This Changes Breakfast Forever...

So, right when I started testing out these Lego style freezer molds and I saw how they completely transformed the way that I meal prep and consume food throughout the week, my immediate next thought was breakfast. Because imagine a world where you could wake up no matter what the circumstances are, pop a cube or two in the microwave or air fryer and with zero effort, start the day right. So, we have been hard at work recipe testing over here to really nail down 10 simple and delicious breakfast options, both savory and sweet. And just like last video, every single recipe is below in a completely free Google Doc that you can download. And from personally having all of these breakfast cubes in my freezer over the last few weeks, let me tell you, it has completely transformed the way my entire family starts the morning. So, I'm starting off with probably the easiest cube you will see on this list, but I have to say it might be the most genius. It's a delicious breakfast sausage that takes like 5 minutes to prep. All you need to do is get yourself some ground pork or really whatever ground meat you have on hand or prefer. Add that to a mixing bowl. Chop up a bunch of sage. Dump that in. And to spice things up a bit, as a quick little hack, I'm using a homemade five spice, which has a lot of those warming winter spices that I'm looking for all in one blend. And then finally, I'll add some salt and pepper, a tablespoon of maple syrup, which is really the sweetness it needs. And I'll mix it up until everything is nice and incorporated. And I finally got my hands on these half cup molds, which I'm stuffing this sausage mixture in. And the mold size is really the key here. It unlocks the ultimate hack. Because when these things come out of the freezer, all I have to do is pop a few out of a bag, toss them in the air fryer. You don't need any oil because there's plenty of fat in the pork. And I cook them at 375° F for about 12 to 14 minutes until they're completely cooked through. And I mean, will you look at that? Not only does it look exactly like a breakfast sausage ling, but it will sh on anything you're going to buy from the store frozen, and it takes just a few minutes to crack. Now, one of my favorite cubes to eat from the last video was the fajita veggie cube. I was very impressed with how well the veggies held together, and also how well they came back to life after being microwaved. So, I knew I wanted to do a veggie hash, but I'm switching up the classic potato hash with sweet potatoes since I've got a very special potato dish coming up later in this video. So, first I'm just going to peel my sweet potatoes and slice them up into mini little cubes like this. And the additional veggies you add in are very customizable. I've got a few red peppers, which I'll dice up. And since we're at the end of our very epic homegrown onion stash, all I've got left are a few mini little onions, which I'm going to slice up. I'll add all my veggies to a roasting tray, give them a nice coating of oil, and now I'll spice them up. First, I'm going in with some homegrown homemade garlic powder, a little bit of paprika powder, and this is a homemade smoky chipotle powder, but a simple barbecue spice or any smoky spice blend will work great. And finally, a good pinch of salt. I'll make sure all those veggies are evenly coated in the oil and the spice. And I'm going to toss the veggies in the oven at 425° F for about 20 minutes. Then I'll pull them out of the oven, give them a quick mix, and just back in for another 7 to 10 minutes until everything is perfectly roasted and they're ready for the molds. Oh yeah. Now, oatmeal was something that I knew had to make this list because my entire family likes it and I know it freezes well. I've experimented with a ton of different oatmeal recipes over the years, and I think this is the best one that I've ever tasted. It's such a nice combination. And it starts off by making a simple stewed apple. I've got a few honey crisp here, which are one of my favorite apples. They're obviously very sweet. And first, I'll peel all the apples. Then I'll slice them off the core and chop them up into little chunks. Then I'll get a pan on a medium heat. I'll add in some butter. I'll dump in all of those apples. And really, it just needs about 2 to three tablespoons of maple syrup to sweeten. But if your apples are more on the tart side and less sweet, you're going to want a little bit more maple syrup to make up for it. Then to spice it up, I'm adding a little bit of cinnamon and some salt to bring out all those flavors. And I'll cook the apples down for about 10 to 15 minutes until they start to soften up a bit. We don't want the apples getting mushy because you have to account that we're going to microwave them later, which is more cooking time. Just a nice tender cooked through apple. And you want to look for this beautiful caramel sauce building on the bottom of the pan from both the apple juice and maple syrup caramelizing. And once those apples are perfect, I'm going to pour the mixture in the bottom of the molds, which is really the main flavoring that will carry the entire oatmeal. It's actually the only flavor we need. I'm going to keep the oatmeal plain. Just a cup of some nice whole grain oats along with the water. And I'll cook them down for around 10 minutes. And then the plain oatmeal gets layered on top of the molds. And then they are off to the freezer. Now, these frozen oatmeal cubes can both be microwaved or you can reheat them on the stove. And everyone in my family was just completely devouring this stuff. >> It tastes like apple pie. >> And I actually found that over the years a plain oatmeal tastes better than like a milk or creambased oatmeal. I think the texture is better, the flavor is better. When you pair that with this stewed apple and you get that sweetness, you get that texture, it creates the perfect balance and just such a nice way to start your morning. All right, up next we have a loaded crispy bacon palenta cube. Now, these were inspired by a recent air fryer video where I did those palenta sticks that has been in my meal prep lineup for the last few months. I absolutely love it. And the fun thing about this recipe is it kind of has a little bit of a choose your own adventure. You'll see why in a second. So, first I'll get a pan on a medium heat. And to save a dirty cutting board, I'm just chopping my bacon up into pieces with some kitchen shears. Now, while that bacon is rendering, you want to use this time to prep your veggie. I'm slicing up a bunch of cremeni mushrooms and a few onions. And when the bacon is nice and crispy, I'll remove it, leaving behind the rendered fat, which I'll then fry up my onions in. And when those have some nice color, I'll dump those mushrooms right on top, which will first cook out the water. Then, they'll start to fry up. And when the mushrooms are looking nice, I'll dump in a bunch of spinach, which really just needs to be wilted down. Then the crispy bacon gets dumped back in. And I'm using one cup of palenta to three cups of water, which will give me a thicker mixture to get a final product that is nice and crispy. But if you want more of a creamy dish, like a grits that you can microwave, you're going to want to double the amount of water. And both of these ratios, depending on what you want, are covered in the free doc below. Now I'll bring this mixture up to a simmer and I'm going to cook it for around 10 minutes until it thickens up and has a consistency like this. And then of course it's into the molds and off to the freezer. Now when the thicker version comes out, all I need to do is give it a spray with some oil and throw it in the air fryer. And you have the most delicious little loaded up crispy palenta cube. yet it's still creamy on the inside. And the creamier one I'll just microwave. And both of these pair really well with so many different breakfast options to give you something a little bit hardier. All right, so in the last video I busted out this thing right here, the wheel of frozen cubes with the goal that a little randomization would help me figure out whether these were actually a viable meal prep hack. Turns out they are. So I don't need this thing anymore. That said, there are still some stipulations. Now, I designed the sweeter breakfast cubes to stand completely on their own, but all of the savory cubes were created with the intention that they could work together for a complete meal, especially with the addition of a pickle or something fermented and with the option of freshly cooked eggs. Which brings me to the sponsor of today's video, our place. This right here is the Titanium Pro Always Pan Mini, and it's hands down my favorite way to fry up a few eggs. It's the perfect size. It heats evenly and has that naturally non-stick titanium interior, so nothing sticks and clean up is a breeze. And what I really love about our place is that they're not just focused on making non-toxic cookware. Their focus is on making higherformance, well-designed non-toxic cookware. And as a pro home cook, I need my tools to check all three of those boxes. And they have an incredible collection of cookwware to choose from that does. I love their ceramic coated baking pans for all my oven roasting. Their enamel coated cast iron pans are great for things like brazing and one pot meals or low heat grling. And these titanium always pans absolutely nail down the balance of size, performance, and versatility, making them a go-to for a huge portion of my weekly meal prep. So, just click the link below to shop our places New Year sale. And if you're watching after the sale ends, just use code Mike10 for 10% off your first purchase. All right. So, if you're one of the viewers that likes watching these cooking videos, but you don't actually make that many recipes, this one is for you. You have no excuse not to make this recipe cuz it is so damn simple. We've got Fro Yo bites. They take like 2 seconds to prep and they are so freaking good. And they were inspired by these cute little two tablespoon molds from Super Cubes, but would certainly work great with one of these larger ice cube molds or even just a regular ice cube mold to be honest. I start by slicing up fresh fruit. I've got some strawberries and bananas, but these fro yo bites are all about having fun with it and trying out different combinations. I'll add the fruit to the bottom of the molds. Then I have a container of unsweetened Greek yogurt. This one was half full, so I can just make this right in the container. All I'm going to do is add some jam in. Use your favorite jam. I've got some blueberry jam, which I'll just swirl in. The swirling will make these things look a little bit cooler. Now, this is going to add your extra sweetness and flavor to your yogurt. You could just buy a yogurt with fruit already in it. Usually it is just the jam at the bottom of it and accomplish the same exact goal. And then I'll take that flavored Greek yogurt. I'll pop that on top of the fruit. And finally, I'm going to hit it with some homemade granola. This is my classic granola recipe. I've been using it for years. I've included it in the free Google doc below if you want to make it. And I'll freeze these little suckers up. Now, I do love making fro yo in my Ninja Swirl. I use the exact same ingredients you see here, but I just top it with the granola. My kidsing love it. But these things were surprisingly so delicious. Of course, you don't need a big machine to make them. And they were just the perfect little fairly guiltfree snack when I just need a little sweetness in my life. >> They're so good. Your kids are going to destroy. >> I'll report back. >> So, right when I got my hands on this half cup mold, I knew that hash browns would be heavy in the rotation. I mean, look at this thing. This is the perfect hash brown portion size. And to make the hash browns, all you got to do is take a few potatoes. I've got some russetss here. And I'm first going to peel the potatoes. Then I'm going to grate them all up like you're making some lockas. And then all of the grated potatoes are going to go straight into some boiling water for around 10 minutes. And pre-cooking is absolutely vital to getting the proper texture internally of your hash brown and externally. That's when you're going to get that nice crispy coating. And you're looking for those potatoes to become translucent and cooked completely through. Once that's done, I'll strain out all the potatoes right into a clean dish towel. And these were super hot, so I would suggest letting them cool. Or if you're impatient like me, you could strain that boiling water out of these scorching hot potatoes. But you've been warned. I can personally do this because I cook a lot and I've cooked for many years. So, I have like a chef hand coating versus hot mixtures. Now, once potatoes are strained, I'm going to dump them in the mixing bowl. I'll add 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of flour, 1 tbsp of cornstarch, and 1 tbsp of salt. I'm always looking out for you and keeping those ratios simple. I'll mix everything up until it's evenly incorporated. Then the hash brown mixture gets piled into the molds. And you want to make sure you push down that mixture so there aren't any big air pockets. And then these are off to the freezer. Now, of course, if you want the ultimate hash brown experience, you pop these right in the deep fryer. But since the invention of air fryers, I truly don't think I've deep fried something in like a decade. Air fryers work so well now, and you need so much less oil. So, honestly, just a spray of oil on these, throw them in the air fryer for like 15 minutes, and these are going to be so moist on the inside and incredibly crispy on the exterior. And they happen to work very well with this next recipe, which are frozen egg bites. Now, of course, I've been enjoying a lot of these savory options with freshly cooked up eggs, but I did want to create at least one frozen egg option, and this one works great. And it couldn't be easier. All you need to do is crack a bunch of eggs in a mixing bowl. Dump in some cottage cheese, which is going to add a nice creaminess, but also keep those eggs very moist since they're getting frozen and reheated. Then on top of the cottage cheese, I'm adding a sharper, more saltier kick with some cheddar cheese, which I'll just grate right on top. Then finally, this is more of an optional ingredient. You can keep these simple and plain, but I'm chopping up some scallions and I'm throwing those in there for a little extra flavor and some color as well. And I'll just whisk everything up and I'll evenly ladle it into all of my molds. And these get baked right in the molds at 375° for 20 minutes. And you can see those eggs soule right out of the oven. But they will deflate as they cool, which is totally fine. They're still going to taste amazing. And once they're cooled, you can of course eat these fresh, but they were meant to be frozen. So they get popped in the freezer. And then to reheat them, I just pop them in the microwave for a few minutes, and they're as good as new. Now, these pair so well with all the savory cubes from this video. And bonus, they work great as a little baby or toddler option. All right, this next one is so sick because the entire recipe comes together in a rice cooker. It's a coconut chia berry pudding. All I'm going to do is dump one cup of rice into my rice cooker. Of course, use a pot if you don't have a rice cooker. Then I'm going to pour half a can of some full fat coconut milk right on top of the rice. I'll save the rest for when the rice is finished. Then I'm just pouring water into the rice cooker until it comes up to that one cup of rice line on the porridge setting, which is very important because I am using the porridge setting on my rice cooker, which is why there's going to be more liquid than your standard rice ratio. You let that rice cooker sing to you. And check this out. This slightly more broken down pory consistency is exactly what I'm looking for. Now, all I have to do is dump in the rest of that fresh coconut milk, a few tablespoons of maple syrup to sweeten it up, and a few tablespoons of chia seeds. Then, finally, I'll dump in about half a pint container of fresh blueberries, and I'll give this a nice mix. And that sweetened coconut cream is just going to soak right up into that rice. And you have a delicious rice pudding ready for the freezer molds. And it's really amazing. From one cup of rice, I've got eight one cup portions of rice pudding. And after a quick trip to the microwave, this makes a great snack or dessert. It really has the perfect sweetness and the chia seeds, I can't explain it. You just have to try it. They just take something that's traditionally very rich and just takes the edge off a little bit. Now, if you're going to invest in these molds, you want to get as much out of them as possible. So, I wanted to push them a little bit. And since they are oven safe, I wanted to test out a baked good. And I've got a delicious one for you that will work great in your weekly meal prep rotation. It starts off by mashing two bananas in a mixing bowl. In goes my eggs, followed by some yogurt. Then I'll whisk in some melted butter. And to sweeten things up, I'm using a combination of coconut sugar and honey. I'll zest up a lemon along with the juice of half of that lemon. And once you have your wet ingredients mixed up, I'm strictly using some whole wheat flour and finally some baking powder to bring these muffins together. I'll whisk the batter up, add it to the molds, making sure to leave a little room for expansion. And I did have some extra batter, so I popped that in the one cup mold just for fun. And these get baked at 350° F for around 15 to 17 minutes until they're cooked through. And the form factor of these are just so fun. They're like mini little cakes. And the one cup mold is fun as well. It made like a tiny little loaf. And of course, you can eat these fresh, but this is a freezing video. So after freezing these, you can pop them in the microwave if you want them a little softer or the air fryer if you want like a slight crispier edge to your baked good. And this blueberry banana bread or muffin or whatever you want to call it because of the form factor, my kids were kind of feeding them like cake and they love them. All right, this last one finally cube 10. This is for all you uh protein fiends out there. You'll thank me later. We've got some banana peanut butter coconut smoothie cubes. Now, the way this works is very simple. To a blender, I'm adding bananas, yogurt, peanut butter, cocoa powder, hemp seeds, dates, a little homemade vanilla extract, some cinnamon, and finally a pinch of salt. This gets blended completely smooth, then poured into my molds. You can use really any size you want depending on the portion you want, and then it gets frozen overnight. Now, what we have here are some cubes, which I can pop out of my freezer at any time. Add your milk of choice. So, I'm using some homemade almond milk and blend it into a delicious smoothie. You could also add these right to a food processor and make more of like a healthier ice cream option. And this is on demand and it is so good. Not to mention good for the entire family as well. And honestly, this brought up a lot of thoughts for different frozen cube drink options. You saw I did the cucumber juice way back. That is like my new favorite hydration hack for when the cucumbers are flowing. You could freeze any type of fruit or veggie juice, but I really like this for smoothie options. This, of course, is more of like a high protein creamy version, but you could do a green smoothie option. Endless ideas. Comment in below if you have some yourself. And I will I think that's it. Yeah, I'll see you in the next video.

Click the link below to shop Our Place’s New Year’s Sale (live for the next 24 hours) and a great time to start the year with high-quality, non-toxic cookware that doesn’t compromise on performance. If you’re watching after the sale ends, use code MIKE10 for 10% off your first purchase Download all 10 recipes from this video here for free! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IzuIkE6iC2bl0I7DvXfofArhmssghhLt-y2ps2Aue6w/edit?usp=sharing 00:00 - Intro 00:47 - Breakfast Sausage 02:00 - Sweet Potato Hash 03:25 - Apple Pie Oatmeal 05:26- Crispy Polenta 08:49 - Fro-Yo Bites 10:33 - Hashbrowns 12:23 - Cheesy Egg Bites 13:44 - Coconut Rice Pudding 15:28 - Banana Bread 16:37 - Smoothie Cubes Learn to cook with confidence using my courses, cookbooks, and free recipes at https://lifebymikeg.com Souper Cubes Silicone Soup Freezer Molds (1/2 cup) - https://amzn.to/4szLyQC Souper Cubes Silicone Soup Freezer Molds (1 cup) - https://amzn.to/4s8hMm0 Souper Cubes Silicone Soup Freezer Molds (2 cup) https://amzn.to/4s50FS0 For other products used in this video - https://www.amazon.com/shop/lifebymikeg Music Credits: Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com Video Credits Creator, Host - Mike G Editor - Cooper Makohon Motion Graphics - Raphael Oliveira Culinary Producer - Carly C