Breakfast: The day's most important meal, especially if you have to shovel!!

Well, we here in New England are experiencing yet another icy blast. Thursday's snow storm left our state in total gridlock. It took me almost 2 hours to get home (and I work only 3 1/2 miles away!) and my poor husband had a 7 1/2 ride home for a 16 mile drive that typically takes no more than 30 minutes (and no, that's not a typo, it really took him 7 1/2 hours!). Luckily today's storm is happening on a weekend so we don't have to worry about commuting home, but it's still made for a mess since Mother Nature has been showing us all how she can present H20 to us in 3 different forms: snow, sleet, and rain. Yeah, she really isn't all about going easy on us the past few days!

To give my husband and I ample energy for the shoveling job we were going to be taking on this morning, I whipped up a batch of Apple Cinnamon Waffles. Everyone can tell me until they're blue in the face to eat my Wheaties, but I'm sorry, cereal just wasn't going to cut it today!

This recipe is from the "Simple and Delicious" magazine (with a couple of tweaks). The recipe says it makes 12 waffles, I was only able to make 8, but that may be because I have a Belgian Waffler maker that makes larger than your average waffles!

Apple Spice Waffles












2 cups biscuit/baking mix
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup chopped apple (I used Granny Smith)

In a large bowl, combine biscuit mix, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Combine eggs and milk; stir into dry ingredients until smooth. Stir in butter and apple.

Bake in preheated waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup.

Secondly, in the spirit of revisiting some older recipes, I decided to whip up a batch of Chocolate Chip Surprise Muffins to pack for breakfast this coming week. It's a nice easy recipe with a little bit of a twist - a sweet cream cheese filling in the middle. If you want to eat these warm from the oven, I suggest letting these cool a bit before eating (that cream cheese gets SUPER hot), or just eat them at room temperature (they're still yummy).


Chocolate Chip Surprise Muffins











3 Ounces softened cream cheese
1 Tablespoon plus 1/2 cup, divided sugar
1 Tablespoons plus 1 cup, divided milk
1/3 Cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 Cups flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoons salt
1/2 Cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 400. Grease bottoms only of 12 regular size muffin cups with shortening or cooking spray or line with paper baking cups. In small bowl, mix cream cheese, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon milk until smooth, set aside.

In large bowl, beat remaining milk, oil, and egg with fork or wire whisk. Stir in remaining ingredients just until flour is moistened. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups while keeping some aside.

Place about 1 rounded teaspoon of filling on batter in muffin cups. Top with remaining batter that was previously set aside.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove to cooling rack. Cool 5 minutes. Serve warm or cool.


Well, my hubby just had to go outside again to shovel the end of our driveway. The plows finally only just came by a half and hour ago and of course we got plowed in! Good thing I have a good dinner planned for us tonight which if it tastes as good as it smells right now, you will definitely get to read about it in the near future! Ta ta for now, kiddies!