Blueberry French Toast Bake

Happy Daylight Savings!
If you celebrated like we did, then you were up too early, and you had nothing to do to fill up those many hours before the rest of the world woke up.
So WE made breakfast! By we, I mean that I hosted a cooking show while my kiddo sat near by rearranging my kitchen drawer.s But we both did eat it - guilty!
Breakfast for us is usually eggs, or something quick. However, in the effort to kill some time and possibly eat breakfast at our normal time, we made a special breakfast.
This was simple, delicious, and well received by all.
*Bonus points for having left overs so you can just heat this up when your kiddo still insists on getting up at the crack of dawn for the remainder of the week.*

What you need:
6oz of your bread of choice (mine was 5 large pieces)
4 Eggs
2 TBSP Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Milk
2 TBSP Yogurt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Blueberries

Two separate bowls
Pie Pan

Let's Get Started:

- In your larger bowl get your bread slices, and cut them into even pieces.

- In your smaller bowl add in your eggs, milk, yogurt, vanilla, cinnamon, and brown sugar, and stir to combine.

- Pour your mixture over the cut up bread and stir to coat the bread evenly. There will be residual mixture that collects at the bottom, and that is ok.

- Pre heat your oven to 350

- While the oven is preheating your bread will be soaking up the egg mixture. Make sure to give the mixture a few stirs while you are waiting. I let it soak for about 20 mins

- After your oven is preheated add in your blueberries. Mine we frozen so it turned my mixture purple, but it didn't change the color of the final outcome.

- Pour your mixture into a greased pie dish and pop it into the oven for 50-60 mins 

- You know your dish is done when the bread is firm and a tooth pick comes out clean 

- Enjoy with some syrup or like us with 2 TBSP peanut butter microwaved with 1 TBSP of honey! Delicious!!

                                                                              

Bread

As a self-proclaimed carboholic (with a conscious), I wanted to let my hungry kiddo enjoy the wonders of bread, but without all the chemicals that plague the modern day loaf.  So I had my mom dig out her old bread machine, which my dad was more than happy to get out of his basement, and I got to work.
Side note: If you don't have a bread machine, you should hit up some garage sales or purge your mother of hers. While it does take forever to get to the final product all you have to do is throw your ingredients in, set it, and forget it. Could there be anything better for a busy family? It's the crock pot of the bread world. Not to mention that your house smells fantastic for hours, and you feel pretty bad-ass when you tell some one that you made your own {delicious} bread!

I found one (ONE - can you believe it?!) baby friendly bread recipe, but it wasn't perfect. The first time I whipped it together, it came out pretty dense. It was well received - so I tried it again. This time I put my spin on it!

This bread has a great sourdough taste, and best of all it freezes really well - so no wasted bread! What can you do with this bread you ask? Anything! So far I've made french toast and grilled cheese! Both huge hits!

French Toast! Sandwich bread dipped in egg with cinnamon

Grilled Cheese with Zucchini - no idea how I achieved such a perfectly golden crust!

Sandwich Bread 

What you need:

Bread Machine
Large Bowl
Small Bowl

3 and 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 Teaspoon Yeast
1 and 1/4 cup Water
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Vinegar

Let's Bake:

- In your large bowl add your 3 and 1/2 cups of flour
- In a small bowl add your yeast and only 1/4 cup water*
*Make sure that this water is warm - I like to run my faucet until the water gets warm enough to keep my fingers in it, but not too hot.
- Let this small bowl sit while you make the rest of the bread, this is letting the yeast proof
- Add the remaining cup of water to your flour
- Add your Olive oil and vinegar
- Add in your proofed yeast
- Mix to combine slightly, just to get all the ingredients together

- Pour dough into the bread machine
- Set your bread machine to a white bread and for a 1-1.5lb loaf

- Now forget it and soon you will have a beautiful bread!

-Enjoy!