French Toast Sticks

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was definitely relaxing and went by way too quickly as always. It was also filled with great food, which makes any day that much better. On Saturday night I tried a new German restaurant with my parents. Although German food is not my favorite, the giant pretzel with spicy apple mustard was a definite highlight of the meal. Today my boyfriend and I took a walk through Boston's North End and came home with a box full of cannolis    from Mike's Pastry. I can hardly wait until dinner is over to dig into my chocolate chip cannoli- definitely one of my all-time favorite desserts.

I also made a few things in my kitchen, including these easy French Toast Sticks. I seriously love French Toast. Most mornings I just eat a simple breakfast- greek yogurt with granola, fresh fruit or cereal with milk. But I am all about indulgent breakfasts on the weekend or vacation and French Toast is at the top of my favorite indulgent breakfast list. These French Toast Sticks are super easy to make and taste so much better than the frozen ones you can buy at the supermarket. Served with fresh fruit and maple syrup, you have yourself a perfect Sunday morning breakfast. You can also freeze the extras and pop them into the microwave for a quick breakfast throughout the week. 

French Toast Sticks
Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

4 slices thick-cut bread
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp melted butter, slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Cut bread slices into thirds and set aside.

In a large shallow dish, whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, vanilla and ground cinnamon. One at a time, dunk the bread sticks into the egg batter, letting the excess drip off. Place each bread stick onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until lightly golden in color. Halfway through the baking time, flip over the bread sticks and spray with the tops again with non-stick cooking spray.

Sprinkle warm french toast sticks with powdered sugar, if desired, and serve.

Green Smoothie

I think I am one of the very last people to jump on the green smoothie bandwagon. Am I right? Like many others, I was probably a little hesitant about trying a drink with spinach in it. I thought spinach was made for salads, like this one, and not for smoothies. But I was definitely wrong. This smoothie tastes just like a tropical fruit smoothie and nothing at all like spinach. Perfect for getting picky eaters to incorporate more vegetables into their diets. Although it didn't really work on my boyfriend or the little girl who gave it a thumbs down when she found out that there was spinach in my "cool" green smoothie. 

Although the recipe below details out exactly what went into my smoothie as pictured above, it can easily be adapted based on your own preferences and what you currently have in the refrigerator. When it comes to making smoothies, it is hard to go wrong. I also love adding almond milk and even almond butter to my smoothies for a little something different. What are your favorite ingredients to put in smoothies?

Green Smoothie

2 cups spinach

1 banana, frozen and cut into chunks

5 strawberries

1/3 cup honey flavored greek yogurt

1 cup ice

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender. Puree until smooth and creamy. Pour into glasses and serve. 

Nutella Swirled Banana Muffins

I love a good piece of banana bread or a banana muffin as much as the next person. My boyfriend might even like them more than me. For this reason, I often find myself flagging recipes for banana bread, banana muffins and other banana treats. The problem is that I am not always patient enough to make them on a regular basis. For years I made banana bread and banana muffins that lacked any real flavor. I constantly ignored the recipes and used bananas that were bright yellow in color. The result? Dry and flavorless baked goods that were nothing like what I had hoped to make. The key is letting the bananas sit for days on the counter, long enough so that they are brown in color. If you are impatient like me, you can always put the bananas in a brown bag to speed up the process.

These muffins alone are worth the hassle of waiting for your bananas to turn brown. Trust me. And as if a banana muffin is not a good enough breakfast on its own, the nutella swirl really puts it over the top. Nutella and banana are such a great combination- I am already thinking about more recipes that could incorporate these two flavors together. 

Nutella Swirled Nutella Muffins

Recipe from the Novice Chef

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 very ripe bananas (brown in color), mashed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In another large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas and sugars. Slowly beat in the egg and vegetable. Mix until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla extract. Gently fold the dry ingredients into bowl of wet ingredients and mix until there are no lumps in the batter.

Fill each muffin tin approximately 3/4 full. Top each muffin with about 1 tsp of Nutella. With a knife or toothpick, gently swirl the Nutella into the batter.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool completely on a wire rack.