Bacon and Egg Breakfast Cups

My brothers and I attended a school that was a 30 to 45-minute drive away. But because we rode the school bus which had to pick up several other students, we had to be ready to go by 5:30 am. That meant our mom, who also had to go to work, had to be up as early as 4am to make breakfast, our baon and also to get ready for work. On many days we simply took our breakfast with us and ate on the ride to school.

I look back on those days as, coincidentally, the new schoolyear starts today for most students in the country. Portable breakfasts like this are important for schoolers and workers on the go. However, it's also a great brunch served with a salad, as a savory snack or as an appetizer.

BACON AND EGG BREAKFAST CUPS

What's In It?

6 Bread slices, ends removed
1/4 cup melted butter
6 bacon slices
6 eggs
Italian seasoning
1/8 cup cooking oil

*Other things you'd need:
6 large aluminum or glass muffin cups
Round cookie cutters
Oven/oven toaster

Kitchen Conjugations:

Preheat oven to 150-200C. Prep muffin cups, brushing the sides with cooking oil.

Dip the bread slices into the melted butter to soften them. Cut into circles so that they fit the bottom of the muffin cups. Line the muffin cups with the round bread slices.

Line the sides with bacon. Crack one egg into the space in the middle and sprinkle a little Italian seasoning.

Bake in the oven for about 5 minutes or until the eggs are cooked and set.

Bon Apetit! :)

Saucy Breakfast Hotdogs

My mom was the Queen of Up-cycling and Re-purposing.  She had mastered the art of 'disguising' and 're-presenting' leftovers so that they are still welcomed at the dining table and eaten with gusto (or unknowingly, hahaha!) such that no food is wasted nor thrown away.  

Saucy Breakfast Hotdogs is one such upcycled dish.  Its recent outing in our home was in the morning after my little boy's birthday party, because we had leftover cocktail hotdogs and I had a considerable stash of repacked tomato catsup, leftover from take-outs and food deliveries. (That's another habit I got from my mom-- stashing repacked condiments for later, specifically for baon or picnics or anywhere bringing condiments in bottles is impractical.)

Apart from taking away the monotony of fried food, the sauce in this dish acts as an extender, allowing the dish to feed more people, making it a good choice for budget-conscious moms!

SAUCY BREAKFAST HOTDOGS

What's In It?

15-20 pieces cooked cocktail hotdogs or 5-6 pieces cooked regular hotdogs, sliced into 3s
5-6 sachets tomato catsup (or 5-6 tablespoons tomato catsup)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup water
pepper and salt to taste

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil over medium heat in a wok or deep pan. Saute garlic and onion for one and a half minutes or until the onion slices become soft and translucent.  Add in the hotdogs and stir fry for a minute.  Pour in the water and the catsup, stir to combine.  Let boil then lower heat to allow the mixture to simmer for one minute.  Check and adjust seasonings.

Serve hot with steamed rice.  Enjoy!

Note:  Boiled eggs, peeled then halved or quartered, may be used instead of hotdogs.

Banana Pancakes

I planned on making Banana Cake this weekend, having found Señoritas at the Carmona Public Market, but somebody ate the bananas and left me only three pieces! So I made what was left of the Señoritas into pancakes instead, to the delight of the kids in the house. :)

When I was a little girl I used to help my mom make pancakes for merienda every Saturday afternoon. Back then maple syrup was beyond our budget range and wasn't as available as it is now, so we used to top our pancakes with sugar and evaporated milk. I did the same for my pancakes today and boy, did I love it still! (Million times better than syrup!) My boys and my nieces tried their second helping of the pancakes with milk and sugar and became instant converts. :)

Here I made the batter from scratch (because I have ingredients for cake), but you can always use store-bought mixes and stir in mashed bananas. Of course, you can substitute the bananas with blueberry or strawberries, whatever have you. :) And you can always have it plain. :)

Banana Pancakes

What's in it?

• 1-1/4 cups sifted flour
• 2 T sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 T melted shortening or oil
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 T vanilla essence
• three fingers Señorita bananas, peeled and mashed to a pulp

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a medium-sized bowl, beat egg, and add in milk and oil. Stir in flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Beat until the dry ingredients have dissolves.

Stir in mashed bananas, oil and vanilla. Beat until the batter is free of lumps.

Heat a non-stick pan and pour about 1/4 cup of the batter. Flip-over when bubbles start appearing on the surface.

Top with butter, sprinkle with a little washed sugar and drizzle with evaporated milk. Top with banana slices if desired. Makes 8-10 medium pancakes.

Enjoy!

Pan de Sal Pandemonium

She adores the smell of freshly baked bread. He likes biting into the warm dough, savoring the crusty softness of each bun.

It's been their daily indulgence for weeks now, starting their mornings with Pan de Manila pan de sal and a cup of freshly-made coffee which they share between the two of them.

Sometimes she spreads butter; sometimes he chooses cheese. Sometimes he plops spanish sardines on open sandwiches. Some days it's liver spread for her; some days it's peanut butter when she craves for something sweet. Most days though they tear the pan de sal with their fingers, and take turns dunking the halves in their shared cup of coffee.

Days aren't the same when they start without this ritual, like when he failed to buy their daily ration on his way home one night, and they awoke to a pandesal-less morning. Gingerly they sipped their coffee, trying to compensate with almost every item in their bread basket. Ube Piaya, Red Ribbon Banana Crunch, mongo ensaimada and corner-bakery-pandesal bites later, they found themselves still longing for the aroma and the texture that's uniquely in their favorite Pan de Manila.

And so it has been that, when their supply is spent, they hie off to the nearest Pan de Manila outlet and replenish to ensure they have a ready stash for breakfast the next day. Oh, they laugh about this craziness between themselves, but he drives and she comes with him anyway, whether it's after dinner or the early hours of the morning (sometimes, still in their pajamas!), to the Pan de Manila outlet they fancy. The staff at the Zapote Road, South Expressway and Guadalupe must know them by now, this Bonnie and Clyde of pan de sal.