Healthy Breakfast Recipe: Stuffed French Toast

Stuffed French Toast

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup fat-free cream cheese
Two tablespoons plus 1/2 cup strawberry jam
8 1-inch slices French bread
2 egg whites
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon apple pie spice
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

Combine the cream cheese as well as tablespoons jam. Generate a slit in each slice of French bread to create a pocket; fill each approximately 1 tablespoon from the cream-cheese mixture.
In a compact bowl, combine egg-whites, egg, milk, vanilla, and apple pie spice. Lightly coat a nonstick griddle with cooking spray; heat over medium heat.
Dip the bread on the egg mixture, coating either side. Place slices over the hot griddle. Cook about 3 minutes or until golden brown, turning once.
Meanwhile, in a tiny saucepan, heat the 1/2 cup of jam until melted, stirring frequently. Pour over French toast.

Nutrition facts per serving (2 slices): 300 calories, 14g protein, 30g carbohydrate, 2g fat (0g saturated), 0g fiber

Healthy Cooking Tips

Super Soaker

Slice the bread by leaving versus eachother overnight. Slightly stale bread ingests the egg-and-milk mixture for max flavor and minimal sogginess, says Joan Salge Blake, RD, clinical associate professor of nutrition at Boston University. When you didn’t plan ahead, dry bread out in the oven at 350 degrees for Eight or ten minutes, turning once halfway through.

A.M. Advice

Not a morning person? Stuff the bread during the night time (dry it inside the oven as appropriate) and refrigerate. When you awaken, what you need to do is prep the egg mixture and cook.

Soy What?

We used fat-free milk as opposed to whole or 2 percent of saving fat grams and calories. If you’re lactose intolerant, substitute calcium-fortified low-fat vanilla soy milk.

Egg-cellent News

You won’t need to swear off yolks. They provide bone-building vitamin D and brain-boosting choline, Blake explains. Plus, the fat helps the mixture adhere to the bread.

Berry Good Idea

For a lower-calorie topping that’s packed with vitamin C, swap out jam for your the real guy. Puree 1 cup frozen strawberries in the blender, then warm in a very saucepan over low heat.

Sweet Surrender

Instead of drowning French toast, pancakes, or waffles in butter and syrup, try one of these healthier alternatives, suggests Nicole Garfield, RD, chef and nutritionist within the Pump Energy Food restaurant in New York City.