Foodie Friday: Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast

We're trying something new. Mr wants to start blogging about our awesome food recipes we've been putting together into meal plan... but he doesn't want to do the blogging. He does the cooking, I'll do the blogging. This weeks meal plan included the following for less than 200$ for the whole week (including snacks, lunches, and breakfast foods for the 4- and a half - of us):

Day	Dinner
M	Mediterranean Stew (Veg CrockPot) w bread
T	Pasta with Tomato Sauce with Salad
W	Orange “Chicken” with Rice
R	Tortilla Pizzas
F	Stuff Peppers w Rice
S	Italian Style ‘French’ Toast
S	*New Recipe Night*

So, hopefully we can keep it up and blog a favorite from the week each Friday. First up, a favorite from this weeks meal plan: Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast.

I originally found this recipe here at Jessica in the Kitchen and though it looked fantastic and pretty simple.

For the filling:

• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups (6 oz.) loosely packed fresh baby spinach
• ½ cup ricotta cheese
• ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil (or 1 tsp dried)
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dried)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the French toast:

• 1 loaf French bread, cut into eight 1-1/2-inch-thick slices (We used larger slices of Italian Bread) 
• 3 large eggs
• ½ cup milk (We used Soy Milk)
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil divided

For the topping:

• 2 cups marinara sauce, warmed

1. For the filling: In a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add spinach and cook until wilted, 1-2 minutes. Let cool then coarsely chop.
2. In a small bowl, combine chopped spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, lemon zest, basil, and oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Using a small serrated knife, cut a horizontal pocket in the side of each slice of bread. Gently fill with 1-2 tablespoons on filling and press closed.
3. In a shallow dish, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and garlic powder.
4. In a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat add one tablespoon of oil. Working with one slice at a time, dip into egg mixture, flipping to coat both sides. Place in pan with the hot oil. Repeat with 2-3 more slices without overloading the pan. Cook for 3 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Repeat with remaining slices, adding more oil as needed.
5. Transfer to plates, spoon warm marinara over top, and serve.

The verdict according to Mr: It was actually pretty easy. Cooking is the third part. You make the filler, the french toast dip, and then the assembly and cooking. It's not that healthy on our health-o-meter, but it's "Delicious" according to Big. We used fresh oregano and dried basil, but I don't think it really matters. The recipe also calls for French bread, but we used sliced Italian bread and think it worked out perfectly. French bread seems like it would make the sandwiches too small. There was enough ingredients left over to make this twice in the week. Each kid split a sandwich and we put the "dippy sauce" on the side for Big and omitted the sauce all together for Little.

Thumbs up from Big! 

Everyone though dinner tonight was amazing, and we had enough left over (after making eight half-sandwiches) to feed the boys lunch the next day. We'll definitely be adding this to one of our favorite meals and are excited to make some Mouse House tweaks to in in the near future.