Breakfast Pudding

A friend of mine saw this recipe in a magazine, and scribbled down the basic idea and then said, "you should try this, it sounds good."... uh... ok! I'd seen recipes that called for putting a fried egg on your oatmeal, but that didn't sound appealing at all! This idea sounded a little scary too, but when the weather turned colder, a hot cereal breakfast sounded good. It provides some great protein, and this one serving will keep you content all morning!

Here are the basic ingredients:
1/4 cut cream of rice cereal
1 cup of water
1 egg

Crack egg into small bowl, beat with fork and set aside. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small pan, then add cereal and whisk. When cereal starts to thicken (about 2 minutes) spoon a few tablespoons into the egg to temper, then add the egg to the hot cereal and whisk together, cooking for about another minute.  Pour cereal into bowl and mix in flavorings.

There are a million ways to flavor this stuff! I usually start by cooling it off with a few tablespoons of Almond Milk. Here are some of the combos, I've tried. I use about a tsp of anything sweet unless noted;

Brown Sugar
Honey
Maple Syrup (with or without toasted almonds, walnuts, pecans)
Pureed Pumpkin- heaping Tablespoon, usually paired with Maple Syrup
Cinnamon and vanilla (dash of each)
Peanut butter and honey
1/2 sliced banana

I haven't tried it, but I suppose Cinnamon Raisin, or Apples and cinnamon would work.

I've also made this as a batch (3 servings at once) and then just heated it in the microwave with some almond milk to thin it out a little. This works well, and saves time and dishes in the morning.

I actually ate this on the morning of my duathlon, it was in the low 30's, and the hot cereal was filling, and provided the right mix of pre-race carbs, with the protein to sustain me.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

I've been so busy lately, that I haven't been posting much ( I've been cooking, teaching, and coaching a ton!)... but this pumpkin spice latte inspired me! What a great start to my first down day in quite some time. You may see many posts with todays date! While this isn't crazy healthy, I can guarantee it's lower cal than anything at your coffee shop!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 cup strong brewed coffee (I doubled the normal amount of grounds)

1/4c Pumpkin Pie filling*

1T vanilla

1T sugar

Cinnamon sticks for fun!

Over a medium-low heat, warm the milk (I added a cinnamon stick). When milk is warm (NOT BOILING), whisk in the Pie filling, vanilla, sugar and coffee. Let it melt together for about 5 minutes, and serve!

This makes  2-3 cups. I'm excited to see what it tastes like reheated tomorrow.

* I used pumpkin pie filling because it was leftover from another recipe. You could use plain pumpkin, and 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice, and an extra tablespoon of sugar and vanilla. Play around with it, but I think that would be about right.