Gotta love those nights

Recently I spoiled my kids (and hubby-he's such a sweet tooth!) with a "breakfast dinner." I fondly recall having those special occasional nights when I was a kid when Mom would make pancakes instead of goulash for supper-yum! The french toast I chose to make this time was a little bit "fancier" than the old standard mom used to make (which was also delicious by its own right), so I decided to share it with you.

First I made the bread to make my toast with. I used an easy 1 hr bread machine recipe that a friend shared with me:

French Bread

(This recipe is for a 1 1/2 lb loaf)

1 C. plus 2 Tbs. Lukewarm water
1 Tbs. Butter
3 C. Bread Flour
1 Tbs. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
3 tsp. Bread Machine Yeast

1. Add liquid ingredients and butter to the bread machine pan.
2. Add dry ingredients, except yeast to pan.
3. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; add yeast.
4. Select 1 hour bread cycle on bread machine (number 12 on my machine)


You'll want to make sure that you bake your bread early enough to have it cool to prepare your french toast. I made my right after lunch so it could cool for preparing for supper. Which brings us to our next recipe.

Tropical French Toast

French Toast:
1 C. Egg Substitute
2 Large eggs (use 4 eggs if you wish to leave out the Egg substitute)
1 C. Coconut Milk
1 C. Milk
1/2 C. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 Loaf of French bread, cut into 16 slices
Cooking spray

Additional Ingredients:
1 Pineapple, peeled, cored, and sliced
Powdered Sugar
Chopped strawberries and/or mangoes (optional)
Lime juice (optional)
Flake Coconut (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine egg substitute and next 6 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stir well with a whisk. Place bread in egg mixture; press down with a spatula to submerge. Let stand for 15 minutes.
3. Arrange soaked bread in a single layer on a 9 by 13 pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and keep warm.
4. While bread is baking, heat a grill pan over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Arrange pineapple slices in pan (cook half now if they won't all fit); cook for minutes on each side or until pineapple begins to brown. Remove from pan; keep warm. Repeat procedure if you still have uncooked pineapples.
5. Arrange toast on plate, top with pineapple and powdered sugar. If you wish you can also top with strawberries and or mangoes with a splash of lime juice and a sprinkling of flaked coconut. (I have even made a fruit compote of these ingredients to go on top, but it really is great on its own.)


I hope you enjoy the recipe. Here's to many more sweet suppers for my family and yours.

What's better than sausage and bread?

Okay-maybe it's not the combination I would have preferred, but since they are both delicious things I have made this week-you're getting a recipe for both of them.

We'll start with the sausage recipe first:

Sausage with Peppers

2-3 large potatoes
Cooking spray
3 tsp. olive oil, divided.
3/4 tsp. salt, divided
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 pkg of turkey smoked sausage
1 pkg frozen peppers/onion blend-Defrosted
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Wash & thickly slice or quarter potatoes. Arrange in a single layer in a roasting pane coated with cooking spray. Drizzle with 1 tsp. oil and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper. Toss to coat. Bake for 40 minutes at 375-turning occasionally.
3. While potatoes cook, slice sausage. Heat 1 tsp. oil in a large (non-stick) skillet over med-high heat. Add sausages to pan, cook for 5-8 minutes or until slightly browned on outside. Remove sausages from pan.
4. Heat 1 tsp. oil in pan. Add pepper/onion blend and saute for about 5 minutes or until cooked through. Add garlic; saute' 1 minute. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of salt, vinegar, rosemary and crushed red pepper. Return sausage to pan, cover and cook over medium-low heat 8 minutes or until sausage is cooked through.


Even my little guy was eating this recipe-so I knew it was a keeper. I'm putting star next to that one in my cooking binder!

My next recipe is for something that I thought was an unachievable goal-a bread that would satisfy my husbands discriminating taste. He always wanted a bread that tastes like the bread on the Arby's market fresh sandwiches. Soft, yet seemingly healthy, and of course delicious, too. Well after many months and recipes a friend shared this recipe with me and according to my hubby-"We have a winner folks!" This bread is so good that on Monday when we were dazedly trying to pack my daughter's lunch and we accidentally sent two pieces of plain bread instead of a sandwich (oops) to school-she came home saying "That was great, Mom-it didn't even need anything on it!"

The Best Bread

1 1/2 C. Hot water
1/3 C. softened butter
1/3 C. Honey
2 tsp. salt
1 egg
2 Tbs. Lecithin (I found mine at GNC vitamin store)
4-4 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 C. ground flax seed
1 Tbs. yeast (add and extra tsp. for hand kneading)

Combine water, oil, honey salt & egg. Add lecithin, half of flour and ground flax seed. Mix thoroughly. Add yeast and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise until double in size. Divide and roll into loaf shape-place in 2 greased loaf pans. Let rise again until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.