Oven-Baked Blueberry French Toast

Ah yes, summer is finally here! And with summer comes sweet, juicy blueberries! Kick start your summer weekend with this yummy recipe for Oven-Baked Blueberry French Toast. (Recipe from Cripple Creek Bed & Breakfast Cabins)

Ingredients:

• 2 (8oz) packages of cream cheese (room temp)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• Day old french bread, cut 3/4 inch thick
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• Syrup for serving

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon with a mixer until well blended. Then add the eggs (one at a time). Next add the milk.

Arrange the bread in the baking dish and spread the blueberries on top (little people do well with this step!)

Next, pour the cream cheese mixture over the bread. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before baking.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown. Serve this yummy dish drizzled with maple syrup. Now that's how I like to start my weekend!!

1 2 3 Peanut Butter Cookies With Chocolate Chips!

This is one of those cookie recipes that you can quickly whip up in minutes -- Literally! And you probably already have all THREE ingredients in your pantry/fridge!

Here's What You'll Need:

1. 1 cup of creamy peanut butter
2. 3/4 cup of sugar (if you like it a little sweeter, bump it up to 1 full cup)
3. 1 large egg
4. 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix your peanut butter, sugar and egg together in a bowl.

Once mixed you can stop here and scoop on to an ungreased cookie sheet ... OR ... you can add Mini Chocolate Chips! I added Mini Chocolate Chips to 1/2 my batter and left the other 1/2 as plain peanut butter.

Bake your cookies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Hope you enjoy these cookies as much as our family did!

Cake Pops

I found this clever idea on someone’s blog last week (sorry, I can’t remember which one) and thought it would be perfect as a sweet treat for Nater-Tater’s 2nd birthday!




Here’s what you’ll need:

• Colored melting chocolates (I used Wilton® Candy Melts)
  
• 8 inch lollipop sticks
  
• 1 box of cake mix (I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme Devil’s Food. This particular cake mix calls for 3 eggs, 2 cups water, 2/3 cups oil)
  
• 1 container of frosting
  
• Wax paper
  

Step 1: Pull together your cake mix following the directions on the box. Mix, grease, pour, bake. When baking is complete, let it cool for about 15-20 minutes before moving on to step 2.




Step 2: Take your cake and start crumbling! I used 2 forks to crumble my cake pieces. You can also use your hands to make for a faster process. You’ll want it crumbled fairly well… think bread crumbs.




Step 3: Next, mix the frosting into your cake crumbs. Start off with 3 large spoonfuls and add more if you need to. I used about ¾ of the container. You’ll want your cake/frosting mix “wet” enough to form balls.

Step 4: Form the balls. You’ll want to keep them about the size of a golf ball… any bigger and it will be too heavy. Trust me. I tried! I even tried to form ones that look like small hamburger patties, but they didn’t do so well during the dipping process. So stick to golf ball size pops.

Lay your cake balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.. If your cake mix starts to get too warm and starts sticking to your fingers, just put your mix in the freezer for a few minutes, then go at it again. Once you have all your cake balls made, put the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Step 5: Melt your chocolates! The Wilton Candy Melts do really well in the microwave.

Step 6: Take your cake balls out of the freezer and insert lollipop sticks. I dipped the stick into a little bit of the chocolate before inserting them. This helps hold it in. Next, you’ll want to roll your cake pops into the melted chocolate. Gently remove from your melted chocolate and let the excess drip off. Lay your dipped Cake Pops back on the wax lined cookie sheet. Let cool.




Step 7: Once your cake pops have cooled and harden, you’re free to enjoy! I added a little extra touches by drizzling some with more melted chocolates and pop out numbers (made with free handing melted chocolate onto wax paper)




Super cute, no? And it’s tasty too!