100 Days of Pinterest: Days 27-32 - Cannoli Stuffed French Toast Recipe

Yep, I blog slacked again. I've been busy with work, my gardens, and planning my oldest son's 12th birthday. Time goes too fast and we are not given enough of it. On a positive note, I'd like to welcome my nephew, Bruce, to the world. My younger brother and his wife welcomed him to the world on Friday (5/16/2014). He's absolutely beautiful and perfect. I love his face!


See! He's perfectly adorable and lovable ---------------------->

Welcome to the family, Bruce! You have two amazing parents and you are one lucky little guy.

Now, on to my challenge. I have been busy attempting more Pinterest recipes and such. Mostly recipes, not as much such. My guys do not mind one bit! They are loving all of the different recipes. Some more than others. For example, I made the Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf and it wasn't as good as we would have liked. We're going to stick to regular old meatloaf.

Then we had super, fantastic, amazing triumphs. The Cannoli Stuffed French Toast was AMAZING! I'm thinking you could try it with cream cheese if you are not a ricotta cheese fan. However, it's a must try. Just be warned, it's rich and you'll want to eat it while it's hot off the stove. Otherwise, it just doesn't taste as good. Also, be sure to buy a loaf of french bread pre-sliced for the recipe as well. It's worth it. I had to double the recipe to feed all four of us, but it was a bit too much. It's a recipe to experiment with, but soooo good. Here's the recipe, originally found on Two Peas and Their Pod:

 

Cannoli Stuffed French Toast

Yield: Serves 2
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 18 minutes

We love making Cannoli Stuffed French Toast for special occasions. This French toast is definitely decadent!

Ingredients:

1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream (or milk)
4 slices French bread
2 tablespoons butter
Powdered sugar-for serving

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Stir in the mini chocolate chips. Set aside.
2. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk the eggs and heavy cream together. Spread 2 slices of the bread with the ricotta mixture, about 1/2 cup per slice. Place the other slices of bread on top and gently press them together. Carefully dip both sides of each sandwich into the egg mixture until well coated.
3. In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the French toast sandwiches and cook until golden, about 4 minutes per side. Cut the sandwiches in half on the diagonal and transfer to plates. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve immediately.

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My boys had some friends over this weekend and they were all outside playing basketball, so I made some Mini Pizza Cupcakes. These were a hit with the boys. I made one batch and within minutes they were asking for more. I ended up making two dozen of these suckers and it took barely any time at all. I used a fruit can to cut the tortilla rings and then I stuffed them with the pizza stuff, fresh grated mozzarella, and cooked them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. They were good and a better alternative to pizza rolls.These are a great idea for a sleepover or even a football party.

Another nice discovery was the Easy Chocolate Buttercream Icing.  Since it's never a bad time to make cake, I called my youngest son to help me and we went to work. Since plain old vanilla cake is good, we decided to make it great. We added color to each level we made to add that little bit of color. My youngest son loves blue and my oldest likes pink, so we used both colors in our cake. In the icing it called for half and half. I don't use that, so I substituted Vanilla Soymilk instead. If you do not use certain ingredients in your home, Google search what items can be substituted. You'll be surprised what you can use in place of some ingredients (example: I Googled: substitutes for half and half).  I made this icing in my mixer and it turned out really nice and light. I didn't tell my husband I used the Vanilla Soymilk in the icing. He's already grossed out by anything that even remotely sounds healthy. He loved that cake and icing though. ;) Win!

One of my favorites this past weekend was the Mini Ciabatta Grilled Cheese sandwiches using Heini's Amish Milk Can Cheddar. Freakin' amazing. I added some roast beef to my husband's sandwiches. They were like mini Cheesesteak sandwiches. So good. I purchased the mini Ciabatta bread on markdown at my grocery store. I needed a break from making bread and these sounded good. They were. 



Yesterday, I decided to make some Crockpot Spicy Apple Butter. This was a lot of apple-peeling. I threw the peels into my compost pile afterwards, because it's good dirt nutrient. I threw a few of the peels into my crock pot for the vitamin aspect as well. The peels have all of the vitamins, so I couldn't resist. After I peeled the apples, quartered them, and added the other ingredients I set the timer for ten hours and walked away. Now, I did not make the full recipe. I actually cut it in half. I wasn't about to sit here and peel eight pounds of apples. Especially not knowing if it was a good recipe. Anyways, about an hour before the timer went off I used my potato masher to squish the crap out of the bigger chunks. I just wanted to make sure there weren't any apple floaters.  Afterwards, I canned them,put them in the water bath to seal them,  and I am planning on passing them around to friends and family. One word of advice for this recipe, do not buy the Chinese Five Spice in the regular spice section of the grocery store. I looked there first and it cost almost $7 for the bottle. I went to the Asian food section and found the Five Spice for just under $3. You can also purchase it on Amazon for pretty cheap too.

The nice folks at Dr. Bronner's sent me a sample pack of some of their amazing products to try. So far, all I've tried is the Lemongrass Lime Shikaki Soap and Sal Suds Liquid Cleaner. Both were equally amazing. I used the Sal Suds Liquid Cleaner to do a few loads of dishes and it had a really fresh, clean smell. It cleaned the dishes well and I'm considering switching to it over Dawn. The Lemongrass Lime Shikaki soap smells so good. You can smell lime right off the bat. It's invigorating smell is great and it doesn't seem to be drying out my hands either. Once I test the other ones I'll let you know my favorite one.


 To finish this post off I wanted to share our Kiwi and Grape Turtles. I made them and surprised my son with it. When I handed it to him and he first looked at it he immediately asked if he could keep it. Now, we have a lizard, a toad, two dogs, and a cat. I think rotten fruit would stink worse than our pets do.

I tried a few other Pins, like Panera Mac n Cheese and Jello Shaved Ice. If you want to see those recipes follow me on Pinterest at Woman in the Man Cave.

Take care.
NB

100 Days of Pinterest: Day 20 - Crunchy Baked French Toast Sticks

Here I go again with another Pinterest recipe. It's just so easy to pick a recipe for part of the Pinterest challenge. There are so many good recipes and images available at our fingertips, why not try them?
The Pin I tried for day twenty was simple and really affordable. I made some Crunchy Baked French Toast with Strawberry Syrup. I like fresh strawberries, but let's face it, they aren't really in season in Ohio at this point. I could purchase some of the ones we get shipped in from California, but those ones are so bitter and never really taste the same as the locally grown berries we have around here. So, I went ahead an purchased a bag of frozen strawberries. This way my boys wouldn't dip into them either, because no berries are safe in my house.

The recipe was basically the same as regular french toast with the addition of a crunchy cereal coating. I went ahead and purchased the Mom's Best Oats and Honey Blend. Let me tell you, if you haven't tried Mom's Best, you need to. If you are into the whole Gluten Free thing, they have those options available too. Mom's Best Cereals are preservative free and there are no artificial flavors. They are environmentally friendly too.

Back to the Crunchy Baked French Toast. This stuff was super easy to make. I've included the recipe below. Like I said before, I used frozen strawberries for my syrup. You can use whatever you like...including a different berry. I'm sure you could even make a mixed berry syrup as well.

The recipe states it serves two, so increase the mixture for how many people you'll be feeding. I doubled the recipe for my home. I had extra french toast sticks afterwards, so I froze them for a later snack or breakfast.

Crunchy Baked French Toast Sticks With Strawberry Syrup

Author: Lovely Little Kitchen

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Strawberry Syrup

• 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries, stems removed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch.

Crunchy French Toast Sticks

• 3 slices Texas Toast bread, cut into three strips each
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups crushed Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal
• powdered sugar

Directions:

Strawberry Syrup

1. In a medium saucepan on medium high heat, combine strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, and water. Cook until bubbly. Turn heat down to medium, and boil for 3-4 minutes, until the strawberries are soft. Use an immersion blender to puree the strawberries, and then add the cornstarch. Continue to boil for 6-8 more minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Cool slightly before serving, and keep leftovers refrigerated.
2. Use leftovers for topping ice cream or yogurt, or for making strawberry milkshakes.

Crunchy French Toast Sticks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a shallow bowl, whisk eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla together.
3. Place crushed cereal into another small bowl.
4. Quickly dip the strips of bread into the egg mixture, and then into the crushed cereal, one by one. Press the cereal onto the bread to help it stick to all sides. Place the dipped bread onto a greased or Silpat lined baking sheet.
5. Spray the top of each strip with cooking spray, or drizzle with a little melted butter if you prefer. This will help it get nice and crunchy!
6. Bake for 12 minutes, and dust with powdered sugar. Serve with strawberry syrup or maple syrup.

Take care!
NB