Sunday Morning Brunch: Pecan-crusted French Toast

Happy Sunday! Weekends offer an opportunity for a more substantial breakfast opportunity. So, here it is, a weekend, and I want to make french toast with the bread that is leftover from this week's lunchbox sandwiches. I'm not talkin' "it sat in the lunch box" bread. I'm talkin' 1/3 of a loaf of potato bread from 10 year old's lunches, and 1/3 of a loaf of whole wheat bread from 14 year old's lunches. No, we can't all eat the same bread. That would be too easy and cooperative.

So, Pecan-crusted French Toast, SBK page 22 was the answer. Thanks to my summer-time staples shopping, I had all the ingredients, along with my leftover bread. I did a little clandestine preparation before the boys woke up so that I would be ready with hot french toast when the tummies arrived in the kitchen. According to my kids, starvation is always around the corner, so I have to be ready to end world hunger at a moment's notice or they will dive into the popsicles or cheese sticks.

Anyway, if you read the recipe, it calls for adding garbanzo flour and cornstarch to the rice/soy milk. Why? Not sure, but maybe it is to add some body to the milk. You can definitely taste the garbanzo flour in the final product, especially if you go light on the syrup. (So, go heavy on the syrup!)

Cooking: SBK says that it is difficult to get the pecans to stick to the french toast, but actually if you chop the heck out of them, it isn't so tough. I bought chopped pecans and then beat them to a pulp in my Pampered Chef chopper. They clung to the soaked bread so well that I had to add a few extra pecans to cover the last piece.

I cooked the french toast on an electric fry pan. 7 slices fit in one batch and the coconut oil helped the pecans brown nicely without burning.

Results: Dense, flavorful french toast that was heavenly! Oh man, so worth the calories for mom! 10 year old ate one piece and was full. It is really filling. 14 year old ate two pieces and then followed it with a blender full of strawberry-peach smoothie. He will never be full. Dad didn't comment because he is on the golf course.

I would make this again for Sunday brunch! It would be good with a side of veggie sausages and some fruit salad. In our house, I do the grocery shopping on Sunday morning, so the fruit bowl was empty this morning, and I didn't bother with the sausages.

Counting pennies? Affordable. Using leftover bread from the week is always a frugal and good choice. Sometimes I make croutons for salad, sometimes breadcrumbs, but this was a really yummy way to use up bread. I used real maple syrup, but you may remember that my boys like Lite syrup, so they used that. Fine, it is cheaper. Pecans are expensive, but you only use 1 cup which means you have another cup for use in another recipe. Put the pecans in the freezer to keep them for a long time.