Super Simple French Toast {Recipe}

This morning I was really craving French toast.

french-toast

I had some delicious bread from Eataly, some farmers’ market eggs to use up, and some leftover organic milk from when I made yogurt last week. (Note to self: must make yogurt again!)

I actually made this same recipe a few days ago, and it was so good that it merited a repeat.

The Simplest Easiest French Toast

Ingredients

  • Stale bread (or not stale, but this is great for using up stale bread)
  • 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
  • 3 eggs
  • Butter/ghee

Directions

Mix the milk and eggs together. Soak the bread in the mixture for at least 5 minutes on each side.

Heat the butter or ghee in a pan. With heat on low, cook the soaked bread (poor any extra mixture that didn’t soak in right on top of the slices).

Cook for 6-8 minutes per side. I like to keep a lid on the pan for the first half (3-4 minutes) of each side.

Enjoy with butter and syrup!

Note that you could add some cinnamon (either into the egg mixture or just sprinkled on as it’s cooking), but my husband hates cinnamon and I wanted him to eat this, so I left it out.

I can usually have a little more than a third of this recipe for breakfast – about 2.5 or 3 pieces. The next day when I only have 1 or 1.5 slices left (because Bobby also had a third or more), I will have it along with a yogurt.

What is your favorite breakfast?

I love French toast, waffles, pancakes. I won’t ever eat them in a restaurant because the restaurant can’t make them like my dad can. In a restaurant I will get an omelette or an egg platter – pretty hard to mess up eggs (though it has happened).

PCOS Muffins / PCOS Bread Recipe

**UPDATE: My PCOS did resolve itself naturally. I think that this PCOS bread helped but honestly I can’t be sure what the final fix was! I was also following this eating plan when my PCOS cleared up. I went on to get pregnant in the summer of 2013 and have a son who was born in April of 2014.**

I think I have mentioned this before, but I have PCOS (PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome). There are a lot of different opinions and research floating around regarding treatment and causes. One of the possible treatments is adding DCI, or D-Chiro-Inositol, to your diet. I actually got the idea for this recipe from a coworker at a previous job, but there are also many variations online if you google for PCOS muffins. This buckwheat farinetta has a lot of DCI in it, and so does soy lecithin which is also in the recipe. I modified this recipe from a bunch that I found online, but it came out really well. I will be making it again because i’m almost out.

pcos-bread

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl:

  • 3 cups farinetta (order online HERE)
  • 1/2 cup soy lecithin granules (amazon has it)
  • 1 tablespoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2-4 tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves or other “pumpkin pie” type spices – I used cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup ground flaxseed/flaxmeal (optional, but good for Omega 3s) – I did not use this
  • 2 tablespoons ground black sesame seeds (optional – I did add this, and I used this grinder)

Combine (separately) the wet ingredients + sweetener in a medium or small bowl:

  • 2 mashed bananas (alternately, try pumpkin or applesauce?)
  • 1 cup baking stevia (do not use sugar here – PCOS people are particularly sensitive to sugar – our insulin response is usually messed up)
  • 3 medium organic eggs
  • 1 cup of whole milk (could sub a non-dairy milk, or even water)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla or other extract

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
  2. Combine the wet and dry ingredients by pouring the wet into the dry. You may add extra goodies like chocolate chips, nuts, etc… but I did not.
  3. Spoon the batter either into muffin tins or a loaf pan (mine are circular and have ~1.5 inch high sides). My batter fit into 2 of the circular ones. The batter may or may not rise – mine did, but I read online that others didn’t – so fill accordingly.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 35 mins (check after 25).

This makes approximately 16 servings (each tin cut into 8 pieces). If you have 2-3 servings per day, that should be enough DCI to be effective. There are about 5200 grams of DCI in the whole batch. That means 325 grams in each 1/16th piece. Depending on your weight, have 2-3 per day (I think the study with DCI used 600 grams per day for smaller women).

***

I hope this helps someone! I really liked the muffins/bread. They definitely have an odd, “healthy” taste to them, but I like stuff like that. Try topping them with butter or cream cheese. Yum.

Pumpkin Porcini Parsnip Soup @ Bis.Co.Latte (Hell’s Kitchen) [Review]

When I used to imagine life in New York, I had visions of Carrie Bradshaw’s brownstone, brunches with friends, and lazy afternoons in Central Park. Over the last two years in this city I’ve learned that while those things do exist, New York is also home to thousands of chain restaurants and dirty alleyways, and it can be hard to find those quaint coffeeshops that everyone seems to think of when they think of the Big Apple. I have a few days off this week due to transitioning jobs (!) and I have been trying to find as many of those small places as possible.

My mom came up to visit me yesterday and left a few short hours ago. This morning we took a walk over to the Hudson River (that’s the one on the West Side) and passed by a charming find – Bis.Co.Latte – it’s a biscotti and coffee shop in my new neighborhood.

Upon entering the shop I was greeted with a smiling face and a display of biscotti – there must be over a thousand of these cookies, in a so many flavors. To be honest I wasn’t there for the biscotti though. I’m simply a coffee girl through and through, and I have been avoiding grains lately anyway (paleo* thing).

So instead of a biscotti I picked up a homemade soup.

Pumpkin Porcini Parsnip Soup (vegan)

This was one of about 6 fresh soups they had available. They also had a pumpkin chili that I would like to try and a risotto menu. I asked about the porcini – they are mushrooms with a meaty flavor. My soup was a puree and it came with some multigrain bread that I decided to save for Bobby. They also packed in some pumpkin seeds for me to top it with (I got it to go and ate it at home). I believe you can get all of their soups vegan.

The soup was absolutely perfect – I didn’t need to salt or pepper it, and I finished the whole thing. It’s fairly pricey ($7.75 for just a soup – a fairly large portion) but it’s worth it… at least once in a while. I usually spend around that much for lunch anyway so this was a nice change. The pumpkin soup was surprisingly filling. It’s thick and creamy (they use soy milk) and a very homey fall meal. If you are in the area I definitely recommend checking out Bis.Co.Latte. Let me know if you try any of their baked goodies.

Do you like soup? Pumpkin soup? What’s your favorite fall meal?

I usually don’t eat soup because I don’t think it fills me up, but recently I have been trying to add it into my diet more. I love the way it makes my stomach feel (no bloating) and for some reason a hot soup can be super comforting on a chilly fall afternoon. Other recent soup adventures of mine have included carrot soup and veggie soup (both from Le Pain Quotidien) and a Shrimp Bisque (like a chowder) from Hale & Hearty.

*A note on paleo – I have been avoiding grains off and on (mostly avoiding) for the last year but have kept kind of quiet about that because I didn’t want to say something and then suddenly change my mind later. I think I would like to slowly go more paleo (like avoiding sugar better) but I’m totally ok with this being a verrrrry slow process. Paleo can be very meat-heavy and sometimes I have issues (morally) with eating such large amounts of animal flesh. So there you have it.

Vegan Tomato Peanut Stew [Recipe]

I tooootally forgot I meant to post this last week. Enjoy! I sure did.

Vegan Tomato Peanut Stew Recipe

Inspired by this peanut stew.

Ingredients

  • 1/3 large red onion
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter (or more peanut butter – I ran out)
  • 3 medium, verging on too-ripe tomatoes
  • 2 small satoimo (taro) potatoes
  • large handful of cilantro, chopped
  • 1/2 can of garbanzo beans (drained)
  • salt

Method

  1. Put onions in a pan and cook on high-ish heat.
  2. Chop the tomatoes and add them, along with the nut butters. Reduce heat to low-medium.
  3. Add the potatoes (satoimo).
  4. Add the cilantro.
  5. Add the garbanzos.
  6. Cook for about 30 minutes, covered. Add salt, to taste.
  7. Serve with homemade bread (me) or rice (Bobby).

This is what satoimo look like:

Feel free to sub in a regular potato – I just didn’t have any on hand.

Before serving, I un-veganized it by adding parmesan (duh). I had this with my own homemade bread from the new breadmaker.

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Do you eat stew? What is your favorite kind?

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P.S. Please check out Natalie’s Hormone Survey! I might do a hormone post in the near future as well because I finally went to the doctor (I *finally* found a good one) and figured out what my dealio is.

Manna Bread Winner!

We have a winner! The winner of the Manna Organics giveaway is…

Cellabella, I just emailed you. I also love banana bread and fresh baguettes 😉 Thanks to everyone for all your entries! And if you didn’t win, you can still check out Manna bread in your local grocery – check the frozen section. I will have another giveaway for you all later this week. Are you up for some yoga?