Cooking With Blueberries
Recipe Inspirations from Mariano's
I love to create new recipes and share great places to shop. I'm excited to be part of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. Recently I was selected to be part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and discovered some great things about Mariano’s #cbias and#SocialFabric which inspired me to create some new recipes using blueberries including this Stuffed French Toast Recipe! Although this is a sponsored post, all of the opinions in this feature are my own.
Getting Inspired to Cook
I'm often asked where I get my recipes or how I come up with new ones. Often I see an ingredient on sale or see a beautiful display at the store and think, I really need to make something with that.
In this case, I saw blueberries on sale, and thought with the Memorial Day holiday coming it up, it might be fun to create a Red White and Blueberry breakfast! Off I go to Mariano's for additional inspiration!
Shopping at Chicago area Mariano's is a great experience. There is a nice combination of high quality fruits and veggies (and I'm picky!) and good values. I was very happy with the freshness of the produce I bought and items were displayed in a way that inspires me to incorporate healthy ingredients in my cooking. I could sample foods and even see and smell baked goods being made. If you haven't been to this store, I would suggest getting a cup of coffee (see why you want to get a Mariano's Rewards Card on the right) and walk the aisles. You will find a combination of high end ingredients, house brand staples which are well priced, and they even have an aisle of warehouse sized value items.
Since the frozen organic blueberries and fresh blueberries were priced really well, I decided to create a recipe for a Blueberry Stuffed French Toast using blueberry jam to really kick up the blueberry flavor.
I've got all the ingredients I need to cook! Since I planned to buy frozen blueberries I brought along a cooler to keep them frozen on the way home,. I've got my coffee and a pretty flower for my kitchen counter so it's time to go home, unpack, and cook! If you want to see photos (and captions!) of my shopping trip, check out the Google+ Album I created!
Blueberry-Stuffed
French Toast Recipe
Inspired by #MyMarianos and #cbias
Ingredients
Blueberry Filling:
4 ounces of cream cheese (1/2 of an 8 ounce block)
3 Tablespoons blueberry jam
1 (6 ounce) container fresh blueberries
Egg Mixture:
4 eggs
2 Tablespoons fat free half and half or milk
Crumb Topping:
3 cups crushed cornflake cereal
Other:
6 slices of bread (challah or Peppridge Farm White Bread is preferred)
1-3 Tablespoons of butter
strawberries and powdered sugar to garnish
optional blueberry sauce - recipe is in the right column or syrup if desired
Directions
- Place cream cheese in a medium sized microwave safe bowl and microwave for 15 seconds to soften. Add jam and stir well. Fold in fresh blueberries and set aside
- In a shallow pie plate or bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk, set this aside.
- Pour the cornflakes in a zip style bag and use a rolling pin or your hands to crush the cereal into a fine meal. Pour this into another shallow pie plate or bowl and set aside.
- Assemble 4 "sandwiches" by placing about 1/3 cup of the blueberry filling between two slices of bread
- Dredge each "sandwich" in the egg mixture, coating both sides well.
- Coat both sides of each sandwich with the crumb mixture
- Melt 1-2 Tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. Place 1-2 of the stuffed french toast sandwiches in the skillet and cook over medium-low heat for 1-2 minutes per side until golden brown. Transfer to a warm platter and cook the other sandwiches.
- Garnish with strawberries and powdered sugar and serve with homemade blueberry sauce or syrup if desired.
Yield: 4 servings - and this recipe doubles well
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: less than 10 minutes
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If you are looking for more breakfast recipes, Mariano’s has quite a few under their recipe section (I rather liked their Muffin Base Recipe as you could change it up as you want!) If you're a foodie like I am or just like to shop at a nice store, I think you will enjoy following Mariano's on Twitter and Mariano's on Facebook!
I hope you enjoy this recipe and would love to hear how you make Stuffed French Toast or how this recipe worked for you in the comment section below!
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Crystal
Mariano's Rewards Card
I met Dolores at the Customer Service desk who explained the benefits of their Rewards Card. I learned that I can get my 11th coffee (or gelato!) for free by using my card. What I liked is that you don't have to use their card to receive sales and savings. So, yes I have a card and I enjoyed my sugar free vanilla latte even more knowing that my 11th one would be free!
Ingredients purchased for the Stuffed French Toast Recipe
What's the Best Bread
for French Toast?
Options for Low Sugar Diets
Mariano's carries low sugar and sugar free jams and I was happy to see that they also carried Stevia which is a natural sugar free substitute. A low sugar jam could be used in the blueberry filling and stevia could be used in the blueberry sauce.
Make Ahead Options
You can speed things up in the morning, if you need to, by prepping a few things the night before:
- If you are using unsliced bread, slice what you will need and reseal.
- The blueberry filling can be made ahead, covered and refridgerated. You will just need to let it come to room temperature or microwave it for abou 15 seconds so that it is spreadable.
- The cereal and be crushed ahead of time. I would just leave it in the zip-style bag to keep it fresh.
- Even the egg mixture can be made ahead. Just make sure to seel it well so it doesn't slosh in the fridge and whisk it again in the morning.
Recipe for Homemade Blueberry Sauce
This French Toast recipe really has enough flavor that you don't need syrup, but if you prefer this is a recipe for a Homemade Blueberry Sauce that I make all the time for my family. It's great on pancakes, waffles, and goes really well with this French Toast Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 (12 ounce bag) frozen blueberries (or 3 cups fresh or frozen berries)
1 Tablespoon cornstarch (arrowroot can also be used)
3 Tablespoons water
1-2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar (or 1 (.07 ounce) packet of stevia
Directions:
Pour the blueberries into a medium sized saucepan. Combine the cornstarch, water, and sugar in a small cup. When completely combined, pour this mixture over the blueberries and stir. Then place the pan on the burner and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly. Continue to stir and cook until thickened, about 5-8 minutes.
Yield: 1 1/4 cups
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