I've combined Day Three and Four of our breakfast challende into this one post because…well…I screwed up.
You see, I stayed up really late last night — until 2 a.m. — helping a friend set up her blog. I hadn't looked at what was on the menu for Thursday's breakfast yet, thinking that I'd just throw it together when I got up today.
But then I dragged myself out of bed at 7:45 this morning and looked up what I'd planned for breakfast — Overnight Whole Wheat Breakfast Cake. Notice the "overnight" part? Yeah. It wasn't happening this morning.
Thankfully, I'd doubled yesterday's breakfast so we didn't have to resort to cereal this morning.
And what was yesterday's breakfast? Chocolate Buttermilk Bread, a recipe that will definitely be going on my master menu plan at the end of the month.
Now, it's not the healthiest recipe in the world, but it is very filling. I'd love to try to improve the healthiness of the recipe without impacting the taste too much. Do you have any suggestions for how to make it healthier? Here are the ingredients (you can view the whole recipe on Lynn's site here). See room for improvement anywhere?
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (I like to use milk soured with vinegar)
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I happened to use bread flour this time)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
My kids — all three of them — love this recipe, and so do I. But the way the recipe stands right now, I could almost call the muffins cupcakes (although they are heartier and heavier than cupcakes). So I covet your comments and suggestions for improvement in healthfulness (which will mean less Mommy guilt when I serve them!).
So there you have it — Day Three and my Day Four FAIL! I'm sure Amanda was much more successful this morning for her part in this week's Breakfast Challenge.
If you're up for a challenge, or need some inspiration and motivation to get back in the kitchen and cook, we'd love for you to join us in this adventure. Just focus on making breakfasts every day this week, trying out new recipes or bringing back some oldie-but-goodies. Then next Monday Amanda and I will each host a Mr. Linky and you can link up your post about the breakfasts you tried this week (of course, including pictures and mouth-watering recipes, too!).
For each of the the following three weeks, the challenge will be lunches, dinners, and then snacks. Then, at the end of this 4-week cooking challenge, Amanda and I will be compiling master menu plans from which we can more easily plan our meals. So we're both looking forward to some new meal ideas from our fabulous readers. We'd love for you to join us!
What about using applesauce or bananas in place of the butter and maybe cutting back the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup. . .
Just a thought too, there is a powdered buttermilk available. . .see the details at http://www.sacofoods.com/culteredbuttermilkblend.html. For those of us who don't use buttermilk a lot, this is a good option (not as good as the real thing, but good.) 1 cup of this (4 tbsp. of the powder with 1 cup of water is 80 calories and less than 1 gram of fat.)
Those are my best options.
I featured this recipe on my site. Check it out when you have a chance.
Andrea in NC
Andrea Holloman’s last blog post..Buttermilk Chocolate Bread
You might try to cut 1/2 the sugar and replace it with applesauce. You could also sub honey for sugar, but use less honey.
You're right… I could serve these for dessert, but couldn't justify it for breakfast. 🙂
Amy’s last blog post..Picnic Plans
You might try using part whole wheat or maybe part applesauce for the fat. But I have never tried it. Let me know if you try it and it works. 🙂 When we eat these I forget the part about the fact that I should be eating healthier. 🙂
Lynn’s last blog post..Milk Cake With Strawberries
From my way of thinkin' butter does not really make this unhealthy…I would be more "concerned" about the chocolate, sugar and flour…You could certainly use honey or sucanat without changing the flavor too much. A lot of people also use Splenda to bake with. All in all, while it's not "healthy" it would be fine for a breakfast once a month or so especially if paired with a boiled egg, fruit or a glass of milk! In my ever so humble opinion no worse than kid's cereal! 🙂
Amanda@BetterisLittle’s last blog post..The Breakfast Challenge: Day Three
I'd use 1/2 butter and 1/2 apple sauce and then cut down on the sugar and use organic or honey. 😀
I need motivation for cooking, period! Once we're past winter, I just hate cooking. I'll have to be stopping back often to see what you're coming up with. These look yummy. 🙂
Some thoughts on making it healthier might be to add some wheat germ or bran to add some fiber to the bread (I do this in all my sweet breads to make them a little more hearty; maybe 1/2 to 1 cup).
Substituting some of the regular flour for ground up oatmeal is another idea to give it some more 'staying power'.
Dare I say but omitting the chocolate chips might too make it less dessert and more breakfast? I would do the above things before taking out the chocolate, personally! :o)
Substituting honey can be tricky, since it changes the quality of the batter and you may waste many ingredients trying to get the right consistency/sweetness.
Splenda is not healthy…… just like aspertame & saccarine, it is a chemical rather than a food source. They say it used to be sugar but it has been so chemically altered, that it holds no more nutritional value…. Just like all the rest of the sweeteners, we won't know the effects of consuming these chemicals till many years later. Some of the recent findings on Apertame and horrible!
Theresa’s last blog post..A sacred calling; Motherhood!
I'd do all of the above: use 1/4 c butter and 1/4 c applesauce (bonus points if it's homemade from the crockpot!), use 1/2 to 3/4 c honey instead of sugar (have to tinker a bit, probably). If you wanted to get wild and crazy, you could sub milled flax seed and a bit of water for the egg – I think I have tried one tbs flax plus three tbs water (or extra milk). Finally, you could try switching out some of the flour for oatmeal, perhaps grinding it in the food processor.
What I really came over here for was to find your homemade baby wipes recipe so I could link to it in my Frugal Fridays post. But I just finally found it at Happy to be @ home!
Lenetta @ Nettacow’s last blog post..A Good Day To Be Alive
Ugh, I meant sub milled flax seed for AN egg – I'd still use the other egg.
Lenetta @ Nettacow’s last blog post..A Good Day To Be Alive
You don't even have to use the applesauce. You can cut the sugar in a recipe by 1/3 and it shouldn't affect the flavor. If you add applesauce, yes it is "healthier" but you are simply adding sugar back in.
Otherwise, the recipe on its own sounds really good!
DeAna’s last blog post..Did You Get Your Free Float at Sonic?
How about using all natural apple sauce, or honey. You can also use apple juice. For the flour, use whole wheat or 1/2 and 1/2 if your not using whole wheat already. Cut the choc chips to half, or you can use carob (sp?) chips.
Also for the butter replace with banana or bean flour (mill beans up ) I know it sounds weird, but the natural bean book rec.doing this. It does not make your food taste beans!
As far as butter milk goes, I use reg. milk and most times can't tell the diff. Its one of those try and see deals. You could also just skip the salt.
I only use salt when making bread.
Hope this helps. I think we are going to try this for breakfast this week. With the above changes of course !
Blessings-
Rachelle
Adding 1/2 c of protien powder, some applesauce and flaxseed meal would turn these into a good breakfast.
These sound delicious. Here is what I would do to make them better for you. Omit soured milk and butter. Replace it with plain 2% greek yogurt (real greek yogurt like Fage found at Trader joe's and Meijer). This will add protein, calcium, and remove some fat. Next, omit chocolate chips. Replace with nuts, raisins, loose granola, maybe even a little fresh fruit chopped fine, or a mixture.