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Category: Breakfasts

Dark Chocolate Waffles

Dark Chocolate Waffles 1

It’s Valentine’s Day, guys! A day of love!!!!!

Once I look past the hyper-commercial aspects of Valentine’s Day, I love it. Because I do believe that at its unvarnished core, Valentine’s Day is a noble day. At the very least, it’s a great reminder to show the people in your life + yourself that you care about them. And you can show them that you care today AND any other day of the year by making these glorious Dark Chocolate Waffles.

MMMMMMmmmmm, CHOCOLATE.

Chocolate is one of my great joys in life. And since I am my own best Valentine, I’m unabashedly advocating that I consume as much of it as I want today – which is why I included both unsweetened raw cacao AND a whole melted dark chocolate bar in this waffle recipe.

Chocolate Coconut Banana Smoothie Bowl

Chocolate Coconut Banana Smoothie Bowl 1

Today is all about the kind of chocolatey, coconut-y banana-laden goodness that beckons you out of bed in the morning with a smile on your face and joy in your heart. Chocolate Coconut Banana Smoothie Bowl is IN THE HOUSE!!!!

(I never underestimate the power of a delectable breakfast to motivate me to rise. Awaking with the image of fresh-baked muffins in my head made getting up for class sophomore year a delight. Oh, dorm food days, I do miss you sometimes!)

I’m a wee bit enthused about this one. This Chocolate Coconut Banana Smoothie Bowl recipe contains unsweetened raw cacao powder AND cacao nibs (think a more natural version of baking chips). Unsweetened raw cacao is LIIIIIFE, in my book.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Waffles with Blackberry Sauce

Pumpkin Cinnamon Waffles with Blackberry Sauce 1

Hello, all! Today we have an excellent breakfast recipe, because I am a firm believer that breakfast should never be skipped. Say good morning to PUMPKIN CINNAMON WAFFLES WITH BLACKBERRY SAUCE!!!!!!

I got excited right there. Breakfast should be exciting, right? It should not be a to-do item to check off of the list. It should be creative and dare I say whimsical at least some of the time. The secret ingredient in these pumpkin cinnamon waffles could very well be whimsy. 😉

Yogurt Breakfast Parfait with Diced Apple and Homemade Cinnamon, Honey, and Walnut Granola

Yogurt Breakfast Parfait with Diced Apple and Homemade Cinnamon, Honey, and Walnut Granola 1

Hello, all! Happy Friday! As you move into the weekend and are planning for the week ahead (which I know, I know, you don’t even want to think about right now as you are sipping your TGIF glass of vino – sorry!), consider making this Cinnamon, Honey, and Walnut Granola. It’s processed-sugar-free (yay!), using honey and dates as natural sweeteners, and i’ts super easy to make. And the best part is, you can then use it to assemble these scrumptious Mason jar yogurt breakfast parfaits to make your week ahead a little easier. Convenience + deliciousness? Yes, please!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Yogurt Breakfast Parfait

 

PB Parfait 1

Happy Monday, all! OK, I know Mondays are not the happiest days for those of us who have day jobs that don’t line up with the jobs in our head. In my head, I am an independent boss-lady creative phenom, holed up in my home office donned in jammies and leopard-print slippers, lovingly toiling over this blog and my other one, 100 Places in the D – and perhaps writing a novel or two while I’m at it (because why not?). So I totally get it. We all have our true passions, and being a cubicle rat working for The Man isn’t one of them! But we might as well make the best of where we are now, because gratitude is one of the prime ingredients that will shift us into being our truest, most authentic selves.

Well, gratitude and peanut butter. And chocolate. And some really yum organic yogurt.

Chocolate, Raspberry, and Hazelnut Yogurt Breakfast Parfait

Chocolate, Raspberry, and Hazelnut Yogurt Breakfast Parfait 1

Happy Leap Day, all! We’ve got a little bonus day here, a last chance to cram some amazing goodness into February.

Lovely February! Confession: February has historically been my most hated month of the year, for reasons that are pretty obvious if you, like me, live in a northern part of the Northern Hemisphere. It is cold. It is gray. It is icy and snow-slushy and yucky. It’s the tail-end of winter, stillllll hanging on, with no feeling of the end in sight most winters (this winter has been pretty darn easy for those of us in the Detroit area, but still. It’s winter).

I hated February so much for so long that it became quite a drag to me that I hated it.

Chocolate Coconut Banana Granola

Chocolate Coconut Banana Granola 1

I was supposed to go out to brunch Sunday, but a little bully of a snowstorm derailed that. It wasn’t a blizzard, but it was enough slick roads and nastiness to keep me from getting on to the freeway and sliding around like a bumper car. After a high of about 50 degrees and walking around outside without a coat on Saturday, we are now sporting average highs around 20 degrees, blasting gales with wind chills in the single digits, and this lovely, freeze-y, arctic tundra landscape. Winter is finally upon us in Detroit! We’d been pretty spoiled so far this season with only one big snow prior to this last week. Reality check! Wah wah. But the one positive thing about inclement weather cancelling my plans on Sunday was that I got to stay home and make coconut chocolate banana granola.

A fresh snowfall equals beautiful but not so delicious. This granola equals beautiful AND delicious!

Peanut Butter, Coconut, and Chocolate Yogurt Breakfast Parfait

Peanut Butter, Coconut, and Chocolate Yogurt Breakfast Parfait

Peanut butter is SUCH an obsession of mine. It makes everything better! Even yogurt, which is a delightfully worthy breakfast companion in itself – but add to it some yummy natural peanut butter and and raw organic honey and shredded unsweetened coconut and crunchy cacao nibs and it’s an I’ll-never-leave-you! breakfast companion. The fact that this bad-boy is totally processed-sugar-free just sweetens the pot . . . er, I mean Mason Jar.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Granola

Peanut Butter and Jelly Granola

Peaaaanut – peanut butter – and jelly!

I’m sitting here singing the above in a lilting, off-tune voice in my head (yes, my internal singing voice is as off-key as the one associated with my vocal box!). I seem to remember hearing this little ditty about peanut butter and jelly at some time somewhere when I was a kid – probably in some beloved cartoon or on a show like Sesame Street. I think most of us grown-ups can probably still identify with that childhood love of PB&J. I suspect it’s why the idea of making a granola based around this combo stuck in my head for months and wouldn’t go away until I did.

Apricot and Sliced Almond Muesli with Cinnamon- and Lemon-Kissed Yogurt

 Apricot and Sliced Almond Muesli with Cinnamon- and Lemon-Kissed Yogurt
While I was cooking this weekend, I was listening to an entrepreneur-focused podcast where both speakers started bonding over their love of make-ahead yogurt breakfast parfaits that they put together in Mason jars. I thought, how fun! What a great idea!