Sunrise Smoothie Shotz

These little morning glories are a great little addition to your brunch menu.

I don't measure anything but here's what I did:

Into the blender they go...
1 ripe banana
2 ripe pears, peeled, cored & sliced
small handful of frozen mango chunks
small handful of frozen peach slices
about a tbs honey

then add a bit less than 1/2 cup of each of the following liquids:
pear nectar
peach nectar
mango nectar
unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Blend. Blend. Blend. Fill shot glasses with smoothie mixture.
Skewer up some strawberries with toothpicks and balance the garnish on top of the shot glass.
This yielded about a dozen tall shot glasses.

Le Pain Perdu Cuit Cremeux

That's fancy Français for Creamy Baked French Toast. I created this recipe in reaction to the abundance of recipes out there for baked French Toast that include milk, butter, cream and sugar. So, this is a lower calorie & dairy-free alternative, but trust me, you won't even notice. All of my Sunday morning breakfast guests agreed - this was très delicieux!I loved this with pure maple syrup drizzled over the top - pure heaven!

FYI - I let this refrigerate over night before baking but you could probably let it soak for a couple of hours.

What You Need
1  16 oz loaf of cinnamon bread (I used Wegmans cinnamon swirl loaf)
6 eggs
1/2 cup liquid pure egg whites
2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (Almond Breeze)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon (use more cinnamon if you use plain bread)
3 tsp Truvia (zero calorie sugar sub)
sprinkle of salt
2 tbsp Ideal Brown (zero calorie brown sugar sub)
6 tbs melted Earth Balance natural spread

The Process
Coat a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick spray (Pam)
Rip each slice of bread into several pieces and arrange them haphazardly in the pan. Use the whole loaf of bread.
Whisk all the ingredients except the Earth Balance in a large bowl.
Pour this mixture over the bread pieces.
Melt Earth Balance and pour it over the bread pieces.
Use a spoon and push the bread down into the liquid to coat all of it. All the bread should be soaked.

Cover the pan and refrigerate over night.
Take it out of the fridge an hour before baking.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 45 minutes.
Serve with maple syrup and/or sliced banana or berry preserves

This is Carole's original recipe. Enjoy!