Before you entertain visions of thick sliced bakery bread cleverly slit open and stuffed with a fluffy, cheesy, sweet cloud of decadence … hold it right there. We are going in an entirely different direction.
Think yummy, eggy French toast topped with savory goodness.
Think making it the night before, if you wish, so there’s only the baking to be done the next morning.
Think enjoying the leftovers the next day with no effort!!!
Yes!
Best of all, it’s a ‘concept recipe’ that’s easily adaptable to ingredients on hand.
We’ve developed a saying at home to describe using the last dab of anything. We call it ‘community service.’
We are performing an act of community service when we eat that last piece of cheese, drink that last half-glass of kombucha from the bottle, or heat up that half-bowl of soup languishing in the refrigerator.
When preparing this week’s version of Stuffed French Toast, I used the last four okra, looking for a home. The week before, there were a few seasoned oven-roasted potato wedges that were put to good use.
As you look over this concept recipe, imagine how you might adapt the ingredients to what you have on hand.
Stuffed French Toast
Grease a baking dish sized to fit a single layer of the bread component.
Place slices of bread at the bottom of the dish to cover the entire area. Sourdough is our bread of choice.
In a sauté pan, crumble and cook ground breakfast sausage. For a square 8–9-inch glass pan, I used 1/2-pound ground sausage.
When the sausage is almost cooked, add some diced onion, maybe bell pepper, mushrooms, fresh okra (oh, yes!), cut up leftover roasted or baked potatoes, or anything else that suits you and might assist in community service.
Continue to cook and brown the mixture until the sausage is cooked, the onion becomes translucent, and the veggies begin to brown.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk eggs, a dollop of heavy cream (half and half will do, but the heavy cream is the yummiest – having said that, you can ‘thin’ the heavy cream with water if more fluid is needed). Season with salt and pepper. For the square baking dish, I used six eggs.
Spread the sausage and vegetable mixture over the bread layer. If desired, sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top.
At this point, you can cover and refrigerate this overnight or put it into a preheated 350-degree oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
Download the recipe here:
The square pan made four servings – two for now and two for later! I left it in the oven a few minutes too long and things got a bit browner than I had wanted, but we both agreed that it was a yummy breakfast!
Now, that’s community service in the kitchen at its finest!
In health –
Deidre
Next week, I will post the results of my following my own advice: how I found energy and a mindset that changed the path of my day. Make sure to subscribe to foodtalk4you so you will not miss a single post delivered directly to your in-box Tuesday mornings!