Cooking Thursday: Peach Overnight Oats & Berry French Toast Bake

 

Hello Friends and Happy Thursday 🌸💗

Today I thought I'd share a couple of recipes. 

First of all, I wanted to share overnight oats I made the other day. Peaches are so good right now and we got a really yummy box of them from Costco. So I had been having one for breakfast almost every morning. And then I decided one of the days to make overnight oats to top with cut up peaches. I have always used the same basic recipe for overnight oats which is: Equal parts oats and yogurt (I used a peach flavored one)...and then adding a milk of choice, chia seeds, some honey or maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla. And often a pinch of salt too. Let soak in the fridge overnight. Then the next morning I added some chopped peaches, coconut and walnuts. It was so good! Overnight oats are so versatile and you can add your flavors of choice.

So for the overnight oats:

1/2 c. of oats

1/2 c. yogurt (I used a honey peach flavor)

1/4 c. milk (I used fairlife protein milk)

honey or maple syrup to taste

1 tbsp chia seeds

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

Cover and put in the fridge overnight. The next morning add chopped fruit (in this case peaches) and toppings of choice (nuts, coconut, granola etc) Sometimes I have added a little natural peanut butter to overnight oats and topped with berries... it makes a very pb&j flavored oats. Mmmm

Just be creative!

Then last weekend I made this berry cream cheese french toast at the lake. Matt's folks are eating more keto - so I used keto buns, fairlife protein milk and a little bit of half and half for the custard, and some natural sweetners, and some brown sugar. It was so tasty!! I found this recipe at Sallys Baking Addiction I liked that it was very patriotic looking for July 4th weekend too. Everyone loved it! It was kind of like breakfast bread pudding. We topped with some syrup (I think they had sugar-free at the lake). It was a hit ....and I think it would be even better soaking it overnight, as opposed to only 3 hours the day I made it. His Mom wanted the recipe. :) 

When it was all done and baked up - I topped it with a little bit of confectioners sugar. Yum! The bits of sweetened cream cheese were so good in this!! Definitely recommend you give it a try. Here is the recipe:

 

Cooking Thursday: Banana Breakfast Cookies

 

Hey Besties!

How are you doing these days?

It's been a couple of rainy cozy ones here. Today it's been gray & windy. We have rain on and off in the forecast until tomorrow morning. So I'm going to work on some more of my hospice work from home. Then curl up with a book or some fun magazines later. I'm making pork chop pinwheels for dinner tonight - glazed with sugar-free BBQ sauce. I'll look at what veggies we have hanging out in the fridge and it might be a good night to have the oven on (it's chilly and only high 50's). So I think I'll throw together a nice sheet pan veggie side dish but to give it a summer twist I'll sprinkle on some peach balsamic vinegar for brightness. It will play nice with the lemon thyme I have in my garden, that I'll also throw on the veggies. It's always fun to mess around with flavors. 😋

I'm also thinking about making a small batch of strawberry rhubarb sauce. This is the first real year my rhubarb is being established, so I don't want to mess with it too much. But I think I'll take just 2 stalks to mix with strawberries and make a little sauce on the stove. Summer's treats! 

But the yummy goodness I wanted to share today is all about these breakfast cookies I made the other day and have been enjoying with morning coffee all week. 

Doesn't it look tasty? I think they're great because they're hearty & filling, yet filled with good healthy ingredients. They're sweet and have a little flaky salt on top to give a hint of salty as well. Plus, they're soft and fluffy. Think fluffy banana bread mini muffin/cookie kind of a thing. When I put the recipe into my calorie counter it came out to about 140-150 per cookie. I found the recipe at ambitiouskitchen.com 

This is what the batter looks like. It's filled with mashed bananas, oat flour and oats, natural peanut butter, - also chia, hemp & flax seeds. The only sweetener is a little maple syrup. However I also added the fun the recipe suggested with some chocolate chips...I only had mini ones. And I added just a little bit of butterscotch chips because I didn't use many chocolate chips in the batter. I decided to throw in some chopped walnuts (more omega 3's)

Then once baked up they came out looking like this:

It's been really fun to have something different for the mornings. Plus, they're SO good with coffee. They would be great as a snack too. 

 I thought I'd share in case you wanted to give them a try too. 

Here's the recipe:

Enjoy! 😋