Breakfast For Dinner: Crunchy French Toast

Every now and then, I like to have breakfast for dinner. Neither the hubby nor I make elaborate breakfasts on the weekend, even though we both love breakfast food. It's just that neither of us are morning people. I get around this by making breakfast for dinner!

I was perusing www.foodnetwork.com for recipes to try when I came across this recipe of Rachael Ray's. I have a love/hate relationship with her recipes. Some recipes never seem to turn out as delicious as they look on her show. Then again, some of her recipes turn out fantastic. I decided to take a gamble on this one.

I modified it a little bit, but stayed true to the concept. This recipe was a hit in our house, the hubby loved it! The french toast is dipped in egg and then battered in crushed cereal. After searing both sides of the toast, it bakes in the oven for 10 minutes, just to make sure the toast is cruchy. There's also a fruit topping to serve with the toast.

I didn't make Rachael's sugared bacon. I just fried up some regular bacon to go on the side.

The fruit mixture is marinated in a little bit of sugar and orange liqueur (I'm a sucker for anything with booze!).

Ingredients:
French Toast-
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, crushed (You could use almost any cereal you want. Because I used this cereal, I didn't add any sugar, nutmeg, or cinnamon to the egg mixture.)
2 tbsp butter
3 slices thick bread (I used Texas Toast)

Fruit Topping-
3/4 cup frozen peach slices
3/4 cup whole frozen strawberries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup frozen blackberries (You can, of course, use fresh fruit. Make sure all the frozen fruit is thawed, if using.)
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup orange liqueur

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with foil, lightly coat with cooking spray.
2. In a small mixing bowl, vigorously whisk the egg, milk, and vanilla together. Place the crushed cereal on a large plate.
3. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Dip the bread in the egg mixture and then dredge in the cereal. Press the cereal onto the bread with your fingers if you have to. Add bread to the skillet, cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Place on the cookie sheet when done cooking.
4. Bake toast in the oven for 10 minutes.
5. To make fruit topping, combine all ingredients. I made mine before I started prepping the meal, then placed it in the fridge and let it set for about 30 minutes to soak up the orange liqueur flavor.
6. Serve fruit topping over toast. Serve alongside bacon, if desired.

*Chef's Note*
My recipe made 3 pieces of toast because I wanted one, while I knew the hubby would want two. I had enough egg and cereal mixture to make another piece of toast however. Racheal's recipe makes 12 pieces of toast if you want to make this for a large group.