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School mornings can be such a rush for all of us. I want all of my family to get a good breakfast that will give them fuel for the day, but it can be a challenge to find something they all will eat.
One way I’ve found to make it better is to make breakfast for the entire week on Sunday night. We all love breakfast casseroles, so I tend to stick with those. It makes it so easy in the morning to get everyone breakfast and ready for the day and still have a few minutes to myself.
After dropping all three kids off at school, I sometimes go for a walk and then come home and have my own breakfast. It’s the perfect time for me to slow down, plan the rest of my day (since I work from home), and have a nutritious breakfast. It’s one of my favorite times because I can relax and enjoy my meal.
Sometimes I just have a ready-to-drink Carnation Breakfast Essentials® when I’m on the go and sometimes I use the Carnation Breakfast Essentials® powder in a recipe like a smoothie or my Strawberry Vanilla French Toast Casserole.
You can find both Carnation Breakfast Essentials® powdered drink and read-to-drink bottles in the breakfast aisle at Kroger. They come in Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry. Vanilla is my favorite!
We’ve been trying to eat better for the new year, so I started making our french breakfast casserole more nutritious with low calorie bread and mixing in Carnation Breakfast Essentials® with the milk batter. This Strawberry Vanilla French Toast Casserole has only 279 calories per serving!
I love that I can make this casserole up ahead of time. When it’s time for breakfast, I can just cut a slice, heat it up, and then I grab a book to read while I’m eating.
When I make this casserole, I like to add brown sugar and butter to the bottom of the pan. Since the casserole is cooked for 45 minutes, it really helps with preventing the bread from burning.
To keep this low calorie, I use 40-calorie bread that is very thinly sliced. I tear up half the loaf of bread and place it on top of the brown sugar and butter.
Next, it’s time for cream cheese and strawberries. I used 4 oz of softened cream cheese and 1 cup of strawberry halves.
Now it’s time for the milk batter. I combine 3 cups of milk, 4 eggs, a dash of cinnamon, and 2 packages of Carnation Breakfast Essentials® Classic French Vanilla powdered drink. I whip it for about a minute until the drink mix is completely dissolved and the eggs are beaten.
Pour about half the milk batter all over the casserole. Stop pouring when all the bread is soaked.
Next, take the second half of the loaf of bread and tear it up all over the top. Pour the second half of the milk batter over the bread. Don’t fill it too full or the casserole will puff up really big and the batter will overflow down the sides while it’s baking. I make sure to pour until the bread is all soaked, then stop.
Cover the casserole with foil and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour. You can even chill it until morning before baking.
On the weekend, I chill it over night. When I want to make a french toast casserole for school morning breakfast, I make it while I’m cooking dinner on Sunday night and then chill it for an hour before baking. After it cools a bit, I put it in the fridge. This way all I have to do is slice it up and reheat during the busy morning.
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Strawberry Vanilla French Toast Casserole
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Ingredients
- 1 loaf of thin 40-calorie bread
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup strawberry halves
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 3 cups milk
- 1/2 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 2 packages of Carnation Breakfast Essentials® in Vanilla flavor
Instructions
- Sprinkle 1/4 cup of brown sugar on the bottom of an 11 x 7 inch casserole dish.
- Pour melted butter over the brown sugar and mix it up a bit.
- Take half the bread and tear it up all over the bottom of the pan.
- Spread the cream cheese over the top of the bread.
- Place the strawberry halves all over the cream cheese.
- Mix together the milk, eggs, packages of Carnation Breakfast Essentials®, and the 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Whip until the eggs are beaten and the powder is mixed.
- Pour about half of it over the casserole dish.
- Next, take the second half of the loaf of bread and tear it up over the casserole.
- Pour the rest of the milk batter over the casserole; stop when the bread is soaked.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of brown sugar over the top and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.
- Cover with foil and chill for at least 1 hour before baking.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees, and set the casserole on the oven while it’s preheating.
- Bake for 40 minutes and then remove the foil for the last 5 minutes of baking.
- Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Carnation Breakfast Essentials® wants everyone to get into a better breakfast. You can take the 7-Day Breakfast Challenge with a nutritious breakfast every day for 7 days. They have easy breakfast missions to complete throughout February for chances to win some awesome prizes! I’m so excited for the missions. There are fun quizzes and great tips for making breakfast better for you. I can’t wait to take the smoothie challenge!
Ready to get started? Follow these easy steps
1. Sign up at CarnationBreakfastChallenge.com.
2. Complete a simple yet fun breakfast mission for a chance to win. New prizes revealed every day!
3. Come back any day in February to complete missions and see new prizes. The prizes range from a Fitbit to a GoPro and other awesome stuff!
4. Head to your favorite store to purchase a Carnation Breakfast Essentials® Nutritional Product and upload your receipt for five extra entries per day.
18 comments
This sounds really good!! Although I doubt I would make it for just me (I live alone) it would certainly be a great dish to make if you were having overnight guests who you had to feed in the morning.
Okay, that Strawberry Vanilla French Toast Casserole looks AMAZING! Talk about the PERFECT way to start the day. I’ll definitely have to try this recipe soon <3
I have never made a breakfast casserole before but this looks so delicious. I stick to overnight oats, they fill you up all morning.
This is really a loaded and delicious breakfast. I love strawberries and I would surely love this.
Your french toast casserole looks delicious and I love that it’s better for me. This would be perfect for brunch, too.
This looks like lots of work to put together, but it would be so good for a weekend brunch. I am definitely going to try this out – thank you!
Your French toast casserole looks incredible. I’d love to try this recipe! Strawberry and vanilla make everything better!
Ooh, I do like this idea! I’m really starting to crave strawberries so I’d love to start making some recipes with them.
Totally pinning this! My husband used to make an awesome French toast casserole, but I’ve never had it with strawberry! It looks amazing!
My family loves french toast so this would be perfect for us. It’s a great way have a yummy breakfast.
Strawberries and French toast? In a casserole? Yes, please!!
I haven’t made french toast in forever. I would like to make it in a casserole form! [client]
Yum! That sounds like such a delicious breakfast. My kids would love it.
This looks amazing. I have never thought about using Carnation Breakfast in my recipes to add a boost of vitamins, protein, and calcium. It looks delicious and such a great boost. YUM!
This is incredible and I am tempted to try out the recipe right now…but maybe I’ll wait for the weekend so I can really take some moment to relish this dessert!
Wow, your kiddos are so lucky! This looks so delicious!
Wow what a way to have a breakfast! I would love to recreate this!
This is really delicious breakfast. I will make this recipe in my kitchen too! Thanks for sharing!!