Baked Banana Bread French Toast

Now that you have the recipe for my banana bread you can make baked banana bread french toast! At first Mark was iffy about using banana bread as the base, but after one bite he became a believer.

Getting my bread sliced

Ready for the oven

Time to dig in

This was a great breakfast: a comfort dish without being too hard on the body.

And that banana bread? Gets better and better every time I take a bite.

Baked Banana Bread French Toast

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

4 slices banana bread

1 egg + 1 egg white

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

dash of salt

Directions:

The night before, leave the bread out to get stale.

The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl big enough to hold everything mix together eggs & egg whites, milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt.

Break apart banana bread into bite size pieces and submerge in egg mixture; set aside.

In a small dish melt butter and mix in brown sugar.

Spray two 1-cup ramekins with cooking spray.

Pour banana bread batter evenly into ramekins and pour brown sugar mixture on top.

Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot with toppings of choice.

Enjoy :)

Banana Bread - As Healthy As I Ever Want It

This past weekend Mark and I were craving french toast but were fresh out of bread. This caused a major conflict for us because we try to only go to the grocery store twice a week, once on Sunday for weekly shopping and once on Wednesday to restock our empty apple inventory... it was Saturday. For normal people just making a loaf of bread to use would probably be an option and a delicious problem solver, but unfortunately I have yet to master the skill of working with yeast. I don't know what it is but nothing ever turns out when I try using yeast. A bread making class is in my future. In the meantime I must get a little creative (or so I think until I do a google search).

Regardless, we ended up happy and with french toast on Sunday morning.

I decided to make a healthified banana bread and use it as the french toast base. Now, I'm not crazy enough to think that lowering the amount of oil and replacing the sugar with honey makes banana bread something I can eat and eat, we wanted a comfort food breakfast and thats what we had. However, in terms of calories and added sugar this recipe is much lower than most while still being tasty (a slice of this has about 100 calories while a slice of Starbucks banana bread has almost 500!). So take it for what you will and remember healthier versions of your favorite treats are still treats and enjoy them accordingly.

Steps off soapbox.

Getting back to this banana bread: I used less sweetener because I made it with very ripe bananas, cut the oil down to just 2 teaspoons, and used half whole wheat/half all-purpose flour. The result was a soft, moist bread that tasted sweet enough to be a dessert and light enough for a snack. It was perfect for the baked french toast I made the next morning (recipe here).

The eggs were for the french toast, not the bread

Yum!

Topped with butter and honey

As for the leftovers? They will be used as peanut butter and jelly sandwich bread for a post workout snack shortly!

Yum.

Banana Bread - As "Healthy" As I Ever Want It

Makes 1 loaf,
Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour (I did 1/2 WW and 1/2 all purpose)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

1/4 teaspoon salt

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup honey (I used a little less)

2 teaspoons oil (coconut or canola)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a smaller bowl mix together mashed bananas, applesauce, honey, oil, and vanilla.

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir well to combine.

Lightly spray a 9" by 4" loaf pan with cooking spray.

Pour batter into pan and place in preheated oven.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Enjoy :)