Sunday Morning Breakfast in a Big Family

What do you do for weekend breakfasts?

Saturday is the one time a week we fall back on cold cereal. Not every Saturday, but often enough the children look forward to Saturdays! The Mr. and I sleep in on cereal mornings, and the children help one another to cereal and pre-approved videos. Everybody's happy!

I like Sunday morning to be relaxed, leisurely, easy, no heavy thinking... and I want our breakfast together to be a treat, something yummy that you don't have just everyday.  Oh, and it has to be somewhat inexpensive. My solution?

Overnight French Toast.

It's so easy... toss a few ingredients in a pan sometime Saturday evening before I go to bed, cover it and stick it into the fridge. In the morning, preheat the oven, pop the pan in, wake up little people to dress and snuggle, and then belly up to the table to eat something delish!

The ingredients are basic, and, for a treat, inexpensive. A loaf of bread, a carton of eggs, some flour, sugar and vanilla... the most expensive parts are a box of cream cheese and some frozen fruit.

Sounds like success to me!

The recipe, you ask? Here ya go:

(serves 4-6)
(we double this for our family of 10)

12 slices bread, torn into bite-size pieces
8 oz block cream cheese, in approximately 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup frozen fruit (we use either blueberries or strawberries)
8 eggs, beaten
1/3 c flour
1/2 c sugar (omit if you want to use syrup)
1 tsp vanilla

The night before:
Grease a 9x13 glass casserole. Tear 12 slices of bread into bite size pieces and drop into greased dish. Scatter cubes of cream cheese throughout. Distribute frozen fruit evenly over bread and cream cheese. In a separate bowl, beat 8 eggs, then mix in 1/3 c flour and 1 tsp vanilla. I add 1/2 c sugar because syrup at our table (7 kids ages 10 and under) is NOT "relaxed, leisurely, easy, no heavy thinking..." If you'd like to pour syrup on yours at the table, skip the sugar here. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the bread mixture, cover the pan, and stick it in the fridge.

In the morning:
Preheat the over to 400*F, uncover the pan, and slide it right into the oven. Set a timer for about 22 minutes, and go snuggle someone awake. When your timer goes off, check the middle of the pan: you don't want it all wet and gooey. Bake it until it's dry /set in the middle, pull it out, and serve it up!

Perfectly complimented by hot tea or coffee.

Enjoy!