Make-Ahead Meal: Overnight French Toast

I just love a Monday.  Well, let me be more specific.  I just love a Monday when I already made dinner ahead the night before.  Make-ahead meals make me happy in much the same way that crockpot meals make me happy.  I can make them at a time that is more convenient for me, but my family sits down to eat them at dinner time.  I normally prepare crockpot meals after lunch or in the early afternoon, or I may prepare them in the morning, but keep them ready in the fridge to begin cooking later in the day.  Make-ahead meals I usually do the night before (and yes, that might mean making two dinners in one day, but the bonus comes when you don't have to do anything but put the food in the oven the following evening.  In this case, my husband took me out for dinner last night and the babysitter did dinner for my kids, so I only had to make the one meal.)

This meal is another idea I found on Pinterest (here's my pin).  You can view the original recipe here at Rach's Blog if you are interested.  I made only a few minor adjustments in my version.  The original recipe does call for using Texas toast, but I simply used cinnamon swirl bread (2 layers of 6 pieces each=12 pieces of bread total).

Overnight French Toast

Ingredients:
~1 cup melted butter (2 sticks)
~2 cups brown sugar (additional brown sugar to sprinkle between layers)
~12 pieces cinnamon swirl bread
~4 eggs
~1 1/2 cups milk
~2 teaspoons vanilla
~cinnamon
~turbinado sugar

Directions:

Melt butter in microwave and add brown sugar.  Stir until mixed and spread into bottom of 9 x 13 pan.  Beat eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Lay single layer of cinnamon bread in pan.

Spoon 1/2 of egg mixture on bread layer.  Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon before next layer of bread.

Add second layer of cinnamon bread.  Spoon on rest of egg mixture.

I put a pat of butter onto each slice of bread and then sprinkled all with turbinado sugar and more cinnamon.

Cover and chill in fridge overnight.  Uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  We do not eat this with any syrup as it is certainly sweet enough on its own.  I did place each serving on the plate upside down so the brown sugar/butter mixture is right on top.  Yum is really the only word for it.

~nikki

Make Ahead Meal: Apple-Stuffed Strata

Tomorrow night for dinner we will be enjoying another breakfast meal.  I love having breakfast for dinner!  This is a recipe I have made before, and everyone in my family enjoyed it.  It is a meal that you have to make ahead, which to me is really great.  I made it tonight after my daughter was already in bed.  Now it is fully prepared, just waiting to be cooked tomorrow.

Last fall, I gave myself the gift of a magazine subscription (got to love those school fundraisers) to Cooking Light.  This recipe comes from their December 2012 issue, and you can view the original here.

Apple-Stuffed Strata

Ingredients:

~2 teaspoons butter (okay... well, I know this comes from Cooking Light, but I definitely used more than 2 teaspoons... use your own judgment/preference here)
~4 cups sliced peeled apple (recipe called for Golden Delicious, which I used last time... this time I only had Fuji on hand, so Fuji it is)
~6 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
~cooking spray
~12 sliced cinnamon swirl bread, cut in half diagonally (I used Pepperidge Farm)
~3/4 cup chopped pecans, divided
~1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk (again, I didn't have 1% milk this time, so I actually used half skim, and half 2%)
~1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (seriously... only 1/2 teaspoon?  I just couldn't do that... I used about 1 tablespoon, but that's my own preference.)
~5 eggs
~1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (this is also called sugar in the raw, but you can use regular granulated sugar if you want... it's just not quite the same, but that's just me)

Directions:
1. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add apple and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar to pan; saute 8 minutes or until apple is tender and lightly browned.  Remove from heat; cool 5 minutes.

2. Coat an 11 x 7-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray.  Arrange half of bread in dish.  Top with apple mixture; top with 1/2 cup pecans.  Arrange remaining bread over pecans.

3. Combine the remaining 5 tablespoons granulated sugar, milk, cinnamon, and eggs in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Pour milk mixture over bread, pressing down to submerge.  Cover and chill overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Uncover dish.  Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup pecans and turbinado sugar evenly over bread.  Bake for 48 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Full nutrition facts can be found on the magazine's website.  But the basics are that they say it serves 8, with 337 calories per serving.

So I'm a happy Momma tonight, because my family's Monday night dinner is already done!  All I have to do is add the rest of the pecans and my turbinado sugar, and bake this dish.  I'll also be serving some bacon with this, but that will be super easy.

~nikki