Overnight French Toast

This recipe originally came from the first Stoneware Sensations cookbook by The Pampered Chef. It’s one of the recipes I fell in love with a decade ago.  Recently, I added the strawberry sauce and made it even more spectacular.  The ease of making it the night before means it’s a great weekday breakfast too! (This recipe can be easily halved to make just four servings.)

1 loaf french bread
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
4 T granulated sugar, divided
1 t vanilla
1/8 t salt
¼-½  t ground cinnamon (optional, to taste)
1 cup sliced strawberries
2 T granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 T heavy whipping cream, divided
1 banana, sliced 

Arrange the French bread slices (cut side down) in a 9×13 baking dish. Combine the eggs and next five ingredients; blend well and pour over the bread slices.  Cover with foil and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Slice fresh strawberries and sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Cover and chill overnight.

The next morning, preheat oven to 400.  Bake the bread uncovered for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove to cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Put strawberries (with the juice made by the sugar) in a small saucepan and simmer about 3 minutes.  Remove strawberries from the juice and set them aside.  Add ½ cup whipping cream to strawberry juice and whisk until boiling.  Pour into a glass container, add 2T more whipping cream and beat on high about 2 minutes.  It will thicken only slightly, but this is fine.

Arrange a serving of French toast slices on plate and drizzle with strawberry sauce.  Spoon sliced strawberries and sliced bananas on top and enjoy!!

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Completely Incredible Fruit-of-Your-Choice Muffins

These are from the March issue of Southern Living magazine.  I tried some variations and have determined that you can use just about any fruit that suits you, and these muffins will still rock!  We like the original peach best, but I made them with blueberries the second time and was just as happy.

Streusel:
½ c chopped pecans or walnuts
1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar
¼ c all-purpose flour
2 T melted butter
1 t ground cinnamon

 Muffins:
1 ½ c allpurpose flour
½ c granulated sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
¼ t salt
½ c butter, melted (1 stick)
¼ milk
1 large egg
1 cup frozen sliced peaches, thawed and diced OR blueberries/strawberries/pear/whatever you want!
12 paper baking cups
Vegetable cooking spray

Prepare Streusel by stirring pecans and next 4 ingredients until crumbly; set aside.

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (all dry) in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Stir together the butter, milk and egg; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  Gently stir in fruit.

Place paper baking cups in a muffin tin and lightly spray them with the cooking spray.  Spoon batter into the cups, filling about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle the streusel over the tops.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.  Cool (or not) and enjoy!!

Greek Omelets

2 eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup chopped onion and bell pepper combination
2 T vegetable broth
1 T diced mushrooms (I use organic baby bella)
fresh spinach leaves, torn (I use about a handful for each omelet.)
1 T chopped tomato
1 T feta cheese (or to taste)
Sliced Kalamata olives (Totally optional.  Sounds good, in theory, but I can’t vouch for it yet.  I’ll be trying this next time.)

Whisk eggs together with salt and pepper; set aside.

Sauté onion and bell pepper in vegetable broth over medium heat until almost tender, about 7 minutes.  Add mushrooms and tomatoes and sauté 2 more minutes. Place beaten eggs in an omelet pan and begin to cook while the shrooms are sautéing.  Toss the spinach into the vegetables and sauté just another minute more while your eggs begin to cook.  Place all vegetable mixture onto one half-side of the eggs.  Sprinkle some feta cheese on top of the veggies and fold the omelet over.  (Good luck!) Turn the entire omelet over once to make sure it’s cooked all the way.  J

VARIATION: Greek Egg Wrap
Use all the same ingredients, but when the veggies are almost through sautéing after the addition of the shrooms, toss in the spinach and the egg all together and scramble the whole pan.  Spoon the cooked mixture onto a tortilla, add feta cheese, and roll up like a burrito.  Yum!!

Pineapple Breakfast Cookies

Tags

breakfast cookies, oatmeal cookies

This is another of my Mom’s recipes, and a really good breakfast, if you ask me! 😉

Filling:
1 (8½ oz.) can crushed pineapple
2 T granulated sugar
2 t. corn starch
dash salt

Dough:
¾ c. shortening
¾ c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
¾ c. flour
1 t. salt
½ t. baking powder
¼ t. cinnamon     
2½ c. oatmeal
½ c. nonfat dry milk 

On greased cookie sheet put 1/3 c. dough 4½”diameter. Leave room for 1” spread.  Make an 1/8″ indention in the center of each dough round, leaving a ridge of about an inch to the edge.  Fill indention with pineapple filling.  Bake 15 minutes at 350°.

Homemade (Organic) Pancake Mix

½ c         buttermilk powder*
2 c           all-purpose flour (organic)
2 t           baking powder
1 t           baking soda
½ t         salt

Mix all the dry ingredients together and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to six months.  The buttermilk part of it is what requires refrigeration. 

THEN…When you’re ready for pancakes:

¾ c         buttermilk pancake mix
½ c         water (more if you want a thinner batter)
1 T          vegetable oil
1              beaten egg (organic)
1 t            vanilla extract

Serve with your favorite syrup or fruit topping.  (I’ll add some of my favorites toppings to this recipe later!)

*You will find buttermilk powder on the baking supplies aisle of your grocery store.  I have seen it at Wal Mart and Kroger.   You will need to refrigerate it once you open it, and be sure and refrigerate your pre-made mix too.

Overnight Oatmeal

Tags

breakfast, oatmeal

In a saucepan or microwaveable bowl mix

1 cup oatmeal
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup apple cider
dried fruit of choice

Let sit overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning, warm the oatmeal on the stove or in the microwave.