I am probably the most UN-MORNING person in the entire world.  Seriously.  I am pretty much a Zombie until 9, at the earliest.  But on the rare occasion that I do fix breakfast for my family (that doesn’t include a bowl of cereal, yogurt, or an Eggo waffle), I want it to be something I can prepare the night before and throw in the oven in the morning (have I told you I’m not a morning person?).  This French Toast Casserole is the perfect EXTRA SPECIAL breakfast!

You can print the recipe here.  It is adapted slightly from Frugal Upstate.

 1.  Melt 1/2 cup of butter and pour it in the bottom of the 9×13 casserole dish.

2.  Lay 6 pieces of white bread on top of the melted butter.

 3.  Mix 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

4.  Pour half of the brown sugar mixture on top of the first layer of bread.

5.  Add the second layer of six pieces of bread over the top of the brown sugar mixture.

 6.  In a separate bowl, mix 5 beaten eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 1 1/2 cups of milk.

 7.  Pour the egg mixture over the casserole.

8.  Top with the remaining brown sugar mixture.

 9.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

10.  The next morning, cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil and then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes.

 We served with a side of fruit:  Yummy!!!

What’s your favorite easy breakfast recipe???

If you are a fan of traditional fruit pizza, you will be delighted with these little fruit pizza cupcakes!  I made these for Prince Charming’s 30th birthday party that we had with both of our families.  To my great satisfaction, there were some leftover that I have been sneaking for my “breakfast” several mornings this week.  Hey… It has fruit in it, so it must be healthy, right?!?!  ;)

And there is an extra layer that you may not have had in other fruit pizzas…Cool Whip sandwiched between 2 layers of fruit!

Download and print the entire recipe here.

To save time and effort, I just used Pillsbury Refrigerated Sugar Cookie Dough.  I don’t normally like this type of sugar cookie by itself or with icing (I would much rather have our World’s Best Sugar Cookies), but it tastes SUPERB as the shell for our Fruit Pizza Cupcakes and is sturdy enough to hold everything together!

1.  Slice off 1/2 inch of dough from the refrigerated cookie dough.  Place each dough slice on a cupcake pan turned upside down.  (Tip:  I actually found the dough to “run” more evenly if you make a ball with the dough first and then put the ball on top of the upside down cookie sheet.)

2.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-16 minutes (or until golden and firm to the touch).  This is longer than the instructions on the dough packaging tells you because you’ll want the cookie cupcake shell to be somewhat hard to keep its shape.

3.  Carefully, ever so carefully, remove the cookie  from the upside down cupcake pan (I had 3 out of the 26 that ended up falling apart during this step).

 Beautiful cookie shells!

 4.  Mix 1 8oz. package of softened cream cheese with 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla.

5.  Use a spoon or spatula to spread the mixture into the shells.

 6.  Wash and cut up your fruit–we used fresh strawberries, pineapple, and blueberries.

 7.  Place your first row of fruit on top of the cream cheese mixture.

8.  Add a dollop of cool whip to each cupcake, spread evenly, and then top with another layer of fruit!

 Yum!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think one of these babies is calling my name for an afternoon snack!