French Toast? Oui!

This post is dedicated to revving up the most important meal of the day: breakfast! Cereal, oatmeal, and eggs (although delicious) can become a little monotonous.  So what's a good alternative (and a bit of a treat)?  The answer: french toast!  Not the Wonder Bread kind that your grandma fried in butter, though.  Think more along the lines of whole grain, fresh fruit, and 100% maple syrup.

Cinnamon-Vanilla French Toast with Strawberries (Bacon optional)

What you'll need (Serves 2):
2/3 cup Skim Milk
2 Eggs
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Cinnamon
4 slices Whole Grain Bread
1 cup chopped Fresh Strawberries
Olive Oil Cooking Spray
4 slices reduced sodium Bacon (optional)


Trim excess fat off of the bacon and chop into small pieces.  Place in a pan on medium heat.  While the bacon is cooking, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.  Pour this mixture in a shallow pie pan and dip each piece of bread (about 30 seconds so it can absorb).  Spray another pan on medium high heat with cooking spray and cook the bread for about two minutes on each side.  Chop the fresh strawberries and mash them slightly (to release juice) with a potato masher.  Mix the strawberries and bacon crumbles and pour over the french toast.  Drizzle with a bit of 100% maple syrup and pour yourself a cup of joe (Try Zingerman's Roadhouse Joe purchased from Tongue's)!  *Feel free to add any other fresh fruit you enjoy (bananas, blueberries, etc.).


Start your day off right: Staying hydrated can help boost your metabolism throughout the day, so try to drink around 16 ounces right when you wake up in the morning.  The same goes for eating breakfast: depriving your body of this meal triggers starvation mode and tricks your metabolism into storing energy (aka calories), not burning them.  


Turkey Bacon versus Regular Bacon: Be careful with this debate.  Turkey is a leaner meat, but usually turkey bacon isn't 100 percent turkey (additives and such make up a lot of it), plus regular bacon packs less sodium.  If you're going to splurge with bacon, it might be better to go with the regular thing and trim off as much fat as you can (just don't make bacon a staple at the table). 


Watching this music video might pave way for a great day: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!