Restaurant Style-Fluffy Banana French Toast

I love French Toast, but I'm not so much a fan of soggy bread or of slimy messes. Bleh.  Plus, there is always a debate on which type of bread you need to buy in order to make it thick and delicious.  Would you believe it if I told you that I have found a way to make cheap store brand wheat bread taste amazing as french toast?

I stumbled upon a recipe on Allrecipes.com that I knew I needed to not only make food storage friendly, but also more flavorful.  I think you will all agree that this recipe ROCKS! I know that the batter doesn't look super appealing, but I wanted to post a picture so that way when you are making it and say, oh no what did I do wrong, you'll know its supposed to look that way!

This is a double batch so I made it in a 9x13 pan.

My kids went through piece after piece the first time I made this recipe.  As if that wasn't good enough.... another thing that sets this recipe apart as a stand out recipe is that it freezes or refrigerates well.  Yep, you can be super mom just by having a 'Gimme my Eggo' quickness, but have a healthy filling breakfast rather than store bought waffles.  After making a large batch of these, just get a cookie sheet and lay pieces of French Toast flat on the cookie sheet and freeze them for about an hour.  Stick them in a freezer bag, label and date them and you are all set.  These should last in the freezer for a few months, although I haven't ever been able to get them to last that long because my family goes through these like crazy.  To reheat, just stick them in the toaster, microwave or oven.  They're not fickle.

They can be served with whatever your topping of choice may be. My son prefers "regular brown syrup" with these, but I like to make an easy go-to fruit syrup. Just spreading butter with sprinkled powdered sugar is also a hit.  On special occasions we like to do a fruit syrup, cut up fresh bananas and berries and top it with whipped cream. Yum.

Can you see the texture. Super thick but not soggy.  Perfect.

When we need to eat on the run, I will cut the toast into 3 strips and make little French Toast Dippers and give my kiddos a tiny cup of syrup that into which they can dip the "Dippers".

Enjoy!

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Restaurant Style: Fluffy Banana French Toast

Ingredients:

2 c Water                                                   

3 T THRIVE Instant Milk                 11/2 t Vanilla

1 c Flour  (I use whole wheat flour)   Pinch of Salt

1/2 c THRIVE Egg Powder              2 T Sugar

1/2 c THRIVE FD Bananas              1 t Cinnamon

16-20 Slices of Bread                     
 2 Dashes of Nutmeg & Clove

Directions:

Crush bananas (or food process) into powder. Empty into an 8x8 dish.  Add remaining dry ingredients (Instant Milk powder, four, egg powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, clove, sugar). Whisk powders together then add water in slowly. Add vanilla.  Mix should be THICK! Heat up skillet, spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Dip each side of bread in mix then cook on skillet.

Mix it up!  I like to add coconut extra instead of vanilla and it is FANTASTIC! Instead of putting cinnamon in the mix, many times I will leave it out, then sprinkle it onto the individual pieces of toast as they are cooking on the skillet.

Don't have food storage, but you want to give it a try?

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Original Recipe:

1/4 c flour                  1/2 t cinnamon

1 c milk                      1 t vanilla

1 pinch salt                 1 T sugar

3 eggs                        12 slices of bread

Slowly whisk milk into flour in a mixing bowl.  Whisk in remaining ingredients until smooth.  Mix before dipping each slice of bread.

The way I did it:

1 banana, mashed       1 T sugar

1/4 c flour                   1 t coconut extract

1 c milk                      1 dash nutmeg

1 pinch salt                 1 dash cloves

3 eggs                        12 slices of bread

           cinnamon shaker

Mash banana in an 8x8 mixing dish. Slowly whisk milk into flour in a mixing bowl.  Whisk in remaining ingredients except cinnamon until smooth.  Add ingredients to banana in 8x8 mixing dishes.  Mix before dipping each slice of bread. While cooking on skillet, sprinkle each individual piece of toast with cinnamon.

Have you been thinking about joining the Q Club?  For the month of April, I will be sending each person who signs up with a $100 Q a free THRIVE Cookbook which retails for$24.99 or can be bought at a factory direct price for $14.95 on my website.

To check out our April Specials, click here.  If you are a Q Club member, make sure to log in so you get the additional discounts.

The Kitchen Mill and Whole Wheat Bread that you just can't get enough of? You Bet!

Day 7- of the 30 Days of Faves

This baby is the Kitchen Mill Wheat Grinder.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  I use it once a month and grind up a bunch of wheat at once, then freeze the wheat in freezer bags to keep those healthy oils fresh.  For anyone who loves fresh, healthy, straight from the source food, this is a dream.  You simply pour wheat in at the top, flip the switch to how fine you want the flour and let it work its magic.  There are a lot of grinders out there that you have to clean a certain way because of the natural oils in wheat corrode the parts, but not so with this one.  If you are new to the idea of wheat flour, you might be surprised to know that white flour comes from the same grain, it is just wheat flour stripped of all of the healthy nutrients so it is a cheaper alternative for companies for use in their products.  To learn more about the differences between white and wheat flour you can visit this site.

I will be doing some video clips for YouTube over the next few days for recipes that I use because I have this awesome tool.  I love that I was able to earn it for half price, and you can too-just ask how!  If you are someone who has tons of wheat for food storage without a clue of how to use them, stay tuned and I will help you learn how.  We'll start with this recipe for today!

Below is my favorite 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe that I make in my bread machine a couple times each week.  This is perfect for all of you out there who feel like you don't know how to make bread or don't think you have the time, but would love bread with out all of the yucky preservatives.  This came from my Breadman Recipe Manual.

100% Whole Wheat Bread 1 Lb Loaf

1 Egg, room temperature plus enough water to equal  3/4 c

2 T Oil

2 TSugar

1 t Salt

2 1/4 c Whole Wheat Flour

1 T Vital Wheat Gluten

1 1/2 t Active Dry Yeast

or 1 t Bread Machine/Quick Rise Yeast

100% Whole Wheat Bread 1.5 Lb Loaf

1 Egg, room temperature plus enough water to equal  1 c

3 T Oil

3 T Sugar

1 1/2 t Salt

3 Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 T Vital Wheat Gluten

2 t Active Dry Yeast

or 1 1/4 Bread Machine/Quick Rise Yeast

100% Whole Wheat Bread 2 Lb Loaf

1 Egg, room temperature plus enough water to equal  1 1/3 c

1/4 c Oil

1/4 c Sugar

2 t Salt

4 c Whole Wheat Flour

2 T Vital Wheat Gluten

1 1/2 t Active Dry Yeast

or Bread Machine/Quick Rise Yeast

Note: I do the 2 lb loaf and I also add 1 t of dough enhancer.  Many people say that wheat bread turns out dense for them.  Gluten and dough enhancer are the magic that make your bread fluffy and moist.  To learn more about why these are important you can go to this independent site.

Not ready to make the plunge for an electric wheat grinder or are you looking for one that you can use in case there was an emergency and you had 0 electricity....here's an alternative, the Grain Mill Wheat Grinder.  Please note that anyone who has used a manual wheat grinder can attest to the fact that they are a lot more work.

If you like this post, you might also like Artisan Bread in 5 minutes.

To get this or any other product at rock bottom prices that even Costco can't beat, please email me with the subject line saying Shelf Reliance Discount Page or visit www.shelfreliancemom.shelfreliance.com/home.