oreos make everything better

monkey bread.  yes, i've done it before, but for father's day breakfast i wanted to try something a little different.  i'd seen a post by picky palate on a tooth-achingly sweet take that involved mini rolos and s'mores, but it was actually too much for me.  crazy talk, right?  and i wanted to try to make it at least a tiny bit less bad for our health.  heh.

using her recipe as a guideline for basic instructions and such, i busted out my ingredients.

hmmm.  i don't know why i put those dark chocolate chips in the picture - i actually used mini chocolate chips instead.  oh well, whatevs.

then i put some of those oreos into a plastic bag and gave it to the bean to go to town with a fondant rolling pin.  she was more than happy to oblige.

the biscuits were chopped into fourths.

those crushed oreos and biscuit pieces were dropped into a bigger bag, joined by some applesauce, and had a party.  after lining a pan with my favorite parchment/foil combo, the whole mushy mess went in.  looks like poop, doesn't it?

then i topped it with a handful of mini marshmallows and chocolate chips, and into the oven it went.

because i didn't want to make a whole bowl of glaze to drizzle on top, i went into the freezer and fished out an extra packet of that frosting you get when you buy toaster strudel.  yes, i love that stuff.  thank you, gretchen wieners.  anyway, it was just the right amount i wanted.

mmm, toasty marshmallows.  and you know what?  this concoction turned out really well!  so well, in fact, that i'd totally make it again.  and confession:  it was just as good the next day.  maybe even better.

wanna make some for yourself?  as long as you aren't amanda robertson, that is.  since, you know, i did use some store-bought crap in this "recipe."  hmph.

cookies & cream monkey bread, adapted from picky palate's rolo s'mores skillet monkey bread

1 8-count roll of biscuit dough
about 8 oreos, regular or double stuf.  i used the latter
a single-serving cup of applesauce
1/2 cup-ish of mini marshmallows
1/4 cup-ish of mini chocolate chips
a packet of glaze out of a box of toaster strudel.  or you can make your own.

preheat the oven to 350 and line a round 8" or 9" pan with parchment paper.  put the oreos into a plastic bag and smash 'em to smithereens.  cut the biscuits into fourths and add them to the crushed cookies along with the applesauce.  you don't have to use every bit of the applesauce in case it gets too mushy - just eyeball it.  roll the whole mess around in the bag until each piece of dough is covered in cookie crumbs.  you can always add more cookies if you need to.  pour it all into your prepared pan.

sprinkle the mini chocolate chips on top, followed by the mini marshmallows.  the amount you use of these things is totally your call - maybe you'll want more, maybe not.  completely up to you.  i, on the other hand, was trying to keep it from getting too crazy and focusing on it being "healthy" since i'd replaced the butter with applesauce.  ah, so sneaky.

bake it for about 25 minutes.  but keep an eye on it.  about halfway through, i found that the marshmallows were toasting too quickly and covered it lightly with a piece of foil for the most of the baking time.  with about a minute left on the timer, i took the foil off to let the marshmallows turn a lovely golden color.

drizzle the glaze on top.  if you aren't a total sucker for toaster strudel like i am, you can make your own with about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and around a tablespoon and a half or so of milk.  scoop it out onto a plate and enjoy.

mmmmmm.  i kinda want some more right now.

ooh!  and this is cool - the l.a. times food section does a weekly "weekend eats" twitter spree on mondays.  basically, they have you tweet them with pictures of stuff you ate over the weekend.  i shared that picture right up there, and they mentioned me in the weekend eats roundup.  yay for me!

brown sugarin' it up

i got hit with a craving for monkey bread recently, and decided to go the easy route and reuse the recipe i found a couple of months ago.  and then because i had some extra cream cheese to use up (and it sounded really good, too), i threw together a quick glaze to dollop on top.

i like the word "dollop."  it makes me think of whipped cream.  yum.

uh, so anyway, i busted out the cute cupcake liners - the kind that stand up by themselves and don't require a cupcake pan - and used my mini convection oven instead of firing up the big oven and heating up the whole house.

they look good, right?  the bean was most appreciative as she dug into the cinnamon sugary bits of dough.  as we sat together enjoying our breakfast that morning, i rubbed my arms and realized that my elbows were super rough.  like, i really needed to exfoliate.  and then i eyed the bowl full of leftover cinnamon sugar i'd mixed together for the monkey bread and my mind went to work.

this is completely random.  i know it.  but you know me, that's how i roll.  and i remembered that in my pinterest browsing recently, i'd come across some recipes for homemade sugar scrubs that incorporated ingredients that i always have in my pantry.  i bet you do, too.  i'd never realized how simple it was to throw together a beauty product that typically costs a boatload o'cash - like the fresh brown sugar line i've been coveting lately.  a jar of the scrub is $38 - for the small one!

so i pulled up this recipe, took out a couple of extra ingredients, and mixed it up.

i even had the perfect size jar to store it in.

so my morning's projects filled my belly and made my skin super duper soft and fragrant.  AND cost me less than $5!

talk about a win-win situation.

monkeyin' around with breakfast

i've been getting up early this week to make sure that the hub has coffee, the girls have something for breakfast, and the teen has grub to take for lunch.

the quasi-sleep training we've been doing with the bean has been helpful in this regard, sort of.  operation big girl bed is in full effect, and it's been rough but i'm determined to stick with it.  i manage to get her asleep, put her in her bed, and get a few hours of sleep.  the first few nights, she'd wake up around midnight or 1 crying, and because i can't stand to hear her sob, i get up and comfort her.  before, i'd let myself get sucked in and crawl into bed with her to get her back to sleep.  of course, this meant i'd end up sleeping for the rest of the night in her bed.  totally not the point of this exercise.

so i've been priming her during the day.  "when you wake up and it's still dark outside, you don't need to cry.  just hug mickey (or whoever she's decided to take to bed that night), close your eyes and go back to sleep."  and this works well, while we're all awake.  when she wakes up at some ungodly hour, not so much - she starts wailing and if i don't come into her room, the "moooooommmmmy!"s start up.  talk about a shot to the heart.  i go in and comfort her till she falls back asleep and tiptoe out.  but i know she has to learn to soothe herself back to la-la land.

anyway, this morning, when she woke up crying at 4 (a nice long stretch of sleep!), i went in, rubbed her back, tucked her back in, told her she didn't need to cry, and we made a deal.  "go back to sleep, and when you wake up and the sun is out, i really need you to come in and make sure i'm awake too, okay?"  i got a watery smile and a nod, gave her another hug and a kiss, and walked out before she was back to sleep.

and it worked!  as i was making breakfast this morning around 7, i looked up and she was walking sleepily into the kitchen with a little smile.  i told her how proud i was of her for sleeping in her own bed like a big girl, and she grinned with pride.  let's hope it continues.

so anyway, earlier this week i came across a recipe for monkey bread in a mason jar.  i thought this would make for a fun breakfast, one that the teen could stick in her bag and take to school.  i even have the right size of jars in the cupboard, but i realized that baking bread in a glass jar with a metal lid...probably not the greatest idea in the world for my purposes.

instead, i made the recipe (super easy, with ready-made biscuit dough, although i added a little melted butter to make sure the sugars stuck to the dough) and divided the pieces into a bunch of cupcake liners.

i popped it into the oven, and about 15 minutes later, it was done.  but i decided i needed to add a little something and whipped up a quick little glaze for the tops.

it turned out really yummy, and everyone dug it.  especially the bean, who happily ate it for breakfast three days straight.

remember that recipe for pancake cupcakes that i mentioned a couple of weeks ago?  well, i finally decided to give it a try.  i'd made another batch of maple bacon a few days ago and saved some of it in the fridge just for this.  i got up early this morning, chopped up the bacon, mixed up the batter, and folded the bacon carefully into the mix.  it took a little longer to bake completely than it said in the recipe, but about 16 minutes later, voila:

because i didn't want to make the buttercream frosting, i decided to wing it again with a glaze.  i mixed up some powdered sugar with maple syrup and a little vanilla extract and drizzled it on top.

i'd saved one slice of bacon that i chopped up really finely, and topped the cupcakes with a happy sprinkle.  looks pretty good, yeah?

i sent the teen to school with one, texted her a little later to ask if she'd liked it, and got "it was deff delish."  woo-hoo!  and she was right - these are really good.

i think they may be pretty good competition for a local cupcakery whose claim to fame is the breakfast cupcake - basically the same as this, except that theirs is a buttermilk cake instead of pancake batter.  i've tried it and without sounding like i'm totally tootin' my own horn over here...i liked mine better.

edited to add:  for the monkey bread, i cut each biscuit into six pieces and put about five into each cupcake liner.  as for the pancake cupcakes, i cut the recipe in half but still used the same amount of sugar (1 tablespoon...maybe a little extra.  heh) because i wasn't going to make the frosting.  it turned out really good this way.