Banana Bread French Toast with Nutella Cream Cheese

I dream of calm mornings. Those bright sunny mornings where ray of lights hit my face waking me up late in the am with a kiss of sunshine. Where I then follow the smell of coffee to the kitchen, birds are chirping in the background, Little L is still sleeping, dishes are clean, and suddenly I find a perfect French toast ready on the table waiting for me, calling my name. I dream of the day that this will ever happen. In the meantime, as I wait for that glorious day, I will make myself that French toast I mentioned to at least have a piece of my dream.

As you can imagine my mornings are not as perfect as I describe them, but a girl can only dream. Even though they are not picture perfect in that sense, they are indeed perfect in so many other ways. Despite the dirty dishes, the constant attention that my daughter requires starting as early as 6am, the dark and gloomy winter mornings I still find perfection in all of that beautiful chaos. It is hard for me to understand why sometimes we can fall on the trap of seeing our glass half empty. There is so much that we have that is filling our glass. We need to first value what we have in order to be optimistic and look forward to keep filling the half-full glass. Staying positive and expecting good things to happen, will lead us to actually take actions that will produce positive results.

For example, I am dreaming of a perfect morning, therefore I am now going to make it happen. Now your turn! All you need is a bite of this wonderful French toast, go make it and don’t forget to keep filling your half-full glass.

Everything starts with this delicious family recipe for Banana bread.

Soak each slice in a mixture of egg, cream and vanilla for a moist French toast.

Pan fry the banana bread slices on both sides and serve with these delicious toppings:

Whipped cream

Caramelized almond slivers

And my ultimate favorite: Nutella Cream Cheese

Add a berry to crown your stuffed french toast!

Banana Bread French Toast with Nutella Cream Cheese

Ingredients

• For Banana Bread

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

3 very ripe bananas

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/8 teaspoon salt

• For French toast

10 slices banana bread

10 eggs

1 cup milk

1 vanilla bean or 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

• For Nutella Cream Cheese

6 ounces Nutella

8 ounces Cream Cheese

Directions

Cream the shortening,  add sugar and eggs mixing well. Add the very ripe banana chunks and vanilla as you keep mixing. When you have a well blended mix add all your dry ingredients and mix some more. Pour this mixture in a well-greased loaf pan. Bake at 350F for 45 to 55 minutes.

To make French toast with this banana bread, wait until it cools, at least 30 minutes.

Cut 8 slices of about 1 inch thick;  soak them in a mixture of eggs, milk and vanilla for 10 minutes on one side, turn slices and soak them for 10 more minutes on the other side. Be careful as you turn them so they don’t break. Pan fry with butter on both sides for about 2 minutes each side.

Whip Nutella and cream cheese and set aside.

Serve with any topping of your choice.