Classic Lemon Cranberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

Serve this for breakfast or tea time with the girls, you will not go wrong serving scones! Easy to make, a classic that everyone will love! If you don't have cranberries, blueberries would be just divine! I prefer using dried cranberries, fresh or frozen work just as well.

Lemon Cranberry Scones With Lemon Glaze

Scones

2 cups                  all-purpose flour
1/4 cup                sugar
1 tbsp.                 baking powder
1/4 tsp.                salt
1 tbsp.                 grated lemon zest
1/2 cup                unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup                whipping cream
1/4 cup                2% milk plus extra for brushing
1                          large egg
1 tsp.                   vanilla extract
1 cup                   dried cranberries

Glaze

1 cup                  icing sugar
1 1/2 tbsp.          freshly squeezed lemon juice


Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.

Stir in the lemon zest.

Cut in the butter until the mixture is rough and crumbly but still small pieces of butter are visible. It should be lumpy. Do not over mix.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cream, milk, egg and vanilla together.

Add this to the flour mixture and stir to just bring the dough together.

Flatten the dough out in a rectangle (about 1 cm thick), top with cranberries and press the cranberries into the dough.

Fold the dough over once to incorporate the cranberries.

Reshape into a rectangle. Do not handle the dough too much. You do not want the butter to melt into the flour.

Cut the rectangle into 6 even pieces. Cut it in half down the middle (long side), then into thirds (short side), then cut 6 squares into triangles by cutting squares on the diagonal.

Brush the scones with a little milk and bake for 20 - 25 minutes until lightly browned on top.


Glaze

Whisk the icing sugar and lemon juice together and drizzle over the cooled scones using the whisk or a fork. Let the glaze set for an hour before serving. If glaze is too thick, add water, 1 tsp at a time.

Ricotta For Breakfast

Steel cut oats, greek yogurt parfaits are the latest craze for healthy breakfasts these days. Which is great. But sometimes we need change. Changing it up a bit to make our mornings a little more interesting is needed sometimes.

I've featured my cottage cheese parfaits which are truly delicious.

Ricotta to me is such a delicious cheese. Light, creamy and a nice sweet taste. I usually like buying fresh ricotta from the local farm, or I sometimes make my own at home. Get some ricotta and try this recipe for breakfast.

Ricotta Parfait

Take a mason jar. Add fresh ricotta at the bottom. Layer with fruit of your choice. You can add pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, walnuts; the combinations are endless. Keep layering until you reach the top. I like eating the ricotta without it being sweetened. You can add cinnamon, honey or maple syrup to naturally sweeten your parfait.

Close the lid and away you go!

Carrot Muffins

When my children were small, oddly enough they loved vegetables. But as they got older, green food became "not cool". They started not to eat fruits and vegetables like they used to. So, to improvise, I would sneak it in their food. I would puree the vegetables in soup so they would not see the chunks or would make healthy snack items. One of the items I usually make are these carrot muffins. Moist and so tasteful, it has become a hit here in our household. I use whole wheat flour for extra fibre. If you do not like the taste of whole wheat, all purpose flour can be used.

Carrot Muffins



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

one or two 12-cup muffin pans, greased or lined with paper liners

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

3/4 cups raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups peeled and grated carrots

3 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine the flour, sugar, raisins, walnuts, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt in a large bowl. Stir well.

Beat carrots, eggs and oil. Add to dry ingredients all at once, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans, filling three quarters full for regular-size or full for large-size muffins.

Bake for 20 minutes for regular muffins or 27 minutes for large muffins or until tops spring back when lightly touched.

Variations:
Omit nuts if desired. My kids hate nuts so I make carrot muffins without the nuts.

Switch the carrots with shredded zucchini.

A healthy breakfast alternative. My son

Feeling Peachy

Breakfast to me is my favorite meal of the day. I like to wake up and start my day with something tasty, healthy and delicious. And, most importantly filling. I need substance to carry me through my busy morning. When my healthy eating started, I have to admit, I found a lot of the recipes to be truly gross. I know, I know, it's suppose to be good for you. But if I have to plug my nose and gag to eat it. Forget it! So, steel cuts oats they say is really good for you. It lowers your cholesterol, it's filling, but...it's tasteless. That gets my wheels turning on how I can make this healthy grain tasty. I love peaches but unfortunately, it is not in season. I created this recipe and used frozen peaches. When in season, use fresh. I added a citrus twist to naturally flavor the oats.

Steel Cut Oats With Peaches

Steel Cut Oats With Peaches

2 1/2 cups                    water
1 cup                            steel cut oats   
1/2 tsp.                         salt
1 cup                            sliced peaches fresh or frozen
1                                   zest of one orange
1                                   juice of one orange
2 tbsp.                          maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup                        vanilla almond milk
1/2 tsp                         cinnamon
a pinch                         nutmeg

Add the steel cut oats, zest and peaches to the boiling water. Add the salt and let boil until cooked (about 20 min). When the oats are almost cooked, add the almond milk. Remove from heat and add the orange juice and stir. If you feel the oats are not sweet enough, add more maple syrup to suit your taste.

You can also add pumpkin seeds, nuts or chia seeds.

Make this ahead of time so you have it ready for breakfast for the week.

Breakfast of Champions

My children and I try our best to cook and eat as healthy as we can during the week and allow for a guilty pleasure on the weekend. So to make our meals a little interesting during the week, I have to make the meals healthy and taste good. So I made up this breakfast meal using quinoa. As seen in my previous post I've made some delicious variations for breakfast. I hope you enjoy this recipe. It smells like apple pie!

Apple Cinnamon Quinoa by The Suburban Single Mom

Apple Cinnamon Quinoa

2 cups      water
1 cup       quinoa
2              apples cored, peeled and cubed
1 tsp        cinnamon
1/2 tsp     nutmeg
1/2 tsp     salt
1/2 cup    raisins
1/4 cup    walnuts, chopped
2 tbsp.     maple syrup
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk

Boil the quinoa and apples until cooked. Remove from stove and add the raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, maple syrup and almond milk. Stir until combined. I served this with a dollop of vanilla greek yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon and walnuts.

Tasty and filling. Enjoy!

Breakfast On The Go!

We all live busy lives. Leaving in a rush in the morning to work, driving the kids to school, going to class, etc. etc. etc. Just because our lives are busy doesn't mean we should sacrifice our health. Going through the drive through for a quick fix is no excuse. I usually make this parfait the night before so there's no excuse. I used flavored cottage cheese. If you're not a fan of cottage cheese,  greek yogurt is also a yummy substitute.

Use a mason jar to quickly pack this breakfast parfait on the go. I used fresh (or frozen) berries to make this. Layer the cottage cheese (yogurt), a layer of granola, then a layer of fruit and repeat. It's that simple! I used strawberries and blueberries and vanilla flavored cottage cheese! Yum!

I found these really cute mini chalkboards at the dollar store! OMG! The endless possibilities for these cute and inexpensive chalkboard clippies. I used an elastic band around the jar to fasten the spoon and clipped this tag on the jar! Enjoy! xo

Cranberry Orange Quinoa For Breakfast

Now that I am getting older, healthy eating has become a regiment in my household. The children also have changed their eating habits as they have found that eating healthy makes them feel and look better.

Steel cut oats has become the latest breakfast craze. I love steel cut oats don't get me wrong, but sometimes you need change.  I've stepped it up a notch by using quinoa pronounced (ki nu a) in this recipe.

Cranberry-Orange Quinoa

1 cup         quinoa

3 cups        water

1 tbsp.       unsalted butter

1/2 tsp       sea salt

1                 zest of an orange

1                 juice of an orange

1/2 cup      dried cranberries

1/4 cup      almonds

1/2 cup      vanilla almond milk or cow's milk

2 tbsp.        maple syrup

Sautee the quinoa with butter until lightly golden.

 

 

Add the water and let boil until cooked. Add the salt to the boiling water.

 

 

 

While the quinoa is cooking, soak the cranberries with the orange juice. This will plump up the cranberries.

 

 

 

Once the quinoa has fully cooked, remove from heat and add the almond milk, cranberries with the juice, maple syrup and chopped almonds. For an extra touch, add a dollop of greek yogurt.

 

Refrigerate leftover and reheat the next day.

 



 

 

Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Parfait

Healthy eating has become a lifestyle in our home. The children and I try our best to eat healthy all week. For breakfast I have been making this parfait made with cottage cheese. Before you cringe, I must say this is so delicious! Nordica (Gaylea) has introduced creamed flavored cottage cheese! I'm not a fan of cottage cheese but I do enjoy this!

1 (113g) container of plain smooth cottage cheese
1 (113g) container of smooth cottage cheese in lemon
10 unsalted almonds
1/3 blueberries

I incorporated the plain and lemon flavored cottage cheese so it's not as sweet. Layer the cottage cheese, almonds and blueberries for a delicious, healthy breakfast. If you're in a rush, create this parfait in a mason jar so you can pack and go.

I love this especially in the morning. The lemon refreshes and cleanses your mouth.

Enjoy!