Cinnamon Sugar French Toast Bites

Since I have all my children back at home, I am attempting to make a hot cooked breakfast. When you only have 2 children and they don't usually like eating a big breakfast, it makes it a little tougher to put the time and energy into doing anything to complicated, especially when you are NOT a morning person.

I found this recipe at Multiply Delicious and thought I would give it a try. It was a fun take on an old favorite and a big hit with ALL the kids. Granted, it does take a little bit more work cutting the bread into cubes and cooking them individually. But because of this, it becomes a finger food and great to grab and eat when you children are running out the door to school or work. I do have a few recommendations that I will post at the bottom.

Cinnamon Sugar French Toast Bites

3 Tablespoons Sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of Salt
1 loaf french bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Maple Syrup

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, milk, vanilla, and salt until blended. Place the bread cubes in the egg mixture and using a large spoon, toss gently until the cubes are evenly coated and all the egg mixture has been absorbed.

In a large frying pan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add half the coated bread cubes and cook, turning often, until golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer the cubes to the bowl holding the cinnamon sugar and toss to coat. Repeat with the remaining bread cubes and 1 tablespoon butter.

Divide the french toast bites into individual servings and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar. Serve with maple syrup.

Here are my suggestions:

First I think I would cut these into strips instead of cubes. Then you could eat them like French Toast dippers. They would be easier to cook (not as many things to turn), but they could still be a finger food and you could still roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

In the recipe it says to put half the bread cubest into the batter then into the pan. I felt mine got a little to soggy. Even after cooking all the edges slowly, they were a bit to mushy inside for my liking. But this is coming from a girl who doesn't like runny eggs :) So, the fact you have now cut your bread into strips, it makes it easier to dip them individually into the egg mixture, then put them into the pan without to much soaking.

I would also consider adding 3 or 4 eggs instead of just the two. But I do like mine a little thicker and eggier (is that a word?).

I also served mine with THIS SYRUP, instead of the maple. You already have the buttermilk, so whip up a batch of this. Just remember to put it in a larger pan because it at least doubles while boiling and you don't want it to burn or bubble over. You can keep this in the fridge and is yummy on ice cream or just eating with a teaspoon when not on a diet :)

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

It's a new year, and of course new resolutions. One, attempting to have healthier breakfast options for my family. When my boys where home, I found it worth the time and effort to get up and scramble some eggs or make something "hearty". Now that it is my two girls at home, they often just want something quick and on the go. We have done the hard boiled eggs, bagels and cream cheese, so I wanted to add something new and tasty to our repertoire. These didn't take long to assemble and are quick to grab out of the freezer, reheat in the microwave and go. The other thing I like about these breakfast burritos, you can really add whatever your family likes. The ingredient list is just a suggestion, I added some hash brown potatoes to mine. You could make a couple this way, some others another way, depending on the likes of your kids. Breakfast Burritos 12 eggs 1 lb sausage or bacon 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 12 8" round flour tortillas Fry bacon or sausage until done. Mix eggs together, drain pan of most of the grease then cook scrambled eggs however you desire. Warm tortillas in microwave for about 30 seconds. Take one tortilla and put about 1/4-1/2 cup of eggs down the middle. Add some sausage/bacon and cheese. Roll up like a burrito folding one end in. I then wrapped my breakfast burrito in parchment paper. After all the burritos are made and in parchment paper, I put them in a large ziplock bag and put them in the freezer. Remove breakfast burrito from freezer, microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds on 80 percent (you will have to see what works best for your microwave through trial and error) and enjoy. *My husband said he thought they would be good with a little salsa added when making the burritos. You could also do some cooked green pepper, different cheeses, cooked onion or green onion.

Buttlermilk Syrup - YUM!

Oh my goodness! What a wondeful way to start out the day. I was actually looking for a German Pancake recipe and stumbled upon the syrup. I know my sisters have talked about how good buttlermilk syrup can be, but have never made/tried it myself. Can I just say... it was delicious. All my kids and my husband couldn't say enough good things about it. You want to just take a spoon and eat it out of the pan. But considering it has 1 cube of butter, how could it not be wonderful.



Buttermilk Syrup

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter (or 1 cube)
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a saucepan (us one bigger than you think because the syrup will foam up from the baking soda), combine the first five syrup ingredients; bring to a boil. Boil for 7 minutes (I stirred mine periodically so it wouln't burn). Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and pour over anything you would regular syrup... pancakes, waffles, german pancakes etc.

Like I mentioned, the syrup foams, so use a bigger pan that you think. I didn't have buttermilk so I poured about 1 tablespoon of vinegar in 1 cup or regular milk and let it sit for a few minutes. Then used 3/4 of a cup of that. As the syrup boils (on low temp) it will start to turn a lovely carmel brown and when it cools slightly, will thicken up.

I served mine with German Pancakes aka Puff Pancakes. So I thought I would include that recipe too.

German Pancakes
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put butter in 9 X 13 pan and place in oven just until butter melts. Mean while, place eggs, flour, milk and salt in blender; cover and process until smooth. Pour batter in 9 X 13 pan with melted butter. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Serve with buttermilk syrup, powder sugar or regular syrup.

Sugared Bacon

Is it good for you? No. Is it tastey... absolutely!

I heard from a wife a church that this was one of her husband's favorites. So of course we had to give it a go. It is really delicious.

Sugared Bacon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a cookie sheet with sides, place a sheet of foil. Trust me, this will make clean up a snap. Lay each piece of bacon out on the cookie sheet, then sprinkle brown sugar over the top. Once you have done it a time or two, you will get a feel for how much brown sugar to put on the bacon. Here are a few pictures below of mine.





Place cookie sheet in the oven for approximately 30-45 minutes. Check a couple of times at the end until bacon is to your desired doneness. We like ours a little crispy.

This is cooked perfectly. It might look burnt, but that is just the brown sugar goodness carmelized on your bacon.


Remove bacon and put on a plate with a paper towel or on a brown paper bag so that the grease can drain off. Then try it... mmmmmm. You will thank me forever (even though no one ever comments, I know you are out there enjoying all the wonderful recipes on this blog and deep in your hearts is appreciation of the sincerest kind).

Waffles

These are the waffles my mom use to make. I have tried a few other recipes and still really like this one. Mostly because you beat the egg whites and then fold them into the batter which gives you fluffy waffles instead of hard hockey puck types. This is actually in the Better Homes and Gardens cook book. I share this with you today, because we made these for breakfast and I actually remembered to take a picture.

ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup cooking oil or shortening melted

In a large bowl stir together dry ingredients - flour, baking powder and salt. In a small mixing bowl beat egg yolks then add milk and oil, mixing after each addition. Stir wet mixture into dry ingredients. In another bowl mix egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold beaten egg whites into flour-milk mixture. Leave a few fluffs of egg white so you know you didn't over mix. This is important - Do Not Overmix.

Pour batter onto preheated waffle iron and follow directions from manufacture on how to cook waffles. To keep waffles hot for serving, place in a single layer on a wire rack placed atop a baking sheet in a warm oven.

This makes three 9 inch waffles. You can also double the recipe, making extra waffles, then store in freezer bags. When you want waffles just put them in a toaster and heat through. If you do this, just cook them until they start to turn light brown as they will finish browning in the toaster.