Sunday Brunch- finally a day to myself :)

So its sunday and wow am I exhausted! On Saturday I had such a busy day starting with a drive up to LA at 6am for Bailey Blue's Spring/summer 2011 look book and then a couple hours after that ended I shot a Nicki menaj feat Will.I.Am music video (their new song Check it out- its quite catchy actually :P).
BUT I dont want to focus on that this post as Im gonna dedicate a separate post to that day and how it went down but in this post I want to share with you my recipe for what I made this morning! :)

I wanted to make something a little more special than a usual breakfast (especially since I was having breakfast with RJ so it had to be some what impressive :P) but at the same time I was craving some sort of comfort type food to add to the relaxed, lazy sunday atmosphere. Soooo i decided I want FRENCH TOAST!!

But not just any french toast! I wanted to experiment with French Toast Casserole!! mmm yummm!

Oh and I also decided to play with a banana bread recipe as I had 3 perfectly over-ripe bananas!! :) :)

Here's the recipe and some pics! :)

Playing with Banana Bread

What you need:
-1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
-pinch of nutmeg
-1/2 tsp salt
-3/4 cup sugar
-1/4 cup brown sugar plus 2 tablespoons
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup oil
-3 large very ripe bananas mashed
-2 tbsp creme fraiche or milk if you dont want to use cream
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2/3 cup walnuts (toasted and chopped) or substitute it with chocolate chips (yummm) or do half and half! (its what I did and its gooood)

Preheat the oven 350F. Line bottom of loaf pan with parchment paper. (or grease a lof pan)
Sift/mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy (it took me like 8-10 minutes to get a gooood texture). Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, creme fraiche and vanilla.
Fold in the dry ingredients carefully. When well mixed, gently fold in the walnuts/chocolate chips.
Pour into your pan. Sprinkle the 2 tbsps of brown sugar on top of the batter. Bake for about 45 minutes. :)

French Toast Casserole

What you need:
-5 cups bread cubes (you can use any bread, I prefer challah, whole wheat or if your feeling sinful- TEXAS TOAST! mmmm!)
-4 eggs
-1 1/2 cups milk
-1/4 cup white sugar (divided-means we'll use 2 tbsps at a time)
-1/4 tsp salt
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 tbsp butter or margarine softened
-1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven 350F. Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking pan or casserole dish
Line bottom of pan with bread cubes. In a bowl beat together eggs, milk, 2 tbsp sugar, salt, and vanilla.
Pour egg mixture over the bread. Dot with butter/margarine and let it stand for about 5-10 minutes.
Combine the remaining sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. *Drizzle some maple syrup over the top for a delicious kick!
Bake in oven for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is a beautiful golden color with hits of brown crusts! Mmmm you'll love this! :)

MMM baking in the oven... getting excited!

So... Im thinking it was a success! ;)