Chocolate Banana Waffles

I woke up this morning and my 4 year old was begging for a "special" breakfast. I don't usually have a lot of time in the morning so sometimes I'll make a breakfast the night before and serve it in the morning. But today, I hadn't prepared anything. We actually weren't having a crazed morning so I agreed when she said she wanted waffles.

I found this recipe but it needed some modifications. This was my first time making it and I followed the ingredients and the instructions (although I did use canola oil instead of coconut oil because my coconut oil wasn't behaving and I used all-purpose flour because I don't buy specialty flours).

Next time, I will combine all the wet ingredients, so I don't have to mash the bananas in a separate bowl and then add the dry to them. I will also add chocolate chips because we could hardly taste the cocoa powder. It came out a little thick too so I might even use less flour, although waffle batter should be a little thicker.

So I would make them again, they weren't bad the original way. They just weren't what we were looking for this morning.

I also HIGHLY recommend doubling the original recipe because I did and I still only got 6 waffles out of it. It all fits in a large mixing bowl just fine (sometimes I double recipes and then find out I have a hard time mixing it all because there's not enough room left in the bowl).

French Toast Casserole

Last night for dinner, I had planned we were going to have French toast to help us use up the remaining hot dog buns and bread crusts. Usually, I ask David to do dinner when it's something breakfast because it's one of the few things he can cook well. But he ended up having to work late so I had to make dinner. I debated switching to something else and leave the French toast for him to do a different night but then I had the idea of doing a French toast casserole (much less tedious than doing French toast on a griddle).

Ingredients:
6 T butter
2/3 cup brown sugar plus extra for sprinkling
stale bread (I used 3 hot dog buns and 5 slices of regular white bread), ripped or cut up
5 eggs
2 cups milk
splash of vanilla
cinnamon

Melt butter (either on stove top or in microwave in 30 second intervals). Stir in the brown sugar until smooth. Pour in the bottom of an 8x11 pan. Add bread. In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour over bread, being sure to saturate the bread. Sprinkle extra brown sugar and cinnamon on top. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

This turned out so good. I thought it might've been just a little too egg-y and needed more milk but David and the kids thought it was perfect. The butter and brown sugar on the bottom is amazing too!

Enchilada Pie

The other day I had decided we were going to have enchiladas for dinner. I spent longer than I'd like to admit looking for just the perfect recipe. Dinner time rolls around and I start cooking up the filling. I open the fridge to discover I only have 4 tortilla shells. This is not going to cut it. I know you can make your own shells but I was not in the mood to do that. I just wanted to get dinner on the table. So I did what I do best: I improvised.

Ingredients
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can rotel (I didn't drain this but I should've)
dash of cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder
half a can of corn
onion
bell pepper
enchilada sauce
tortilla shells
cheese

First, cook up your onion and bell pepper in a large skillet. Add in black beans and rotel. Cook until heated through and add seasonings and corn.

In a greased 8x8 pan, spoon out a little enchilada sauce (just enough to cover the bottom). Add a tortilla shell (flat). Add a third of the bean mixture and top with a drizzle of enchilada sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. Add the next tortilla shell and repeat the process. End with a tortilla shell with lots of enchilada sauce and cheese. (You will probably have extra enchilada sauce left). Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.

This turned out really good. It was a tad bit spicy for my family (the combination of the rotel and the enchilada sauce proved to be too much for my kids) but we all agreed that the top layer of tortilla shell with all the extra cheese was the best. I would definitely make it again and the kids will just have to put up with it.