skillet baked french toast

Wow, I haven't posted in quite a while.  I wish I had some exciting reason for being so absent, but, alas, I do not.  I have been tired and, quite frankly, lazy.  For some reason, the kids have decided to wake up anywhere between 2 and 4 almost every morning, alternating between the two.  It's almost as if they have coordinated their schedules..  Bad dreams, puke, wind, no clothes, twisted clothes, too many clothes, and my personal favorite "I just love you so much I need to be closer to you".  At 3 in the morning....

It has been cold, and then warm, and then cold, and then VERY cold.  I have been cold weather nesting (which is code for sitting in front of the fireplace and playing games with the fam), and if that's not enough to keep me from posting, get this:  my tripod has been ALL the way in the other part of the house.  A whole THREE rooms away, if you can imagine..

So I'm sure that you understand my not being able to post.  I am happy to say though, that I have indeed made some stellar meals: sushi, beef barley stew, chicken noodle soup, asparagus and mushroom risotto, chicken and waffles, roasted chicken and veg...  The list goes on and on.  And last night, all of this culinary deliciousness culminated in my grandest, most adventurous masterpiece of all time:  buttered egg noodles, with sides of bacon and peas.

Too bad I didn't take pictures of that one, huh.

But fret not, this is well worth the wait.  Skillet baked french toast.

I wanted to use up the last of an almost stale challah loaf and an almost stale whole wheat loaf and baked french toast seemed like a great answer.  The problem though, is that almost every recipe I found asked that the bread be soaked overnight.  I am not an overnight soaker kind of person.

Let me rephrase that.  I am not that organized, to have breakfast planned the night before.

My other concern was that I didn't want to spend 45 minutes making breakfast, since many of those recipes took that long to cook.  My answer?  Pull out the skillet.

I absolutely love my skillet.  And I mean L O V E.  My skillet is a permanent fixture on the stovetop.  I use it almost every day, making everything from pancakes to filets to chicken tenders to lamb to fried eggs to fish to croutons to anything that needs a beautiful sear.  I use it on the stove, I use it in the oven.  I use it on the stove and THEN in the oven.  I love my skillet.

So back to the french toast....  

I decided to put that skillet to good use, and what good use it was!!!  It gave the bottom a delicate, delicious, golden crust which was exactly what I was looking for.  And the best part?  It only took 15 minutes in the oven.  Perfect.

skillet baked french toast

4-6 pieces of bread, cut or torn into bite size pieces

4-6 eggs (I usually use one egg per piece of bread, if that wasn't obvious...)

1/2 c. vanilla almond milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs Earth balance dairy free butter

topping:

1/4 c. oats (not quick cooking or steel cut)

1/4 c. flour, whichever kind you like

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 tbs Earth balance dairy free butter

Preheat the oven to 400˚F.

In a bowl or large plate, combine the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.  Dump in the bread, and stir to coat.  Leave the bread in the bowl, stirring every once in a while, so the bread really soaks up the liquid.

Heat the skillet over medium to medium high heat.  While the skillet is heating, combine the topping ingredients in another bowl until crumbly, and set aside.

When the skillet is hot, melt 1 tbs of butter.  Once the butter is melted and has stopped sizzling, swirl it around the pan to coat.  Pour the bread into the skillet, and spread it around so that the bottom of the skillet is covered.  Sprinkle the topping on the bread, and at this point, the oven should be preheated, so stick the skillet in. If the oven is not yet to temp, turn off the skillet heat after you sprinkle on the topping.  The skillet will still be hot, but it won't have that added heat which may burn the bottom of the bread.

Bake, uncovered, for about 15 minutes, or until the top is bubbling and golden.

Bon appetit!

oatmeal and bananas

This morning, like so many others, I found my sleep deprived pre-coffee self struggling with what to feed my monkeys.  Normally, well I should say on school mornings, my daughter sleeps in.  This leaves me plenty of time to quietly and peacefully make french toast, scrambled eggs, pancakes, or other nourishing healthy breakfasts with enough time before school.

On the weekends, however, my daughter wakes up at the crack of dawn.  Forget for a moment that last night, my husband and I went out to see an old friend's band have their first show together in 15 years.  Forget that we didn't pick up the kids from grandma's until midnight.  The kids had fallen asleep at 930, but they both woke up after midnight.  If that had happened on a school day, she would have been impossible to wake up.  But it being Sunday, she woke up at 630.

When the kids wake up before I do, making a good breakfast is a bit more difficult.  They are hungry.  And trying to make a good breakfast while both kids are wide awake and hyper and whining and jumping on the couch and pointing scissors at each other just doesn't work for me.  Those are the days when they get cereal or toast, or even a spoon of peanut butter and peach cup, but I do try to get in as many healthy breakfasts as I can.

This morning, as I had mentioned before, was a crack of dawn morning.  But fortunately, my son was still asleep.  Those days aren't so bad.  My daughter usually is more reliable when she is running around solo.  Unfortunately, I had only gotten 5 hours of sleep, my head was thick from the previous night's whiskey (that's right- the ONE whiskey gave me a hangover), it was pre-coffee, and my eyes were struggling to stay open.  That's when I found the oats.

In my September Savorfull box, I received a bag of Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats, and that made for the perfect Sunday morning breakfast.  Oatmeal is so easy to make.  For three servings, put three cups of water to boil, add one cup of the steel cut oats, give it a stir, set the heat to low, and simmer away for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Voila!  Easy peasy.  While it was cooking, and instead of taking a nap which would have been just way too irresponsible......  I found a banana.

I used to sauté bananas almost every day.  Mm mmm.  Just heat up some butter on medium high to high heat (or dairy free butter over here), slice up a banana into the sizzling butter, sprinkle on some cinnamon, and with a flick of the wrist, flip the pan to coat and stir the bananas.  We have these great eco-friendly nonstick pans that are very lightweight- I bought them from Target a few years ago and I L O V E them.  I always feel like such a pro when I flip the food around in those pans....

Anyway, I like to let the bananas sit for a spell in the hot butter so that the edges get nice and crispy.  You want to take them out before they get mushy- it only takes about 3 to 5 minutes.  The bananas pictured here were cooked in a pan that wasn't quite hot enough, and I didn't take them off soon enough.  So they got a bit mushy.  But they were so beautifully carmelized and delicious, it really didn't matter at all!

oatmeal fluffs

These cookies are soft, chewy, and in a word, delightful.  But really though, oatmeal cookies with homemade marshmallow fluff?  What could be better than that....

for the cookies:

3/4 c. soy butter softened                             1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. packed brown sugar                           1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c. granulated sugar                                 1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs                                                           1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla                                                  3 c. quick cooking oats

for the fluff:

3 egg whites
1 1/2 c. light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs vanilla
2 c. confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 350

Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until creamy either in bowl of electric mixer or with hand mixer.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and mix well.  Add to the butter mixture a bit at a time and mix well after each addition.  Add the oats and mix well.  Drop dough on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes or until set and browned around the edges.

While the cookies are in the oven, make the marshmallow filling.  Combine the egg whites, corn syrup, and salt.  Beat at high speed until thick, about 5-10 minutes.  Add the sugar a bit at a time, and mix well after each addition.  Add the vanilla and mix well.  (This actually makes a lot of fluff, but it does freeze well.  Just remember to stir with a spoon before you use it again.)

After the cookies have cooled, I find it a good idea to match up similarly sized cookies for the sandwiches.  You don't want a loppy cookie, as the marshmallow is very sticky and it takes a little while for it to set.  Put about a teaspoon of fluff on one cookie, and top it with another. Easy as that!