Wow, what a busy week I've had and it's only half over! So far we've had standardized tests, homeschool PE, swimming, chess club, Awanas, a midwife appointment, several long phone calls with my dear grown-up daughters, and all the rest of the "normal" things we do in a day. Today we have the last set of standardized tests, an open house function for orchestra, and a Cub Scout meeting that has yet to be planned. When I have weeks like this, feeding the kids has to be easy, otherwise I end up driving thru McD's-YUCK.
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| Time Saving Tip: Kids (older than 6) top their own French Toast |
Introducing my new recipe: Easy Freezy French Toast. It is seriously easy. I've removed all ingredients from the french toast batter except for milk and eggs. Why add the tasty extras when the kids are just going to drown their food with syrup, cinnamon and sugar, or jam? For this last batch, I used a good two dozen eggs...maybe three. I wasn't counting, just clearing out "old" eggs. [And when I say "old" I only mean they were laid about five days ago. Store eggs are several weeks old by the time you bring them home.] I blend them in my VitaMix with just enough milk-eyeball it. I have to use the VitaMix because our eggs are so fresh it is hard to incorporate all the whites by hand.
The bread came from the free bread lady. She has a friend that runs an Oroweat outlet store, so she picks up all the old bread and gives it out for free. I load up about once a month and save hundreds of dollars on the grocery bill. So not only is this method time efficient, but money efficient too!
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| One of the best Christmas Presents Ever! |
Then cook on the biggest griddle you have, coated with oil. Frying the batter-dipped bread in oil is what gives french toast its texture, so don't skip the oil! I use a
Misto with vegetable oil because I don't like globbing and wasting oil from the jug. Butter tastes better, but it burns too easily (and costs more). When I get on a time-crunch mindset, the last thing I need is to burn something.
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| Half of the Leftovers |
I make enough french toast to feed a small army three times. The kids can pack away at least a loaf and a half. And the best way to save time is to be efficient...in this case, I won't have to bring out the griddle and wash it when I'm done three times, only once. I cool the leftover french toast in stacks of four, wrap each stack in a paper towel, put four stacks in a gallon-sized freezer bag, and freeze. When we need a quick meal, I pull a bag out of the freezer, microwave a stack (still wrapped in the paper towel) for one minute, and serve with butter and cinnamon sugar...or nothing, depending on how late we are!
