If you are planning a special day to honor mom, here are a few recipes and menu ideas to get your creative cooking juices flowing for your Mother’s Day celebration. Homemade breakfast or brunch is a nice treat and besides, restaurants are often overbooked and overpriced for Mother’s Day. Homemade is from the heart and it doesn’t have to be fancy. Mom will appreciate any attempt you make to celebrate her and show your love and appreciation. Just being together to enjoy the day is the best gift of all. And be sure to take lots of photos. She won’t be around forever, but your precious photos will.
Start With a Fruit Salad
Bursting with natural sweetness as well as healthy nutrition, choose fresh strawberries, raspberries, black berries, blueberries, chunks of melon, bits of pineapple, halved grapes, segmented citrus, or bites of diced mango. If you can find them, pomegranate seeds are like sparkling rubies and add beautiful color. Choose what looks best at the store for a healthy fruit salad.
Choose a Main Dish
What would mom enjoy most? Does she love Eggs Benedict? Then try this for a twist: use smoked salmon and a light, creamy, yogurt-based Hollandaise sauce over the top. Is she a pancake person? Try these easy oven pancakes called Dutch Babies. They are fun to make and can be filled with fresh berries. Definitely not your every day pancake, made in a cast iron skillet.
Maybe waffles would be just the ticket. Try these gluten-free Raspberry Pomegranate Waffles topped with a raspberry sauce and pomegranate seeds. You could also use fresh raspberries if pomegranate seeds are not available. For the sauce, you can use strawberries as another option, or a berry combination.
Add Some Extras
Depending on your menu, a good addition could be plain Greek yogurt sweetened with a little honey or maple syrup. Bake up a batch of homemade granola. Sprinkle it in the yogurt and leave the rest for mom as a gift in a decorative tin or jar with a ribbon.
Can’t live without bacon? For a healthier option, try turkey bacon. My favorite is Applegate Farms organic. Bake it in the oven on a rimmed baking sheet topped with a wire rack (for air circulation) gives you crisp bacon in about 10-12 minutes at 350º. Whatever you do, have a wonderful day celebrating your mom and Mother’s Day. For more ideas, check out the entire breakfast category.
Start a Family Recipe Journal
While you are at it, talk about favorite family recipes with your mom and be sure to write them down. Better yet, start a family recipe journal. You can buy nice blank journals at big bookstores. Write recipes in them in your handwriting. It’s more personal than typed. Make an entry about this Mother’s Day, who was there and what your menu was. I’ve done this for years and my journals are very special. Someday, they will be passed on and will become a family treasure.
Thanks for the prompting Sally. The kids and I are going with Eggs Sardou!
Sounds great Terry! For those who wonder what Eggs Sardou are, it is a Louisiana Creole dish made with poached eggs, artichoke bottoms, creamed spinach and Hollandaise sauce, a take off on Eggs Benedict. Love it with the artichokes and spinach.