Breakfast With A Side Of Chocolate

I like that we’re slowly easing into this year.  It feels right.  I’ve been hanging out in New Orleans for the week plotting my steps for 2014.  Well… plotting as much as one can plot.  I want to leave room for surprises.  Those are inevitable, and mostly welcome.

While I’ve been daydreaming, I’ve been scrolling through my site just to find my footing.  Sometimes I get caught up in creating without taking a moment to look back at all of the treats I’ve made.  Today I think we should focus on Breakfast and Chocolate.  Essentials.

I’m really excited about this coming year.  It feels like a blessing.  Coming up I think we should talk about birthday cake, I want to show your more Bonkers Awesome videos, we should talk about letter writing, salt in baking, and meatballs.  I’m also taking a trip to Uganda with Compassion International at the end of January!  You’ll definitely hear more about that soon!

For now.  Let’s breakfast and let’s chocolate as we continue this ease into 2014.

Breakfast is, hands down, my favorite meal of the day.  It’s so great I’m convinced it can be eaten at nearly any hour of the day.  My favorite breakfasts range from the pretty healthy to pretty-dang indulgent.  Here are a few!

Blackberry Apricot Sunflower Oatmeal  Let’s start with a big bowl of warmth and health!  I love that this oatmeal has both fresh and dried fruit. It’s totally approachable and just the right amount of fancy.

Whole Grain Waffles with Millet, Poppy, Sunflower, and Flax  I love LOVE love waffles.  I make them on the weekends and find myself eating them all week long, as toast, as sandwich bread, as standing-in-the-kitchen-snacks.  These waffles are hearty and packed with seeds,  They’re great stacked with maple syrup, and also pretty wonderful as bread for a ham sandwich.

Toasted Oat and Coconut Muesli  Call it an oat-kick!  I went on a Muesli bender earlier last year.  I would take a handful of Muesli top it with frozen berries and almond milk and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.  In the morning I’d have a fruity, chilled, soaked oat breakfast.  Seriously healthy and delicious!

Browned Butter Baked Doughnuts  Doughnuts reign supreme always and forever.  These baked doughnuts are soft and sweet.  They’re basically doughnut shaped cupcakes with chocolate glaze and sprinkles.  Serve with coffee.  Totally breakfast.

Brown Butter Banana Bread with Rum and Coconut  I will put brown butter into everything I can.  Count on it.  Rum and coconut help too, as they always do, as they always do.

Mushroom and Brussels Sprout Hash Savory breakfast is the way to go.  Savory breakfast makes room for breakfast dessert (Browned Butter Baked Doughnuts).  It’s also nice to get a few vegetables at the start of the day.  Mushrooms are softened and browned.  Brussels sprouts are shredded and sautéed.  Add an egg and breakfast feels pretty easy! 

Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding   Chocolate pudding is up there on my list of comfort foods.  Up there with french fries, rice pudding, and other carb loaded indulgences.  This chocolate pudding is creamy, rich, and topped with golden roasted hazelnuts.  Beyond!

Chocolate Beet Cake with Beet Cream Cheese Frosting Just like I’ll sneak brown butter into your breakfast, I’ll also wedge beets (yea, the vegetable) into your dessert.  I made this beet cake a few years back and it still holds up as TOTALLY AWESOME!  Beets are used to moisten the chocolate cake and tint the cream cheese frosting.  Beyond the moisture and color, the beets are undetectable as beets.  Cross my heart!

Chocolate Orange Cream Cheese Pound Cake  This pound cake recipe has been in my family for years and years.  I add chocolate and orange because I think it’s delicious and I like to occasionally stress my dad out.  So, there’s that.

Salty Sesame and Dark Chocolate Cookies  Chocolate, sesame, and salt… because yes I added soy sauce to these cookies!  Chocolate chip cookies with a major enhancement!  These are some of my favorites!