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I have not always been a morning person.  I was always more of a sleeper in’er – until I had kids. My son is a morning person and over time, I have become one too. I know that as he gets older he will probably start sleeping and I, will probably forever be changed to a morning person. I would describe my son’s sleeping habits to that of a light switch – on or off. When his head hits the pillow he is sound asleep and when he wakes, if you are lucky enough to be there, he will pop straight up and greet you with a sleepy grin and say, “Good morning Mom.” From that moment forward, he is on. If anyone else has young boys at home, you know what I mean. Sound effects start happening early in in the morning that transport you into a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean to Harry Potter in the blink of eye. If you are downstairs and he is upstairs, the sounds rumbling above sound like someone must have been injured, but, when you ask frantically “Is everything ok??” he looks at you like you are crazy and responds with a reassuring “Ya mom.” That’s what I mean by he’s on like a light switch.

When he was a baby he would wake very early and we would try to get him to cuddle while we slept for even just a few precious more minutes. As he got older, he started reading in bed and it was wonderful to know he was entertained and we could sleep just a little longer. But, as he got a little older I started to realize I was missing out on that precious hour of just him time. He is now involved in numerous activities, invited to many play dates and birthday parties and his social calendar has far outgrown mine. So, this summer I decided to become a morning person.

Every once in a while over the past couple years, when I could not sleep in for those few extra minutes I would ask my son to go out for coffee. We would take off while my daughter and husband slept in and enjoy some coffee (vanilla cream for him) and just chat. Usually we chat about Lego’s or whatever topic he was into, which has been Harry Potter for quite some time and just enjoy the early morning. At the beginning of the summer when I was saying good night to him I asked “Do you want to go out for coffee in the morning?” He said “Yes!” and with that response our summer tradition started. He would come in and say “Let’s go for coffee mom!” and I would say, “Give me five minutes.” But, then it would hit me – that’s all we have. In five minutes everyone else might wake up, or he might get too deep into his Lego design to want to go. Up I sat and off we went with a Lego catalog in hand or sometimes a Lego game (I recommend Monster Four) and sometimes, the dog. (The dog turned out to be too high maintenance and, well, too popular for our quiet time so he stays home with the sleeper in’ers now.)

There is a lot that happens in the morning. First of all there are a lot of morning people out there that make Starbucks a morning tradition…who knew?! We saw the RSVP bike race go by one morning and on another occasion, an antique car group just gathering for a drive. Many times we have spotted hot air balloons soaring above us getting a birds eye view of the early morning sun. We frequently caught a glimpse of the bunnies that live across the street from us just getting up and finally figured out who lives in the house down the block on the corner that seems to never be home (turns out they are morning people too!). But, most of all we just chat for a little while and enjoy some coffee. When it’s time to go we order one more Venti ½ decaf drip and a vanilla cream to go. The girl at the register usually says, “Did you know I can just give you a refill?” but the other day she said “Oh, is this for the sleeper in’er’s?” That’s when I knew…I had become a morning person. For better or worse, grumpy or groggy, messy haired and definitely in uncoordinated clothes, I am no longer a sleeper in’er and I would not change it for the world.

To all of you morning folks out there and to you sleeper in’ers who just might have a morning person in you yet, here are two versatile and delicious breakfast recipes for you if you would rather cook than go to Starbucks or want something yummy to eat when you get home. Because the transition may be hard but the payoff is worth it.


Avec Baking Crepes
This recipe was adapted from Julia Child’s crepe recipe in
Mastering the Art of French Cooking – yes, you can master the art of cooking
Gluten free!!
 
Wet ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup milk
4 eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted plus additional for
pans

Dry Ingredients:
1 ½ cup Avec Baking All Purpose flour
¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
¼ teaspoon guar gum
½ teaspoon sea salt

Directions:
Put the water, milk and eggs into the jar of a blender. Turn
on low and mix until well combined, approx. 30 seconds. Add the dry ingredients  followed by the melted butter and combine again until fully incorporated – approx. 1 minute on high. Take a rubber spatula and scrape down the side to insure all the flour is incorporated and mix again briefly to insure it is  fully mixed. Cover and refrigerate until your pans are hot and ready. The batter should be nice and creamy, thick enough to coat your spoon but thin enough to pour. If the consistency isn’t right, after testing your first crepe, slowly add a little water.

To make your crepes, preheat either a crepe pan or a skillet on the stove on medium high heat. Add a small amount of butter and tilt pan to
insure the butter covers the whole pan. Butter should lightly brown, but not spatter – if it does turn down your heat.

Once heated, remove pan from heat, holding handle with a hot
pad. Pour in ¼ cup of batter and tilt the pan from side to side to allow the batter to evenly coat the pan.

Return to heat and cook for 1-1 ½ minutes. Test by running a heat proof spatula around the edges to insure it will come loose and turn corner up gently to insure the underside is lightly browned. Flip the crepe over by using your spatula/hand or flipping in the pan if you feel confident.  Brown second side lightly – approx. 30 seconds to finish. Stack the finished crepes on a plate and continue baking until you have used all your batter.

*Note*  You can have more than one pan going at the same time. I use
both our 8 and 10 inch skillet’s. The ¼ cup measure is the right amount of batter for the 8 inch skillet and 1/3 cup measuring cup is perfect for the 10 inch skillet.

At my house, we just fill these with whatever is in the kitchen and fridge. Usually we roll them with some sunflower butter and drizzle
maple syrup over the top. Sometimes we will do cream cheese and fresh fruit.

You can make these as simple or fancy as you wish. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoons orange liquor to the batter for a dessert crepe. Fill with a sweetened cream fresh and drizzle with a simple syrup.

Avec Baking Banana Bread

Dry Ingredients:
1 ¾ cup Avec Baking All Purpose Flour
¼ cup arrowroot flour
¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
10 tablespoons room temperature butter – plus 1 teaspoon to
butter pan
½ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup mashed ripe bananas ( 2 ½ – 3 bananas)
*Optional, 1 cup toasted and chopped nuts (I like macadamia
or pecans)
*1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9 ¼ inch by 5 ¼ inch
loaf pan with butter and lightly dust with some AP flour and set aside.

Mash the bananas until smooth and ensure you have one even
cup. In a bowl, combine the bananas, sour cream, eggs and vanilla and mix well.

In the base of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk attachment, add flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum and cinnamon. Mix on low briefly to combine ingredients. Add your butter, one tablespoon at a time increasing speed to medium until well incorporated. Slowly add your banana mixture with mixer on low. Scrape the sides of the bowl a few times to insure all ingredients are well incorporated. Turn mixer up to high and mix for 2-3 minutes until you can tell the eggs have been whisked. Your batter should look nice and fluffy – almost a consistency of a loose frosting. If using nuts, incorporate them now and mix an additional minute.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan spreading the top gently with a spatula until smooth. Bake for 1 hour – 1 hour and 10 minutes or until top is lightly browned and a cake tester comes out clean. The top should spring back when touched as well.

Remove from the oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

*Notes* If you are toasting the nuts, be sure they are fully cooled
before adding them to the dough. If not, it will deflate your dough and the bread will not cook properly.

I like to add 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice. It keeps the bananas from browning and the loaf color pretty. It also adds a light freshness that balances the sweetness of the bananas. If you don’t have fresh lemon juice around, don’t worry, it’s not a necessary ingredient.

If you like a bit of additional zing to your banana bread, add 1-2 teaspoons of citrus zest. You can do lime zest with macadamia nuts for
a tropical twist and even add some coconut.

For an extra sweet twist, add chocolate chunks instead of nuts.

Why do I use arrowroot powder? The recipes I found most successful for banana bread used cake flour. I am using a standard conversion from cake flour to AP flour just using Avec flour instead of wheat flour. I  don’t use corn in my recipes, but, if you do you could use corn starch instead of arrowroot.