Banana Stuffed French Toast

I was craving some comfort food for dinner last night, so we ended up having breakfast - Banana Stuffed French Toast. I've made stuffed french toast a few times, usually with raspberries, but since I had bananas in the house, they won out. I didn't have french bread to make pockets, so I just put the banana slices between two pieces of regular bread. The end result was pretty tasty, but a little bit sweeter than my usual french toast.

Banana Stuffed French Toast
8 slices bread
2 bananas, peeled and sliced
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/4 cup butter
confectioners' sugar for dusting

Place 5 or 6 banana slices on piece of bread; top with another piece, pressing firmly. Repeat until you have 4 "sandwiches". In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, orange juice and orange zest. Dip the bread slices in the mixture, allowing slices to become saturated.
Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Place a few slices at a time in the skillet, and cook, turning once, until both sides are golden brown. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve with warm syrup if desired.

Did You Know...
Bananas are one of the best sources of potassium, an essential mineral for maintaining normal blood pressure and heart function. The average banana contains about 450 mg, so a banana a day may help to prevent high blood pressure.

JELLO PARFAITS

Today I decided to make a dessert that we had pretty often growing up - Jello parfaits. My mom used to make them all the time & my sister, cousins & I would eat them up & beg for more. I wanted to use lemon Jello today, but since Mike doesn't like it, I used strawberry instead. It's a great low carb dessert if you use sugar-free Jello & light ice cream. Oh, from the picture below, you can tell Shiloh gave his approval.

Jello Parfaits
3 boxes of Jello (4 serving size)
3 cups boiling water
1 cup cold water
1 cup vanilla ice cream

Empty Jello packets into a large bowl. Add 3 cups of boiling water; stir until dissolved. Reserve 1 cup in a separate bowl, cover with aluminum foil. Do not refrigerate (leave on counter). To remaining 2 cups, add 1 cup of cold water; cover & refrigerate until set.

Once refrigerated Jello is set, fluff with a fork.

Add slightly softened vanilla ice cream to reserved 1 cup of Jello, mix well.

Alternately layer Jello & Jello/ice cream mixture in small cups or parfait glasses.

Coming Soon...

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I wanted to take the month of January off from the home computer - a little mini vacation. But I'll be back on Sunday with a new recipe. And I can't wait to start working on some Valentine's Day treats.

God Bless,
Tonia