casserole

Stuffed French Toast Muffins with Raspberries

January 4, 2017

Every year for Christmas breakfast my mom makes the same things. We have all come to expect her delicious strata and tater tot casserole. My contribution has always been the monkey bread. Of course I am responsible for the sweets!

This year she threw a wrench into the whole plan. Three days before Christmas she said, “why don’t we make something different this year for Christmas breakfast.”

Excuse me, what now? Break tradition??

Part of me was a bit sad to lose some of our Christmas favorites (I mean, what is better than tater tots and cheese?!). But the other part of me (the blogger, baker, recipe experimenter part of me) was excited to try something new! And I am so glad we did because I ended up making a delicious French Toast casserole.

We went through dozens of recipes on Pinterest to find the perfect one and settled on a blueberry french toast casserole, but swapped in raspberries. It was a good first try, but afterwards I was eager to go home and make the recipe my way. And by that, I mean stuffed with cream cheese.

I started by cubing up a loaf of Challah bread. I hands down prefer Challah bread for French toast because its a tad sweeter and so light and fluffy. It’s delicious on it’s own and even better as French toast.

Next I mixed up some eggs, milk, vanilla, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Then I added in all the cubes of bread and gave them a good toss until the bread had completely soaked up all the liquid.

Because I did this the night before, I let the bread sit in the bowl overnight (in the fridge). If you did this the morning of, you could transfer this immediately to a casserole dish or a muffin tin.

Once I was ready to bake my French toast, I took about 3-4 cubes of bread and pressed them into the bottom of a muffin tin. I then topped that layer with pieces of frozen raspberries.

Side Note: When I made this on Christmas Day, I used fresh raspberries, which I nestled in between the cubes of bread. After making this recipe with frozen raspberries, I will never go back! I love that I was able to basically pound them into tiny pieces that I could just sprinkle over top. That way I had little bits of raspberry in every bite. But, if you don’t like raspberries, you can add blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, or just leave them plain! Fine by me!

On top of the raspberry layer I added more cubes of bread. Then I topped everything off with a generous amount of strussel topping. I know it looks messy, but it’s worth it!

The icing on in the cake is the cream cheese filling!

One of the things I thought was missing from the recipe I made on Christmas day was something creamy to off set the soggy bread and crunchy topping. The best approach I could come up with to stuff the stuffed French toast muffins was to just pipe the filling right in there after they had baked.

Using a piping bag with a large round piping tip, I nestled the tip into one of the crevasses between the bread cubes then piped the filling while slowly lifting the piping bag up and out.

If you don’t have a piping bag and tip, you can use a zip top bag and just use a paring knife to help create a seam for the tip of the bag to fit in.

: Raspberry French Toast Muffins

The best way, in my opinion to finish off these stuffed French toast muffins is with a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Because, you know, these muffins need more sugar.

But holy moly they were incredible! Honestly, this version was so much better than the recipe I made on Christmas Day. In large part due to that creamy cream cheese center. But also I loved that the raspberries were interspersed in every bite.

Now, this exact same recipe can be made in a casserole form. If my mom wants to make this recipe again next year, that’s probably what I will do. Instead of piping the cream cheese filling into each muffin, I would pipe it randomly into the casserole using the same method, or thin it down a bit to make a nice cream cheese icing.

But I think the muffins are way more fun and they ensure the perfect bit of French toast every time! A little bit of that crunchy, caramelized edge with the soft and soggy center. Just like your classic French toast!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:112]

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

Cornbread Stuffing and Turkey Bake

November 21, 2016

Ok, let’s clear something up. I realize I have titled this post “Cornbread Stuffing and Turkey Bake”, when most people would not consider this stuffing. It has not been stuffed anywhere. The cornbread and sausage mixture was baked in a baking dish, which most people would consider “dressing”. Who the heck came up with those rules, anyways? Why can’t we all just come together and decide to call it one or the other. And if I have a vote in this proceeding, my vote is for “stuffing”. Dressing sounds like something we should be putting on a salad.

Whatever you call it (I am going to call it stuffing from here on out), I’ll venture to guess that it is one of your favorite Thanksgiving side dishes. It is certainly mine! Which is why I decided to make my husband and I a little pre-Thanksgiving feast that is basically 75% stuffing, and 25% turkey.

My favorite kind of stuffing is cornbread stuffing. One that is slightly soggy, but still has some drier chunks, and loaded with lots of savory vegetables, some sausage, and some slightly sweet fruit, like apples or (in this case) cranberries.

I could literally forgo all other Thanksgiving foods and just eat a plate of stuffing. Okay, maybe I will save some room for green bean casserole. Those little crispy fried onions are delicious!

But I digress…

As for the “turkey” and the “bake” of this cornbread stuffing and turkey bake, I first seared off some large turkey breasts that had been marinating in the same herb mixture I used for the stuffing. Then I just stuffed the turkey right into the stuffing (see what I did there?), so they were almost completely covered.

I find that cooking the stuffing/dressing this way gives you the best of both worlds. You have the stuffing that is directly around the turkey that soaks up all the turkey flavor and stays nice and moist. Then you have then stuffing around the edges of the pan that is drier, and a little bit crispy.

When it comes out of the oven, you basically have your entire Thanksgiving meal in one pan. I should have called this “One Pan Thanksgiving”. Oh well, I’ve already come this far….

This would not only make a delicious Thanksgiving meal for just a small group, but it would also make a great diner for those days when you are just craving some comforting turkey and stuffing. Which for me, is about once a month.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:99]

Southwest Chicken and Rice Casserole

August 24, 2016

Despite my love of cooking, there are just those days where my motivation and inspiration in the kitchen are really lacking. This typically occurs on Wednesday or Thursday when the stress of the work week have just worn me out. On those days, I have to fight the urge to run out and buy dinner (usually something pretty unhealthy) and force myself to make something, even if it’s just baked chicken and vegetables.

This Southwestern chicken and rice casserole was born out of one of those situations. I didn’t want to cook. And I really didn’t want to do dishes. I decided instead to make a quick and easy chicken rice casserole that only required one dish.

In the bottom of a casserole dish, I mixed together rice, chicken stock, sour cream, peppers, onions, and pico de gallo. I topped that off with some chicken breasts seasoned with taco seasoning. I then baked the whole thing in the oven while I snuck in a quick workout.

Don’t you love meals that allow you to multi task!? I sure do!

After the chicken was cooked through, I topped the chicken with some extra pico de gallo and cheese, the popped it back in the oven to get the cheese all melted and delicious.

All that was left after that was to serve it up. My husband and I each served ourselves one chicken breast. But along with the rice, I was full after only eating half a breast. If you want to make this for a larger group, I would recommend cutting each breast in half.

I have officially added this recipe to our list of easy weeknight favorites. It’s one of those recipes that is easy enough to convince me I don’t need to go out to the nearest restaurant, where I will probably make some bad decisions.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:72]

Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Ideas

November 25, 2015

I have a feeling that most of us will have plenty of leftover Thanksgiving turkey on our hands tomorrow. Even if you aren’t hosting or roasting a bird yourself, you will probably be sent home with enough turkey to make a hearty sandwich.

We just make so much turkey, it is inevitable that we have so much left over that we can make a whole other meal with it. Well that is exactly what I have rounded up. What to do with all that leftover Thanksgiving turkey! Sure you could make a turkey sandwich every day for the rest of this week AND next. But there are so many more creative ideas out there.

Because there are so many, I have broken them up into sections. If you are just looking for a delicious sandwich recipe, well I’ve got a handful of those. But if will have family around for the next couple days and want a to use the turkey for a whole other meal, I’ve found lots of those, too.

SANDWICHES

Grilled Turkey Florentine Sandwich via Love Grows Wild

Turkey and Brie Panini via The Brewer and the Baker

Turkey Apple Brie Panini via Nutmeg Nanny

Green Goddess Roasted Turkey Sandwich via Noming Thru Life

The Gobbler via Buns in My Oven

Avocado Pistachio Chicken Salad via Follow the Ruels

SOUPS

I should point out that some of these recipes may be call for chicken instead of turkey, but you can easily substitute turkey in these recipes.

White Bean and Chicken Chili via Hip Foodie Mom

Light Turkey Corn Chowder via Cookin’ in Canuck

Turkey Pot Pie Soup via Handle the Heat