Cinnamon Roll Casserole

You won't believe how easy this is! As always, I made changes to the original recipe and I've posted my "version". This is a big recipe, but you can easily half it.

This is an easy casserole to make and would be perfect for company. I wouldn't recommend putting all the ingredients together the night before like other breakfast casseroles. You can reduce your morning prep time by doing a little prep work before bedtime. Cut up the cinnamon rolls and put in a resealable container. Combine the whipping cream, cinnamon, and vanilla cut up the cinnamon rolls and put in another container. In the morning, proceed with the recipe and bake.

Cinnamon Roll Casserole

Adapted from: Pillsbury's Cinnamon French Toast Bake

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of melted butter or baking spray
• 2 cans (12.4 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2  teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2  teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chopped Pecans
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

             Garnish:

• Icing from cinnamon rolls
• Maple syrup (if desired) --I found it was sweet enough without it.          

Directions:

• Heat oven to 375°F. Pour melted butter into ungreased 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish.
• Separate both cans of dough into 16 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into 8 pieces; place pieces over butter in dish. 
• In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Beat in cream, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended; gently pour over roll pieces. Sprinkle with pecans; drizzle with 1/4 cup syrup. 
• Bake 20 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes. Meanwhile, remove covers from icing; microwave on Medium (50%) 10 to 15 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle. 
• Drizzle icing over top.  If desired, spoon syrup over individual servings.

My Fitness Pal and Healthy Eating

I didn't grow up eating healthy. Sure, my mom made a meat and vegetables at most meals, but often they were fried or had a lot of butter. Luckily, I was blessed genetically with thin parents and never had to worry about "weight" or dieting.....until the past few years.

Yeah, I know....I'm not overweight. But I know that I'm not as healthy as I could be. I'm only 5'3" and 10 extra pounds on me makes a BIG difference. Since my hysterectomy in May, I haven't really exercised. There, I said it. I was working out 3-4 days a week before my surgery. I have made a lot of excuses. Like the saying goes, "You make a way or you make an excuse."

I start physical therapy on my knee this week, and I'm actually excited. I'm excited that I'll be in a safe environment to rehab my knee instead of at the gym doing Lord knows what trying to keep up with the 20 year old on the treadmill next to me. Please tell me y'all  "compete" with the person next to you on the treadmill or elliptical. Oh, okay maybe that's just me. LOL

Back to my diet.....after all the buzz on Twitter about the "My Fitness Pal" app, I've religiously started using it. If you haven't heard about it, here's the website. It's the easiest way I've found to journal my food. Now I'm thinking about every.single.morsel I put into my piehole mouth. Give it a whirl. Best of all, it's free.

Here's a few things I've been eating. I'm really trying to stay away from food in boxes or packages. In other words, I'm aiming for "whole" fresh foods.

This recipe includes homemade dough. It was my first time making my own pizza dough. 

This is by FAR the best bbq chicken pizza I've eaten. 

I used organic chicken and organic bbq sauce (recipe calls for you to make your own). 

Here's the link. I also used the same ingredients and made BBQ chicken quesadillas. 

You talk about F-I-N-E! Mmmmm.

I am not a fan of plain Greek yogurt, but I love flavored Chobani. 

Mango is my favorite and I add almonds or flax seeds.

Have you tried My Fitness Pal? Look me up! I'm "dishydecorator". Duh.

I'm in need of snack and meal ideas. I'd love to hear your quick "go to" healthy foods. 

Smokey Vegetable Quiche

I have a thing for quiche. It's my absolute favorite thing to have for breakfast. Is it healthy? Um, not my version. My goal is to work on my recipe to lower the fat and calories.  Enjoy!

Smokey Vegetable Quiche

*makes (1) 9 inch and (1) 8 inch quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 package Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust
• 3 pieces of smoked bacon
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 8 oz fresh spinach, washed
• 3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, washed and quartered
• 1 can of artichokes, (not in oil)-drained and chopped
• 8 oz light sour cream
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder (in the spices' aisle)
• 7 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 8 oz of Swiss or cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

*You can omit the bacon if you want to make this dish vegetarian. Simply use a tablespoon of olive or vegetable oil to saute the vegetables.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Unroll pie crust and place in a 9 inch pie plate. Press edges and prick bottom of crust with a fork.

• Place crust in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Don't expect it to be brown.
• Place bacon in a skillet and cook over medium heat until done. Be careful not to burn. 
• Put cooked bacon on paper towels. Keep the bacon grease in skillet to cook onions, red peppers, and spinach.
• Add chopped onions and peppers. Continue cooking until done.
• Add spinach and cook until it is wilted and all liquid is cooked down.

• Whisk together eggs, half and half, sour cream, chipotle pepper powder, and baking powder. Don't use a hand mixer for this.
• Add Swiss cheese to mixture.

• Fold in spinach, onions, and red peppers.
• Add tomatoes and artichoke hearts.
• I use one piece of crumbled bacon. Add all 3 pieces if you want.
• Pour egg and vegetable mixture into pie crust.
• Don't overfill. **This recipe makes enough for one 9 inch and one 8 inch quiche.
• You can also prepare these crustless in ramekins sprayed with cooking spray.
• Carefully place in preheated over and bake for 20 minutes. 
• Turn oven down to 350 degrees.
• Remove quiche from oven, and place strips of aluminum foil around edges of pie crust to prevent over-browning.
• Return quiche back to oven and bake for about another 20-30 minutes or until the center is set. (If it wiggles, it's not done.

Saturdays....

Yes, I eat relatively healthy, and work out with a trainer 3 times a week. Yes, I will be teaching yoga to kiddos. But.......I had a first-time breakfast request this morning from Sassypants. She came up with this combo all by herself.

Pancakes with grated semi-sweet chocolate, 

real butter, bacon, and maple syrup on top. 

Do you feel your arteries clogging? 

We WILL be taking a walk or bike ride on the trail today. HA!

Happy Weekend!

Smoked Salmon Mini Pizzas

This is a recipe that I adapted from Food Network's show "Giada at Home". Giada made a lovely sunset brunch with Smoked Salmon Pizzettes (mini pizzas), Eggs Florentine, and Raspberry Filled Crepes. The whole meal looked amazing and I decided to try her Smoked Salmon Pizzettes. These are absolutely DELICIOUS. Things I changed---I used less capers & used a pizza crust mix.

Smoked Salmon Mini Pizzas

Ingredients:

• (1) 6.5 oz. package of pizza crust mix
• flour for dusting work surface
• olive oil for drizzling
• 1/4 cup Mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1.5 tablespoons capers, rinsed, drained, and coarsely chopped and dried on paper towels
• 2 oz. smoked salmon, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup freshly chopped chives

Directions: 

• Place oven rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Mix pizza dough mix according to package directions. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand 5 minutes or the amount of time stated on package.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out into a 1/4 inch thick round.
• Using a 2 inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles from the pizza dough. You should get approximately 14-15 circles.
• Arrange the circles on a heavy baking sheet.
• Prick the circles all over with the tines of a fork.
• Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

• Place in oven and bake until golden brown, 7-10 minutes.

• Remove from oven and cool.
• In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream, marscarpone cheese, and capers until smooth.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Spoon about 1/2 -1 teaspoon of mascrcapone mixture into the center of each pastry round.
• Top with a piece of salmon and press gently.
• Arrange the pizzas on a platter or  wooden pizza paddle.
• Sprinkle with chopped chives just before serving.

These mini pizzas are delish and I love the colors. I made raspberry crepes with Chambord whipped cream and fluffy scrambled eggs with chives to go with these. SO yummy!

Mediterranean Omelet

I came up with this recipe by accident one morning. I was going to make an omelet, and was out of the usual red peppers, onions, & mushrooms.  After digging around in the frig, I put these ingredients together and came up with a winner. I even served this to my husband on Father’s Day because he likes it so much;-)
INGREDIENTS:
*This serves 1, but you can easily double or triple the recipe.

• 2 egg whites & 1 whole egg, whisked together with salt & pepper (to taste).
• Handful (I use 2) of fresh organic spinach, washed & patted dry. This will not even be 1/2 cup once cooked.
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• Sweet cherry tomatoes, diced 
• Sprinkle of feta cheese-I use Athenos w/ cracked black peppercorns
• Cooking spray

In a nonstick skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add minced garlic & sauté for about a minute.  Add spinach and cook until very soft and most of liquid is absorbed.

 

You can also drain it to speed up the process.  If there’s a lot of liquid left, your omelet will be runny.
Remove spinach from skillet.
Wipe out skillet with paper towel, and spray lightly with cooking spray.
Return to medium heat, and add eggs. With a wooden spatula, lightly push the egg from the outer edge of the skillet toward the center. This allows the runny egg on top to spread out to open skillet space and cook. You can also tilt the pan so that the egg runs to open areas. Continue to do this until the egg starts to turn white and the edges get a little crispy.

Once the eggs are done to your liking, add the cooked spinach, tomatoes, & feta.
  You can also put the omelet on a plate and then put the ingredients on top. (I like lots of pepper if you couldn’t tell)
This omelet may look a little time consuming and complicated, but it really only takes a few minutes.
This is a great way to start your day with a healthy portion of protein, iron, and calcium.
*1/2 cup of spinach has 15% of the recommended amount of iron and 25% of RA of calcium.

Enjoy!

My Version of Panera’s “Power Breakfast Sandwich”

I admit it. I’m a bit of a Panera and Starbuck’s troll. Panera is so tempting because it’s super close to the girls’ school. After all, I am driving by there, usually didn’t have time to eat before I left, and um…..you know the rest.
I have a major sweet tooth, but at breakfast, I have an odd affinity to heartier, more protein-rich foods. I always get Panera’s “Power Breakfast Sandwich”. It’s super yummy and is high in protein and fiber.

Photo: Panera’s Website

Not only does getting breakfast out every morning take too much time, it gets extremely expensive. So I thought I’d try to recreate this yummy sandwich at home.

Dishy Decorator’s Breakfast Sandwich

Ingredients:

• Panera’s Whole Grain Miche bread (sandwich sliced)-I buy a whole loaf and freeze it.
• 1 egg and 1 egg white (You can substitute Egg Beaters or use all whites)

• Smoked ham (several slices-I use double smoked ham from the deli)
• Vermont white cheddar cheese slices

• salt and pepper to taste
• Garlic & cayenne sauce or Tabasco (2-3 drops or more if desired)

• Cooking spray

Directions:

• Whisk eggs in a bowl. Add salt and pepper and hot sauce.
• You can cook the eggs in a skillet coated with nonstick spray over medium heat, or use one of the microwave egg poachers.

*This is enough eggs for 2 sandwiches.

• Cut one slice of bread in half.
• Spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium heat.
• Add bread to skillet to toast lightly.
• When brown, remove and put on plate.
• Heat ham in same skillet for a minute or so.
• Put ham on one piece of bread and cheddar cheese on the other piece. Return to skillet. Turn heat down to medium low. Heat for about 2 minutes.
• Add cooked egg, and assemble sandwich on plate. If the cheese isn’t melted enough, pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds. That’s what Panera does!
  
  
  

  

  
  

Enjoy!!