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.