Guide to Basic Curry

As someone who grew up in rural Nebraska, it will probably come as no surprise that I didn't have curry until college. The first curry i had came from a diner in Hillsdale (where I went to college), that happened to have a Thai owner. From that moment I was hooked. To this day, that very specific spicy smell makes me drool every time. A big pile of curry over noodles or rice can be a great comfort food, and the spicy kind can help clear a stuffy nose. I wanted to share this delicious food with my family back in Nebraska, but that proved to be difficult when there are no curry restaurants for at least 40 miles.

So, my mom and I improvised. We found an instant curry that would at least give an idea of the experience. She loved it. As do most of the people I've introduced to curry over the years. Many people have the misconception that curry is inherently spicy, and it is. But not spicy in the "burn your mouth" kind of way, spicy in the "one way ticket to FLAVORTOWN" kind of way. It just tastes good, and there's nothing else quite like it. Even those who don't tend to have exotic taste can be won over by the right curry, it just tastes good.

And while the flavor is very specific, no two curries are alike. Every restaurant, family, etc. has its own recipe. It's like how no two homemade salsas are the same. There are different basic types, but the nuances are really up to the chef. So, I am going to endeavor to construct a guide to anyone wanting to try curry in an area where it's hard to find or looking to satisfy that curry craving on a budget. Because it's so highly variable, curry is easy to alter to any taste preference or allergy, so anyone can make it the way they like it. I'm going to set this post up to showcase some options that I've had and enjoyed, so you can mix and match whatever sounds good to you and make your own curry. Remember, this is a very basic guide, so I'm sticking to the most common kinds of curry that I've seen and are fairly easy to make. This guide will also be for primarily Thai-style curry, I may make another guide when I have a better handle on Indian spice profiles. So, let's begin:

Choose your protein:

Beef

Chicken

Lamb

Shrimp

Pork

Tofu

Choose your color:

Yellow

Red

Green (This one is best with shrimp in my opinion)

Yes, curry comes in colors! Each color has it's own flavor profile that goes well with different vegetables and meats. The curry powder you find in the spice section is the base for yellow curry, the other two are based on curry paste. I found both red and green curry paste at Target, so I know that it can be found, just check out the Asian foods section of a well-stocked grocery store.

Choose your vegetables:

Potatoes

Carrots

Onions

Peppers

tomatoes

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Mushrooms

Snow Peas

Spices and flavors:

Lime juice

Bay leaf

Cilantro (if you're into the stuff, to me it tastes like soap)

Garlic

Basil

Cumin

Tumeric

Coriander

Paprika

Cayenne pepper

Cardamom

Cinnamon

Ginger

Red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

Chili sauce (Sriracha is my favorite)

Soy sauce

Fish sauce

Choose your vehicle:

Jasmine Rice

Basmati rice

Brown Rice

Rice noodles

Quinoa

Cauliflower rice

Spaghetti Squash

And finally, one basic ingredient common to most Thai curry sauces:

1 can coconut milk

or an equivalent amount of dairy milk

Instructions:

1. Get your meat and vegetables chopped up and ready to go. If making rice, get the rice started (I hate it when I forget to do this, so i'm reminding you).

2. Heat your oil of choice in a large skillet, wok, or pot. Saute a few cloves of minced garlic (as much or as little as you like, I use around 4) and onion in the oil for 1-2 minutes. 

3. Add in meat, (if uncooked) potatoes, carrots, and your sauce base (either paste or powder, put in about 2 T) and saute until meat is cooked through. Add other vegetables (and meat if already cooked) and saute for about a minute.

4. Whisk 1 T cornstarch into some of the coconut milk, then add all of it to the pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes.

5. Okay, while it's simmering, now is your time to make this recipe your own. Take any of those spices mentioned above and attack the pan. Taste the sauce, think about what it needs and add that. For a little bite, add lime juice. For more smoky flavor, add paprika or cayenne. To make it more interesting, add cumin, cinnamon, or tumeric. Toss in a couple of bay leaves. To kick up the savory goodness factor, add soy sauce or fish sauce (it's not just for fish, it's a great flavor for anything). Adjust the heat level to your preference (which for me means dumping in a bunch of garlic chili sauce).

6. When your flavor balance is perfect and the sauce has finished simmering, check the consistency to make sure it's good. If it needs to be thinned, use more coconut milk or stock or water. Dish it up over your vehicle of choice and enjoy!

I know this recipe is kind of vague, but it's meant to be versatile. This is all about trying and tweaking your perfect curry recipe to be exactly the way you like it. It can be as simple as meat, sauce base, and milk, or as complicated as literally throwing everything on this list in one dish. It's great for using up leftover meats or vegetables you have laying around. I hope you have as much fun creating your own curry as I did!

Sweet Mad Science

In my cooking adventures, I have come to a realization. I have a thing for weird flavor combinations. I can't just have one flavor in something, it has to be some interesting combination to make it memorable and delicious. Sweet, savory, sour, spicy, bitter, rich, light, I love them all and I want my flavors to be friends. The second I taste a new flavor I'm instantly looking for what it goes with and where I can use it.

People tend to think that science and art are somehow in opposition, but I beg to differ. I am very passionate about science, but my second love has always been artsy things. Theater, music and dancing were all things I enjoyed along with my love of zoology, botany, and ecology. Depending on what context a person saw me in, I've had equal numbers of people say "you must be left-brained" and "you must be right-brained" (which further shows that the idea of left-brained and right-brained is a myth). When I cook, I use an approach that is both scientific and artistic.

I use the science to create the art. Combinations of ingredients can make different experiences, and altering that combination can drastically change the outcome, like an experiment. There is a science to flavor combinations and why we like what we do. Sweet and salty, rich and bitter, sweet and savory, the right combination should be greater than the sum of its parts. It's a very delicate science to find that magic combination that creates the desired flavor experience. But there is also a large element of artistry. The ability to think outside the box of what "should" work opens the door to some of the most memorable combinations. After all, someone had to be the first to make it work. Did the first person to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich know what they were starting? Probably not. I'm not trying to be the next peanut butter and jelly here, but I am constantly trying to find a combination that works in a way that most people wouldn't anticipate. It's my own mad science experiment.

Frequently, my strange combinations are fueled by my having something left from another recipe. This one is no exception. Last week, I made two kinds of fancy popcorn for a movie night with my friends. Popcorn is a great vehicle for both sweet and savory flavors, so I did one of each. The sweet was a white chocolate lemon popcorn that tasted like a lemon bar. However, the recipe made way more lemon glaze than the popcorn actually needed. Using it all would have been way too sweet. So I had lemon glaze. The savory popcorn was a rosemary, garlic, and Parmesan popcorn. Also delicious. But I still had some fresh rosemary left, and it's a sin to waste such a useful ingredient, especialy since herbs can be expensive. So, I sought to combine my lemon glaze and fresh rosemary in a delicious way. Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to find a rosemary shortbread recipe in no time and baked a batch of them. Shortbread was not something I made growing up, but the process is an easy one. Now, if I had just made the cookies, they wouldn't have had a blog post, because they're not that interesting. Not very sweet, nice texture, good herbal flavor, but, in my opinion, bland. They need something. That's where the lemon glaze comes in. A drizzle of that intense, sweet-sour glaze and the flavors were bound together in holy matrimony. The smell was divine, and the taste was worthy of a fancy tea party. This was something greater than the sum of its parts.

Such dainty little morsels. Serve with tea and a butler for extra fancy.

And now, on to my recipe. Here's my base cookie:

http://www.kitchme.com/recipes/rosemary-shortbread-cookies

I pretty much followed the recipe for this one. For the lemon glaze I started from the recipe, but then  I did whatever I want, so it's basically my own. Here it is:

Ingredients:
-1 T melted butter
-splash of milk
-few drops of lemon juice (more if you want a more tart glaze)
-1/4 t lemon flavoring (yes, you need both, it doesn't taste right otherwise)
-powdered sugar until the texture is correct for drizzling
-few drops of yellow food coloring if you want the bright yellow color

Mix all other ingredients, then add powdered sugar slowly until the desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over cookies.

You don't have to be a scientist to experiment, and you don't have to be an artist to create something beautiful. Just don't be afraid to try something new and maybee you'll end up with your own mad science sweets.

Sharing

Looking at all of my lovely recipes on this blog, I have noticed that the majority of them are desserts. Reading this, you may wonder "Kim, how do you eat all of those amazing desserts and stay skinny?" Well, there's a lot of reasons. I work out every day, genetics have smiled upon me, and I do eat a fairly healthy diet. But that stuff is food for my body, this blog is about what I cook to feed my soul. Plus, no one wants to read about dipping carrots in hummus, that's boring. But I do have one other secret, and it's one you may have learned in preschool: Sharing. Yup, when I cook something that should definitely NOT stay in the same room as me, I share it. My friends get to try more of my cooking, and this way I'm not eating an entire cake like the pig I know I secretly am. I enjoy the experience of cooking, so I will always want to cook even if I don't plan on eating very much of it. Sharing is a win all around.

So, of course when I have an event where there will be multiple people and food, of course I bring my cooking to share. I have literally hundreds of recipes to choose from (ah, to be alive in the age of the internet), and the more I get to try, the better. One of my good buddies from college came to visit this wee, and we decided to have a game night on Saturday. We all brought various food items and games, and had a great time. I, of course, had to be extra and bring both a sweet dish and a savory one. Both dishes received rave reviews from the elite tasting critics, aka my friends. So, you get two recipes in this post, how 'bout that?

First up is the cheese dip. I forgot to take a picture before digging in (the smell that had the entire room drooling might have had something to do with it), but it came out looking pretty much like the pictures from the original blog post. This dip is addictive, cheesy goodness. I recommend serving it with pita chips for optimum scooping and flavor. Here's the original recipe:

Garlic Herb Tomato Goat Cheese Dip

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I misjudged the amount of goat cheese called for, so I only had half of the amount, and I added extra ricotta to make up for it
-More garlic. I used at least 3 cloves and sprinkled in some garlic salt.
-I forgot to get fresh basil (I was really on top of things this week, wasn't I?), so I used dried
-I added a bunch of thyme and some rosemary
-The tomatoes are supposed to go in whole, but that seemed kinda dumb to me, so I quartered them to make them easier to scoop onto the crackers.

Okay, now for the sweet dish, my piece de resistance. Matcha truffles. Everyone had the same reaction biting into these little beauties: a slight pause as the white chocolate and green tea flavors blend, and then a loud sigh of "mmmmmm." These taste like ice cream. Green tea ice cream is a popular flavor in Japan, and these truffles show why. They're sweet, creamy, smooth, and basically little balls of heaven. I'm awful at math, but here's some math for you. I brought 36 truffles to a gathering with six people including myself. I only ate two truffles as I wanted to sample everyone else's food and make sure everyone got some truffles. There were no truffles left over at the end of the night. Now, I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure that equals some darn tasty truffles. These are also very easy to make, so I'll probably be using this basic recipe to make different variations. Speaking of which, here's my recipe:

Matcha Truffles

One thing I love about matcha is the pretty bright green color it gives to everything. Very festive.

Sprinkles of Kim:
-This recipe is made or broken by your chocolate, so choose wisely. I used CandiQuick because I know I love the way it tastes and it's readily available. The brand and quality of chocolate you use will dictate whether your truffles are more ice cream-like in flavor or more chocolatey.
-I put in about half a teaspoon more matcha powder than the recipe called for because I really wanted the flavor to come through
-I dusted them in just powdered sugar rather than use more matcha because most of it falls off anyway, so it felt like a waste to use more of my very limited supply
-This recipe will come out differently based on the temperature and humidity the day you make them. It was very hot and humid, so the truffles were a little hard to roll because they got soft and sticky. I was able to remedy this by putting them in the fridge periodically while I was working.

Sharing is caring, so remember to share what you make with those you love.

How I Make a Good Impression

As many of you probably have found out through one means or another, I recently started dating someone. I tried to inform people rather than let them find out through Facebook or this blog post, but honestly, I can't remember who I have and haven't said things to most of the time anyway, so if you feel betrayed by my not telling you sooner, I'm sorry, I just know too many people in too many places to keep track of telling everyone. Extrovert problems.

Jay and I met at a convention, go figure. Hey, conventions are a big part of my life, it was bound to happen. As we went on a few dates, we fell in nerd love in it's been going on for about a month. Picture to prove he exists:

He took me to a Hatsune Miku concert. I'm keeping this one. <3

So, one of out early dates was over Father's Day weekend. He had some plans with his family and invited me along. For those of you who think that's really soon to meet the family, allow me to remind you of something. I'm from an area where everyone knows everyone, so meeting the family is not as big a deal for me as for a lot of people. I agreed as I had no other plans for that day and I honestly was okay meeting his family. I knew I would bring food because that is what I do. I make people like me by bringing food. If you are the friend who brings food, you will be invited back. I decided to make bred because bread is impressive and can secretly be very easy to make.

I didn't have time to let things rise that morning, so I went with a quick bread. Quick breads are awesome. Just mix it up and bake it and pretend to be a total domestic goddess (or god as the case may be). I chose this particular recipe because I had all of the ingredients and it seemed like a good one to keep around for future bread-worthy occasions (like all the time).

Needless to say, Jay's family liked me (because really who wouldn't, have you met me?) and they liked my bread. I was welcomed back on the 4th of July and they haven't tried to break the two of us up yet. Anyway, on to the bread itself!

This is a dense, crumbly bread, to be expected from an oat-based bread, but it's still very tender and has the sweetness from the yogurt and honey. And look at that, the ingredients are actually pretty wholesome, so you can justify a second slice...and a third. This bread pairs especially well with breakfast food and makes a really good snack on its own as well. Here's my recipe:

Honey Oat Bread

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I used Greek Yogurt because that's what I had and I upped the milk a little bit and it was fine
-I used regular whole wheat instead of white whole wheat, the bread was darker than the picture on the recipe, but tasted good anyway

So, as per the title, how do I make a good impression? Bring food. Always bring food.

I Pledge Allegiance to Dessert

I originally wasn't going to make another crepe cake post, but this one is one of the best desserts I've ever made, and I did 4-H, so that's saying something. This is America, I am free to write about as many crepe cakes as I want!

America, the land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of obesity through the over-consumption of patriotic desserts. It's almost independence day, and I know what that means: blowing stuff up and eating a ton of great food!( Okay, the blowing stuff up isn't going to happen this year because I, you know, live in the city where such things are frowned upon).

As a child, the 4th of July was a ton of fun. I always went to the parade and got a ton of candy, then went to my Grandma's house to shoot off fireworks. And my family did not mess around when it came to fireworks. My dad and aunts and uncles would buy a ton, and our objective was to light as many as possible by the time the party broke up. Fountains, firecrackers, parachutes, sparklers, artillery shells, I shot them all. And for those of you who are wondering about the safety of an 8-year-old playing with things that literally shoot fire, I only ever got a couple of minor burns from stray sparks. We were all taught how to light fireworks safely.

When I was a bit older, I worked at a firework stand to raise money for my school's band. And by "worked" I mean I hung out with my friends and we would occasionally provide recommendations and ring up customers. Those were some good times. That particular gunpowder smell of a fireworks stand still puts a smile on my face.

When I started making crepe cakes, I got an idea knocking around in my head to make one in red, white, and blue. The bright colors and stripes would be perfect for a dessert where presentation is everything. The challenge was how to achieve this without blueberries. Why no blueberries? I don't like blueberries. Then I got an idea from staring at cake on Pinterest. A lot of good ideas come about that way. Blue velvest cake is the same as red velvet, but with blue food coloring. Why not make blue velvet crepes? Now, I could just alternate blue and red velvet for my patriotic effect, but I wanted something a little bit more fun. So I decided that the red would be thinly sliced strawberries. Now all I needed was an excuse to make the thing. I was invited to a game night with some people from my church last Saturday. Perfect.

I made my crepes the night before and they were....very blue. The color does look strange, and some might find it off-putting. The last crepe was smaller than the others because I ran out of batter, so it was my taste test. Wow. I think these are the best crepes I've ever made. The texture is cakey and they're nice and sweet. In the morning I whipped my cream, sliced my strawberries, and started stacking. I ran out of strawberries halfway up the cake and had to go buy more. When the last crepe was stacked, his thing had roughly a pound and a half of strawberry goodness in it. It chilled in the fridge until it was ready to serve, and oh my did it serve beautifully. A cake the founding fathers would have approved of.

*Star Spangled Banner plays in background*

*majestic eagle screech overhead*

The presentation was stunning, and the taste was just as good. The light chocolate flavor of the crepes went perfectly with the strawberries and the rum-flavored whipped cream. It was like a strawberry shortcake on steroids. A light, festive, and delicious addition to a party.

Okay, here's where I got my crepe recipe:
Red Velvet Crepes
I don't know if the cream cheese frosting the recipe uses would be better or not, I wanted to do whipped cream.

Sprinkles of Kim:
-When I made the crepe batter, I used blue food coloring instead of red, and added just a touch of cinnamon for more flavor
-To make the whipped cream, I whipped some cream with powdered sugar, vanilla, and rum flavoring
-I added thinly sliced strawberries. Duh.

Blockbuster Cookies

These are popcorn cookies. Yes, you read that right. Popcorn cookies. Don't click away, I promise this works!

So, popcorn and I have a special relationship. My mom works for Preferred Popcorn, so I know more about the production and distribution of the stuff than I will ever need to know. A certain amount of popcorn is popped every so often during processing to ensure quality and test expansion rates (how big 100 grams of popcorn is when popped. Bigger expansion rates are higher quality). Because of this, there were always garbage bags full of popcorn that were up for grabs by employees. Needless to say, my household never wanted for popcorn, and my mom's caramel corn became one of her signature snacks for events. It was always requested, and never lasted.

In college, my mom gave me a 35 lb. bag of kernels at my request. That bag lasted until my senior year. Everyone loves popcorn, and I had the hookup for a huge supply. During Freshman year, my two best friends, Rachael and Mikel, and I woul split a huge bowl of popcorn and watch Netflix/study in what we called a "popcorn powwow" and it was awesome.

So, given my good memories surrounding this snack, I had to make this recipe when I found it on Pinterest. Even if it made a huge mess and didn't come together, it could still be pretty good, right? Well, it did come together due to my mad skillz in the kitchen. Actually, this recipe is easy, it's just like chocolate chip cookies with the extra step of popping the corn and a bit of a delicate touch when folding it in. What do they taste like? Well, the cookie kind of reminds me of a graham cracker with its buttery brown sugar base, and the crunch of the popcorn is kind of incredible. The popcorn is able to stay crunchy because the batter doesn't contain any liquid except egg and butter. It's addictive, and worth trying for the novelty alone.

A successful experiment

My first attempt at these was not bad. In movie terms, it was and wholesome family comedy that you enjoy seeing on the theater, but probably won't buy on DVD. These cookies needed some things more.

Aw yeah, now that's what I call cookies.

My second attempt was a summer blockbuster that everyone will rave about. They were awesome! The sweet chocolate and the salted caramel drizzle came together to create a product that will have your audience demanding a sequel. These little crunch bombs are ideal for Oscar parties, movie nights, slumber parties, or any time you wanna change up from the standard chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie. Can confirm that they also pair well with ice cream.

I knew these cookies needed a name more catchy than "those popcorn cookies of yours" and in keeping with the movie theme I was going for. The muses of baked good naming spoke, and I dubbed them "Blockbusters." So here's the recipe that provided my original inspiration:

Popcorn Cookies

I followed the base cookie recipe pretty closely, but trust me, the additions are what make these cookies.

Sprinkles of Kim:
-Add 1 tsp cinnamon when you add the vanilla, I have no idea why the original recipe didn't have this, it just tastes so much more complete.
-Right before the cookies go in the oven, press a few mini M&Ms into the top of each cookie, kind of like you would with monster cookies. Don't worry too much about making them evenly spaced, just put them where there's not already popcorn kernels
-Okay, now the fun part, the caramel drizzle. I snagged the recipe from here: Caramel Drizzle
And I didn't time it, I just boiled the mixture till it resembled caramel. The taste reminds me of a soft Werther's caramel.
-After drizzling the cookies (and likely making a huge mess if you're anything like me), hit each cookie with just the tiniest sprinkle of salt. It'll enhance both the popcorn and the caramel and up the sweet-and-salty factor, which is the appeal of these cookies.

I love my movies and my desserts, so I hope everyone enjoys these Blockbusters as much as I did!

Some Good Things Happen Overnight

I may be in the minority on this, but I have always loved oatmeal. It's easy to make, and can serve as a vehicle for tons of great flavors. However, for some people, oatmeal falls in to the category of "I was forced to eat this as a kid, so now as an adult I hate it." Other foods I have seen on this list include eggs, tomato soup, chicken, and carrots (both raw and cooked). Thankfully, my mother never tried to make me eat anything I didn't like. This could be because she just loved me more than yours did, but I suspect this was actually because the list of foods I disliked was so short it could be easily avoided (thanks, mom!).

A big reason to love oatmeal for a person on a budget is the cost. A large container of oats is less than $3 and can last through many meals. Plus, the oats can be ground into flour (I'll post some recipes later that include this, the texture is great), or even blended with water and strained into milk. Yeah, I bet most of you hadn't heard of oat milk. It's surprisingly creamy (I ran out of milk and was too lazy to go to the store, okay?).

Then came Pinterest. Oh Pinterest, you give me so many ideas, only 3% of which I will ever actually use. This time-wasting idea geyser of a web site has enlightened me to the idea of overnight oats. If you pour a liquid (generally milk or water) over oats and leave them in the fridge overnight, they soften up as if they were cooked, but with a slightly different texture that you either love or hate. I love it. I also love experimenting with different flavors, especially the ones that make me feel like I'm having dessert for breakfast. I love my sweets, so any time I can have more dessert, I am all over it.

So, here's a list of oatmeal combinations you might want to try. I left off obvious ones like maple brown sugar or apple and cinnamon. Those are in the packets you find in the store, everyone knows about those. These recipes are the fancy kind. These will all work hot as well, obviously. No pictures this time because let's face it, oatmeal is not exactly a pretty food. Yeah, they can try and dress it up with fancy slices of fruit and swirls of spices, but it doesn't change the fact that the substance underneath looks like wet sand. Tasty wet sand. I use unsweetened almond milk to make these, but you can use whatever milk or milk-like substance you prefer. I have also tried a couple of these with water, and while it's not as creamy, it does still work.

Pour 1/2 cup oats into a mug or small jar, add milk to about a quarter to half inch above the level of oats (modify depending on your preference, I like my oats on the thin side, so I use more milk), add all mix-ins except fruit, and mix it up. If you're using a jar, you can literally just put the lid on and shake it, this is a recipe for lazy people. You can pretend you have your life together by making your breakfast ahead of time, and in the morning, you just open the fridge and there it is. If you actually have your life together, you can portion out several days' worth and keep the jars in a cupboard so all you have to do is add milk the night before. Ah yes, I am now free to do important things, like create a recipe blog.

All of these recipes have an implied "sweetener to taste" at the end because I don't feel like typing that a thousand times. I personally use maple syrup, but you can use honey, brown sugar, white sugar, agave, stevia, or whatever sweetener Dr. Kale von Detoxtea has decided won't give you cancer this week. I also like to use powdered peanut butter for the peanut butter flavored ones because when it's cold, peanut butter is hard to mix evenly. Powdered peanut butter (like PB2) gives a more even distribution of flavor. Use whichever you prefer.

Chocolate with Strawberries
-1-2 teaspoons cocoa powder
-a few drops of vanilla
-pinch of cinnamon
-top with sliced strawberries right before eating

Strawberry Shortcake
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-a few drops of almond flavoring
-top with strawberries right before eating
-Optional: top with whipped cream

Matcha Latte
Only attempt this one if you know you like green tea-flavored things. Matcha is expensive and not everyone likes its bitter flavor. This one also looks really revolting. I love the way it tastes, but it looks like snot.
-1 tsp matcha
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-a few drops of almond flavoring
-Optional: top with banana

Chocolate Peanut Butter
-1-2 tsp cocoa powder
-1-2 T powdered peanut butter
-a few drops of vanilla
-pinch of cinnamon
-Optional: top with banana

Peanut Butter Banana
-1-2 T powdered peanut butter
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-Top with banana right before eating

Spiced Chai
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp cloves
-1/4 tsp ginger
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-Option 1: a splash of vanilla for a vanilla chai
-Option 2: a dash of espresso powder for a dirty chai

Oatmeal Cookie Dough
Seriously, this one totally tastes like cookie dough, especially if you use brown sugar as sweetener
-1/4 tsp vanilla
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-Optional: top with raisins or chocolate chips to enhance the cookie experience

Cafe Mocha
I got my hands on some espresso powder, I'm probably going to make the whole coffee shop!
-1-2tsp cocoa powder
-1/2 tsp espresso powder

Pumpkin Pie
-1-2 T canned pumpkin puree
-Pumpkin pie spices (if you don't have any, use the mix from the spiced chai recipe plus a dash of allspice)
-Optional: If you're feeling like the whitest white girl to ever "not even," throw in a dash of espresso powder and have Pumpkin Spice Latte

Gingerbread
This is a very Christmas recipe, but last I checked, gingerbread always tastes good, and this one really does taste like gingerbread.
-1/2 tsp ginger
-1/4 tsp cincanmon
-1/4 tsp cloves
-dash of nutmeg
-Molasses to taste
-Optional: red and green sprinkles to be festive

If you have a modification on one of these ideas, or if you are inspired to create a totally new combination, go for it! What do I look like, the breakfast police? Most of these were created in my kitchen with me staring at my spice cupboard like a witch brewing a potion, so they're what I felt like eating. If you notice a conspicuous absence of coconut, there's a reason. That reason being I don't like the stuff. If you do, go ahead and try using it with banana or vanilla or something. I hope this list encourages you to rise and dine on something good!

I have a list of flavor combinations I have yet to try, so expect a part 2 eventually. Most good things don't happen overnight, but at least breakfast can.