Frugal weekend/French Toast Casserole Recipe
November 24th, 2008 at 03:23 amFrugal list for the weekend:
1. Breakfast leftover recipe from below, frozen and reheated in microwave both Saturday and Sunday.
2. Homemade chicken soup made from leftover roast chicken carcass, carrots, potatoes, the last of the celery, onion and swiss chard from my mother's garden (2 day process).
3. DH trimmed my hair this morning.
4. I did my own waxing...
5. Rented 3/$3.00 movies that are not new releases, but we had not seen.
6. Bought a can of frozen OJ instead of a carton.
7. Received a $3.00 off coupon for next Safeway visit when buying #6. Promptly went in and used it to buy a 4-pack of Skinny Cow cones that I passed up when buying the OJ because I thought they were too expensive, $4.50 down to $1.50! Usually I forget I have a coupon so glad I went right back in and used it.
8. DH split a pack of turkey lunch meat from Costco and vacuumed sealed the second package so it would not go bad before we ate it up.
9. Spent $20.00 on a turkey for Thanksgiving which is what we are contributing towards family dinner at the in-laws.
10. Had steak, roasted rosemary potatoes and carrots/cauliflower for dinner with enough steak leftover for tomorrow. Steak from freezer.
11. Treated doggies with Frontline bought on line for way cheap in bulk that we drew up in a syringe ourselves.
French Toast Casserole (great for making the night before Thanksgiving or Christmas for easy pop in the oven breakfast).
1 pound italian/french bread cut in cubes
8 ounces cream cheese (I use that low fat neufatschel cheese)
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional (I would use almonds if using almond extract, but have not tried it)
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Place 1/2 of bread cubes in 9 x 13 greased pan. Microwave cream cheese until melted. Stir in half of the sugar and the extract. Pour this mixture over the bread cubes (or dab it around). Sprinkle nuts over cheese layer. Top with remaining cubes of bread. Beat the eggs, milk, cinnamon and melted butter. Pour over bread cubes. Let sit overnight in fridge or freeze at this point. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Serve with syrup, fruit or powdered sugar.
NOTE: If frozen, take out of freezer night before, then bake as usual. Leftovers also freeze well, reheating in microwave in individual squares.
Enjoy!