Peanut butter cream cheese & banana stuffed french toast

Uhmm mmm hmmm mee mee mee....ok so I will spare you from me singing one of Elvis' songs today lol. But like Elvis the hubby loves the combination of peanut butter and bananas. I however think it's atrocious...blech...but this breakfast was for him.

I have been making stuffed french toast forever with all kinds of combinations. My personal favorites are just sweetened cream cheese topped with fresh fruit. The hubby however enjoys some of my from the hit creations like peanut butter and jelly filled and now this one...peanut butter cream cheese and banana.

First off we have to whip up the peanut butter cream cheese. This is a recipe I have made before but I usually use it as a fruit dip to give me added protein and something sweet, but it worked really well here too.

Peanut butter cream cheese dip

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese softened (you can also use whipped or 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
• 1 cup peanut butter - doesn't matter chunky or creamy, I prefer creamy for this
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together until smooth. Chill to set. Refrigerate leftovers.

Easy right?! Now for the creating of the french toast....

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs depending on how many french toast you are making
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Bread
• Bananas
• Peanut butter cream cheese dip
• 1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

Mix the eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl. Set aside.

 

 

Spread as much peanut butter cream cheese on one piece of bread as you like. Make sure that you make it thicker in the center than you do on the edges. As the french toast cooks it will melt the spread and it will move to the edges naturally.

 

 



Then of course the easy part slicing the bananas on top of the peanut butter cream cheese. You can add as much or as little as you like. I sliced my bananas about 1/4 inch thick.

Make the sandwich and dip it in the egg mixture. Make sure both sides are nicely saturated with egg.

Melt the butter in the frying pan till it's nice and hot. Then finally cook until golden brown on both sides.

The finished product! Gooey goodness...or so I was told...lol I hope you enjoy this one. Just something simple...but now you have leftover peanut butter cream cheese to eat with slices of apple or bananas or whatever you like.

Caramel Cream cheese dip

My sweet tooth had attacked yet again today. I wanted something and for the life of me couldn't think of what. I had just bought some apples for the healthier eating habits I was trying for this year, but I still wanted something dessert type sweet. I had some caramel dip in the fridge but that was too sweet and too addicting. I had some cream cheese fruit dip but again that was sweeter than I wanted and I love that with my blackberries I had also bought. Can you see where my mind is going with this..lol

I decided upon a combination of the two but didn't want to combine them. Now in my pantry there are always dozens of choices. I had some individual wrapped caramels, but I didn't want to go to all of the trouble of melting them down and adding the butter to make the caramel sauce. So I look over and there is a bottle of caramel ice cream topping...mmm perfect! In the fridge is always blocks of cream cheese, a good go to protein for snacks for me when I want something not so good for me.

I whipped up the cream cheese with a hand mixer until it was light and fluffy. The easiest way for me to know when it's whipped light enough is when the cream cheese starts to pull away from the beaters. I started adding the caramel sauce as I whipped it and of course tasting along the way. The cream cheese had a nice caramel look to it but was a bit sweet as I got heavy handed with the caramel. So to cut the sweet a little bit I added some vanilla extract and some cinnamon. Mmmm perfect! It was just the perfect sweetness and dessert taste that I wanted not terribly healthy but I didn't need that much to satisfy my craving

 

 

Voila! This has so many possibilities to it for adding extra things to change the flavor. Right off the top of my head a few additions could be nuts, toffee bits, and chocolate. I'm not a huge cheesecake fan but I am a candy bar junkie :-) Anyway about 2 Tablespoons satisfied me with my apple. I'm thinking this would be yummy with a banana as well.

 

The ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup of caramel ice cream topping
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Enjoy!!