Praline French Toast

My family recently had a family reunion in Texas. One morning for breakfast, the girls went to The Magnolia Haus in San Antonio. My sister ordered the Praline French Toast, which I made her half with me because it sounded so amazing. I came home and found a recipe that I think is pretty close to that dish I tried. Not all of my family shares my love of pecans, so I did not combine the pecans and syrup but served them separately.

• 2 cups corn syrup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 loaf French Bread
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk, buttermilk, cream, half and half or a combination

1. Toast the pecans for 8 minutes (or until fragrant) in a 350 degree oven. 
2. Heat the corn syrup, sugar, water and butter in a pot over medium high heat and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and pecans.
3. Heat griddle or non-stick pan to 350 degrees (over medium heat).
4. In a pie plate, whisk together eggs, and milk until well combined. 
5. Slice French Bread into 1 1/2" slices. Soak bread slices in egg mixture and place on lightly greased griddle. Cook until browned on both sides.
6. Serve with Praline Syrup.

Spinach Smoothie...YUM

I heard about this recipe from my niece. Here is the blog her mom got the recipe from: http://white-bean.blogspot.com/2010/01/spinach-smoothies.html. This smoothie makes around 4 cups, has 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, is around 400-450 calories, and is very filling. We have experimented with different types of yogurt and our favorite so far is peach. 

Here are the ingredients

• 1 cup orange juice
• loosely packed spinach to top of blender

Blend well. Then add

• 1 cup fresh or frozen berries
• 1 banana frozen (I usually use fresh, but a frozen banana makes it more of a smoothie consistency)
• 1/4 cup yogurt

You cannot even tell there is spinach in there and my kids love it - they say yum, spinach.