Sunday Morning Brunch

I swear we eat more than eggs these days.  It does seem that way given I just posted about Eggs with Soyrizo and now I'm writing about Sunday brunch.  Plus, we had quiche at our friend, Andrea's, house for brunch Saturday too.  Guess we really don't eat much more than eggs afterall.

Hmmm not really sure what this post is about, Saturday or Sunday truthfully...As you see in the picture above there are two tickets from the Ben Harper show Saturday night.  He's so awesome and we also got to spend quality catch-up time with our good friends.  Most importantly my bff Carolyn!  Great time!!

Adventures with Soyrizo

Well over a decade ago I met David.  Great guy and happily part of the family since marrying my cousin, Rachel.  I'll never forget the time the cousins were all hanging out together and David gets on a roll talking about vegetarian alternatives to things normally meat like hot dogs, bacon, and chicken nuggets.  I had never heard of such things as "Tofu Pups" and "Not dogs"!  He had me in tears.

No Bake Monkey Balls! (Guest Blogger)

Today's post is brought to us by none other than Ms. Evonne Noble!  There are two stories here: 1) what are Monkey Balls and 2) who's Ms. Noble?


The building next to where I work has a popular to-go lunch spot called Juicy (formerly called Juice It but that's another story).  They have rice bowls, salads, sandwiches, soups, smoothies, and Monkey Balls.  Monkey balls look like the picture above and are made of oatmeal, bananas, pb, and dried fruit etc.  Ms. Noble does not call them Monkey Balls, she prefers Oatmeal Balls or Balls of Goodness :) Insert token balls joke here...

Evonne Noble and I have had several chapters together.  First, we taught high school math together for only one LONG year.  During which we helped each other find careers outside of teaching.  She went on to become an actuary.  In our latest chapter together we work together again!  She's with a different team but we're on the same floor and can and do make frequent coffee runs together.   It is so fun to work together again!  


The two stories came together when I was gabbing with a new hire in the company kitchen one day.  She was talking about Monkey Balls and said now that she has a recipe she won't have to buy they at JuiceIt (just can't call it Juicy).  They sell them for $2 a ball!  I asked for the recipe and she said she would email it but didn't know my name.  When I told her she said, "Oh you're Lisa CurlyHair!  The recipe is from Evonne! Don't you know her?"  The rest is now published history.


Monkey Balls are like but even better than Clif Bars.  They keep in the fridge for the week and are super filling. The oatmeal "Cooks" overnight in the fridge.  TRY THEM and you will fall in love!

Basically you can mix/match with whatever you like or have on hand.  I play around by changing the amount of sweetener or proportions of ingredients.


The overall steps are to mix the wet ingredients with the protein power, mix the dry ingredients separately, then mix all together very thoroughly and make into balls.  Finish by wrapping in saran wrap to keep moisture and flavor; freeze/refrigerate to set.

Wet Mixtures - Mix approx. equal parts glue, sweetener and protein powder
-Glues: Peanut Butter, almond butter, cashew butter, any butter!, or try a banana (or combine those!) - FOR MONKEY BALLS USE AT LEAST 1-2 BANANAS which will both provide some sweetener and some of the glue

-Sweetener - honey, agave, rice syrup, maple syrup, etc.  I try to do less sweetener so I prefer more like 1 cup almond butter to 1/3 or 1/2 cup agave to 1 cup protein powder.  You can always make it with less and then add more to the final product before you form the balls.

-Protein power  - use any flavor you like but vanilla or plain go well as a base unless you want a more chocolate feel, then go chocolate. I have never tried chocolate.

Dry ideas - I think having more oats or oat-like flakes as a base works best for consistency, but you can up the nuts and other ingredients to a texture/flavor that you like.  If you want you can put the dry stuff in the blender for a smoother, more dough-like ball, but I like the full oat/flake look and feel without extra blending/chopping.

-oatmeal
-other rolled grain flakes: spelt, emmer, barley, rye, kamut, etc
-rice cereals (like kashi or rice crispies)
-crushed nuts: peanuts, almonds, macadamia, pecan, walnut etc
-seeds: sunflower, sesame, pumpkin
-coconut
-chocolate chips, other treat chips (butterscotch, etc)
-dried fruits: raisin, cranberries, chopped dates, chopped figs, etc
-wheat germ
-flax seed (use ground, whole seed you body does not digest and get the nutrients!)
-spices:  cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, you name it!

You can test out to see how wet/dry you like your balls (ha!) but around a ratio of 1:2 for wet to dry ingredients is what I like. So, for the above example of 1 cup almond butter, 1/3 cup agave and 1 cup protein powder, I'd put in about 2-3 cups of dry ingredients like oatmeal, spelt flakes, wheat germ, flax seeds, sunflower seeds and coconut.

FYI - if you heat the butter to soften it and make it easier to mix, WAIT and add chocolate chips or other meltables until later (maybe even chill the mix first). I made the mistake of adding chocolate and the bars were slightly warm and then instead of nice chips I had chocolate goo.  Still tasty but not my desired outcome

I have also made baked energy bars - below are a few recipes I tried:
Power Bars –  http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/video-big-sur-power-bars-recipe.html

Peanut Bars (replace with almonds or other nuts?) http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001402.html

Oatmeal Breakfast Cookie

Did you ever see Seinfeld do standup?  He always talked about Cookie Crisp cereal. "What is the deal with Cookie Crisp? I mean, really, it's cookies for breakfast!"  The SNL spoof would say, "Who are the ad geniuses that came up with this one?"

In our continued quest to eat better C and I have been eating oatmeal for breakfast more and more.  Let's just say, no matter what we add neither one of us is a fan of the gloppiness of oatmeal.  It is hard to eat regularly.

One morning C said to me, "I wish we could just have oatmeal like in a cookie or something."  Bingo!  I looked up a couple recipes and made a batch that very day!  It was an awesome idea and they came out fabulous.  To be on the safe side I made another batch with success.  Make them Sunday night and they last the week.

I'm betting these are dynamite (and even easier) made as breakfast bars.  If you try it lemme know what you think.  How about that Seinfeld?  You can have cookies for breakfast!

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
based on WiseBread Recipe

2 mashed ripe bananas (as evident in picture of ingredients)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp honey
2 globs of peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups uncooked oatmeal
1/2 cup raisins

handful of chocolate chips (I happen to have dark choc chunks - YUMMY)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In large bowl mash bananas then add applesauce through cinnamon and stir well.  Add oatmeal and combine.  Once fully mixed add raisins and choc chips. Let sit 5 minutes.

I gotta say the chocolate is BOSS in this recipe.  You only get a little choc here and there but it'll make your morning, I promise!

Ok plop cookie dough onto pammed cookie sheet.  I used the back of a spoon dipped in water to flatten the cookies.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Yowser they are tasty.

Bacon, Onion, and Potato Frittata

Is it me or is this going to be a festive December?  Is it the economy is on the upswing or are we unable to have a lame Christmas season twice (or is it thrice) in a row?  In any case, I'm loving it!  I did some Black Friday shopping with my sis and the mall was jam packed with crazies.  Oh yeah, I was one of them!

We just got back from my sister's tree trimming dinner.  She has had it for at least three years now the day or two after Thanksgiving.  All I can say is I much prefer decorating her tree than taking it down.  She has more ornaments than Macys!

[Ok I know what you are thinking... "Didn't she just blog about something on a menu not being Kosher?  What's up with this chick?"  Well, my dad remarried a schicksa and one year when we were little either my sister or me or both of us begged our dad for a tree.  hmmm maybe it had nothing to do with J-Mo (the schicksa).  Fast forward 30 years and we still have trees and menorahs in December.  I like to think of the tree as a pagan thing anyway so I'm ok with it.]

Last night we had an appetizer that was totally a frittata but called something else.  It had chorizo in it and was pretty tasty.  On the way home I remembered we have bacon in the freezer and decided to make a frittata for breakfast!

YUM  Frittatas have to be the easiest things in the world to make.  I used a 10" oven safe fry pan and whatever you do PLEASE remember the handle is hotter than hades when you take it out and set it on the stove.  I usually leave a pot holder on the handle.  C took it out of the over so when I went to cut it I got a rude reminder.

This could easily be made veggie.  In fact, I've made it before with zuchhini, onion, mushrooms and gruyere.

Bacon, Onion, and Potato Frittata 

3-4 slices of bacon chopped into 1/2 int pieces (it is easier if the bacon is frozen)
1/3 medium onion diced
3 small fingerling potatoes diced (I think organic makes a difference but maybe it is a mind game)
6 eggs
2 tbsp milk
salt/pepper
Parmesan cheese grated (to taste - half our frittata was cheese-less)

Preheat Oven to 350.  In 10" skillet fry up bacon over medium heat.  In medium bowl scramble eggs, whisk in milk and salt and pepper. When bacon is done to your liking remove to a plate with paper towel.  Drain off most of bacon grease then add onion and potato to pan with a little salt and pepper.  After 2 minutes add about 3-4 tbsps water and cover to let potato steam about 3 minutes.  Potato should be mostly cooked and water should be mostly cooked off.  If there's a little still in the pan drain the mixture on plate with paper towel.

Put bacon, onion, and potato mixture all in the pan still on medium heat.  Add egg mixture and let cook about a minute on the stove.  Sprinkle cheese on top, if using.  Place pan in oven and cook 15 minutes.  We both like it set completely in the center and 15 minutes was enough time.  We kept it in a little longer to brown but I think broiling it for a minute would have been a better option.  mmmm I'm hungry!