Cinnabun Muffins

After a week of prelim exams all I wanted to do today was bake and enjoy the most gorgeous October day Ithaca has even seen.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to make coffee cake or sour cream pound cake... so I compromised and created my own recipe.  These cinnabun muffins are inspired by my favorite breakfast treat- but less caloric, messy and guilt-inducing.  They are sweet, soft, and crunchy all at the same time.  Most importantly of all for us college students is that they are made with cheap and readily available ingredients!

Cinnabun Muffins
Cost: $$$$$
Yields: 12 muffins

• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 3/4 cup yellow cake mix
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Cream cheese frosting (optional)

Streusel Topping:

• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, line a muffin tin with muffin cups
2. Beat the butter, eggs, oil, sugar, and sour cream together in a bowl
3. Slowly fold in the cake batter and cinnamon
4. Pour batter 2/3 of the way up in each muffin cup
5. Mix all of the ingredients of the streusel topping and add on top of muffin batter
6. Take a fork and gently swirl the streusel topping into the batter
7. Bake for 12 minutes and top with frosting if desired

Isn't it a lovely fall day???

Roasted Rosemary Grapes

When my dad tasted these grapes he said "they taste like apple pie!" What could be better than mini apple pie bites that have practically no caloric intake? Nothing. These grapes are so easy, fast, and delicious that I could honestly eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  They are the perfect snack.  Add to honey greek yogurt and you have a parfait parfait (perfect parfait).

Roasted Rosemary Grapes

• Two cups red grapes
• 1 tbsp rosemary
• Spray olive oil

1. On a sheet tray spray the grapes and rosemary with desired amount of olive oil, roast at 350 for 15 minutes until grapes are caramelized.

Apple Crumble Pancakes

Favorite fall dessert: apple crumble
Favorite breakfast: pancakes
Together?
Favorite favorite favorite apple crumble pancakes!

A perfect fall breakfast that is easy to make with cheap ingredients! The pancakes are buttery and fluffy, while the crumble topping adds crunch and cinnamon warmth.  Enjoy outside on a beautiful fall morning while the leaves fall to the ground :)

Apple Crumble Pancakes
Yield: 4 pancakes, 2 large pancakes
Cost: $$$$$


Pancakes:

• One cup Aunt Jemima Pancake mix
• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced

Topping:

• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup oats

1. Mix all of the wet ingredients for the pancakes together (milk, melted butter, vanilla extract, egg) then stir in the pancake mix and sugar
2. In a greased pan on high heat add the batter to form pancakes of your preferred size
3. Place apple slices on top of pancake rounds
4. Flip when the pancakes start to bubble and you can pick up the pancake easily with a spatula
5. Cook on the other side
6. Topping: Melt butter in the microwave, add brown sugar and vanilla, stir until smooth
7. Add oats, nutmeg, and cinnamon 
8. In the hot pan from the pancakes add the topping mixture and cook on high for about 1 minute, to cook the oats
9. Add to the top of the pancakes

P.S. Ice cream on top would probs be amazing!!!

Best Banana Bread (Secret Ingredient!)

While produce is very hard to afford during the college years, bananas seem to be bountiful.  The cafeteria has no problem with you taking a banana to go and if this is practiced by everyone in your dorm, they accumulate quickly.  Instant oatmeal packets are also everywhere in the dorm kitchen, usually sent by parents in hopes that their children are making "healthy choices." 


I decided to work with what I had.  So I took the overripe bananas and abandoned oatmeal packet and created well... magic banana bread. This bread came out of the machine (thank you to my field hockey coach Marty) and was piping hot, with steam rising from its glistening crust.  Even though it could literally burn a tongue, my dorm mates flocked around it like vultures at a carcass. Honestly, it was late and I didn't think I was hungry to even try it. I ate two pieces. 


It is the moistest banana bread I have ever tasted, thanks to the sour cream.  I wanted to label it "Super Moist Banana Bread" but several of my friends hate the word moist, so keeping it in my I just said best.  But it is both the best and super moist.  Plus it is pretty cheap to make, especially when the bananas are free :)


Best Banana Bread
Yield: 1 loaf
Cost: $$$$$
Time: 1.5 hours

• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter room temperature
• 2 eggs room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 overripe bananas mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 packet Cinnamon Spice Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal (notso SECRET INGREDIENT)

For an Oven:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease loaf pan
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and oatmeal packet in a bowl
3. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar together until light yellow and fluffy
4. Add honey, vanilla extract, butter, sour cream and bananas
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just homogenous, do not over mix or your bread will be dense!!
6. Add ingredients to the loaf pan and back for one hour

For a Breadmaker:

1. Follow instructions under quick bread, layer ingredients as appropriate. Mine took 1 hour and 40 minutes

Goodbye Summer Parfait

Summer is my favorite season. I could go into poetic prose about summer breezes, but I am a better cook than poet, so here is my adieu to summer :(


Balsamic Cherry and Peach Yogurt Parfait
One Serving
Cost: $$$$$
Time: 5 minutes

• handful of cherries
• 1 peach
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp granola or cereal
• 1 cup of vanilla yogurt

1. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the balsamic vinegar until it bubbles a little, then reduce heat and stir to reduce the vinegar 
2. Once vinegar has thickened a little, add cherries and cook until soft
3. Slice peach
4. Assemble parfait e.g. cherries on bottom, yogurt, peaches, yogurt, cherries, peaches, granola

Light Caramelized Onion, Zucchini, Goat Cheese Scramble

Want a low calorie breakfast that is big on flavor and low on guilt?? Then this Caramelized Onion, Zucchini, Goat Cheese Scramble is perfect for you.  

I hate raw onions, but a sweet, caramelized onion is like bacon: it makes everything better.  It smelled so good in my dorm kitchen that multiple kids stopped in asking what I was making and said "I didn't know you cooked Chinese food."  I explained to them the onions were not lo-mein noodles, but for those of us who love noodles but can't always splurge on them, zucchini strands and onions make great substitutes!

Crumbled goat cheese you can find packaged in the dairy aisle is ideal to use for a recipe such as this one.  It is a lot less messy than goat cheese logs and sharing fridges can already be quite messy in college! I like to keep things as sealed as possible!  The key to using goat cheese in hot recipes is to add it at the very end.  Cooking it too long makes goat cheese lose its lovely flavor.  Enjoy this light breakfast after those late night pizza runs and you will feel light on your feet :)

Light Caramelized Onion, Zucchini, Goat Cheese Scramble

• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 onion julienned (cut into ribbons or thin slices)
• 1/2 zucchini chopped finely
• A sprinkle of crumbled goat cheese
• Olive oil spray
• Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Sautée onions in a pan with the olive oil spray over medium-high heat until brown and caramelized, about 15 minutes
2. Add the zucchini and cook for 7 more minutes
3. Remove vegetables and set aside
4. Add the egg whites to the same pan and let cook for about 30 seconds
5. Add vegetables and scramble with with spatula
6. Cook eggs to your liking (for fluffy egg whites cook about 15 seconds more after adding vegetables)
7. Put on a plate, add the goat cheese on top, then salt and pepper to taste