Skinny French Toast and Fattening Cinnamon Rolls

I love French Toast and Apple French Toast , but just can’t eat that stuff every day.  We used to eat French toast growing up for dinner a few times because that was one of the things dad cooked.  Since mom worked evening/nights 5 days a week, dad often watched us after school.  Aside from Chef Boyardee, grilled cheese, Campbell’s soup and Kraft mac and cheese, this is one of the things I remember for our evening meal.

Skinny French Toast
4 servings

8 slices of whole grain/whole wheat sandwich bread like Healthy Life
3 eggs
1 cup of skim milk (I fill my pie pan until it is 1/4″ deep)
2 dashes of cinnamon (about 3/4 tsp.)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. brown sugar

1.  Heat your griddle to 300 degrees or a large skillet on the stove to medium heat.

2.  In a casserole 9×13 pan or pie pan or any shallow dish, combine the eggs, skim milk, cinnamon, vanilla and brown sugar.  Whisk together with a fork.
3.  Dip the bread into the pan and let it soak on each side about 30 seconds.
4.  Remove bread from the milk mixture and cook on each side about 2-3 minutes.  It should be golden brown.
5.  Serve with syrup, powdered sugar or fruit.

Money Saving Mom has a recipe for cinnamon rolls and even though I love the ones on here, why not try a new recipe?  I don’t have enough people to do a side by side taste test of 24 cinnamon rolls total – but these taste really really similar.  So, if you don’t have bread flour on hand, these would work great.  I thought they were delicious and I bet that some icing would just be yummy!  The cinnamon roll recipe here has a cream cheese frosting recipe.  I love them with or without.

Cinnamon Rolls
serves 12

Dough:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm milk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten plus 2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups flour (I had to add about 1/4 cup more flour during the first kneading stage in the machine)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Filling 
1 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves (optional)

Icing:
1 teaspoon milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
4 tablespoons (or less) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

1.  Throw the dough ingredients into your bread machine and hit the “dough” cycle.  Remember to check during the first kneading.  I needed 1/4 cup more flour for the dough to come together.
2.  Melt the 1 Tb. butter and combine the cinnamon and brown sugar together as well as cloves if you are using those.  It gives the cinnamon rolls a nice extra flavor.
3.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Roll out the dough into a large rectangle about…. 12″x16″ or so.  Brush the melted butter on the dough except the top 1/2″  Sprinkle the cinnamon mixture and press flat into the dough.
4.  Roll up the dough into a roll with the long side facing you.  Seal the dough at the end.  I usually pinch it a little here.  Divide into 12 rolls.
5.   Put the rolls in a greased 9×13 or in 2 – 8″ or 9″ round cake pans.  Bake 20 minutes.
6.  Drizzle with icing or just eat warm.

There was no need in this recipe for a second rise.  Usually my recipes call for one, but this one didn’t and worked just fine.

Recipe adapted from Money Saving Mom