Breakfast of Champions

Traditionally, the egg is a staple at breakfast. I love a good omelet with vegies and cheese. When Greg is home, just the vapor from cooking eggs bothers him. If you ever want to scramble you an egg, just wait until he is gone and then run the kitchen fan. When he was a boy scout, we had a fundraiser making chocolate silk pies. Each pies contained four eggs. I helped with the project and knew that Greg shouldn't be cracking the eggs, so we had him work to the side forming the pie boxes. After a while, the vapors caused Greg to break out into hives and he had to leave spending the rest of the day taking Benedryl. It was proof enough to me that the vapors alone cause him to be miserable. Luckily, Greg has his grandpa's fondness for oatmeal. He prefers the old-fashioned oatmeal. When you want to have a special breakfast for Greg, he does like pancakes. As mentioned above, currently the Betty Crocker pancake mix does not have eggs. He also can eat Pillsbury pop-n-fresh cinnamon rolls. Read the labels for the off-brands. Some of those contain eggs. Our conference mornings are coffee cake days. My recipe contains eggs ( I would make Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for Greg on those days) but here is one that doesn't contain eggs. You can try it and see how is turns out.

Eggless Coffee Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 peeled, cored grated apple
• Topping:
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter

Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients, add to dry and mix. Pour into 8x8 prepared pan. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle over top. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I was trying to stick to breakfast foods, but let me tell you one of Greg's favorite apple desserts. I have used fresh cut up apples or dehydrated cannery apples with this home-made recipes. It became the favorite of Greg's cross-country team so I made it for all the spaghetti feeds we had at our house.

Spice Cake Apple dessert

Butter pan (either 8x8 or 9x13, depending on how much you want)
Fill pan with peeled and sliced apples.
Sprinkle dry cake mix on top. I use spice cake with the apples. If I made a 9x13 pan, I would use the entire box. Use half a box for 8x8. Melt butter and pour on top. For a full size, I would use an entire cube of butter. Try to distribute butter as evenly as possible. If I felt the apples would be dry, I might add a slight amount of water to the apples before the cake mix (maybe 1/4 cup) and a little bit of lemon juice. Cover with foil.
Bake in 350 degree oven until apples are soft, usually 40-50 minutes.

 This is sweet and is best served with ice cream.