Stuffed French Toast

I will admit, I am not a huge fan of French  Toast ... unless it's stuffed with deliciousness!  There are various "filling" options, but I'll share with you my favorite and you can let your imagination go from there.

Gather Your Ingredients:

• 4 oz softened cream cheese
• 10 slices of your favorite french toast making bread (I just use my whole wheat bread)
• 10 slices of shaved black forest ham OR about 2 cups sliced strawberries
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 T sugar
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• cooking oil to keep your griddle or skillet oiled
• your favorite french toast toppings (butter, syrup, powdered sugar, fruit preserves)

Make It:

1. Warm a lightly oiled skillet on about medium-high heat.
2. Spread a thin, even layer of cream cheese on one side of each slice of bread.
3. Build the "sandwiches" by placing two slices of ham or a layer of strawberries between two slice of bread (cream cheese side facing in).
4. In a shallow bowl beat together eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon.
5. Dip each "sandwich" in the egg mixture and then place in the skillet.  Cook on each side until they are nice and golden.  Mine took about 3 minutes per side.  Cooking times and temperatures will vary depending on your stove and cookware.  Re-oil skillet as needed.
6. While still hot, add your favorite toppings!

Orange Dream

This is one of those recipes that you get from a friend who got it from a friend and so on ... My mom made it for dessert at a family dinner once and I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it because I'm not big on orange desserts.  I usually only like oranges on their own.  Once I tasted this dessert, I was hooked!  I changed up the recipe a bit, though.  I know, typical of me to change a recipe!  I'm a rule breaker!  Ha ha!

Gather Your Ingredients:

• 3 oz box orange jello
• 1 c boiling water
• 8 oz cool whip, thawed
• 1 c mini marshmallows
• 1/2 c maraschino cherries
• 11 oz (or 1 cup) mandarin orange slices, drained and halved
• 20   oz (or 1 1/2 cup) crushed pineapple, drained

Make It:

1. Start by mixing the jello powder with the boiling water in a medium mixing bowl.  Chill until it just begins to set up, mine took just under 1 hour in the refrigerator.
2. Stir up the jello to break it in to pieces then stir in all other ingredients.
3. Serve chilled.

Back to School Lunch Solution

This is my second in a series of back to school posts.  This time we're talking about packing school lunches.  Many times I have found myself sending the same thing over and over again because I just don't know what else to send.  I have seen things like this chart before, where you mix and match from various categories to create something.  I have seen it for making smoothies, building sandwiches, creating a skillet dinner using ground meat as the base, creating meatloafs etc.  I think I may have seen one to pack a lunch but I couldn't find it back.  Anyway, I created this chart to print out and hang on the refrigerator.  When you are planning your grocery shopping, pick a few items from each category for that week.  You may want to prep and portion out your fruits and veggies ahead of time ... you may even want to portion out other items like crackers, nuts, etc.  That way, when you are assembling the lunch, half of the work is already done.  Click on the image below to enlarge and then right click to save and print.

*Note:  If you are unsure of any of the items on the list, I can tell you that at least one of my children will eat everything listed and the other will eat almost everything.  Try it at home several times as part of your lunch or dinner.  If they just DO NOT want to eat it, mark through it on the list and add items that are their favorites.