Challah French Toast w/ Caramel Banana Syrup

Week 5 of going vegetarian is in full swing, and to be completely honest, it is getting easier as time goes by. Shocker. The staples are beginning to present themselves: quinoa stir fry, tofu and steamed broccoli, sauteed vegetables over rice, vegetable tacos, and pasta with cherry tomatoes, garlic and basil. When we eat the weekly quinoa stir fry, I think Andy says aloud "that was a great meal" at least 3 times between the start and end of dinner. I secretly want to record him saying that, so I can replay it when things don't go so well in the kitchen (I won't mention the crunchy spinach lasagna I made on Sunday night).

Andy: How's the lasagna?

Emily: Uhhhh...well.....a little dry tasting.

Emily: What do you think?

Andy: It's kind of crunchy. I mean the middle two layers taste normal, but the top and bottom are crunchy.

Emily: I know. I honestly don't know where I went wrong

The usual quinoa stir fry involves quinoa, a can of drained chickpeas, 1 red pepper, 1 yellow squash, 1 zucchini, a few sliced almonds, and a few tablespoons of a low calorie stir fry sauce. It is so simple. Filling. And delicious.

One of the things I'm noticing as going through this process, is that vegetarian meals make for fantastic leftovers. In general, they are healthy options which make for great light lunches, they keep well, they are easy to heat up, and they fill you up during the day. There was never anything appealing in my mind about reheating a grilled chicken breast in the microwave for lunch, which is probably why I never warmed up to the idea of bringing it as a leftover. But leftover sauteed vegetables over rice? Absolutely. I've had some amazing meals leftover for lunch, which have easily trumped the old stand-bys of oatmeal with bananas and apple with peanut butter.

The other thing I am noticing, is that a vegetarian lifestyle is relatively cheap. On Sunday, I went to the store and bought groceries for the entire week - lunches and dinners included through Saturday, and my bill at Jewel? $68. Now that is a deal. At Whole Foods, I could by $68 in guacamole alone. Ok, so maybe that is an exaggeration. I've purchased more zucchini, quinoa, chickpeas, and tofu in the past 5 weeks than I would have ever thought possible. The $15/lb kabobs at the Whole Foods meat counter are no longer calling my name and the $22/lb ahi tuna purchasing has just gone on a short hiatus.

At the beginning of the year, Andy and I decided we needed to come up with a collection of awesome recipes to always have on hand in the kitchen. I think the goal here is to come up with some tried and true dishes when it comes to things we like to eat on a regular basis. I always had many of the same dishes growing up: goulash with elbow macaroni noodles and meat sauce, baked chicken and rice, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, soup and grilled cheese, meatloaf, waffles, pancakes, and so on. I know exactly how those recipes that I had growing up taste. There was never any variance in what we were making, and that is what makes those meals such great memories. Looking back, I realize that it was slightly boring, but it works. I want to have those go-to dishes in my kitchen. I want to make the same thing year after year and begin to have those classic recipes of my own. Ideally, these could be thrown into a cookbook as time goes on. I won't try and get ahead of myself though.

I've been charged with creating the perfect french toast recipe - and let it be made known - that through past experiences, I am not all that great at making french toast. Andy is in charge of creating the perfect homemade marinara recipe. For people that eat pasta every Friday night, an over the top marinara recipe is a must. I guess this process just doesn't happen overnight. In my style of not having a lot of patience for things, I'm telling myself that I can't just create one really good french toast recipe and be done. Although it sounds ideal, I probably need to try at least 10 different options before picking my perfect recipe.

In the past, I've made french toast with your average loaf of wheat bread. I soaked it in an egg bath for a few seconds on either side, and put it on the griddle. The result? Slightly dry, not all that tasty, french toast. And the Log Cabin Lite syrup that I grew up on, just doesn't do anything to really make the french toast jump out at you. I also tried a baked french toast recipe last year. It was an epic fail. Some of the bread/egg mixture was cooked, some wasn't. I threw most of it away.

So needless to say, I was a little worried when officially trying my first round of finding the perfect french toast recipe. I officially declared aloud to Andy that I was nervous in how things were going to turn out. For my first recipe, I turned to Ina Garten, who is a master at cooking just about everything. I had heard a lot about challah bread and it being key when making a french toast recipe. I don't believe I have ever purchased challah bread, or if I had, I don't really remember it. Next time I try a recipe with challah bread, I hope to make it from scratch, and put my own twist on it by making challah cinnamon bread.

I altered Ina's recipe just a touch, leaving out the honey and the orange zest, but increasing the amount of vanilla added, and throwing in some cinnamon. I initially wanted to stay away from the Log Cabin syrup for my first go round, and decided on a banana syrup. I used a little less sugar than the recipe called for.

The outcome? The french toast was really, really, really good. The best I've ever made. Now is it the best that I can possibly make? That I am not sure of. The bread was cooked all the way through, but not dry. It had an eggy bite to it, and tasted of cinnamon and vanilla. The syrup was good, but not great. I liked having the bananas in there, but it was just too sweet. I need something a little different. I'm tempted to just make a decision, and go forth with this recipe from here on out, but I think I can do even better. This is an amazing recipe. Andy agreed.

And the good thing about french toast? It can replace the Sunday morning staple of having eggs and bacon for breakfast/lunch. Last time I checked, bacon doesn't fall in the vegetarian category.

Challah French Toast w/ Caramel Banana Syrup

french toast adapted from Ina Garten

syrup adapted from Epicurious.com

print this recipe

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 slices challah bread

cooking spray

In a Pyrex 9x13 baking dish, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Cut the challah in 3/4 inch thick slices. Soak the 4 pieces of bread in the egg mixture.

Heat a griddle to 350 degrees. Spray griddle with cooking spray. Add the soaked bread and cook for 5 minutes on each side, until nicely browned. Make sure the french toast is cooked through in the middle.

Caramel Banana Syrup

1 banana, peeled, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in pan. Add sugar and dissolve. Allow sugar and butter to start to caramelize and thicken, about 4 minutes. Add the chopped bananas and cook on low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add in the vanilla. Top on french toast.