Easy Autumn Breakfasts! French Toasts, Pancakes and Waffles

I told you all last week that I'd post a great Pumpkin French Toast recipe, sorry I couldn't do it. Soooo instead of just one, I have 3 recipes for you!!! I love y'all.

First up: Pumpkin French Toast. I found a pin on the ever so great Pinterest for Pumpkin French toast. How easy is that? Made some for my son's breakfast and he DEVOURED it!



Ingredients
About 4-6 slices if bread- your preference-whole-wheat or white
1/2 cup milk (almond, dairy, soy- i used vanilla soy milk)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
3 tablespoon of sweetener of choice- (I used maple syrup)
1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spices (or a 1/2 tsp worth of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves)
a pat of butter or coconut oil (for that brown flavorful crust!)
A pinch of salt

Directions:
Allow bread to dry out on a plate overnight.
The next morning, or whenever you make this, mix all ingredients except for the butter/coconut oil and the bread. Pre-heat skillet or griddle to medium heat. One piece of bread at a time, soak the bread in the pumpkin mixture per side until the bread feels slightly spongy. Cook in skillet for about 3 minutes per side. If you're making a lot, preheat oven to about 100C-200F and add the  cooked french toast to a sheet pan or any oven-proof dish. Repeat until you're done! Top with whatever you please! We topped with maple syrup. I also love fruits, or confectioner's sugar!


Next, these are pumpkin pancakes I made using annie eats recipe. I added pecans, and just used 3/4 cup of whole wheat white flour from King Arthur's Flour. HEAVENLY and it freezes quite well!!!



Last but not least, my favorite recipe from this weekend- Sweet Potato Waffles with Homemade Blueberry Glaze!!! YUMMM! Found this recipe from the Mayo Clinic. I Made a few changes to my taste. Enjoyed by all!

Ingredients

For the syrup
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
6 tablespoon honey
Pinch of ground cinnamon

1/3 cup peeled and diced sweet potato, or 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup 1% milk (or any milk of you choice)
2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
Directions

To make the syrup, in a saucepan, combine the blueberries, lemon juice and zest, honey, , and cloves. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the berries burst and the juices are slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Frozen berries may take slightly longer to thicken. Set aside and keep warm.

If using sweet potato, bring a small saucepan half full of water to a boil. Add the sweet potato, return to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until very tender, about 10 minutes.  (I roasted a large sweet potato for 45 minutes)  Drain and puree in a food processor or mash with a potato masher until smooth. Set aside. If using pumpkin puree, reserve.

In a small bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, sweet potato puree, coconut oil, egg brown sugar. Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined.

Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 225 F. Preheat a waffle iron. Spoon or ladle about 1/2 cup batter into the waffle iron, depending on the size of the iron. Spread evenly and cook according to the manufacturer's instructions. If the batter thickens, thin with a little soy milk. Transfer the waffle to the baking sheet in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter to make 6 waffles. Serve topped with the syrup.

ENJOY!!!!!

Banana and Cream Cheese Filled French Toast Waffles! Whoa.

Dude(ttes), I am not joking. I first read about this after I clicked Bobby Flay's link on Twitter. It said: "didn't/ see/already recycled yesterday's Parade Mag? (cont)" It made me giggle as there are a lot of jokes about Parade Magazine. But I really miss it, it has some great articles and comics! Along with the awesomeness of Parade Magazine, it had a recipe for the yummy looking Waffle/French toasts! My children's favorite breakfasts are waffles and French toast, so I HAD to give them a shot. My husband was away last night, so what a perfect time to have breakfast for dinner!

I used bananas and cream cheese, because that's what I had on hand. I had peanut butter, but I wanted something a bit different.  I used some bananas I froze, and  it gave the cream a thicker texture than unfrozen bananas would, I believe. And it added the perfect touch of sweetness.

 Biting into one of these is like a present for the soul. You get the sweet crunchiness of the bread, and then you are hit the smooth, sweet cream cheese mixture. I am definitely making this again!

I made this with Bacon, but do what you want. I LOVE Bacon. In fact, I capitalize the "B" in Bacon because Bacon is that important to me. And I put it in the oven for 10 minutes on 400F and it's perfectly crunchy and I am not covered in Bacon grease pop burns (not so sexy).

Recipe

Banana-Cream Cheese Filled French Toast Waffles

or try Bobby Flay's orginal version here!

French Toast Batter:

8 stale slices of whole-wheat bread

4 eggs

3/4 cup of milk

2 tablespoons of sugar

1/4 tsp orange extract (or use 1 teaspoon of orange zest)

1/4 tsp of  cinnamon

pinch of salt

Banana -Cream Cheese Filling

1 banana, chopped (i used frozen)

6 tablespoons of cream cheese (full fat or neufchatel) 

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

pinch of cinnamon

a little orange extract

Directions

Heat your waffle iron on medium

Put all ingredients for filling in a blender and blend baby!

Pulse for about 5-10 seconds. don't want it too thin!

Now put that in the fridge and start your French toast batter.

Add all the ingredients for the French toast batter EXCEPT the bread. Stir up nice and gently.

Now, get that cream cheese out of the fridge and slab some cream cheese on the bread and make a cream cheese sandwich. Resist the temptation to eat it right then and there are keep making sandwiches.

Dip a sandwich one at a time into the batter,

then place in waffle iron. 

Cook until waffles/toasts are all cooked. And voila! Easy, yeah?

 I used powdered sugar on mine but the kids preferred maple syrup. Use whatever your heart desire. Bobby used an amazing looking mixed berry sauce. I would have if I had some berries on hand. But this recipe is a great fridge/pantry cleaner upper ;) Hope you all try this or make it your own!