This is the 3rd post in my series of posts on healthy breakfasts over at In The Know Mom.

The more I do breakfast, the more I realise I absolutely LOOOVE breakfast! I think I could easily do a hundred posts on that subject and still, I wouldn’t run out of ideas or get fed up talking about it…

A couple of weeks ago, I fell on a picture which lead me to this recipe and thought OMG, I soooooo have to make a healthy version of that. Not that the original was entirely bad, but I still felt I needed to clean it up some.

To make this one, you cannot be in a hurry. This is a food of love kind of breakfast. It is one that is best prepared for a nice family breakfast on a week-end day when it’s cold and rainy outside and you need some sort of a picker upper. This last Sunday was EXACTLY that kind of day where I live. As well as Saturday! Oh, and Friday… We’ve been having such crappy weather lately, it’s not even funny. But that’s beside the point. I’m getting way off track here.

Back to French Toast. The ” normal” version that we are used to seeing is nothing but plain white bread, soaked in eggs, milk and sugar, often cooked in loads of butter then drenched in maple syrup. Sure, it tastes awfully good! But it’s not exactly what I would call good for you.

This version here not only tastes absolutely fantastic, it’s also incredibly good for you. The key is to start with good, wholesome bread (I chose to use a sprouted seeds and whole grain bread) and to not go overboard with the honey or maple syrup. Chances are, you won’t feel the need to. The toasts are already sweet and tasty enough as it is!

Seriously, that breakfast was so heavenly, I’m already dreamin’ of trying a raspberry version, and maybe even make a lovely raspberry sauce to go with it. *Sigh*

Makes me wish I could have breakfast at least twice a day! 


Stuffed French Toast
(makes 6 slices)

One good, wholesome loaf of bread

STUFFING

  • ½ cup 1% cottage cheese
  • 2 tbsp chia seeds
  • 40g vanilla protein powder
  • 125g fresh strawberries, cut in half
  • 1-2 large strawberries, diced (to be folded in)

EGG BATTER

  • 3 eggs
  • 1½ cups buttermilk
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tps vanilla
  • Pinch salt

BREADING

  • 40g fresh coconut, grated
  • 60g sliced almonds
  • ¼ cup old fashion oats

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a small food processor, combine the cottage cheese, vanilla protein powder, chia seeds and 120g of strawberries; Process until smooth. Fold the diced strawberries into that mixture. Set aside.
  2. Cut the bread into 6 thick slices (remove the ends first). Make an incision at one end of each piece of bread and create a pocket that goes about 3/4 of the way through. Using a pastry bag, (or a spoon if you don’t have one of those readily available) fill the pockets you’ve just created with the cottage cheese mixture. Refrigerate the stuffed slices while you prepare the batter and breading.
  3. For the egg batter, mix all the ingredients in a shallow baking dish and whisk until well incorporated. Set aside.
    In a sheetpan, mix all the ingredients for the breading and set aside.
  4.  Dip the bread slices in the egg batter making sure to let each side soak for about 45 seconds, and even longer if you can. (*see note) Next, dredge them into the breading mixture.
  5. Put a large non-stick pan on medium-high heat and drizzle with a tiny little bit of olive oil. When pan is hot enough add the stuffed bread slices and brown on each side for 2-3 minutes.
  6. Remove from skillet and serve immediately. Top with a fresh strawberry and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup.

*next time, I will try soaking the slices for an extended time, like 15-20 minutes per side. I would love for my bread to absorb more of that lovely batter, which will hopefully result in a super moist (almost “bread pudding-like”) French toast.