Apple Cranberry French Toast

Okay this will be my last meal from $5 dinners for awhile, promise, but oh my goodness this one is a keeper. I would not change a thing. This is a GREAT breakfast for dinner meal. The whole family enjoyed this, I will admit my oldest was not a huge fan, but she doesn't like french toast, which is a whole other story in itself. Our dinner conversation went something like do you like toast? yes. apples? yes. craisins? yes. sugar? yes. butter? yes. eggs? kind of. So why do you not like french toast? I don't know. So yes I am at a loss, but I will continue to feed it to her at least once a month anyways. So now back to the recipe.

AWESOME. You. Must. Try. It. Now.

Apple Cranberry French Toast:

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
3 apples – peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup dried cranberries
1 French Loaf, cut into 1 inch slices
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Favorite fruit: bananas, cantaloupe, berries or Fruit Salad
6-8 slices bacon

Directions
1. In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix in melted butter or margarine. Stir in chopped apples and dried cranberries until evenly coated. Pour into prepared pan.

2.Arrange french loaf slices in an even layer over apples.

3.In same bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Pour over bread, making sure every slice is fully soaked. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate over night.

3. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Remove dish from refrigerator while the over is heating. Bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove cover, and bake 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

4. Prepare your favorite fruit or turkey bacon.

I did try another french toast casserole that rocked but was really sweet for Christmas morning. I will post that recipe sometime in the near future.

Happy Eating!

Favorite Waffles

As I have stated before we LOVE waffles, so here is my favorite waffle recipe. I often make these plain, but sometimes I throw in blueberries. Baby girl LOVES blueberry waffles and eats them with out syrup.

Waffles

2 eggs
2 C. Flour (I usually use 1c. white, 1 c. wheat or 2 c. wheat)
1 3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. canola oil
1 T. white sugar (I usually use splenda)
4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. frozen blueberries thawed (optional)

Preheat waffle iron.

Beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater until fluffy. Beat in flour, milk, oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla- just until smooth.

Spray waffle iron.

Pour mix onto hot iron and cook until golden brown.



I usually double the recipe and freeze what doesn't get eaten. Then we can just pull out how many we want when we want them, plop them in the toaster and voila homemade breakfast on a busy school morning.

ENJOY!!!

Pumpkin Waffles with Apple Cider Syrup

I like to do breakfast for dinner at least once a month. I love homemade waffles and pancakes, but I am never up early enough to make a big breakfast; what can I say I like my sleep to much. Pumpkin Waffles are one of my faves and we usually have them more often in the fall, but they sure sounded good last night, so Pumpkin Waffles it was.

Pumpkin Waffles:

1 1/2 c. flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. canned pumpkin
2 c. milk
4 eggs, separated
1/4 c. butter, melted

Preheat waffle iron.

Whip egg whites until they form soft peaks.

Combine all dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.

In another bowl combine pumpkin, milk and egg yolks.

Add flour mixture and butter to pumpkin mixture, and stir to blend.

Fold egg whites into batter.

Spray waffle iron, and pour batter in.




These have a great flavor and are always a hit when we eat them. We either have them with regular syrup or sometimes I make Apple Cider Syrup to go with them. (Funny I didn't realize Trena liked it when I make special syrup, but last night she asked if I had made any special syrup, of course then I felt bad that I took the lazy route.)

APPLE CIDER SYRUP:

1 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 c. apple cider or juice
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Combine all dry ingredients together in a bowl.

In a separate saucepan add all wet ingredients and then add surar mixture all at once.

Heat to a boil.

Boil until mixture becomes clear (about 2-4 minutes), stirring with a wisk constatntly.