Bread & Breakfast Pudding Cups

I heart bread pudding and to be quite honest I think that there is a fine line between the bread puddings we eat for dessert and the french toast we treat ourselves to for breakfast. So, one Sunday I decided to meet the two in between by making what I call "Bread & Breakfast Pudding Cups. It's pretty much like bread pudding only not as sweet, so it works great for breakfast along with some warm maple syrup or just all by itself! I used raisins and pecans in this batch, but the options are endless when it comes to what you can throw in the batch. I'm sure some orange extract and dried cranberries would be divine drizzled with syrup or some fresh blueberries stirred into the mix..just use your imagination when it comes to the flavors!

Bread & Breakfast Pudding Cups
Serves 5

Ingredients
7 Slices Honey Wheat bread, cubed
½ tsp. Cinnamon
¼ tsp. Nutmeg
2/3 C. Pecan Pieces
1 Tbsp. Raisins (optional)
1/3 C. Brown Sugar

1/3 C. Buttermilk
1/3 C. Milk
½ tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
½ tsp. Banana Extract

1 Egg

Directions: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl toss together your: bread cubes, dry spices and sugar, raisins, and pecans. Add milk, vanilla and banana flavoring and stir together. Now gently stir in your egg until well combined. Spray 5 spots of your muffin pan with non stick cooking spray. Spreading equally among 5 of your muffin cups, lightly pack your bread mixture into each one.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-17minutes. Serve with fresh orange juice!

Bohemian Tips: Spruce up a simple glass of orange juice by stirring in a little bit of banana extract!

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

It has taken me forever and a day to come up with a really good pancake recipe that suits my taste. You know the perfect pancake..light, fluffy, sweet, and tender. This version uses lemon extract and blueberries and tastes divine with a really good warm maple or blueberry syrup.

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes
1 1/2 C. All Purpose Flour
1/2 C. Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 tsp. Lemon Extract
1/2 C. Plain Nonfat Yogurt or 1/2 C. Buttermilk
1/2 C. Unsweetened Almond Milk or regular whole milk
2/3 C. Water
2 Tbsp. Canola Oil
1 C. Fresh Blueberries, slightly smashed

Directions:

1. Combine all of your dry ingredients except your blueberries. stir in egg, then yogurt, extract, and milk, and then your oil and water. Stir lightly. You do not want to over mix your batter to avoid tough pancakes. Gently fold in your blueberries. Let your batter sit for about 5 minutes.

2. Using a 1/4 measuring cup, pour your batter into a non stick pan or onto your griddle. spread the batter around. I like to cover my pan with the top to let my pancake sort of stem as it cooks. Once you begin to see the edges firm up and small bubbles appear on top, your pancake is ready to be flipped. Serve with your favorite syrup!