Grilled Breakfast Pizza

David and I are always looking for fun new recipes to try for Big Breakfast that we do each Saturday with our kids. This one sounded fun and different, PLUS we got to whip out the grill - for breakfast. Yay!


Look at that beautiful over-easy egg sitting atop this pizza?

I found the recipe from one of my favorite blog recipe sites - How sweet it is. She got it from the Tasty Kitchen website. Here's the full recipe.

I didn't use the crust recipe they gave, although I bet it would be wonderful. David and I are kind of hooked on the one I made from this recipe. I, again, used half white and half whole wheat flour. Yummy.

Here's the pizza on our little charcoal grill.



I loved that they gave the option to do it in your oven too. Having a pizza stone is ideal. We may try this next time.

Parent's Review: We really liked it. We used maple flavored bacon and it actually didn't have as much of a hickory flavor as I like. Also, I wouldn't mind trying this with scrambled eggs instead of over-easy next-time. It was good, but it's a texture thing.

Kids Review: They didn't try any. So sorry for them. :-)

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I handed this new found recipe over to my husband last Saturday morning and asked if he would try his hand at making them while I tried to pre-burn calories with a friend of mine on a 5 mile trail walk.

He said he would.

That sweet man.

And this is what he was makin' while I was walkin'


Don't they look fun?

They even had a home-made buttermilk syrup recipe that was part of the deal and we made that too.

We actually didn't love this stuff. Most people online have raved about it, so I am wondering if we did something wrong. I think we both would've preferred just regular maple syrup.

Plus - these were not overly sweet (which surprised us) and it needed a little more sweetness in the syrup department.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes (adapted from The Idea Room Blog).

Parent Review: They were labor intensive. David looked tired when I got home. :-) We thought they would be sweeter, but we did really enjoy them and they were fun to try.

Kids Review: Little Girl loved them. Baby boy still wasn't feeling great, so he didn't eat much to tell.

Added: I just landed on THIS RECIPE for cinnamon roll pancakes and HELLO - it calls for adding a cream cheese glaze over the top. Wow!! Plus- the cinnamon swirl looked all crispy and carmelized, so this is a different take. You guys could try either one! Let me know what you think!!

Enjoy!!

CPK Barbecue Chicken Pizza

I found this recipe for California Pizza Kitchen's (knock off) barbecue chicken pizza from The Pioneer Woman's blog. I was excited to do a home-made crust and try my hand at something new. I don't think I make the greatest pizza dough in the world, but I didn't think this was too bad. I used half whole wheat flour and it gave it a nutty flavor.

Here's the recipe

Here it is with the grown-up side and the kids side. You can imagine that the kids weren't interested in the fresh green cilantro from the garden, but WE WERE!! Yum!


Parents Review: I thought it was pretty good, but I didn't love the BBQ sauce I purchased. David said he really liked it.
Kids Review: They picked it all a part as usual and then ate all the separated items. :-)

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

I hate to even call these little treats "brownies", because to me they resemble a cookie bar more than anything. I made these guys for my friend Julie last week and she thinks that they tasted just like a brownie, but sometimes I think she's crazy and can only say nice things and it's like an illness or something. :-)

But.......David and I both concur that these guys taste like a really soft, thick cookie. I would've added waaaay more chocolate chips and mini reeses-peanut butter cups than they called for, but other than that - they were great! If you like peanut butter and you like chocolate - you'll be set!!



After I pulled these guys out of the oven - I stuck several rows of the mini reese's in there to melt and get all happy.

Here's the recipe I found off of a blog called "Buns in my oven". Her pictures suck you in and make you HAVE to try her recipes. Or, um, maybe that's just me. :-)

Parents Review: It needed more chocolate inside, otherwise we really liked these.
Kids Review: More please.

Creamy Caprese Pasta

In my searching through the internet and my recipe books for something new to cook in the kitchen - I came across this recipe for Creamy Caprese Pasta on a fun blog called How Sweet It is. I've posted a few from here before.

I started out by mixing all of the yummy ingredients together.

Then I poured it in the dish and added more cubed fresh mozzarella on top.


Then I baked it all warm and bubbly. I even threw it under the broiler at the end of baking to give it the brown crunchy top.


I baked some chicken separately and then made up my kids plates. They don't like things all mixed together like me and the hubby.


I served this dish up with more fresh chopped basil on top and then I put some garlic butter all over some leftover french bread I had on hand. I threw them under the broiler for 1 minute per side. So good.


Here's the recipe - again with WAY better pics and details.

Parents Review: We liked it for sure, but it lacked a little "kick" that screamed "CAPRESE" like we are used to with tomatoes, mozzarella and loads of basil. We would definitely add a lot more fresh basil in this recipe and even a little spice or balsamic twist would be fun too.

Kids Review: They liked the way we sectioned everything out. We just marinated the chicken in a balsamic dressing and broiled it on the side for all of us.

Blackberry Crumble

We were comparing a "Crumble" to a "Cobbler" this weekend and this is the Crumble recipe we decided to give a whirl.

The Crumble definitely focuses more on the fruit in this dish and the topping was just an accent piece. I prefer it with a little more "bread-i-ness" or topping-to-fruit-ratio, but the flavor was awesome.

Here it is a-la-mode after the ice cream got all melty from the heat of the crumble.


Parents Review: David loved this. I loved the flavor - needed more crumble or more texture for me.
Kids Review: Both of them loved it even though LG declared she wouldn't like it before trying it. Typical girl.

And, for Julie, my dear friend who was searching for a great cobbler recipe. I think both of these 2 variations are really, really good, but that doesn't mean I won't keep searching. :-) Thanks for giving me a reason to bake!

Blackberry Cobbler

I made 2 Blackberry recipes this weekend. This is the first one. I wanted to compare "Cobbler" to a "Crumble" in the whole fruity dessert department.


Here's the recipe I tried for the cobbler. I actually had a different planned out to make and then I realized that it involved rolling out dough and many other things that I knew I wasn't in the mood for this weekend, so I went with this one because it looked both yummy and easy. 2 great things. :-)

We, of course, served it with cold vanilla ice cream on top of the hot cobbler. So good.


Parents Review: I liked the texture of the cobbler, but the fresh blackberries were a little bitter maybe?? I'm not sure. I've never tried frozen blackerries or even ones from the can, but I've heard that's a whole different flavor. What do you guys think? We really enjoyed it, but thought it could've been a little sweeter.

Kids Review: Baby Boy gobbled it up. Little Girl was all about the Crumble. She wouldn't touch this one.