Breakfast Balls

These are super tasty
& they are packed full of energy!
I've seen a bunch of different versions of breakfast balls,
but this recipe is a combination of others using ingredients I had on hand (:

1 cup peanut butter

3 bananas

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups oats

1/2 cup coconut

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup craisins

powdered sugar (optional - to coat)

Heat peanut butter, bananas, & honey in a large microwavable bowl for 30 seconds. Mash bananas & stir in vanilla. Stir in oats, coconut, chocolate chips, & craisins one ingredient at a time until each is completely coated. Roll into balls 1" or 1 1/2" in diameter. If desired, roll balls in powdered sugar, then refrigerate to set. Makes approximately 35 balls.

xoxo

Saturday Dishes - Brunch

Baby #3 is due today!!!

We're anxiously awaiting her arrival!

For the next few weeks of Saturday Dishes,

you may want to stop by Pebbles and Piggytails to link up...

I may or may not get my posts scheduled (;

This week's theme is:
Brunch

You know...
It's that meal that you eat when you wake up too late for breakfast
but too close to lunch time
so you end up combining the two meals
& usually end up eating breakfast foods anyway.
It can also be a breakfast that takes so long to make that you end up eating it close to lunch time.
Whatever your definition of brunch is,
we'd love for you to share some recipes with us!

If you're new to the party

welcome to Saturday Dishes
where every week is a new theme...

Your job is to post your recipes that coincide with that theme!

Easy peasy, right?

Don't have a recipe that goes with the theme?
No worries!
Just sit back, relax, enjoy the other posts,
& be sure to check out the index & upcoming themes
to see what you can post in future weeks!

Saturday Dishes is hosted by:

- Marissa @ Life is Fantasmic -
Facebook ♥ Twitter ♥ Google+ ♥ Pinterest ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ SoundCloud

- Lisa @ Pebbles and Piggytails -
Facebook ♥ Twitter ♥ Google+ ♥ Pinterest ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Instagram

Check out our blogs & show us some love!
We love seeing new faces & new followers on our social media,
& comments make us smile (:

Last week's theme was Cakes!
Here were a few of my faves...

Tres Leches Cake from Yesterfood

Tres Leches Cake is super tasty & reminds me of Gram.

She asked for it on her birthday one year & we searched EVERYWHERE for one!

Now I can try this one sometime (:

Triple Lemon Poundcake from Diary of a Recipe Collector
Mmmm... I can already taste all the LEMONY goodness!

Lemon Blackberry Pound Cake from Pure Grace Farms
Lemon AND blackberries?! This sounds wonderful!

Lisa's faves might be different than mine,
so don't forget to swing by her blog too! (;
Oh yeah...
& if you were featured
feel free to grab a button!

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Next week's theme is:
Crockpot / Slow Cooker
so come back next week to share your best brunch recipes!

Now on to the linky...
Link up your bodacious Brunch recipes,
visit other posts,
& make new friends!

Keep spreading the word so we can see new faces at the party!

If you'd like to be a guest host send us an email so that we can get you on the calendar,

& let us know what themes you would like to see in the future.
We'd love to use your ideas!

By linking up at Saturday Dishes, you are giving permission for Life is Fantasmic & Pebbles and Piggytails to feature your posts with one image on social media with links back to you.

An InLinkz Link-up

xoxo

Monte Cristo French Toast

I'm really missing Disneyland right now...

It's my birthday week,

and for the first time in a long time

I won't be able to go to the Blue Bayou

and eat a scrumptious Monte Cristo.

Super sad.

I wrote a guest post about it,

which you should check out over at A Peek Into My Paradise!

I wanted to do something about this craving of mine,

so we had Monte Cristo French Toast for breakfast today...

It's not the same as the deep-fried deliciousness that we always get at the Blue Bayou,

but it definitely hit the spot.

I saw a pretty easy recipe here & modified it a little...

14 slices of ham

14 slices of turkey

7 slices Swiss cheese

14 slices of bread

butter (softened)

3 eggs

1/3 cup milk

1/8 tsp salt

powdered sugar

blackberry preserves

- Arrange cheese, ham, & turkey on plates so they will be easier to grab when putting the sandwiches together. This step will also bring them closer to room temperature so they won't take as long to heat up while cooking. I decided to do this on two separate plates so that the cheese doesn't soak up the moisture from the meats.

- Butter one side of each slice of bread, placing 2 slices of ham, 2 slices of turkey, and 1 slice of Swiss cheese on the unbuttered side of one slice, then placing another slice of bread on top making sure the buttered side is out. Repeat until you have made all 7 sandwiches with the buttered sides out.

- Cut into halves diagonally and secure with toothpicks. I broke each toothpick in half so that they weren't sticking up so high, and used 3 toothpicks per triangle.

- Beat eggs with milk and salt. Dip sandwich halves into egg mixture quickly and fry on a lightly greased hot skillet or griddle over medium heat until egg mixture is fully cooked & sandwich is lightly browned.

- Remove toothpicks before serving. 

- Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve with blackberry preserves on the side.

xoxo

Breakfast Casserole

We eat this yummy Breakfast Casserole & Pull-A-Part Bread for breakfast every LDS General Conference weekend & Christmas!

1 bag frozen hash browns (shredded)

2 cups shredded cheese (I use more)

2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic or onion salt

bacon, ham, sausage, beaten eggs, & other things typically found in omelettes (optional)

Put the potatoes in a greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle the grated cheese & seasonings over the potatoes. Then pour the cream on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45-60 minutes.

Note: Mix the bacon, ham, sausage, beaten eggs, & other mix-ins with the potatoes prior to the cheese & cream if you want them in your casserole.

Both the Breakfast Casserole & Pull-A-Part Bread are delicious enough on their own,

but personally, I feel like they need to be served together.

It could just be the tradition factor of always having them together that is making me say that,

but every time I make one without the other I feel like something is missing.

Breakfast Casserole is the best friend to the sweet & sugary Pull-A-Part Bread.
It's kind of like that saying, "You're the peanut butter to my jelly."
You can't have one without the other.
Well, technically you can...
but your taste buds may disagree.

Pull-A-Part Bread

It's that time of year again...
Time to watch LDS General Conference!
That means no rushing in late to church with the kids on Sunday morning.
It means Hubby can sleep in since he doesn't have to be at the church at 6:30 am for early morning meetings.
It means we get to be spiritually uplifted by watching/listening to talks from the prophet, apostles, & other church leaders as a family in the comfort of our own home.
It means we get to lounge around in our pajamas and eat our traditional conference brunch of Breakfast Casserole & this yummy Pull Apart Bread.

1 square butter or margarine

1 Tbsp water

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 (7.5-oz) cans Pillsbury biscuits

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

In saucepan, melt butter. Coat bottom & sides of 8x8 with 2 Tbsp melted butter. Add brown sugar & water to butter. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Mix sugar & cinnamon together in a large ziplock bag. Break each biscuit in half, place in bag and shake until well coated with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Loosely place coated biscuits in buttered pan. Pour caramel over top of dough. Bake 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Invert immediately onto cookie sheet or large plate and remove from pan.

Note: Double this recipe for a 9x13 pan

This post was featured:

St Patrick's Day Food

 Hope everyone had a wonderful St Patrick's Day!

Ours was great, but really busy...

We got ready & made sure to wear plenty of green all day long.

We had church, then I stayed after a couple hours for choir.

What can I say... I love to sing!

Then we went to see Gram (Hubby's Mom) at her house for dinner.

We told her we would take care of food & made a green dinner for St Patrick's Day.

It's tradition.

This is what we had...

Green pasta with a 'creamy' green sauce, green jello, garlic toast, & green 7up.

If I had a clover cookie cutter, I probably would have cut the toast into shamrocks.

'Cause that would have rocked.

It tasted delicious though, & that's all that really mattered.

We also were going to have peas, but I forgot to cook them & everything else was ready to eat.

Oh well...

I found this recipe for Halloween Pasta & figured that we could just make green sauce instead of orange.

Well, our sauce didn't turn out nearly as creamy & that's probably because I didn't follow the directions...

Whoops!

We used 1% milk instead of whole milk (which I'm sure made a HUGE difference),

we used monterey jack instead of cheddar (I figured white cheese would look better with green food coloring),

I skipped the pepper (because I don't like pepper),

& we didn't use any black sesame seeds (although I'm sure that made no difference whatsoever).

Anywho, it was super thin so we added an extra tsp of flour to hopefully thicken it a bit.

No such luck.

You can barely even see the sauce in the picture.

It still tasted yummy though, & after tasting it I realized it tasted an awful lot like Welsh Rarebit...

So although Hubby thought I was crazy, I took the leftover sauce home & had Welsh Rarebit for breakfast this morning!

Yes, it's green Welsh Rarebit because of St Patrick's Day...

I'm aware that it doesn't look very appetizing, but I sure enjoyed it!

My Gramma used to make this for us all the time for breakfast (:

If you can get past the slightly different texture of the sauce & the soggy toast, the flavor is really yummy!

Not for everyone, but I love it!

After dinner last night was Oswald, but I'm not going to get into that right now.

No need to be mixing holidays & confusing you guys!

Let's just say I still have a sugar hangover of sorts...

Since we were so crammed for time yesterday, our St Patrick's Day lunch was postponed until today...

We had peas, a clover sandwich, green applesauce (not to be confused with green apple applesauce), green jello, gold coins, a jellybean rainbow, a cotton candy cloud, & lucky charms.

No, I didn't get a shamrock cookie cutter in that short amount of time...

I simply cut out a shamrock on paper, laid it on the bread, & cut around it with a knife.

Yes, skittles (taste the rainbow) would make more sense than jellybeans for a rainbow,

but I had jellybeans & was trying to be resourceful! :P

I have one last St Patrick's Day food picture to share with you.

This is what my family back in Minnesota had for dinner last night...

Roast, green mashed potatoes & green gravy, peas, & salad with green dressing.

Our traditional Sunday dinner meets traditional St Patrick's Day green dinner! (:

Check out other awesome muffin tin meals @ Another Lunch