Overnight Baked French Toast

Have you ever seen that episode of King of the Hill where Peg says to Hank, "Remember that time we had breakfast for dinner?" and he says, "Never again." I feel like we've inadvertently fallen into that mindset. The problem with breakfast for dinner is that it rarely lends itself to leftovers. And leftovers are pretty much all we eat for lunch during the week.

With me working from home and a few dinners on the meal plan that made more leftovers than we needed I figured I may be able to get away with breakfast for dinner during the week. When I asked SP what he might want he immediately said French toast. Rather than standing over the stove I decided to go with an Overnight Baked French Toast. You assemble the whole thing the night before and just bake it when you're ready to eat. Perfect.

When I told Baby Girl we were having breakfast for dinner she was so psyched. I don't think she's ever had breakfast for dinner so this blew her little mind. I was pretty proud of my fancy bread arranging in the casserole dish.

I served the French toast with scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. The only issue I had with the French toast was the top of the bread didn't absorb the milk and egg mixture so it was crunchy rather than soft. Next time I think I need a bigger casserole dish so I can lay the slices flat. But the flavor was spot on. I halved the original recipe (printed below) because we didn't need that much food and it was perfect for the three of us.

Overnight Baked French Toast
As seen on Our Best Bites

8 eggs
2 cups half and half (one pint)
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 lb loaf of french bread
softened butter for greasing baking dish (2-3 tablespoons)

Topping
4 tablespoons packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons cold butter

For Serving
melted butter
maple syrup
powdered sugar
berries
whipped cream

Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Add half and half and milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and vanilla. Set aside.

Cut bread into 1 inch chunks or into thin slices. Butter bottom and sides of a 9×13 baking dish. Place the bread in the dish. Whisk egg mixture then pour evenly over bread. Use a rubber spatula to very gently toss bread. Spread out evenly, cover dish, and refrigerate overnight.

Add brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and stir to combine. Cut cold butter into very small pieces and add to bowl. Break up butter and combine mixture until crumbly. Cover and place in fridge until ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle topping evenly over top. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until top is golden brown. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before cutting into squares. Drizzle with melted butter and syrup, top with berries, whipped cream and a sprinkle of powdered sugar if desired.

French Toast

For Sunday breakfast we wanted something hearty so I made French toast:


... with sliced banana and the rest of the strawberries from the fruit I used in the salad for the girls lunch. We used some real maple syrup my parents bought us for Christmas and I dusted the bread with powdered sugar.

Ladies Lunch

On Saturday I got together with Brooke, Colleen and Lauren for another ladies lunch. Lauren hosted this time and unfortunately Jenn and Katie couldn't make it, which was a huge bummer. The four of us ate a delicious brunch, starting with Colleen's chicken salad:


... that we made into mini sandwiches. Brooke brought a yummy tortellini pasta salad:


... with tortellini, olives, roasted red peppers, mozzarella and artichokes in a tomato vinaigrette. I decided to try to replicate a salad I love at a local restaurant and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I combined mixed greens with mixed fruit (cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple and orange), blue cheese and walnuts:


... tossed with a homemade roasted tomato vinaigrette. Lauren, our gracious host, made delicious French toast stuffed with cream cheese, chocolate and sliced strawberries:


... topped with more strawberries and powdered sugar. Here's my plate on round one:


... and my side plate with a serving of the French toast:


I had two servings of everything, it was all so good. As always, we had a great time and I can't wait for the next lunch. Thanks for a great afternoon, ladies!

French Toast

Christmas Eve morning was hectic. We hadn't canned the sauce yet and we still had more cookies to make, so breakfast needed to be even simpler than breakfast sandwiches. We had milk, eggs and bread so I made some French toast:


I mix a few eggs with some milk and a little cinnamon. This time I snuck in some nutmeg as well. A quick cook in some butter on the griddle pan and breakfast was served. They were so good I ate mine without any syrup, just a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

Breakfast and Lunch

In between doing housework (OK, let's be honest, SP was doing all the work while I "supervised" from the couch) I made us some breakfast and lunch. For breakfast I made French toast with bananas:


I sliced the bananas and cooked them in a pan with some butter, sugar and cinnamon until they were tender and starting to brown. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and I could only eat two pieces of this incredibly rich breakfast.

When lunchtime rolled around SP was in the middle of painting the trim in our foyer so we needed to do something quick at home. We didn't have much on hand so I made tuna melts and homemade potato chips:



... using my buddy D's old Fry Baby that she sent us months and months ago. SP ended up taking over the potato chip making while I finished the sandwiches and he said he loves the fryer, although it is on the small side and necessitated multiple batches to fry all the chips.


For the tuna melts I made the tuna using a little herbes de provence and SP was a huge fan. A very satisfying lunch indeed!