Open Streets and a Bran Breakfast Bake

Saturday afternoon I had a major craving for a bran muffin. Not just any bran muffin, but a Breadsmith bran muffin… my absolute favorite! So, I decided to conjure up a recipe for a healthy and lovely bran breakfast bake. Folks, you need to drop what you are doing and immediately throw one of these in the oven and top it with rhubarb-strawberry sauce…

Yesterday, this is how our morning began. Phenomenal!

This was so good that I made another one this morning, but today’s was made with two egg whites instead of whole eggs, flax instead of chia seeds and fresh strawberries instead of raisins. It was even better.

You will notice in the recipe below that I have made several changes to my base breakfast bake recipe, as I would like to show the swaps that can be made in order to use less expensive pantry staples vs. the specialty ingredients that are used in my other breakfast bakes. It’s possible that these substitutions make the breakfast bake even more scrumptious. I bolded the items that I used in my bake this morning.

Bran Breakfast Bake

1/4 cup buckwheat or oat flour
1/4 cup oat bran, wheat bran or oat flour
2 tbsp chia seeds or ground flax
1/4 c buckwheat groats or steel cut oats
1 tbsp sucanat, maple syrup or agave
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon, pumpkin pie seasoning or apple pie seasoning
dash sea salt
1 mashed banana
1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, low-fat yogurt, kefir, non-dairy milk or low-fat organic milk
2 eggs or egg whites
2 tbsp melted organic extra-virgin coconut oil, ghee, organic butter or organic cold-pressed grapeseed oil

Flavor variations

1. 2 tbsp raisins, soaked in water overnight
2. 2 tbsp dates, chopped
3. 1/2 cup sliced strawberries
4. 1/2 cup blueberries
5. 1/4 c shredded zucchini + 1/4 c shredded carrot
6. 1/4 c shredded apple + 1/4 c shredded carrot
7. 1/2 c shredded carrot + 1 tbsp raisins, soaked overnight

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease two oven safe 4-5 inch wide baking dishes.

In a medium sized bowl combine all dry ingredients through sea salt. Mash banana and add it along with the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until combined. Gently stir in fruit or veggies and divide between prepared baking dishes.

After breakfast we got cleaned up and embarked on a LONG bike ride. After biking to the Kingfield farmer’s market, where I purchased plants for my indoor herb garden that is planted, but sitting on my patio. 😉

We decided to take advantage of Open Streets Minneapolis. A one day event where Lyndale Ave, a major Minneapolis through street, was closed for over 20 blocks. There were people biking, walking, skating, etc. through the city.

From their website, the goal of Open Streets is…

By opening up the streets for people to walk, bike, run and skate for a day, we get an opportunity to experience our city in a whole new way.

In the past the street was the hub of the community—it was a place to shop, mingle, gossip, and play. Open Streets gives this back while promoting healthy activity and sustainable transportation. This is a great opportunity for everyone young and old to be active while engaging with neighbors and local businesses.

There were lots of activities planned for families, kids and adults alike including live music, bike decorating and face painting.

There was even an large group of people doing yoga in the middle of the street! I really wanted to join in!

Matthew and I were getting hungry, so we decided to stop by our favorite restaurant, French Meadow.

Matthew had mini apple-zucchini muffins and a banana that I packed for him and I enjoyed an oatmeal vegan scone with raisins. I definitely need to recreate this at home!

Matthew was entranced by this guy.

Here are a few more pics from the event…

After our snack we hopped back on our bikes and headed south on Lyndale Ave to the Midtown Greenway.

The Midtown Greenway is a walking and biking path that follows a set of train tracks across the heart of Minneapolis. This was my first time biking the Greenway. It is beautifully serene.

After biking the Greenway, down the Mississippi River river and along with Minnehaha Creek we arrived home. We munched on a quick lunch of leftover grilled chicken on greens with sweet potatoes and Matthew went down for his afternoon nap. Allan and I sat outside by the bonfire while Allan drew and napped and I read the paper (aka the Target circular, home section, travel section and clipped coupons) and my latest Oxygen Magazine.

Then disaster hit, while I was carrying my Lifefactory water bottle, the top unscrewed itself and the bottle shattered all over the patio! This cap issue is actually a recurring problem with all of my Lifefactory bottles and I would NOT recommend purchasing them.

Also, getting that silicone sleve off of the broken glass bottle was extremely dangerous!

So, I am going back to my Thinksport bottles.

Last night we went to my inlaws house for supper and Matthew’s first haircut.

My inlaws just got back from Sioux Falls and had an empty fridge, other than a few beautiful steaks from the cow that they purchased with friends. So I brought greens topped with dried cherries, pepitas and avocado, coconut cornbread and POMinty Watermelon sorbet. Stay tuned for this delightful recipe.