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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Getting Creative with Leftover Toast

My stomach was gnawing my spine but I didn't want to cook anything which would take me more than 5 minutes, preparation time included.

So tonight after my last phone conference, I decided to just scrape together whatever I could get my hands on instead of going to sleep hungry. 

Probably to make sure I mopped up my meals,  my mom told me when I was a young, impressionable child that if I went to bed hungry, my soul would go wandering around looking for food while I was sleep.  

It would go on a rampage and run through pots and pans in search for food and if perchance somebody would close the pot while it was inside, it would be trapped and would be unable to return to me *gasps*

Moving away from that frightful idea, I went off to check my resources.


Ticking off on my fingers, I knew I had the basics: eggs, milk, butter, sugar...and a loaf of Gardenia's high-calcium milk bread...which incidentally was 1 day over its expiry date. Now that gives me an idea...

The easiest answer was of course French toast.
While bread pudding was doable, but much as I liked the idea I didn't have any raisins or calamansi  (Philippine lemon) on hand. The latter gives a subtle hint of that indefinable something to bread pudding.  Additionally, it would take a while as I would need to steam it the concoction and it was already past 10 pm! 
Grrrr...that time of the night and no dinner yet!

Grimly determined to shut out the noises of my complaining stomach, I gathered (without counting or measuring them out meticulously) all of the basic ingredients for French toast and started off. 

The reason I am putting them here instead of in the Recipes section is that well, it all went by in a blur and not at all organized like I usually do for my recipes.



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My ingredients for tonight's dinner:



  • stale bread, preferably thick slices of it
  • native chicken eggs, whisked
  • a few tablespoons goat's milk
  • a teaspoon or so of goat's milk powder
  • a few drops of vanilla extract (the dregs in my small bottle)
  • a couple of dollops of cream (for a richer taste)
  • dash of cinnamon
  • dash of nutmeg
  • teaspoon of brown sugar
  • a pat or two of butter



  • honey
  • peanut butter
  • blueberry jam



Simple instructions:


Try to find a basin which is more flattish than a bowl so that you can comfortably dip your bread pieces in it without bending your bread out of shape.

1. Crack the eggs open one at a time and beat 'em black and blue *grin*

When combining two or more eggs, I try to open and put them in separate containers because sometimes one of the eggs you might end up with is not that fresh. Maybe in other countries its not that way, but I like to play it safe.

If you have ever tried making home-made mayonnaise and finding out the 10th "fresh" egg you just dropped into your main bowl of 9 eggs was rotten and you will cringe at the waste.


2. Add the milk and cream to your beaten eggs. Mix 'em up good and then add a few drops of vanilla extract. If you don't have it..then just get some drops of vanilla flavoring.



3. Since I love goat's milk, I added the milk powder I had as well as the brown sugar. I then sprinkled the cinnamon and nutmeg into the liquid mixture.

You may skip the brown sugar or milk powder if you like. Since all I had was salted butter, I knew my creation would probably end up a bit saltier than I would have liked so I wanted to balance out the flavor.



4.  I first toasted my bread to get them a little more brown and dry. Then I dipped the slices (I cut them half since I didn't want too soggy a bread) into the mixture I made.



5.  Meanwhile, my non-stick frying pan had already a couple of pats of butter, and was heating up evenly.

You can forgo butter if you have a non-stick pan..but well, isn't butter just delicious when it also flavors a little bit of your toast?

Take your soaked bread and fry them in your pan until both sides are a nice golden brown.



6. Serve immediately.


I tried mine with a dribble of honey, a spread of peanut butter and a flick of powdered sugar.
All separate toasts of course *grin*

Happy breakfast ...I mean..dinner!





mage somewhere on this page is from the internet as I had already eaten my concoction.

Note though that there are a lot of variations of french toast, so I am sure any experiments you might have (and I high encourage you to do so) will be a lesson for your palate....

*Cat looks for ginger and mango to add to french toast next time*


- Jun 16, '10 10:31 AM