Baked Pumpkin French Toast Recipe (Single-Serve)

So I don't usually bake a big giant dish of anything sweet if there is no sharing involved. This is because I will eat all of it. I tried it once - baking a french toast casserole and I ate the whole thing in two days. It was supposed to serve 8. Lesson learned.

In the morning, I usually eat some sort of french toast bake along with an omelette. I've been making plain baked french toast with my base recipe and sometimes add in some fruit, but I recently started using pumpkin instead since I was having trouble getting enough fiber. Pumpkin is really a miracle food to me - it has so much fiber and creates such great texture in smoothies and custards while maintaining a low calorie count. I love using pumpkin in my smoothies to create a smoother and creamier texture.

The pumpkin creates a custard texture for the french toast bake without adding too much milk (which can make it soggy) or egg (which can make it too egg-y). Adding pumpkin to my custard mixture has been my favorite variation of my base recipe so far. I add a lot of pumpkin for a single serve dish as a filler but also for its fiber content and to make the dish more bread pudding-like. Eating this in the morning reminds of winter and the Christmas spirit. It's Christmas in July!

First, cube your bread and mix the egg whites/egg, milk, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, vanilla, and sweetener.

Spray your dish with nonstick spray and add 1/3 of the cubed bread. Pour 1/3 of the custard mixture evenly over the bread.

Repeat for the remaining 2/3.

Sprinkle the top with remaining sweetener and cinnamon. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Baked in a preheated 350 degree F oven the next morning and serve warm.

Now you can eat this as a dessert too with some ice cream or switch up the ingredients to more indulgent ones.

Single-Serve Baked Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

• 2 slices of bread, cubed (I usually use sprouted grain breads since they are often drier)
• 3 tbsp liquid egg whites, one whole egg, or two egg whites
• 1/4 cup/2 oz milk of choice
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (I like using Libby's brand)
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 2 packets stevia or 3 tsp sugar (brown sugar would work nicely here) or other sweetener

In a small bowl, mix together the egg whites/egg, milk, pumpkin, vanilla, pumpkin spice, and 1 packet stevia or 2 tsp of other sweetener. Spray an oven safe 2-cup capacity dish or soufflé dish with nonstick spray. Add in 1/3 of the cubed bread and pour 1/3 of the custard mixture over the bread. Repeat this pattern for the remaining bread and custard mixture. Sprinkle 1 packet of stevia or 1 tsp of sugar/sweetener and 1/8 tsp cinnamon over the top of the french toast mixture. Refrigerate overnight or at least 2 hours. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes the next morning. Serve warm.

You can turn this into a bread pudding for dessert by using whole egg and half and half or cream in the custard mixture. Serving it with a nice dollop of creme anglaise, whiskey cream sauce, whipped cream, or ice cream wouldn't be a bad idea either.

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Las Vegas - Society Cafe

This breakfast was so filling. I mean so filling to the point where I couldn't really eat dinner. I don't know if it's because I haven't had beef for so long or because it was beef for breakfast. We walked all the way down to Society Cafe inside Encore from our hotel at the Aria on Friday morning and it took a good 45 minutes or so. My mom is still recovering from a foot injury and adjusting to her orthotics, so it took a while. The only other restaurant I've tried at the Wynn resorts was the buffet and Terrace Point Cafe for breakfast and I fell in love with it, so decided on another Wynn restaurant for breakfast.

We did not have reservations and were seated promptly at around 10:30 am. The restaurant is really cute and chic and you'll feel like you're dining in someone's home. I ordered the Ultimate Steak and Egg Sliders for my mom with a side of potatoes.

The slider consists of a bacon cheddar muffin for the buns, a layer of scrambled eggs, filet mignon, and creamed spinach. Man oh man, this was a rich and decadent breakfast. I think it could've used a little more salt, but it was still delicious. The filet was tender and fresh and the eggs were fluffy. The creamed spinach was a little muted with the bacon in the muffin taking over and rounding out the flavor of the slider overall. One was a lot to finish; it looks small, but is actually very filling. I didn't try the potatoes but my mom never finishes her potatoes and she ate all of it. She said it was crispy and had a great aroma of fresh herbs. She had her breakfast with a cappuccino while I ordered mine with black coffee.

The cappuccino had a lot more air in the foam than I would've preferred. I only had a taste and their espresso has notes of caramel and was robust and dark. My coffee was delicious with smoky notes of caramel as well. It had low acidity and was lightly bitter, but in a good way.

I ordered short rib hash. It came with chunks of braised beef shortribs, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, two poached eggs, and oiled toast. I think a buttered toast would've made it too decadent.

I shared half with my mom as she shared her sliders with me, this way we got a taste of everything. I really enjoyed soaking my bread in the juices. It reminds me a little of vietnamese bo kho, which is a type of beef stew. My mom loved this dish since it is reminiscent of bo kho. The beef was tender and perfectly seasoned. I really liked the chunks of potatoes in this dish, it was like eating stew. The fun part was breaking the poached eggs.

All the yolk that oozed out made it so much richer. It made a nice slurry with the juices of the hash to soak my bread in.

The chunks of beef did a have a bit more fat than I would've preferred. It was good, but I wish it was a little less oily. I couldn't tell exactly how much oil was in the pan since it was an uncoated cast iron pan. But I could taste it and I think the amount of fat in this dish had me full all the way past dinner. It was a shame I was so full because I went to a Vegas Uncork'd event later that afternoon and really could not eat much. I'll have an exciting post on that later.

You can find Society Cafe inside Encore in their main casino room (which is pretty small). If you're further down the strip, you'll definitely feel glad you walked a long ways to get here and enjoy some breakfast decadence.

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Las Vegas - Mon Ami Gabi

I'm back! Vegas was fun although a bit windy this year, to the point where it was difficult to walk. Then it got a bit chilly. Is this the most dragged out winter ever? I feel like it's really making an effort to stay. Anyway, the first day we got there, we ate breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi. We had dinner there later on Mother's Day as well.  Our breakfast started off with a cappuccino for my mom and a coffee for me. The cappuccino was okay, I didn't really like their espresso roast. I did like their coffee though, it was a dark roast that reminded me a little bit of chicory roast.

Mom ordered their special eggs benedict of the day which consisted of bacon, spinach, and tomatoes with a side of hash browns. I didn't think it was all that special. It was good/okay, but nothing outstanding. The english muffins were very... toasted and a bit difficult to bite into. There was very little spinach and only a small piece of bacon. I think it was one bacon slice for the entire plate. The hollandaise sauce was bland and seemed watered down. The hash browns were good, however it was salted unevenly so we got little pockets of salt here and there.

I ordered their mushroom omelette, with egg whites instead. It consisted of mushrooms and brie cheese with hash browns and a slice of toast. Omelettes don't usually wow me since it's such an easy breakfast item to make. They didn't skimp on the brie although the brie wasn't a strong one. It was okay. I did like their bread though, bread never disappoints me.

For dinner, mom and I each ordered their filet mignon merlot. I would say the filet is about 6 or maybe 8 oz. It has a merlot butter reduction poured over it and is served with thin potato crisps. Dinner starts out with a warm baguette served with butter and a small pickled shredded root vegetable "salad".  Last year it was carrots, this year it was jicama. I absolutely love their bread, but refrained from eating the whole loaf.

The filet came out really fast this time. We didn't even have time to finish the loaf! I would say our food came out within 15 - 20 minutes of ordering. The filets were ordered medium well and they were cooked perfectly with a nice seared crust. The potatoes came warm and perfectly salted and crisp. I haven't had a steak in over 5.5 years since going vegetarian in 2008 and this was a nice introduction back into the meat world. I didn't finish the fries, but I did finish the steak! On a side note from the review, I always try to get only as much meat as I plan to eat and finish it since I am conscious of the fact that an animal died for it... 

For the vegetarians out there, last year I ordered their vegetable farcis plate, which was AMAZING! It was so flavorful and bursting with flavors I didn't feel I was missing out on anything. I hadn't been that excited about vegetables for awhile. I was very impressed with a steakhouse creating such a unique vegetarian dish. It consisted of herbed quinoa on a bed of sauteed tomato/sauce and topped with grilled zucchini, squash, and eggplant. Some of the vegetables had a creamy stuffing that was pretty decadent. On that note, this dish is definitely not vegan. I'm not sure if the cheeses contained animal rennet or not; it probably did although i'm sure you could request this plate vegan to be on the safe side.

Dessert consisted of their famous bananas foster crepe. My mom waited for this all year long. The caramel sauce is sweet and nutty with the bananas perfectly sauteed to remain firm, yet have that nice cooked banana flavor. One mistake I find many places make when making bananas foster is overcooking the bananas to mush. I don't think I detected any rum; the caramel is very strong so if there was any rum, maybe it brought out the caramel flavors. The crepe batter they use yields a nice thin, slightly chewy crepe. I'm not one to favor the crispy type crepes so this was perfect. Inside the crepe is vanilla ice cream and on top is a dollop of whipped cream. The ice cream pairs wells with everything else going on with this dessert. Just talking about this crepe has me salivating.

Now, on to the dinner service. I've never had a bad experience here at Mon Ami Gabi. I had originally made reservations for 8:15 after being told 7:30 was unavailable. We got hungry so I got there at 7 and asked them what the wait time was. The response was 45 minutes to one hour for a party of two. I let them know that that was fine and I had reservations at 8:15, so I would take whichever availability came first. The hostess then said that since I had reservations, they would take me right away because it would be unfair for me to wait. I told her we would be staying at Paris anyway so it really was fine, but she insisted and we didn't wait at all! The waitstaff is also courteous and well-spoken. Food came promptly and warm. I couldn't have asked for better service.

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