Cinnamon-Raisin Noodle Pudding

Whenever I go to visit my parents, my mother always has a stack magazines that she's been saving for me to look at. She reads the articles, I only care about the recipes. Some of them sound horrible and some of the pictures look even more disgusting.

I often think that some magazines are out of ideas for good. One recipe combined spaghetti squash, spaghetti noodles, marinara, green olives, and raisins. Green olives and raisins aren't a flavor combination that I care to experiment with. The picture was even less appetizing.

I did find a few recipes I'm looking forward to trying out. My breakfast this morning was one of those recipes. Cinnamon-Raisin Noodle Pudding. My mom turned her nose up at the name of the recipe. It is not the normal combination of ingredients but definitely worth a try!

This could easily be breakfast or dessert. I chose to make it for breakfast. It was delicious.

Spicy Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas

I love enchiladas on a week night. They are quick to throw together and bake up quickly in the oven.

Last weekend I stumbled upon a recipe for black bean and sour cream enchiladas from Keep It Simple Foods. I'd also seen a picture on Pinterest for a black bean and corn salsa. It looked delicious as well. So I combined the two ideas for my mid-week dinner. It turned out extraordinarily well.

I found a recipe for enchilada sauce and then set about throwing together this perfect week night dinner.

Enchilada Sauce

Enchiladas are one of my favorite Mexican dishes. I love how easy they are to make on a busy night.

I am guilty of buying the box kits because I prefer the "bag of sauce" over buying the metallic-tasting canned sauce. I never put a lot of thought into making my own enchilada sauce. I always figured it would be too time consuming, especially for my busy weeknights.

Boy was I wrong!

Raspberry Oven Pancake with Lemon Sugar

I am a morning person. I get up at 6am on my days off. People tell me this is not normal. Oh well. I love starting the day off with a good breakfast, especially on days that I have to work.

I need the energy and happy feelings that a home-cooked breakfast bring into my world.

I love sitting down to eat breakfast with a hot cup of tea and a book and forgetting about the fact that I have to leave the comfort of my kitchen in the near future. Unfortunately I'm good at forgetting. I always lose track of time and end up running 5 minutes late. Oh well.

Crepes with Cranberry-Apple Compote

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. My whole day feels wrong if I can't start the day with a good homemade breakfast.

This morning I woke up an hour and a half early. I blame this stupid time change. But at least it gave me time to make a good breakfast.

Cinnamon Caramel Macchiato

I might be a morning person but I still NEED my coffee fix to face the day. Especially when I wake up an hour before my alarm goes off.

I also live in a town that does NOT have a Starbucks! It's probably better that it's not around, I really don't need to be spending $5+ on my morning addiction each day.

Since there is no Starbucks near by, I typically make my own coffee creations using my wonderful Keurig Single Serve Coffee Maker.

I buy the Starbucks Espresso Roast coffee at Wal-mart. I have one of those reusable coffee filters for my Keurig (because I'm too cheap to spend $0.75 per cup...although I do get them when I have good coupons!) 

Baked Pecan-Pear French Toast

For some reason, I am hooked on these baked french toast recipes. They are simple to throw together and spend the perfect amount of time in the oven so that I can get ready for the day while it bakes into the perfect morning treat.

It also give the house the aroma of fresh baked goodies first thing in the morning, a great motivation to get moving on a lazy weekend morning.

Cinnamon Apple Streusel Baked French Toast with Caramel Sauce

I woke up wanting apple pie. However apple pie requires a fair amount of work. And it requires that you have more than 2 apples. So I improvised. Pie isn't a good breakfast choice anyways, right?

This morning's breakfast was simple to make but oh so yummy!

Caramel Filled Mulled Apple Cider Cookies

I love fall.

There is nothing like waking up to the cool mornings that make it perfect for wrapping up in a blanket, hot drink in hand and reading on my porch swing. My type of morning.

The crisp air and smell of leaves makes me feel like turning on my oven and baking something delicious. Ok, so I  always feel like turning on my oven and baking something. But it is even more tempting to do so when it's only 57 degrees outside and I don't have to worry about turning my kitchen into a sauna.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this recipe from The Cooking Photographer. The cookies looked delicious. So I had to add the cider mix to my grocery list. This afternoon, I mixed up the cookies...so simple and so delicious. Definitely a recipe to keep around.

Cherry Oven Pancake

I think I was 8 or 9 the first time my dad found a recipe in the Washington Post for "Puffy German Pancakes." My family has been eating them ever since. I love them because they bake for 20-30 minutes, the perfect amount of time for me to get ready for work while it's baking and puffing up into a delicate breakfast treat.

I know I found this recipe online a few years ago but have no idea where it came from. Like almost all my other recipes, I've changed it to my liking. I recommend using sweet cherries, however the original recipe called for tart cherries.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Baked French Toast

I have a new addiction. Pinterest. It is becoming a new obsession. I used to follow a lot of blogs however most of them are beginning to seem rather repetitive any more and became un-inspiring to me.

Now that I have found new inspiration, I figured I will make another attempt at blogging.

This recipe is inspired by a recipe I found on Pinterest. It looked delicious. Then when I looked at the recipe,  I was shocked. 12 eggs?!?!

The original recipe came from Chef-in-Training. I'm sure it was great the way it was. I didn't have a dozen eggs to use and I didn't have the entire night to let it set. I needed it immediately. So I changed it. It was still yummy!