After a busy week of green smoothies and oatmeal, nothing says “Happy Weekend!” like a leisurely French toast breakfast with my husband and our little guy. Of course, you know I can’t make French toast without putting a healthy spin on the dish.
Creating A Healthier French Toast Recipe:
Nutritious Bread: After losing close to 60 pounds this past year, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that refined carbs go straight to my hips. My solution? We used leftover Blueberry Oatmeal Bread which was already packed with wheat germ, berries, wheat flour and yogurt.
Trick the Brain: Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla and other low calorie flavorings actually trick the brain into thinking you’re eating something sweet. By using these ingredients, you can get away with using less sugar or maple syrup.
Protein and Fiber: A typical restaurant version of French toast is loaded in white bread, butter and syrup. This sugar bomb will send your blood sugar sky rocketing only to crash an hour later. My recipe packs over 17 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber per serving which will keep you full until lunch.
Your fork is waiting.
- Serves: 8
- Serving size: 2 slices
- Calories: 448
- Fat: 15.5 g
- Saturated fat: 1.7 g
- Unsaturated fat: 13.8 g
- Trans fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 60.6 g
- Sugar: 28.4 g
- Sodium: 522 mg
- Fiber: 6.5 g
- Protein: 17.5 g
- Cholesterol: 142 mg
- 8 slices Blueberry Oatmeal Bread (or bread of choice)
- ½ cup fat free milk
- 2 eggs plus 2 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- pure maple syrup – optional
- In a deep dish (I like to use a pie pan), whisk together milk, eggs, egg whites, vanilla and cinnamon. Soak bread in mixture working in batches.
- Heat griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat and spray with non-stick spray.
- Add first round of egg-soaked blueberry bread to the pan and let sit 3-4 minutes.
- Flip bread once the first side is browned and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until browned.
- Continue working in batches until all 8 slices are cooked being careful not to overcrowd the pan.
- Serve with maple syrup.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I won’t eat French toast without loads of cinnamon. Love this!
I am such a fool for cinnamon!! We use it a lot in savory dishes too. So healthy and antioxidant rich.
Great recipe, this looks tasty! I love how you also put health tips on your blog. Very useful
Aww you mean someone actually reads my post? Thank you as always for your kindness.
I’m looking for a way to reduce the salt content. My limit is 1200mg/day, and I can’t allow almost half for breakfast. So I went back to the recipe for the Oatmeal Blueberry bread and find all I can see to cut is the extra 1/2 Tsp salt. Has anyone any suggestions?
Hi Lib,
First a disclaimer: I am not a Registered Dietitian so I am not authorized to give you any real, concrete nutrition advice. That being said, the main source of sodium found in this recipe is from the half teaspoon of salt in the Blueberry Oatmeal Bread. Aside from removing the salt which you already mentioned, I would suggest having one slice of French toast vs. two.
That will cut the amount down to 261 mg which is only 21% of your daily limit of 1200mg/day.
I hope that helps!
Actually, most of the sodium is in the baking powder ( 1 tsp 488 mg sodium) and baking soda ( 1 tsp 1259). This is why it’s so tricky trying to lower sodium in baked goods.
That makes sense! I apologize if this recipe doesn’t fit your dietary requirements. Perhaps a google search would give you some yummy low sodium baked good options! I’m certain they are out there!!
Oh dear, I didn’t mean to sound so critical. I love the sound of this bread, and the idea of using it for French toast, and I will try it and restrict myself to one slice. I just wondered if some of your readers had any solutions to the problem of sodium in baking.
Oh no you didn’t sound critical at all!! Hopefully someone will see this and respond. I think it’s a great question!
Looks delicious, and your blueberry oatmeal sounds yummy too! I have baked pumpkin french toast planned for ” breakfast for dinner” one night this week. Do you think it would be a little overboard to have two french toast dinners in one week??
Oh my gosh wheat a great idea!! I love breakfast for dinner! I vote no.
It’s not over board at all!