French Toast Casserole

This is our favorite way to eat French Toast.  The buttery brown sugar at the bottom of each bite is the *chef’s kiss*. The outside is firm and lightly crunchy.  The inside of each bite is like a warm, fluffy pillow of awesome. No more soggy, floppy big triangles of the old fashioned kind.  THIS IS THE WAY.

Ingredients

• 1/2 loaf of bread, cut into bite-sized cubes (we use regular bread, but it could be French bread)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided in 2 portions
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar for topping
• Pam or non-stick cooking spray
• Powdered sugar for topping
• Pancake syrup, or other toppings (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter or use Pam to grease a 13x9” baking pan.

2. Melt the butter and put in a bowl. Stir in the brown sugar until the mixture is smooth.  Pour the mixture into the bottom of the baking pan and spread it out evenly.

3. Carefully add the bread cubes to the pan, spreading them evenly over the butter/sugar mixture.

4. In a medium/large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon.  Carefully pour the egg mixture over the cubed bread, making sure to distribute it over all of the pieces and saturate them.

5. Sprinkle the other teaspoon of cinnamon and the tablespoon of brown sugar over the top of the bread cubes.

6. Bake the casserole for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

7. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar and whatever toppings you like on your French Toast.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Crunchy Pecan Praline Topping

SPC 4 life, baybeeeee.

This was so good during the holidays.  Even my picky eater loved it.

The crunchy praline topping was just the right thing to finish off the smooth, buttery taste of the sweet potatoes.

PSA:  Despite the contradictory markings required by the FDA on the can that say both names on different parts of the label, sweet potatoes and yams are 2 completely different vegetables.

Yes, they are both orange in color.

Yes, they are both root vegetables.

Yes, they are often used interchangeably in recipes.

But no, they evolved as two totally different things from separate parts of the world.

Sweet potatoes originated in Central and South America (now grown in the U.S.).

Yams originated in Africa and Asia.  They are more like a yucca root with a starchy, tree-barklike texture.

The more you know *rainbow*.

Anywhooooo, here is a recipe for our tasty "sweet potato" casserole.

*If you don't like your casserole very sweet, you can reduce the sugar by up to half.  We liked ours the sweet way.

Ingredients:

1 large 40-ounce can of cut sweet potatoes or 3 smaller 15-oz cans, reserve the liquid syrup

*1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup butter, melted (for topping)

Kosher Salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter a 2-quart sized baking dish.

2. Empty the entire can of sweet potatoes (save liquid separately) into a medium saucepan

and bring to a boil.  Heat about 15 minutes, until hot and tender, while adding some of the reserved liquid to get it to a loose consistency- but not too drippy (like soft oatmeal).  Remove the pan from heat and mash up the sweet potatoes.

3. In a medium bowl, mix the mashed sweet potatoes with the white sugar, eggs, 1/3 cup butter, milk, and vanilla extract.  Add a pinch of salt to taste to balance out the sweetness. 

4.  Spread the mix evenly into the buttered baking dish.

5. To make the topping: In another bowl, mix the brown sugar, chopped pecans, flour, and 1/3 cup melted butter. You can also add a pinch of salt to this to taste.

6.  Spread the crumbly mix evenly over the sweet potato mixture.

7. Bake 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center of the casserole comes out clean.

Watch the Sweet Potato Casserole song by Flula Borg

JZ's Vegetarian Spinach Muenster Quiche

Everything below will be divided into 2 pies.
You will need:
2 standard pie shells (16 oz. each)
16 oz. grated Muenster cheese
2 packages frozen, chopped spinach
A big onion, chopped finely
1 tablespoon (+/-) chopped garlic
Olive oil for saute
5 eggs
A pinch of salt, to your taste

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Defrost and squeeze the liquid from the spinach and move to giant mixing bowl.
3. Saute the onion and garlic in a pan, over medium heat until soft and transparent. Let cool.**
4. Mix grated cheese into spinach.
5. When onions are cool, fold into spinach/cheese mix.
6. Beat eggs and gently add to the mix.
7. Pour the mix into equal parts into the pie shells.
8. Bake for about an hour, or until each pie firms up.  It may need longer, depending on your oven.

*Because these quiches are so thick, we bake them at a pretty low temp for a long time, to avoid overcooking on the outside and undercooking on the inside.  Depending on your oven, you might need to adjust the cooking time.

*Could you add an herb or spice?  Oh my, yes.  I tend to add a dash of nutmeg to spinach dishes.  But any kind of herb would probably be delicious...maybe a hint of curry?  Or oregano?  Or basil?  Yarp.

**Remember that part I mentioned about letting the sauteed onion mix cool off before adding it to the spinach/cheese mix?  I mean it. 
Hear me now and believe me later:  One thing you don't want is having hot onions melting super soft cheese prematurely and turning the whole deal into a globby, melted cheese disaster in a bowl before you pour it into the pie shells.  Not pretty.

Everyone in our house loves this kickass quiche...even our finicky toddler.
You could sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top, also, btw.

ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING:
After you take the quiche out of the oven, let it sit and rest for about ten minutes.  The eggs will continue to cook.  Also, Jay says, "The cheese needs to calm down." What he means is that the cheese is too hot, angry, and melty, straight from the oven when it's nuclear hot.  Just like pizza, you can't cut a clean slice until the dish sits untouched for a bit.

Tommie Lu's Spinach Casserole

I love spinach!  What's great about this simple recipe is that you taste the delicious spinach - you don't taste a bunch of other things overpowering and covering up the taste of the main ingredient.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning or dried thyme
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 pieces diced bread (we use keto bread and lightly toast it before dicing)
• 1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1. Stir everything together in a large bowl.
2. Grease a 9x13" casserole dish with olive oil and pour the spinach mixture into it.
3. Bake 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees F.
4. Top with more parmesan cheese.