Early morning rise

This morning I woke up at 4.30am when my son called out from his room. I was daft and checked the time before I went in, which meant as soon as I got back to bed, I knew it was almost time to get up and my head didn't let me go back to sleep. I started thinking about all the meetings I have on today, then about some of the projects I have at work, then about what we're doing for Mother's Day, then I checked Facebook and Instagram (surprisingly not many updates from last night). Then I started asking myself if I should just get up and if I did get up, what I could do... This all feels less crazy when I'm lying there in these moments than it does writing it out now. Anyway, I remembered a recipe I found the other week for a sticky bun. It takes about 20 minutes prep time, an hour to rise and then about 30 minutes to bake. I didn't have the time last week, however being awake so early this morning and knowing I'm leaving for work a bit later today, I thought "why not get up now and make that bun!". So, I did. And here it is in it's gooey, warm, goodness! YUM. Hope your breakfast was as delicious ;-).

Muffins in exchange for cuddles

I belive it's important to bring something to share when going visiting. It might not be shared while you're over, but the gesture is there and it makes you feel like a good guest. When I don't have time to bake, I always stop by a bakery. More often than not though, I'm disappointed with what I buy. The taste is either boring or it isn't fresh enough. So, I generally try to make something myself, which gives me the feeling that my gift is more genuine. 

Today I am meeting my Manager's baby for the first time. We through her a Baby Shower recently and I got to bake super sweet and decadent treats. However, now I need to take breatfeeding and windy babies into consideration and I've scaled my baking back. Today I've made her White Chocolate and Coconut Muffins. Coming into Autumn with the air cool and crisp, the lovely warmness of these fresh muffins with a light sweetness to them is not just comforting, but feels perfect for a first baby meeting.  

Sunday morning in the kitchen

I generally do my grocery shopping on the weekend (possibly the best opening line for a blog post  FYI - who wouldn't want to continue reading when I've opened with such a cracking sentence?). Because of this, I have usually ran out of bread and anything exciting for breakfast by Saturday (awesome - following sentence was just as strong, let's just get through this and see where it goes). 

So when my 3 year old yells out to me at 5am saying he's hungry, I picture the contents of my fridge and realise, I either have to get up and make something or let him starve. And let me say, the starving would never happen as he would constantly be in my room whinging "Mummy, I'm hungry", "Mummy, my tummy is crumbling" (yep, yesterday he said crumbling instead of rumbling, cute. He also saw a tweety bird balloon and said "Mummy, who is that chicken guy", made me laugh! - but I disgress). On these mornings, I get myself into some kind of semi-conscience state and make something easy but suitably tasty. 

Below are some recipes for just these kind of mornings. Please feel free to suggest others, as I am running low on brain energy before 6am (and coffee)...

Sweet treat for breakfast

I've always been told that the most important meal for the day is breakfast, something to give you a good kick-start in the morning and get your body working. When I was a teenager and really conscience about my weight, I used to try and skip breakfast, but my Dad cottoned onto this pretty quick so would pretend to read the paper while I ate breakfast, but really he was watching me eat and making sure I was being healthy (couldn't get one past him).

Now I'm an adult, I'm still pretty irresponsible when it comes to breakfast. It's not a weight thing anymore, I just prefer to have a coffee in the morning, which generally gets me through to lunch time. Although, I do LOVE going out for breakfast - I'm a complicated person :-).

Anyway, last week I saw this amazing looking breakfast bake via Pinterest and I really wanted to make it for the girls (and the few boys) in my office. I bought all the ingredients over the weekend but until this morning, when my toddler dragged me out of bed at 5.25am with the line "Mummy, I need to do wee wee", I didn't really have the time to make it. So, with my early rise this morning, here is a mid-week sweet breakfast for my hard working teammates! Enjoy.

Saturday morning banana pancakes

I have seen people eat pancakes in so many ways and with so many flavour combinations. I remember when I was in Canada visiting my friend, her boyfriend at the time covered his pancakes with a thick layer of icing sugar and then drenched it with maple syrup. My teeth hurt just watching him. And years ago there was this great place in West End (Brisbane) which served "Canadian" pancakes, which were large, fluffy pancakes with crispy bacon, caramelized bananas and maple syrup. They were so hard to resists.

In my ripe old age of 27 though, I've grown out of having sweets for breakfast. I crave savoury (or just coffee most mornings). My toddler however loves anything sweet at any time. This morning I thought I'd surprise him with some banana pancakes. They had a lovely banana flavour and were light and golden. I suggest you pop on the kettle and whip yourself up a batch tomorrow morning!