Breakfast Fridays! On the menu: Dairy-free, Egg-free Banana French Toast

At our house, we have a tradition we like to call "“Breakfast Fridays.”  That’s where we have breakfast food for dinner and my darling son gets to stay up late with daddy watching TV and eating snacks until they both fall asleep on the couch. LOL. He looks forward to this bonding time with his dad every week.  And it gives mommy some much needed “me time” on a Friday night to catch up on my Netflix, blog, or finish reading that novel on my nightstand that I keep telling myself I’m going to finish.

Well, this past Friday we had Dairy-free/ Egg-free Banana French toast. Wait? You can make French toast without eggs?  Yes!!!! You can!  And I’m gonna show you how.

Dairy-free/Egg-free Banana French Toast-makes about 4 slices

Ingredients:

• “safe” bread (I just used 4 slices of a "safe" whole wheat sandwich bread)
• ¼ cup of banana puree ( I mashed mine with a fork, but you can totally use a blender)
• ¼ cup non-dairy milk (we use Almond milk in our house)
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix together the banana puree, non-dairy milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in a dish flat and wide enough for dipping the bread. Coat each side of a piece of bread by dipping into the mixture.  Now, be careful with this process. Dip one side, then flip the bread immediately to dip the other side.  Don’t allow the bread to sit in the mixture.  If you do, it will be a soggy mess and just won’t cook up right.  Next, brown each side of the bread slices in a medium-high skillet. About 3 minutes per side.  Flip them over a few times while they're browning to prevent burning on either side.

Next transfer the slices to a 400 degree oven to finish cooking. Bake about 10 mins., flipping halfway through.

I topped ours with some powdered sugar, sliced strawberries and bananas, and warm maple syrup.

Enjoy!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I don’t bake too often anymore. There is nothing worse than delicious little baked goods sitting around tempting you all day. I can’t help but pop in the kitchen and snag a muffin/cookie/ slice of cake every chance I get. These muffins were worth the temptation though. They are the perfect morning treat. I love to wake up to sunshine flooding into my kitchen and these bright, kind of tart, not-too- sweet muffins sitting in a basket on my counter. PS: The basket of muffins help distract people from the dishes in the sink!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp poppy seeds
8 tbsp of unsalted butter, melted
1 C sugar

2 eggs
2/3 C plain greek yogurt ( 1 single serve container)
1 tsp vanilla extract
the zest and juice from 1 lemon

For the Glaze

3 tbsp of lemon juice
1 C of powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line the muffin pan (I used these silicone liners from Amazon—http://amzn.to/1OOfs9y) or coat with nonstick baking spray.
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest. Combine until sugar is slightly wet and fragrant.
3. Whisk in all the dry ingredients except for the poppy seeds.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the greek yogurt, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently until combined. Stir in the poppy seeds.
6. Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups.
7. Bake for 16- 20 minutes. Transfer muffins to cooling rack before adding glaze.
8. TO MAKE GLAZE: place powdered sugar in a bowl. Add lemon juice until it’s a consistency you like. I prefer a thin glaze that drips off the spoon.

TIPS:

The instructions are a little involved but don’t look for shortcuts; they’re worth the time.

I have tried several lemon poppy seed muffin recipes and I find that the less mixing and whipping of the ingredients the better.

Add some blueberries for a nice twist!