Coffee Breakfast Smoothie

So a few weeks ago I found an Instant Pot Ace Blender from Walmart for the unspeakably low price of $49.99. We've been getting our money's worth. We've been making smoothies on a fairly regular basis. This particular recipe was modified from one I found on the intertubez. That called for cinnamon and I wasn't convinced that it was a good idea. I'm also not entirely sold on the oats in there, but I'm sure that's just me. I guess it's a nutritional addition. Either way, they're not bad for a quick and pretty filling breakfast. I threw the link to the YouTube video down at the bottom.

Coffee Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 cup coffee
• 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt (in retrospect, I'd bump this up to 1 full cup)
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 banana, sliced
• 2 cups crushed ice
• 1 cup milk
• 1 ounce coffee liquor (optional)

Directions

1. Throw everything in a blender. Hit the "smoothie" button if you have it. Otherwise just blend until smooth. 

Stay Safe!

Homebound Day #6: I Get Productive

Days are already starting to blend together, so I have to make sure I have some time markers. One of my standard time markers was Sunday. Normally, it would be marked by weeping that I had to go to work the next day, but that doesn't look to be a real concern for some time. So I have to remember, Sundays Are For Baking. I figure I'll just keep up with my habit of baking something every Sunday.

The baking took the form of two loaves of sour cream bread. They hold well and are great for sandwiches. Plus, it's a very simple bread to make.

And if you let your daughter help, you get to add 25 drops of blue food coloring.

While the bread was rising, we through a couple of things in the slow cooker. We used the last of our smoked chicken for a Faux Pho. 

This was unbelievably good.

We also threw a pork loin, onion, and some cucumber-honeydew preserves in another cooker. No pictures, as there's not much to look at. It will likely become carnitas, or possibly a stir fry or soup. This is our multi-use food for the week.

 

Finally, The Wife reminded me that we had a single pie crust in the fridge, as well as a couple of containers of  strawberries that were not long for this world. 

So naturally we made a strawberry pie.
Not much to look at, but tasty.

And that's where we are right now. Food supplies are still good. We still have a couple of gallons of milk and plenty of toilet paper and napkins. Fairly likely we will make the two week mark without needing to go our for anything. Past that, we will run out of milk and possibly one or two other minor things. If I keep baking, flour may be a concern. 

Stay Safe!

Almost forgot, I made coffee smoothies for breakfast:

Sour Cream Cranberry Coffee Cake

     Coffee cake holds a bit of nostalgia for me. When my mom would have company over, she'd eventually ask if anybody wanted "coffeeanne." At least that's what I heard as a child. What she was talking about was a spot of dessert. She was serving coffee and a light dessert. That dessert was usually a coffee cake. The coffee cakes were almost always the packaged Entenmann's ones. I can't have coffee cake without thinking of a group of adults at the kitchen table, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee while eating coffee cake. Nostalgia aside, this is a moist and tasty coffee cake. The cranberries give it a hell of a zing. I would be happy to serve this with my next coffeeanne. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Sour Cream Cranberry Coffee Cake
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (8 ounces) reduced fat sour cream
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (we used sweetened, since it's all we had in the house)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil (I figure vegetable oil is close enough. That's what I used, anyways)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (The Wife suggested we use the frozen cranberries lurking in the back of the freezer before they achieved sentience and attempted to take over the house)
• Topping
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons cold butter

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, sour cream, applesauce, oil and vanilla (why did they specify these ingredients and not just say "the next five ingredients? Do they think we're stupid? Probably. Screw these people.) Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in berries. Pour into a 9-inch square baking pan (we used a 9"x13" Pyrex dish) coated with nonstick cooking spray.
2. For topping, in a bowl, combine the brown sugar, oats and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over batter. 
3. Bake at 350F (180C Gasmark 4) for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (ours took the full 45 minutes).

Good times!

Butterscotch Maple Chocolate Chip Layer Cake

     I'm not sure what came over me when I did this. I was all of a sudden consumed with the idea of making a layer cake. I grabbed a box of cake mix and decided to screw around with it. Naturally, I added booze. Maple Crown Royal has become a staple in my kitchen. Then I decided to do something different. If you haven't heard of Inbru, you need to check it out. It's a totally natural coffee flavoring made from California rice hulls.

Prepare to be amazed with the power of SCIENCE!

You just add them to your coffee grounds while brewing and *POOF!* your coffee is flavored for zero calories. I had heard rumors that you could use Inbru in baking, so I gave it a try. I added their Butterscotch Drop flavor. It worked wonderfully. You could smell the aroma of Butterscotch throughout the house. It imparted a fantastic flavor to the cake. If you're patient and let the cake sit a while, the flavor deepens and really adds a fantastic dimension to a plain old yellow cake. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Butterscotch Maple
Chocolate Chip Layer Cake

Ingredients
Cake

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• substitute 1/4 cup water from the cake mix with Maple Crown Royal
• 2 teaspoons Inbru Butterscotch Drop coffee flavoring
• 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (I got this recipe from Sweet Savory Life. Definitely check out the page, there's lots of great stuff to be found! The recipe yields around 3 cups, which is way more then you'll need unless you have a heavy hand with the frosting. I had about a cup left over)

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!)
• 3½ cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract (I went with vanilla)
• 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream (I used milk. I figured it was plenty rich already)

Directions

Frosting

1. Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Cake

1. Begin preparing cake according to directions on box. Remember to swap 1/4 cup of the Crown in for the water. 
2. While batter is mixing, add the Inbru. 
3. Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are distributed through the batter.
4. Divide the batter between two greased 9" cake pans.
5. Cook cakes according to directions on box.
6. When cakes have cooled, remove from pans. (Be patient here. The chocolate chips will make the bottoms stick to the pan a bit. Give it time and you'll get the cakes out without destroying them). Here's where things become difficult. With a good, long bread knife, cut horizontally across one of the cakes to remove the rounded top. Spread a layer of frosting across the flat surface.

   

   Try to cut as level as possible or you get a slightly lopsided cake.
   Just like mine!

7. Lay the other cake on top of the frosted layer. Frost the sonofabitch! Give it a couple hours before you eat it to really let the butterscotch flavor develop!

Good times!

Tiramisu Parfaits

     I really need to start posting more dessert recipes. Dessert is the final challenge of the meal! For my father-in-law's birthday, the wife and I cooked him Italian pinwheel rolls, linguine with white clam sauce, escalope of chicken, and zucchini boats. He made a herculean effort to get through dinner, finishing off a big helping of everything. Then came dessert. Like a champ, he powered through it, leaving nothing but a napkin stuffed into the glass. It's subtle signs like that which let you know a recipe is a good one! This particular recipe is another winner from Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Tiramisu Parfaits
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 4-1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 2 cups cold fat-free milk (2% for me, same as always)
• 2 packages (1 ounce each) sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 ounces fat-free cream cheese
• 1 package (3 ounces) ladyfingers, split and cubed (could not find the soft kind ANYWHERE. We used half a package of the cookie-style ladyfingers. It was about 3.5 ounces.)
• 2 cups fat-free whipped topping (we used an entire tub of Cool-Whip. That's like 2 cups, right?)
• 2 tablespoons miniature chocolate chips (not only were the chips not mini, I didn't measure them either. I just sprinkled them completely at will)
• 1 teaspoon baking cocoa (again, I didn't measure. I just eyeballed it)

Directions

1. Dissolve coffee in boiling water; cool to room temperature.
2. In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mixes for 2 minutes.
3. In a larger mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth (you're also going to want to make sure the cream cheese isn't cold. It needs to be a bit soft for this to work) Gradually fold in the pudding. (this recipe doesn't mention that the cream cheese does not easily incorporate into the pudding. It sort of breaks up into little balls. I had to put this all in the Kitchenaid with the whisk attachment and whisk the crap out of it for 2-3 minutes. It eventually blended smoothly)
4. Place ladyfinger cubes in a bowl; add coffee and toss to coat evenly. Let stand for 5 minutes. Divide half of the ladyfinger cubes among five (may vary depending on size of glasses) parfait glasses or serving dishes. Top with half of the pudding mixture, 1 cup of whipped topping and 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips. Repeat layers.
5. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Just before serving, dust with cocoa.

Good times!

Product Review: Inbru

     

     Last week I received a sampler from Inbru. What is Inbru? Inbru is something you add to your coffee grounds to change up the flavor. It's made from rice hulls, so it's sugar, gluten, and carb free. We drink a tremendous amount of coffee in our house, so the opportunity to change the flavor of a basic coffee whenever we feel  like it is really nice. We received a box with four flavors to try. 

Nice, clean packaging. Let's start brewing!

     On opening the package, you know right away it's going to at least smell good. It's also going to be easy to use. Each container has it's own little measuring scoop. You just scoop out the correct measure for the amount of coffee you're making. You can even use Inbru in a Keurig if you have the mini-filter baskets. PROTIP: Don't add this directly to your brewed coffee! This has to go into a filter basket. It is not intended to dissolve! I mean, if you like crunchy coffee, I suppose you could try it.

Doesn't look like much, but WOW does it smell good!

     When you brew your coffee/tea with Inbru the first thing you're going to notice is the aroma. All of the Inbrus we tested smell wonderful as they brew.  I feared that given the strength of the aroma as the coffee brewed, the flavor would be overpowering. However, as the brewing finished, the smell leveled out. The flavor was notable, but not dominating, in each instance.

Inbru added to coffee grounds. Time to get  down to business.

Cinnamon-Hazelnut
Coffee Used: Harrah's Gourmet Blend
Let me preface by saying I'm not a fan of cinnamon or hazelnut flavored beverages. In the name of fairness, I'm only going to concern myself with the delivery of the flavors in question. The coffee we used is on the bold side, so the challenge would be to see if the flavor of the Inbru would come through. It does. You definitely get solid tones of cinnamon and hazelnut. They're not overpowering. The wife raved about this particular flavor and wound up drinking two cups black. I found that when I added some sweetener, the flavors really developed for me and resulted in a nice drink for a winter evening.

Butterscotch Drop
Coffee Used: Maxwell House Wake-Up Roast
I brought this flavor to work with me to try out on my co-workers. They're fairly particular about their coffee flavors, so I figured they would be brutally honest. The results were positive all around. The aroma as the coffee brewed was phenomenal. One co-worker came in and asked, "What is that blend? It smells really good."  Other reviews: "That's not bad at all. It's got a good taste to it." I loved this flavor. When a little sweetener and creamer was added, it moved into the realm of outstanding. The butterscotch flavor really came out with the sweetness and creaminess.

Raspberry Tart
I figured I'd switch things up here and try brewing it in some tea.
Tea Used: Hyson Green
This was tremendous. The aroma is lovely. No sweetener was needed. The raspberry flavor was a great accent to the green tea. I  don't know that this flavor will ever make it into a pot of coffee. I may just keep it as a tea enhancer.

Highlander Grogg
Coffee Used: Harrah's Gourmet Blend
This was going to be the real test. Highlander Grogg is the favorite flavor in our house. We almost always have a stock of Highland Grogg in the house. If the Inbru version wasn't up to snuff, we'd know immediately.   Highland Grogg has a distinctive aroma. When the coffee started brewing, the Inbru was spot on. The smell was identical to the $15/lb coffee we occasionally treat ourselves to. The taste? Blown away. There was no discernible difference between the coffee house Highland Grogg and the Inbru-converted coffee.

The Verdict
Inbru certainly is a good value. For $6.95 you get a jar that will make about 5-6 pots of coffee, depending on how much or little flavor you want. You can use any coffee you want. The flavors we tested were wonderful. What it says on the label is what you're going to smell and taste. We also discovered it works well with tea, but you'll have to use a tea ball or filter. Not a big issue. We have also been told it can be used in baking, which is truly awesome. I will certainly have to try it. You should try it too. Don't be a dope. Do it now.

Good times!