For the love of breakfast (Part 1!)

Since this is my first blog post, let me just get it out there...I'm a breakfast person. A big breakfast person. Making it, eating it, or just the pure sight of it makes me all giddy inside. Back when I was living in Ann Arbor as a grouchy graduate student, breakfast was what motivated me to get up and leave the comfort of my bed to face the day.

Ann Arbor's got a pretty buzzing food scene. Breakfast options ranged from Fleetwood Diner's $6.79 giant platter of eggs, hippie hash and toast to Cafe Zola's $15.95 smoked salmon buckwheat crepe...but for me, half the satisfaction from breakfast comes from getting your hands dirty and actually making it! So here's a little collection of some of the breakfast I made for myself and my friends.

"Puffed" french toast.  (My smoke detector did NOT like this menu!). It's basically french toast with a little more crunch to it from the generous coating of cinnamon sugar. Then I topped it with some mixed berries and a simple cream cheese drizzle I made in the microwave like the lazy girl I am. Oh and yes it's deep fried, I never mentioned this was going to be a healthy blog!

Smoked salmon on toasted rye To be honest I was just trying to use up my leftovers when I made this. I made a simple herbed cream cheese mixture with some fresh dill, spread it on toasted rye, slapped on some smoked salmon, seared asparagus and a poached egg to tie them all together. Hey this one's got asparagus in it, that makes it healthy right? :p

Egg, ham and cheese bread bowl You see, I love eggs, I love cheese, I love bread bowls. So why not throw them all together for a weekend breakfast? For the bread bowl, I rolled some frozen dough together (saved me a whole lot of time), baked it then scooped out the insides leaving enough space for an egg. Then I lined the bowl with some ham, cracked in an egg and topped it with all the mozzarella I could get my hands on and some chopped parsley for color.

Aren't bread bowls just adorable?

Mozzarella, you beauty. 

Andddd time to dig in. (I always save that lid for last. For some reason that will always be the best part of any bread bowl to me!)

And that's part one of my breakfast posts!