Post Written April 24, 2020
When I was a kid, my mom would make French Toast Casserole every Christmas morning. She’d prep it the night before, let it soak overnight, then pop it in the oven when we got up Christmas morning to bake while we opened presents. She’d make it kind of like an upside down cake, with apples and cranberries and pecans on the bottom in a brown sugar glaze, then layer the bread and custard on top with vanilla and cinnamon and nutmeg. Then to serve it, you dig the spatula deep into the casserole, and flip it onto the plate so the syrup-y apples and cranberries would drip down the bread on your plate.
Nugget is kicking now. I think he’ll be a fan of my mom’s Christmas morning French Toast Casserole.
He’s the inspiration for this post, by the way. A few months ago, I started collecting baby meal prep ideas. At the time, I was planning the prep to feed four, and had a whole schedule laid out of when I could do the meal prepping over the course of my third trimester with my mom and mom-in-law when they visited to help us prepare the nursery and house for Nugget’s arrival.
Now, that’s obviously no longer an option.
The concept of facing an almost inevitable bed-bound third trimester (I’m lookin at you POTS – MTHFR combo!), childbirth, and the first few weeks of caring for a newborn without our parents to help out is… um… is there a word for chest-gripping fear that causes a frozen in place sort of reaction? I bet the Germans have a word for that.
It’d be great if people could just stay home and stop being morons so that we’re not still dealing with this pandemic in August. Could ya’ll work on that bit, please? K, thanks.
Anyway, I’m starting the prep early. It’s not going as planned, since I’m not about to march my high risk butt into a grocery store anytime soon and I’m having the trust my list to a complete stranger now. But it’s going.
And step one is French Toast Casserole!
I ordered some foil freezer pans with lids from Amazon about a month ago – some “half pans” and some square ones. I used the square ones this time, four of them, and prepped a Pumpkin Crumble French Toast Casserole, and a Berry French Toast Casserole.
It seems more regal when you capitalize it, doesn’t it?
I honestly couldn’t find a freezer casserole recipe I liked, so I made a couple up.
I made a custard first, then took about a third of the custard mix and put it into a another bowl with some pumpkin spice and about 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree.
Then I cut some whole wheat bread up into thirds at varying sizes and layered two levels of bread into each pan. Pour the custard over top – pumpkin mix over two pans and regular mix over two pans. Topped each pan off with some fruit and some crumble, layer on a couple rips of cling wrap, lid it, then another layer of cling wrap with instructions. Solid. Done in less than thirty minutes.
In a few months, I’ll pull one of these out of the freezer the night before or morning of for breakfast for dinner, take off the cling wrap, put the foil back on, and bake it. Serve with microwave turkey sausage or fresh fruit and check mark – fed.
I literally didn’t measure anything so these are guesstimations.
FREEZER FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLES
Makes four casseroles in four 8×8 pans, two berry, and two pumpkin. Depending on your own version of a portion size, it should make about 8-9 hefty servings.
CUSTARD
- 8 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon (plus more to sprinkle on top)
- 1/2 tsp clove and/or nutmeg
- Mix custard well, then take about 1 1/2 cups of the custard to another bowl and add
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree and
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
- Mix well.
TOAST AND TOPPINGS
- 1 loaf whole wheat bread, sliced into thirds at varying sizes
- 3-4 large strawberries, chopped
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup oats
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
Layer bread into pans. I got about two layers of bread in, which left about an inch for toppings, which I thought worked out well.
Dribble custard over bread slowly and in stages to give it time to absorb. The pumpkin custard is pretty thick so it’ll need some time. I chopped and mixed my toppings while I did that.
Plop berries evenly over top of plain vanilla custard pans, then use the empty pumpkin custard bowl to mix oats, brown sugar, and walnuts so the leftover moisture helps the sugar cling to the oats and nuts. Toss well, then I used my hand to press and sprinkle the crumble over the top of the bread.
Two layers of cling wrap to prevent freezer burn, then the foil lid, written instructions, another layer of cling wrap, and popped into the freezer.
When it’s time to cook, I’ll pull it out of the freezer and let it thaw for a couple hours, then pop it into the pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, peel off the foil, and then back in for another 10-15 minutes. Hopefully I’ll remember that there’s a ton of raw eggs in here and will make sure it’s set before I take it out and serve it with bacon, sausage, and/or fresh fruit.
See what else I’m whipping up for Baby Meal Prep!
