Churro French Toast Sticks

Our kindergartner is totally enthused by school lunch – he goes to school 2 days a week and lunch is provided. Chocolate milk! Square pizza! He eats anything and gets 2 choices so despite not knowing what they’re serving, I’m always interested to hear what he picks. He had french toast sticks and loved it! I decided to make our own and coated them in a little churro crunch. Anything in a dippable format is fun for all!

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Churro French Toast Sticks
Ingredients: (serves 5-6)

1/2 loaf Italian Bread
6 eggs
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
sprinkle of nutmeg
2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions:
Slice Italian bread in half horizontally, then into slices vertically for sticks.
Whisk together eggs, half & half, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar, and nutmeg.

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Pour into a shallow baking dish and add in bread in one layer, repeat if necessary. Toss well and let soak for 10 minutes. (I used a 9×9 dish for 2 batches, cooking one batch while the other soaks.)

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Heat a large skillet to medium heat and spray with nonstick spray and butter. Pan fry the sticks- cooking for ~2-3 minutes on each side.
Prep a baking sheet with parchment and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar, white sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
As the french toast sticks are cooked, remove from the heat and put onto the baking sheet – rolling in the cinnamon sugar. Then keep warm while cooking other french toast sticks.

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

These were good! The sugary crunch and warm spices is delightful – almost doughnut-like! They’re quite sweet and would have paired nicely with bacon, but do as I say, not as I do!

Psssst! Use the leftover other half of Italian bread loaf cut into chunks to be homemade croutons or for garlic bread. Both are good decisions and reminders how pillowy white bread is!

McGriddle Breakfast Sandwich

Breakfast sandwiches are my fav and let’s get into 2021 with my take on a McGriddle. McDs describes these as griddle cakes with flavors of maple syrup. I have no idea what a griddle cake is but seems like maybe I would if I were in the south? Mine is a twist on a pancake and to become a sandwich with a folded egg, a slice of American cheese, and a sausage patty.

The Three Bite Rule - McGriddles

There’s more here than what appears…

McGriddles
Ingredients: (for 2)

1 cup pancake mix
3 tablespoons cornmeal
1 tablespoon cinnamon chips (or butterscotch chips)
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1/4 cup cold water (or as the mix instructs)
2 sausage patties
2 eggs
2 slices of American Cheese

Directions:
Mix together the pancake mix, cornmeal, maple syrup, and add water. Then stir to combine but not over mixing. Cook small pancakes (think of the egg size and the sausage patty size) and add the chips before flipping.

The Three Bite Rule - McGriddles

Keep the pancakes warm while cooking the sausage. Drain the sausage on paper towels to remove excess grease.
Crack the eggs and whisk to scramble. Cook in a medium pan so the very thin egg can be folded into a square.
Melt the cheese on top.
Assemble the pancakes as the bread with a light brush of maple syrup, the sausage, the egg & cheese, and the other pancake.

The Three Bite Rule - McGriddles

I loved these. Breakfast sandwiches are my love language. I never fold the egg up like this but was going for a very McD’s style. I should have flipped it over to show you a nice smooth side with melted cheese on the flat part, but hey, here we are.

I used a few butterscotch chips I had around but cinnamon would be wayy better. They are also great in pumpkin or banana bread for all the leftovers you’d have!

BLT Quiche

I was striving to shake up lunches a bit. Somehow during this time home I began eating the same thing everyday: turkey, arugula, & provolone. I do want to get some variety going with the same “no thought required” as that daily sandwich so I made quiche! Poof! One hour of prep/baking time in advance and we have about 4 servings of lunch!

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Quiche

I went to make this and was out of tomatoes. I thought there was one left soooo I substituted a few tiny dollops of tomato paste from a tube I keep in the fridge. It was good! Go with real tomatoes but in a pinch, I’m here for ya!

BLT Quiche
Ingredients (for 4-5 servings):

1 pie crust
4 strips of bacon
4 eggs
3/4 cup milk/cream
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
1 cup spinach
1 teaspoon tomato paste (or ~6 cherry tomatoes, halved)
1 cup fontina cheese, grated
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
salt & pepper

Directions:
Bake the pie crust in a pie plate, as instructed. (Mine was ~10 minutes)
Chop then pan fry the bacon until crisp. Remove and drain excess grease.
Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream of tarter, and salt and pepper.
In the baked pie crust, add in some cheese, some some bacon, some spinach, and a few dots of tomato paste. Repeat to fill it up.

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Quiche

Bake for 35-40 minutes. It should puff a bit and not giggle in the center.
Let fully cool, then slice and enjoy!

I’d totally go with tomatoes but it worked so well in a pinch! Have some sun dried tomatoes in a jar? Use those! The flavor theme would have been wreaked without any and I liked it! Tomato paste is concentrated so really don’t go overboard!

I love the buttery and crumbly crust. The bacon is the star but the spinach is there to make you feel good about your life choices.

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Quiche

Quiche is such a great and balanced lunch – I went back for seconds so this will end up being 4 servings for us- a quarter of the quiche. That’s 1 egg, 1 slice of bacon, and about 1/3 of a cup of cheese per serving! There’s really not much of a veg serving here so add some salad on the side but overall that’s what I call balance!

I’ll probably tuck one into the freezer for the next time I need some variety!

Funfetti Waffles

Comfort food month continues with these funfetti waffles! I made mine as waffles but the same works for pancakes! These have waffle mix plus funfetti mix plus a little vanilla protein powder.

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Funfetti Waffles
Ingredients (for 4)
1 cup pancake/waffle mix
1 1/4 cup funfetti cake mix
1 egg
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla protein powder (optional)
1 tablespoon sprinkles (optional)

Directions:
Mix everything together.

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Pour into the waffle iron and cook! Keep them warm between rounds.

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Serve with syrup & whipped cream!
Enjoy!

I loved these! The extra sprinkles were for the kids, the protein nudge was for me. Sometimes I’m hungry shortly after a sweet breakfast of waffles or pancakes!

The Three Bite Rule - Funfetti Waffles

Make extra and freeze them! They reheat well in the toaster or oven!

When you make these, you’ll have leftover funfetti mix which you can use for Dunkaroo Dip! I might put some of the remaining funfetti mix into energy bites!

Orrr you could skip the funfetti mix completely and go with more vanilla protein powder and extra sprinkles into pancake/waffle mix for the same effect!

Up next I have a comforting dinner! Stay tuned!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Energy Bites

I crowdsourced what to do with freeze dried raspberries nobody was into. The kiddos like freeze dried strawberries & mango & blueberries but the raspberries were a no-go. I put some into ebelskivers but it didn’t use too many. Now I put them into energy bites, which was a genius idea from Jess www.jessfuel.com!

The Three Bite Rule - PBJ Energy Bites

PB&J Energy Bites

Ingredients: (for about 12 golf ball sized bites)

1/2 cup ground flax
1 cup freeze dried raspberries
4 dates
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup peanuts
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon raspberry jelly
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
sprinkle of salt

Directions:

Grind the flax seeds, if whole, and the freeze dried raspberries in a food processor or spice grinder or coffee grinder. Chop the dates and the peanuts.
Add everything to a bowl & marvel at that great red raspberry powder!
The Three Bite Rule - PBJ Energy Bites
Stir well. Add in more jelly if needed to keep it together.
Form into balls.
Refrigerate and enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - PBJ Energy Bites

These are delightful! I love peanut butter and jelly flavors – hello, the only smoothie I seem to ever make is this healthier peanut butter and jelly smoothie! These have good chew and sweetness from the raspberry powder. The dates make it sticky and sweet without a separate flavor. A wise Registered Dietician told me to always grind the flaxseeds and that our bodies don’t do much with them whole.

Here’s hoping the little gal likes these. We’re trying to get some dense nutritional foods into her. She hasn’t grown a whole lot so I thought these might be good snacks- for any of us!

They last about a week in the refrigerator or can be frozen too. I used some ratios from these energy bites I made forever ago.