Merry Christmas!  Here’s a “bonus” post that I decided to put up after successfully lightening up a tried-and-true family holiday recipe this morning. 🙂

 

 

Many years ago (more than a decade), my mom, sister and I were all introduced to Pampered Chef.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s another one of those “home party” type retailers, where you’re invited to a party given by a hostess, who earns free stuff for each item purchased through her party.  (I remember going to Tupperware parties with my mom as a kid and not having a clue how it all worked; I just enjoyed the free food!)

I usually enjoy home parties, but I don’t attend a lot of them anymore just because my schedule rarely allows for it.  I do love Pampered Chef stuff, though, and will usually buy something whenever someone has a party.  They have lots of great things that make cooking and especially baking easier.  I can’t live without my Pampered Chef handy-chopper, and I love love love their big glass mixing/measuring bowls, especially during canning season.  They make it SO easy to measure out 7 cups of sugar for a jam recipe!

Okay, okay, enough Pampered Chef promotion.  They are not sponsoring this post in any way, shape or form, so they get no more love from me! 😉  The reason I bring it up is because the recipe my mom, sister and I have been using for the last 10 or so years as our “holiday morning” breakfast comes from one of their little “recipe collection” books.  These books are designed to give you lots of reasons to buy/use their products, but you certainly don’t need to use every item they list. (I don’t need a special chef’s knife to cut up frozen French toast, or a “micro-cooker” to warm up milk in the microwave!)  They do have a lot of yummy ideas in them though, and that’s how “Harvest Apple French Toast” came into my life.

 

 

This recipe is really simple, and it’s made that way by the use of a very processed, not-at-all-healthy food product, ie, frozen French toast.  Egads! Yes, that’s right, I’m lazy and have no desire to make my own. 😉  I am faithful to the Aunt Jemima brand.

 

 

(Again, not a paid advertisement for Aunt Jemima…it’s just the one I always use because it’s easy to find at Meijer when I’m looking for frozen French toast!)

The recipe has pretty simple ingredients…milk, eggs, apples, nuts (it calls for walnuts, but I hate walnuts, so I use pecans instead), butter or margarine, syrup, cinnamon, and cranberries.  I’ve been making it for years, but this year, I decided I’d try to lighten it up.  I always use fat-free milk (it’s all we ever have on hand), but since I had leftover Egg Beaters from another recipe, I used that instead of real eggs.  I used my favorite butter substitute (Brummel & Brown yogurt spread) and then, when I realized I didn’t have any dried cranberries, I used frozen, which are less point-heavy.  I used real maple syrup since that’s what we had on hand (did I mention my husband is a syrup snob?), and when it was done, it turned out beautifully!

 

 

The best part is that, besides the delicious syrupy, appley goodness, my few tricks really helped lighten it up! It’s only 7 points for 1/8th of the pan, which is the serving size pictured. It’s quite a lot, and along with a small flute of Christmas morning champagne, it’s very filling. (Champagne is optional for you…not for me. 😉 )

 

 

 

Harvest Apple French Toast

 

2 packages (12.5 ounces each) frozen plain
French toast, thawed
1 cup fat free milk
1 1/2 c Egg Beaters
2 medium red baking apples such as Jonathan (I use gala, actually)
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp Brummell & Brown margarine
1/4 cup maple-flavored syrup (or the real stuff if you want to splurge!)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
Powdered sugar
additional syrup (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly spray a 9×13 baker with cooking spray. Cut French toast into 1-inch cubes; place in baker.

2. In a small glass measuring cup, microwave milk on HIGH 1 1/2-2 minutes or until hot. In a bowl,
whisk Egg Beaters. While continuously whisking, slowly pour hot milk into Egg Beaters. Pour egg mixture over
French toast cubes; stir gently. Set aside.

3. Core and slice apples, leaving peel on. Cut apple slices into quarters. Chop nuts. Melt
butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples, nuts, syrup and cinnamon. Cook over medium-high heat 3-3 1/2 minutes or until apples are crisp-tender.

4. Pour apple mixture over French toast mixture. Sprinkle with cranberries; mix using scraper.
Bake 30-32 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with
additional syrup, if desired.

Yield: 8 servings
Points: 7 points plus