Sweet Rice

About a year and a half ago, my daughter wasn't feeling well and a friend suggested arroz con leche for her. That led to this:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/arroz-con-leche.html?m=1

I recall she didn't care for it, but today, while about to make myself cream of wheat, I saw the five pound bag of rice and thought... Hmmmm...

So in a saucepan, heat until a nice melted, smooth sauce:
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup Very Vanilla soy milk
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
- 5 fresh strawberries, diced
- 3-4 tablespoons raisins

Add to steamer with one cup rice. Steam 40 minutes to an hour.

Sherbet shake

Mix:

- rainbow sherbet
- vanilla bean ice cream
- very vanilla soy milk

Refreshing!

Daddy's Oatmeal

My husband made delectable oatmeal this morning. He used:

- old fashioned oats
- vanilla soy milk
- cinnamon
- brown sugar
- finely chopped dried pears
- golden raisins
- finely chopped banana

Creamsicle Smoothie II

This is what I had for dinner last night. It's a variation of Nava Atlas' recipe from the 5 Ingedient Vegetarian Gourmet:

In the blender
- 1 packet vanilla carnation instant breakfast
- 3 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate
- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1/4 cup seltzer
- 3/4 cup very vanilla soymilk

Pineapple Smoothie

The flavor on this one is incredible, but the mouth feel odd. I didn't want to blend the pudding to a liquid, so as a consequence, the tapioca provides chunks and the fresh pineapple provides strands.

In the blender:
- about 1/2 cup fresh pineapple
- 1/2 cup very vanilla soy milk
- 1 cup tapioca pudding

Easter Chocolate Smoothie

This is what happens when you finally crack and say "I don't care if I can chew I have to have some of my mother-in-law's Easter chocolate."

In the blender:
- 6 peanut butter eggs (small ones, I would say three if they're Reese's)
- 1 HUGE heaping tablespoon peanut butter
- 1 cup very vanilla silk soy milk
- 1.5 cups coffee
- 1 vanilla carnation instant breakfast
- 1 tablespoon caramel

Blueberry Crumb Bread Pudding

My daughter seems to have the plague we've all been harboring, so I gave her some trail mix with extra cashews and dark chocolate powder-coated almonds to tide her until I got something hot and comforting whipped up.

This is what I thought I'd make, the apple crisp bread pudding, but with blueberries as we have a big bag of frozen blueberries from the warehouse club. Here is the original recipe:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/apple-crisp-bread-pudding.html

But, as one should anticipate, I have a tendency not to read the entire recipe before cooking... I ended up improvising more than I thought and what should have been a nice 11 x 13 pan of pudding ended up filling a cake pan.

So, here goes:

In a large skillet, combine

• 3 cups blueberries
• 1/4 cup blue curacao
• 3 tablespoons butter

Let come to slow boil and reduce heat.

Now, I used a good 14 cups of bread chunks, because I started with a two-day old baguette from Wegmans, ran out, and used the remaining breadchunks I had in the freezer... the same ones I used for my homemade stuffing.

I buttered the bottom of my cake pan and sprinkled with about 1 tablespoon sugar. Then I added the bread hunks from the baguette. I poured most the blueberry mixture over this and spread it around as best I could.

Then I added the frozen bread to cover it and sprinkled about 1 cup of frozen blueberries on top.

Now, the custard:

My custard was...

• 7 eggs (it was what I had)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup 2 percent milk
• almost 2 cups vanilla soy milk

Whisk until a nice even texture. Pour onto bread, pressing down with a spoon to make sure the bread absorbs the liquid.

Now, the oven should be preheated to 350 degrees. I layered a thin layer of brown sugar on top and then added about a cup of my mother-in-law's pie crumbs on the very top. She always makes extra when she makes a pie and usually throws them away, but I freeze them.

Bake for 40 minutes or until set.

I hope it works...

We had the first serving after 40 minutes in the oven and it was incredible! I put it back it for another 15 minutes because it didn't seem quite set enough...

More of an update:
Now what? I have made a ridiculous amount of bread pudding. This is where 'cheap' comes in. We each had about 1.5 cups for breakfast. It accounted for about 1/6 of this pan. I scooped an equal amount into a Tupperware container for tomorrow's breakfast.

There are several approaches for the rest...

1. Eat until we are disgustingly full. (Wouldn't be cheap or healthy.)
   
2. Share. (No one really to share with)
3. Store.

I opted to freeze. Bread pudding is already mushy, so it shouldn't affect the texture too negatively to freeze it. And I placed approximately three servings in each one quart freezer bag. So each bag will serve my whole family for breakfast. I ended up with four bags, which I will place inside a large freezer bag once the little ones cool. I have them in my unheated mud room so it shouldn't take long.

Now, a dessert that required a lot of eggs, bread and blueberries will serve a family of three for six comfort food breakfasts. Serve with a side of vegetarian sausage and I think that's a great start for a winter day.