”. This recipe calls for 1 3/4 cups flour, so I used 3/4 of whole wheat. See what I did there? So much healthier. Also, the whole wheat flour kinds of shores up a crust that has to stand on it’s own instead of relying on a pie pan for shape.

I based my recipe on the galette dough recipe from Rustic Fruit Desserts. I love that cookbook even though I used to hate fruit in my dessert. I’m slowly being won over. But I’ll never be team pie. #teamcake4evah.

I also used less sugar in the filling, although I wasn’t using a recipe, so I used what I imagined to be less that what a normal person would use.

The other trick about pie for breakfast is to balance it with some protein. Usually on Fancy Breakfast Friday, this means eggs and bacon, but I have recently spent a lot of time getting caught up on Game of Thrones, and this has forced me to cut back on my sleeping time. I made this galette the night before, while watching Game of Thrones, and then I slept in on FBF morning. I didn’t want a repeat of the blueberry muffin incident where the boys were forced to eat steaming hot muffins straight from the oven so they didn’t miss the bus. Plus, pies and galettes need to cool on the metaphorical windowsill for a bit. So what did I do for protein? I have gotten a couple samples of Skoop at my cycling team meetings/parties and I had been saving them for mornings after an orthodontist appointment when Luke can’t chew. Skoop is a plant based protein powder that you mix with 8-12 ounces of milk or whatever. As Luke would say at the grocery store as a toddler in the milk section, “We drink cows milk! Make sure to get cow’s milk.” I mixed the skoop with a banana and 12 ounces of milk in the blender and split it into two glasses. I had the vanilla flavor and they liked it. I had a taste and thought it was pretty good.

The galette, of course was also delish.

Galette Dough – recipe based on Rustic Fruit Desserts
1 Cup AP flour
3/4 Cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter
3 tablespoons ice water

Put the drink ingredients in a food processor and pulse to mix them. Then cut the butter into small pieces and plop them into the top of the food processor and put the whole thing in the freezer for 10 minutes. After the ingredients are chilled pulse until the butter is evenly distributed and the butter is smaller than pea sized. Turn on the food processor and pour in the 3T of ice water and let the food processor run a second until the dough almost comes together. Dump it out onto a big piece of plastic wrap. At this point my dough kind of looked like dippin’ dots. Put another layer of plastic wrap over the top and roll it out into a 1 inch thick disk. I fold the sides of the plastic wrap over the so I can roll it into the shape I want. Wrap the disk and put in in the fridge for 2 hours.

Filling
2 cups frozen cherries
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons corn starch
half a lemon
Turbinado sugar
1 egg, whisked

Put cherries in a sauce pan and cook on low. Add sugar and cornstarch. Squeeze half a lemon into it. Cook on low stirring occasionally until thick.

Make the Galette
Preheat oven to 400
Take the dough out and roll it out to about a 12 inch diameter.
Put filling on the middle, leaving plenty of room to fold the crust over.
Fold the crust over.
Brush the egg over the crust
Sprinkle the top with a tablespoon of turbinado sugar
Bake for 30 minutes until crust is golden and filling is bubbling.

Enjoy!

Book Club

Today is Independent Bookstore Day – all these books are linked to Indiebound, and I get a small percentage if you purchase books via this link. I will not be offended if you get them from your local bookstore or the library!

I was obsessed with the Tournament of Books for the first part of the year, reading a lot of great books and finding many that I just had to abandon. At the end of the tournament there are always posts and comments about contenders for next year. I immediately ordered several from the library and they have been rolling in. Of course as soon as I picked up the first book at the library I thought, “Ugh. Am I ready for a BOOK?” I kind of felt like something lighter and easier than a contender for best book of 2016. Isn’t that a weird thought? I wasn’t in the mood to read something GOOD – capital letters required. But then I read the inside flap and it said, “…comes home to find his wife killed…” And I was like, SOLD! Of course, then I thought something was really wrong with me. I spent all afternoon yesterday reading All Things Cease to Appear, and then texting people to recommend it. It starts with a murder, and you start off trying to figure out who did it. Then you start to learn… so much more about the characters. Could not put it down.

Here are a few others I have loved so far this year:

The Turner House – This is a book about a family in Detroit. Read this if you like characters or if you are in a family.

Our Souls At Night – Love story between two old people. Read this if you think you may get old.

The Tsar of Love and Techno – When I was describing this to Dave I said, “I really loved this, but at first it seemed like some of the chapters didn’t fit in. The style wasn’t totally cohesive. In the end, I felt like all the chapters worked together as a whole, but I had to get halfway through it before I felt that way.” A couple weeks later I learned that this was a book of short stories, and I felt really, really, really dumb. Knowing it’s a book of short stories, I have nothing against it now. I have had it on my mind a lot since I have been reading about the anniversary of Chernobyl. This takes place in Siberia and Chechnya, but there are parallels.

Ongoingness – Read this if you are someone obsessed with writing a diary.

My Brilliant Friend – This is the first in a series of four books about a small town in Italy. Nothing and everything happens in this book. Read this when you have time to avoid everything else in your life because I found it hard to put down.

As usual, I have been reading a lot of YA books as well.

I read the fourth book in the Lunar Series – Winter. This was actually really really good. It seems like a “guilty pleasure” a little, but really it was just a pleasure. Read this series if you like fairy tales with strong female characters who can rule the world. Don’t read if you aren’t open to cyborgs and aliens. (Don’t limit yourself.) Start with Cinder and go from there.

Jack and I heard Kwame Alexander on NPR and I loved the way he talked about poetry and boys – this statement stuck with me:

“I think that so often we think of boys as just wanting to be a part of sports, but when you get on a sports team and you really get in that huddle and you get on the court with these boys, or you get on the pitch, it’s all about family and friendship and love and rivalry and it’s extremely emotional.”

Luke and Jack and I were reading The Crossover at bedtime, taking turns with each poem and it was really great. Right up until the point that the boys figured out how it was going to end. I offered to let them read it on their own, but they decided to just let me read the end on my own and tell them if they had it right. They did, and I don’t mind that they didn’t want to finish it – reading half a book of poetry with your mom is better than nothing.

Jack and I are now reading The BFG, which we are loving. I wanted to make him read a page and then I would read a page, but that isn’t working for this book because of all the made up words. I actually find it kind of exhausting to read it out loud, but I think it’s better to read it out loud, or listed to an audio version because the way the BFG talks is really, really funny.

What are you reading?

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Blueberry Muffins

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These muffins were delicious. After my success with the breakfast cookies, I pulled out The Family Kitchen* again, knowing I could find something the make at the last minute with ingredients I had on hand.

The downside to this recipe is that I barely had it out of the oven as the kids were sitting down to breakfast. I only give myself an hour, because I can’t make myself get up earlier than 6:00 am to make Fancy Breakfast Friday. If I get up at 6:00 am, I am a fun mom, working on a cool, year long project. If I get up earlier, I have become a crazy, obsessed mom who seriously needs to go back to work. These muffins should not have taken a full hour to make, but for some reason they did.

The recipe calls for 2 cups of blueberries, which I thought was too many for 12 muffins. So I used the “dump blueberries in until it looks right” method.

The main problem here was the crumb topping. Too much flour, not enough sugar. And the muffins were so full, I could barely get the tablespoon per muffin to stay on top. I was left with at least a cup of crumb, so I added some sugar and vanilla and put it in two baggies in the freezer for future muffin projects.

These muffins were served with an egg and some fruit.

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* The link is an affiliate link.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Buttermilk Biscuits

Last week I went down the rabbit hole on Smitten Kitchen. I started off looking for a recipe for spaghetti bolognese, which I have never had but feel a weird desire to eventually, one day make. One recipe led to another, and then another, and before I knew it I was reading the My Favorite Buttermilk Biscuit recipe, adapted from Bon Appetite, which had gotten the recipe from Dot’s Diner. Dot’s Diner happens to be our current favorite Boulder breakfast place so I knew I had a winner. I always order the breakfast biscuit sandwich, which comes with a scrambled egg, cheese, and avocado on a biscuit. I want it to come with a slice of onion too, for crunch, but it doesn’t. Seems like I would have made that for myself at home since I was making the biscuits anyway, but I didn’t. I just made the biscuits and served them with bacon and eggs because I am lazy. Laziness, and a lack of a biscuit cutter also explain why I did drop biscuits.

These were good. I will make them my go-to recipe for sure.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Breakfast Cookies

Last Thursday night I was flipping through cookbooks looking for easy recipes that listed ingredients I already had in the house. I found this delicious recipe for breakfast cookies in The Family Kitchen* cookbook. This is a good cookbook to have because it’s full of useful recipes. It also breaks things down for cooking with kids – what to have the kids do, what to do yourself. I don’t find that advice to be super necessary at this point, but it’s useful when they are younger. (Or for younger moms, I guess.)

This is basically an oatmeal cookie, with less butter than usual, and just egg whites. It also calls for orange juice, which I didn’t have so I subbed pineapple juice. Another sub I made was cranberries for raisins. Now that I am thinking about it, it also called for prune puree, but suggested applesauce as a good substitute. Who has prune puree? Well, I didn’t think I had applesauce either, but then I remembered I had a go-go squeeze in the bottom of my baseball bag. It was apple-banana, everyone’s least favorite flavor, and it was exactly the 1/4 cup I needed. Turns out, I picked a recipe for which I did not have all the ingredients!

But they turned out to be delicious. I served the cookies with scrambled eggs, pineapple slices, and sausage. This plate clearly needs something red or green.

This post contains affiliate links.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Spring Break Breakfast Casserole

This super Fancy Breakfast is actually now 2 weeks old. Last week was April Fools! and the week before we had spring break. We share meals with two other families and by a stroke of luck and genius, I was assigned breakfast on Friday. The caveat was that meals should be vegetarian and gluten free if possible. I made an egg casserole topped with mushrooms in a red wine reduction. I decided not to go with a pastry because of my total lack of experience in gluten free baking, and at the last minute, I realized the casserole had flour in it, DUH! So I made an omelette for the gluten free person. I did not hand make the tater tots, I hope no one who was there is reading this, because I tried to be ambiguous about whether or not I had the deep fryer out before anyone woke up.

The casserole, like I said, had flour, 16 eggs, two cups of cottage cheese, some huge amount of mozzarella, dijon, nutmeg, salt, pepper. What’s the recipe? Well, there’s a long story behind it, because I need to tell the backstory about the time I rode my bike halfway around Pike’s Peak and Dave rode all the way around. In the middle we stayed at a bed and breakfast that served this casserole. The proprietor gave me the recipe, but I had never made it because when is it appropriate to make a casserole with 16 eggs? And who on earth has a 15×10 pan? Fortunately there was on in the condo!! I made a decision not to buy a disposable dish, saving myself $5.00 but risking my ability to pull this off, but we lucked out. Coming soon – the backstory and the recipe, assuming I brought it home from Crested Butte and put it somewhere. In the meantime, here is a link to the B&B and I would love to stay there again. Under different circumstances.

It was so good. And it was good leftover the next day. The mushroom topping was optional, but I think if you like mushrooms and red wine, you would like the topping.

Here is our view from the condo.

SPRING BREAK!!! WOOOO!

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Lunch for Breakfast

April Fools Day has become like Christmas in my house. The kids have high expectations and there have been years when they were very disappointed. So Fancy Breakfast Friday came on the perfect day for pranking. I decided to do lunch for breakfast. April Fools! The grilled cheese is thinly sliced Sara Lee pound cake with orange icing. I sliced it thin and toasted one side with a little butter. The cheese is Pillsbury vanilla icing with a mix of orange and yellow food coloring. I can’t take credit for this idea but see “the internet” for more info. This one has been around for a while but I could never figure out when to serve it. Seems like a very unhealthy meal, which makes it perfect for FBF.

And aren’t those veggies realistic? Well that’s because they are snap peas. Real ones. Because you know what is more diabolical than making fake veggies out of candy? Serving actual veggies to your kids for breakfast.

Dessert is a brownie.

My Fancy Breakfast Friday posts are usually delayed a week, but I wanted to share this one today for obvious reasons. (So you can copy me at dinner time.) Next week I will have our fun spring break breakfast to share. Happy April Fools Day!