ISO Breakfast Ideas for Girls' Weekend

[Romandub]

I have been assigned breakfast duty for our annual college girlfriends' weekend. I need ideas for what to make. My day is on Sunday, and the person making Saturday's breakfast is doing a casserole, so I don't want to do the same thing. We are getting together at someone's beachhouse, so it needs to be something that can be made there on Sunday or made at home on Friday, easily transportable for a 4 hour car ride and can keep in a fridge or freezer till Sunday. Ideas????

[testkitchen45]

Can you make crepes? I've posted my Blackberry-Cream Cheese Crepes recipe on the BB before, and it's completely do-ahead and very pretty and impressive-looking (but easy). Can post again if you need it.

[Hammster]

French toast?
Bread, eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Maple Syrup and/or powdered sugar. A little cooking oil for the pan. All ingredients can easily survive a 4 hour car ride and with exception of the milk really don't even have to be refrigerated.
Can be made Sunday morning. :)

[Rae]

What about an overnight French Toast dish? I would think you could pretty easily transport it in a cooler.

I also like to make really rich and decadent scrambled eggs for special breakfasts. I mix the eggs with cream or sour cream, cook them in melted butter, and then just as they are finishing cooking, I take them off the heat and add another little pat of butter to melt in. I don't eat them very often, but they are a yummy treat. Served with bagels with cream cheese and lox, some fresh fruit and mimosas or Bloody Marys, it makes a lovely breakfast.

[PAMMELA]

How about a breakfast quiche? You could bake it, take it, then heat it up there. I have a really good, easy recipe if you're interested.

[ljt2r]

Funny but the first thing to pop into my mind was mimosas... :D

[sarah2397]

You could do homemade granola, fruit salad and yogurt, plus some healthy muffins. Most of that can be made ahead. Definitely mimosas! Sounds fun.

[swquilts]

Huevos rancheros? Easy enough to make that morning.....

CL has a couple of good recipes.

[MISSINDI]

How about Barefoot Contessa's Smoked Salmon Fritatta? Simple, easy, and "gourmet" enough for guests.

[Terrytx]

You could do homemade granola, fruit salad and yogurt, plus some healthy muffins. Most of that can be made ahead. Definitely mimosas! Sounds fun.

ditto this idea:)

[Linda in MO]

I love this baked apple pancake recipe. Be sure to read my notes below. I don't know how many you are serving but I've never gotten 8 servings. I suppose it depends on what you serve with it.
Also, here's a thread where this recipe is discussed...
http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=79201&highlight=quaker+apple+pancake

Apple Streusel Baked Oat Pancake

STREUSEL
1/2 cup Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
PANCAKE
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 medium tart apples (about 1-1/4 pounds), cored and cut into thin wedges
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)--I use
1 cup fat-free milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

For streusel, combine oats, flour, brown sugar and melted margarine in small bowl; stir until crumbly. Set aside.

Heat oven to 350°F. For pancake, place margarine into 8-inch square glass baking dish. Bake 3 to 5 minutes or until margarine is melted. Remove from oven. Stir in granulated sugar and cinnamon. Add apples; stir until apples are well coated with sugar mixture. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until apples have softened, stirring occasionally.

In large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder and salt; mix well. In small bowl, combine milk and egg; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not overmix.) Spoon over apple mixture in baking dish, spreading batter to sides of dish. Sprinkle reserved oat streusel evenly over batter.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Serve immediately.

8 SERVINGS

Notes: The first time I made it...
My changes: added a tsp. of vanilla to the milk (used 1%) and egg mixture; grated a little fresh nutmeg in with the apples; used 4 apples instead of 3 (2 tart golden delicious and 2 gala--I used what I had on hand). I think that's it. I didn't want to alter it too much since I don't have a lot of experience with baked pancakes. I might reduce the butter a little bit and maybe use 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour next time. I don't want to mess with it too much though, since it turned out so good. I might try reducing the butter by 1/2 to 1 TBS. in the streusel and reducing 1 to 2 TBS. in the apple mixture, max! I wouldn't cut it any further than that. And yes, I will definitely be making this again. I warmed some up for breakfast this morning and it was surprisingly still delicious.

Second time: added a tsp. of vanilla to the milk (used 1%) and egg mixture; grated a little fresh nutmeg in with the apples and upped the cinnamon a bit; used granny smith and fuji apples this time; used half white flour and half white whole wheat flour in the pancake and used all white whole wheat flour in the streusel; cut the butter back to 2 1/2 Tbs. in the streusel and would not cut it any further; cut the butter back to around 3 Tbs. in the apple mixture and think you could cut it even a little further but I would add a splash of apple juice to make up for it.

[greatcook]

I saw this in Domino Magazine awhile ago, and thought it was a cool idea- it's a super easy eggs Benedict, perfect for when you are doing brunch for a bunch of people- you make them in muffin tins.

Click on the link then scroll down and click on the step by step.

http://www.dominomag.com/howtos/recipes/savory/eggsbenedict

[PAMMELA]

The eggs benedict are too cool!! I love eggs benedict, although I usually make it with regular bacon (which might work here by pre cooking bacon in the micro). I would definitely make my old Knorr hollandaise sauce though, that Bennie sauce just doesn't sound/look good to me!

I don't have those bendable silpat muffin cups though, I'm thinking regular ones should work?? Sorry got a little OT but I got excited with the eggs benedict!:D

[Romandub]

OK--I've gone from no ideas to so many wonderful suggestions, I am inclined to start cooking breakfast every day! Thank you all!!!

[Ann Sanders]

How about those Breakfast Burritos???

[cinbis]

I saw this in Domino Magazine awhile ago, and thought it was a cool idea- it's a super easy eggs Benedict, perfect for when you are doing brunch for a bunch of people- you make them in muffin tins.

Click on the link then scroll down and click on the step by step.

http://www.dominomag.com/howtos/recipes/savory/eggsbenedict


I'm wondering if anyone has made this Eggs Benedict recipe. It sounds great...I'm thinking about making it for an Easter Brunch, but would like to hear some reviews before serving it to company.

[lgrose]

Gee, are you going on the same girl's weekend as I am? We're heading to the Central California coast. Fun times!! Thank you for asking this question--I've been trolling the boards looking for exactly this answer. We'll be having salmon for dinner one night, and a quiche for Saturday breakfast, so I think the french toast or granola sound great for our needs.

[cinbis]

I really wish I were going to a Girl's Weekend on the coast in CA!!!! We got 6 inches of snow last night.....CA sounds very nice right now!

This is for an Easter brunch. I'm think I'll make an overnight French Toast, quiche, fruit salad and a quick bread.

[Robyn1007]

I really wish I were going to a Girl's Weekend on the coast in CA!!!! We got 6 inches of snow last night.....CA sounds very nice right now!

This is for an Easter brunch. I'm think I'll make an overnight French Toast, quiche, fruit salad and a quick bread.

I'll trade you! Send those 6 inches to our mountains please. We have 3 more weekends of skiing and we need snow! :D

I've made a french toast souffle posted on this board that was very well received that might work well.

[cinbis]

I would gladly send this snow your way!!! I want to get back out on my road bike!

I searched CL the other day and found a French Toast souffle that sounded really good...I was considering that. I'll do a search on the board and see if it's the same one. Thanks for the suggestion.

[sfarler]

I'm wondering if anyone has made this Eggs Benedict recipe. It sounds great...I'm thinking about making it for an Easter Brunch, but would like to hear some reviews before serving it to company.


I made these a few weeks ago. I even went out and bought a silicone muffin pan just for these. First of all, the eggs took a lot longer to cook than the recipe calls for. I used ham instead of Canadian bacon and I think that water cooked out of the ham caused water to sit on top of the eggs. And since I was cooking the eggs much longer the English muffins were getting too done.

I eventually took off the English muffins and ham and let the eggs cook by themselves.

The eggs did pop out of the silicone muffin pans nicely. I'm not sure a regular muffin pan would work.

I also used CL's cheese sauce instead of the recipe's sauce.

I'll probably make them again since I love Eggs Benedict, but plan on a longer cooking time.

[TKay]

I know you have plenty of ideas, but this one came to mind, so I thought I'd mention it. How about one of the overnight oatmeal recipes that's been posted here? You throw everything in the crockpot before bed and enjoy yummy oatmeal in the a.m. You could also bring fresh fruit and, of course, mimosas. Just a thought.
Enjoy!

[cinbis]

Thanks for the review, Sue. That's helpful. I think I'll wait and make the Eggs Benedict some time when it's just us.

If anyone is interested, this is the French Toast I'm thinking of making. My SIL made it last year and it was very good. It says there are blueberries in it, but I don't recall her putting them in and she omitted them in the directions part. I think I'm going to skip that.

Baked French Toast

1 loaf day old French Bread
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbl sugar
2 1/4C milk (she used 1 3/4C)
1/2 C flour
6 Tbl dark brown sugar (she used light)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C butter
1C fresh or frozen blueberries

13x9 greased pan

Cut bread into 1" slices. Put in greased pan.
Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla. Stir in milk
Pour over bread, turn to coat and refrigerate overnight

-next day-
Preheat oven to 375
In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon
Cut in butter until coarse
Sprinkle crumbs over bread
Bake 40 minutes uncovered until golden brown

[Kristilyn1]

Well, I've made this eggs benedict and it's excellent. I've made it several times, always with rave reviews. It's also being added to our family Easter brunch.

BAKED EGGS AND MUSHROOMS IN HAM CRISPS
Gourmet, February 2002

Makes 6 servings.

3/4 lb mushrooms, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons crème fraîche or sour cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
12 slices Black Forest or Virginia ham (without holes; 10 oz)
12 large eggs
Garnish: fresh tarragon leaves
Accompaniment: buttered brioche or challah toast
Special equipment: a muffin tin with 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups
preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Prepare mushrooms:
Cook mushrooms and shallot in butter with salt and pepper in a large heavy skillet over moderately high heat, stirring, until mushrooms are tender and liquid they give off is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in crème fraîche and tarragon.

Assemble and bake:
Fit 1 slice of ham into each of 12 lightly oiled muffin cups (ends will stick up and hang over edges of cups). Divide mushrooms among cups and crack 1 egg into each. Bake in middle of oven until whites are cooked but yolks are still runny, about 15 minutes. Season eggs with salt and pepper and remove (with ham) from muffin cups carefully, using 2 spoons or small spatulas.

The only change I make is I serve with hollandaise sauce and I omit the tarragon, but only because I personally have an aversion to it. I like the eggs runny, but just cook a little longer if you want them more "set".

Kristi