Recipe: Copycat Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole
One of my favorite restaurants for breakfast is Cracker Barrel, and I mean beyond the giant checker board and triangle peg games. Cracker Barrel’s Hash Brown Casserole is my favorite restaurant breakfast food. I am thrilled to have found how to make it at home!
- 8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, divided
- 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
- ¼ tsp poultry seasoning
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
- ½ cup milk
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth, divided
- ½ cup chopped onions
- 1 (26 oz) package frozen shredded hash browns
- 1 (8 oz) package shredded colby cheese
Note: You can cut the casserole in half and bake into two 8×8″ casserole dishes, then freeze or save for later use.
- Preheat oven to 375 °F.
- In medium saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Once butter is melted, add 2 tablespoons of flour and all listed seasonings. Whisk to create a paste. Add milk, whisking as you pour. Whisk until completely combined.
- In a quart sized mason jar combine 2 tablespoons flour and chicken broth. Seal tightly and shake the living tar out of your mixture. You will create a smooth flour mixture for thickening your sauce called a slurry.
- Slowly pour slurry into mixture, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Pour soup into 9×13 casserole dish. Add remaining 6 tablespoons butter and onions. Stir until butter is melted. This will also start to cool your soup. Add cheese and frozen hash browns. Mix well with a spoon.
- Bake 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Note: You can add more cheese to the top of the casserole in the last 10 minutes of baking if desired.
- Let cool slightly, cut into 12 pieces, serve and enjoy!
Recipe: Gluten-Free Coconut Banana Bread
From the book, Food Matters, comes a delicious and wheat and gluten-free bread that can be used for breakfast and dessert! In my opinion, you could toast it and also use it as french toast!
Ingredients:
- 2 bananas; at least 1 heaped cup of chopped banana
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 4 organic free-range eggs
- 4 fresh dates, pitted and chopped
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup or raw honey
- 3/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp aluminium-free baking powder
- 1/4 tsp unrefined sea salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Mash bananas with the chopped dates.
- In another bowl, whisk the eggs until fluffy and then combine with the mash. Stir through the oil and maple syrup or honey. Add the dry ingredients and combine well.
- Transfer the batter to a loaf pan, greased and lined. The mixture will be quite thick; flatten and smooth with a spatula.
- Bake 35-40 minutes. Ready when a knife comes out clean and the edges are browned. Eat while still warm, or allow to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container in the fridge.
Note:
It’s best to use overripe bananas in banana bread! Coconut flourit doesn’t have the glycemic load of grain flours, has no gluten or anti-nutrients, but it also doesn’t yield the ‘fluffiness’ of regular glutenous flours, so it might take some getting used to. This recipe gives the best bread texture without using wheat.
Recipe: Homemade Baked Strawberry French Toast
My kids love breakfast. French Toast is one of their favorites. They will eat slice after slice, covered in fruit and drizzled with a little real maple syrup. I make homemade Challah Bread or other sweet bread and then slice it up, freeze it and then it is all ready to go when the kids want me to make this. It is super simple.
Sometimes when I am up at the crack of dawn, I will fix this up and put it in the oven about 45 minutes before everyone’s set to wake up. The house smells divine…it’s sort of like Christmas Morning…you have that warm fuzzy, it’s going to be an amazing day sort of vibe.
If you don’t have strawberries, peaches, blueberries and other berries work well. You’ll love the recipe…it’s so easy!
Baked Strawberry French Toast
1 loaf day old challah, sliced into 3/4” thick slices
1 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced, plus more for garnish
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups milk
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh grated nutmeg
zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon for dusting over the top
Butter a 9 x 13” baking pan. Arrange the challah slices so that they are overlapping, tearing a few pieces in half if needed. Tuck the strawberries between the slices.
In a medium mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Whisk in the milk, sugar, salt, nutmeg, zest, and vanilla. Then pour mixture over the challah.
Make sure that all of the slices are just about covered by the egg mixture–add more milk or rearrange the slices until they are. If refrigerating overnight, cover and chill. Otherwise, cover and refrigerate for a half hour, or longer if you have time.
Then preheat your oven to 350 degrees and take the baking dish out of the fridge. Once the oven is up to temperature, bake for 40 – 45 minutes, until the french toast is a light golden brown and has puffed up nicely.
Slice and serve immediately with maple syrup and sliced strawberries. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.
Recipe: Nutella No Bake Bites
A take on the favorite recipe of peanut butter and chocolate no bake cookies, this recipe adds the addicting and amazing NUTELLA spread, too! These cookies can be made gluten-free if you make sure the oats are certified GF and not cross-contaminated. YUM!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup oats
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup nutella
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/2 cup flax
- 1/3 cup coconut
- 1/3 cup cranberries or raisins
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
- In a large bowl, add all ingredients. Mix ingredients together well.
- Once fully mixed, spoon out the mix onto a tray. It’s totally up to you how large you want the bites to be.
- Refrigerate and serve!
Recipe: French Toast Roll Ups
Change up your weekend breakfast and surprise the family with these yummy French Toast Roll Ups! The Girl Who Ate Everything has step-by-step picture directions of the recipe if you want to check it out.
Ingredients:
- slices of white sandwich bread;
- rolling pin
- some softened cream cheese
- cut up strawberries
- Nutella
- eggs (for making the french toast, so number will vary)
- 3 Tbls milk
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- butter (to grease the pan)
Directions:
- Cut the crust from each slice of bread and flatten it out with a rolling pin.
- Place about 1-2 teaspoons of your chosen filling 1 inch from one end of the bread in a strip. Roll the bread up tightly and repeat with the remaining pieces of bread. I really like cream cheese with diced strawberries as one combination and Nutella with diced strawberries as another combination.
- In a shallow bowl whisk the eggs and milk until well combined.
- In a separate shallow bowl mix the sugar with the cinnamon.
- Heat a skillet set over medium heat and melt a tablespoon of butter.
- Dip each bread roll in the egg mixture coating well and then place them in the pan seam side down. Cook in batches until golden brown, turning them to cook and brown on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Add butter to the pan as needed.
- Add cooked rolls immediately from the pan to the cinnamon sugar and roll until completely covered in sugar. You can serve with syrup for dipping but I think they’re perfectly good all by themselves.