A sweet breakfast treat? Definitely.

ingredients:
1-1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate milk
1 egg

In a bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the chocolate milk and egg and mix til just combined.

In a pan over medium-high heat, melt some butter and then ladle out your batter. When bubbles appear and pop, flip over. (how to make perfect pancakes, here)

An easy twist to your everyday pancakes!

I don’t know what to tell you. I had leftover mac ‘n’ cheese and thought OF COURSE I SHOULD MAKE WAFFLES OUT OF THIS. Now you have an insight into my madness.

They are truly amazing, a flavorful treat that combines the Kid’s two loves: waffles and cheese. And if you make Hello Kitty waffles out of them, well, they taste 100 times better of course.

ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
dash of paprika
1-1/4 cups buttermilk (a dash more if you need it)
2 eggs
1 cup Mac ‘n’ Cheese (recipe, here)

In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and paprika. Add the eggs and the buttermilk until you get a nice batter consistency. Add more buttermilk if necessary.

Stir in the Mac ‘n’ Cheese. It will be lumptastic.

Prep your waffle iron according to directions. Using melted butter, generously grease the iron – let’s just say melted cheese is not your best friend when it hardens.

Ladle the lumpy batter into the iron and bake until the waffle is done.

These are best warm and go surprisingly well with maple syrup, but are great all by themselves!

Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding (recipe, here)
Total over indulgence. No apologies.

Maple Syrup Bacon (recipe, here)
An easier, sweeter way to make bacon.

King’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread French Toast (recipe, here)
So warm and comforting, it’s the best way to start your day.

Lemon Berry Slush (recipe, here)
Who needs Jamba Juice when you can make your own at home?

Whenever we go back to Hawaii the kids love the food – especially breakfast. There’s something comforting about Portuguese Sausage and eggs that makes you full and happy.

Since we often have breakfast for dinner around here I put together a hearty meal – an egg frittata studded with savory portuguese sausage. A quick, easy dinner perfect for the middle of the week!

ingredients:
1 portuguese sausage
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt
pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Cut the portuguese sausage into small pieces – slices cut into quarters works well for me. In a fry pan, cook the sausage until it’s caramelized a bit, then set aside to drain.

Wipe out the same pan and set it back on medium-high heat. Put the portuguese sausage back in the pan. (Now, you can skip this back and forth, I just don’t like too much grease.)

In a bowl whiisk together the eggs, milk, garlic powder and season with salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan over the sausage. Let the egg mixture cook until the edges of the egg start to firm up. The middle will still be runny.

Add cheese to the top of the egg mixture. Turn on your oven broiler and place the pan in the hot broiler (make sure it’s an oven proof fry pan!) Let the eggs cook under the broiler until the center of the frittata is cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and the frittata will slide right onto a serving plate. Cut into slice and serve!

This is a quick and easy dinner, but nice for a weekend brunch too!

It’s Fat Tuesday aka Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake Day!

I first made these back in December when the kids were on winter break and on a pancake kick – as in pancakes all day everyday for breakfast AND dinner.

Pancakes are so easy because it’s just one bowl and the kids love to help with the mixing. Sweet potato and mochi go together really well in dessert form, so I thought it’d also make for a perfect pancake!

ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup mochiko flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 sweet potato, mashed
1 egg
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon melted butter

Mochiko is a fine rice flour, and what gives mochi it’s familiar ‘chew’. You can find it in Japanese markets or online. I use it in lots of desserts and savories and it’s a very fun and versatile ingredient.

Start by roasting your sweet potato. Prick it with a fork and place it on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for one hour. When it comes out the skin will peel off easily. Mash it with a fork or a masher and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, mochiko flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon.

Add the mashed sweet potato, egg, milk (you may not need all of it depending on the consistency!), vanilla and butter. Stir to combine, making sure all the flour is dissolved. If the mixture is a bit thick, add a little more of the milk.

Ladle the batter into a hot pan (how to make perfect pancakes, here). When bubble form, flip them over and cook until done. Darth Vader totally photobombed this shot. I think he loves pancakes. Evil pancakes.

The sweet potatoes add a nice flavor to the pancakes and together with the mochi, you get a nice hefty chew. I make an extra batch of these and freeze them for mornings when the kids DEMAND hot pancakes and I am still wiping the sleep out of my eyes. A few minutes in the microwave and they taste just as fresh as the day I made them!

One of my fave places is the Spice Station in Silverlake, they have an amazing array of sugars and spices that all make for great recipe inspiration.

The last time I was there I picked up some Blueberry Sugar. A nice large granule of sugar infused with fresh blueberry. Amazing! I thought it’d make a great topping for some lemon-y blueberry muffins. While not pretty, they sure are tasty. But hey, looks aren’t everything.

ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
juice of one lemon
zest of one lemon
1-1/2 cups blueberries
1 Tablespoon flour
blueberry sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners. (you will only get about 10 muffins.)

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder, whisk to combine.

Add the oil, egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until JUST combined.

In a small bowl toss the blueberries with the flour, that sort of helps keep the blue color from bleeding into the batter.

Add the blueberries to the batter and just fold until combined.

Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. Top with a sprinkling of blueberry sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

I came up with this recipe for Vanilla Mochi Donuts to enter the Spice Islands Vanilla Challenge and I was one of the three finalists!

Wanting to bring out the best of the ingredients, I used not only vanilla extract but vanilla sugar. Is there anything more satisfying than a piece of fried dough covered in sugar? I think not. Add mochiko AND vanilla into the mix and you’ve got the perfect combination!

ingredients:
2 cups mochiko (sweet rice flour)
2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups vanilla sugar**
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups whole milk
4 Tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons Spice Islands Vanilla Extract

oil (for frying)

1/2 cup vanilla sugar**

The only thing you will have to make ahead is the vanilla sugar. Scrape and bury a vanilla bean into two cups of sugar. Keep in an airtight container until you are ready to use.

In a large bowl mix together the mochiko, flour, vanilla sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder and vanilla. Set aside. (Mochiko is a Japanese rice flour that can be found in asian sections of the market or online. Mochiko gives a nice ‘chew’ perfect for these donuts.)

Heat the oil in a large skillet or a home fryer.

Drop by the Tablespoon into the hot oil. They will expand a lot. Also the mochiko makes the batter very pull-y and sticky, so try your best to keep it formed into nice round shapes.

Once the dough pops up and floats, fry until golden brown, a few minutes on each side. Drain them on a wire rack.

While still hot, roll the donuts in the vanilla sugar mixture.

My prize? A YEAR’S supply of vanilla! That’s a lot of vanilla.

For more info about the contest and the other winners, here.

When I was a kid, O.G. used to tell me to ‘put some food under your belt.’ No doubt this is what she meant.

A simple breakfast in a sandwich form, served for dinner. Cut it up and share it with the kids…or don’t.

ingredients:
4 King’s Hawaiian sweet bread rolls, sliced in half but not pulled apart
1 slice swiss cheese
2 eggs, scrambled
4 slices Maple Syrup Bacon (recipe, here)
4 slices roma tomato
lettuce

Sandwiches don’t really need recipes, they are so freeform. But I’ve found that combination of all of these things makes one tasty, tasty meal.

One day I will show you how to make perfect scrambled eggs. Today is not that day, so just do you’re thang – then place the scrambled eggs on top of the bottom half of the sliced sweet bread.

Top that with the Swiss Cheese so it melts.

Add the Maple Syrup Bacon, then the tomatoes, then the lettuce. Top with the top half of the sweet bread rolls.

You can cut this into fours, or just eat the whole thing yourself. I vote for the latter.

This is an easy meal to make when you have NOTHING planned for dinner. It’s hearty and satisfying and breakfast for dinner is always the best.

If you need to appease small children and/or Gorilla Grodd, this is the recipe for you. Just look at him – don’t mess with his muffins. They’re THAT good. (Psst – even *I* eat these, don’t tell the bananas that.)

ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 eggs
4 ounces banana yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
brown sugar to sprinkle

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners.

Why do I love making muffins? Because you don’t need a mixer. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

Now let’s do the wet ingredients in another bowl. Combine the bananas, melted butter, eggs, banana yogurt and vanilla. You can use regular yogurt, but the banana one adds a little more flavor. Vanilla would work perfectly fine too, of course.

Now add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing together well.

Fill the liners about 3/4 full, and sprinkle the top with a bit of brown sugar.

Bake for 18-20 minutes depending on your oven. Test with a toothpick to see if it’s done. Let cool on wire racks.

There. A muffin fit for a primate supervillian. Now he just has to fight the Baby for them…

I make a lot of mochi recipes, so Fall seemed the perfect time to combo mochi with pumpkin! These pancakes are a favorite of the Kid. Then again, like his momma, he loves mochi anything…

ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup mochiko flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 egg
1-1/2 cups milk
1 Tablespoon melted butter

maple whipped cream (recipe, here)

Mochiko is a sweet rice flour. It’s very fine, almost dusty. You can find it in most asian markets or online.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, mochiko flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar and cinnamon.

Add the pumpkin, egg, milk and butter. Stir to combine, making sure all the flour is dissolved. If the mixture is a bit thick, add a little more milk.

Ladle your batter into a hot pan (how to make perfect pancakes, here). Flip them over and cook until done.

I added little cinnamon chips to make a smiley happy eat me face.

These pancakes are hefty with a subtle mochi chew. I like to serve them with syrup or the Kid’s fave: maple whipped cream. And of course no breakfast (er, I made this for dinner actually) is complete without a side of Brown Sugar Bacon (recipe, here). Yum.