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Healthy PB&J French Toast

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PB&J isn’t just for kids.

 

Confession: I ate that or a bologna sandwich for lunch every single day from K-5th grade.

To this day PB&J is one of my favorite sandwiches.  One might even say It’s my jam.  I pass on bologna though.

My mom used to make grilled PB&J.  She buttered the bread, and the peanut butter would get all runny and hot… it was pure awesomeness.  Something about a mamma-made sandwich just taste better, right?

Mom also used to make this incredible french toast on homemade sourdough bread.  She’d make it in the morning and bring it up to my bathroom as I was getting ready for school (yes, I realize how spoiled lucky I was!).  I’ll never know how i wasn’t obese.

This recipe combines two of my favorite things, transforming a couple of less-than-healthy childhood treats a guilt-free breakfast.

PB&J French Toast

 

Lightening up this combo-treat doesn’t mean it’s less delicious.  The PB&J part takes a little creativity, but it can be done!  I replaced jam with a homemade version by mashing and then heating fresh raspberries.  The peanut butter is a low-fat, high-protein peanut flour creation, and – even better – the bread is high protein too!

The French toast part was easier to lighten up – all you really need to make it are egg whites.  You could eat it open-faced with the PB&J as your only topping.  Or you could go all the way and add syrup.  For me, French toast requires (sugar-free) syrup.  Go big or go home. 

Note: I realize a lot of sugar-free syrups have scary stuff in them.  I recommend trying to find one sweetened with Stevia or Xylitol (check your health food store!) if sugar-free is important to you.

PB&J French Toast 2

 

This may look like a lot of ingredients, but it comes together quickly.  I get my toast ready and place it in the pan to cook while I mix up the PB&J.  I had this done in 10 mins, max.

If you haven’t tried peanut flour yet… I cannot recommend it enough.  Peanut flour is simply defatted peanuts in powder-form.  Super high in protein and they don’t add the sugar and sodium that PB2 has.  It can be ordered online through iHerb.com.  Use discount code USO924 for up to $10.00 off any order!

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PB&J French Toast

PB&J French Toast

For the Toast:

  • 1 large or 2 small slices of bread
  • 1/4 C egg whites
  • 1/8 C water
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp butter extract
  • 5-6 drops liquid Stevia (or other sweetener)

 

For the Jelly:

  • 1/4 C raspberries
  • 1/8 tsp xanthan gum (optional)
  • 2 drops lemon liquid stevia (optional)

 

For the Peanut Butter:

  • 2 T peanut flour
  • 2 T liquid
  • 1 tsp ground flax
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
  • 2-3 drops vanilla liquid stevia

 

For the Toast:

In a wide bowl, beat together egg whites, water, cinnamon, extracts, and sweetener.

Over medium-low heat, heat pan coated with a thin layer of oil or PAM.

Place the bread into the bowl, letting it soak up egg mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn to coat the other side.

Transfer bread slices to pan, heating slowly until bottom is golden brown.  Turn and brown the other side.

 

For the Jelly:

In a small bowl, mash berries until only small pieces remain.  Add sweetener and gum (if using), and mix together.

Microwave until warm, ~10 seconds.

 

For the Peanut Butter:

In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients.

 

Plate the toast and top with your PB&J.  Add syrup, if desired.  Devour.

***

Apparently I’ve been on a French toast bender.  The Hummus French Toast and now this.  I guess mybody knew it wouldn’t be having this again until after the competition!  There will be NO asparagus toast. 😉

What did you eat for lunch in elementary school?  Do you still eat it today?

Have you even had homemade bread?  It’s divine.

 

Comments

  1. Okay, my creative friend. Can I make this vegan? Does it need the egg whites? It looks like dessert for breakfast (that’s a good thing :-).

    I usually use real maple syrup on the rare occasion I use syrup at all. I have it so infrequently I figure it’s okay to go for the good stuff.

    • Of course! Rather than soaking bread in egg, you could use coconut milk… I made a vegan french toast once with peanut flour and water too. Or you could just use top regular toasted bread (maybe with a little earth balance).

  6. YUM!! I definitely was a classic PB&J for lunch kind of girl… And as a teacher now, I actually just packed an almond butter & fresh strawberries sandwich! haha

  8. Oh this looks like heaven girl!!!!!!!! NICE JOB! And I TOTALLY AGREE – there is just NOTHING like a sandwich made by your Mom!!!!!!!! 😀

    I was never into pb and j when I was young as I was allergic to peanuts, so I’d have just jam sandwiches or else I really liked jam and cheese. We’d buy this super sharp cheddar and crumble it on the jam. REALLY good. I haven’t bought that cheddar in ages – might have to snag some today 😀

    I also really like replacing jam with actually fruit! YAY! 😀

    • I had never heard of a jam and cheese sandwich until my college roommate who was Hungarian made one. She also drank red wine mixed with Coke and ice…

  9. Oh yes, those bologna sandwiches in elementary school… what were our moms thinking?! This looks amazing… I still love pb and j as well, I usually satisfy it with pb onbanana, but sometimes you need the real deal!

    • Peanut butter and banana was a sandwich we at a lot too! Mom put PB on one side and mayo on the other… I swear it was #strangebutgood.

  12. Yum! I ate far too many PB&Js as a kid too. My mom always made them with grape jelly, I didn’t even know other jelly flavors existed until I was damn near an adult. Love the melted raspberries idea, sounds fantastic and much tastier than grape jelly.

    • We used to eat them with my grandmother’s homemade muscidine jelly… I didn’t fully appreciate how much better it was than Smuckers until MUCH later though.

  13. I think this looks great, however It does remind me how much I loved fluffer nutters as a kid oppose to pb & j… I bet it would be pretty good nixing the jelly part with some sort of healthy marshmallow topping?

    • Have you ever seen the Purely Twins’ marshamllow recipe? I bet that would make an awesome fluffernutter!!!

  14. OMG – amazing!!!!!! Love this!!!! I sent a note to that bread company since it is not in my area. Have not heard back yet.. 🙂 Do you use their PB too?

  15. I’m actually probably one of the few kids who didn’t eat PB&J growing up, moooostly because I have an allergy to peanuts 😛 My parents weren’t on board with the whole almond butter thing, so it was usually some kind of cheese and lunch meat sandwiches for me. THESE days, though, I’m all for the AB&J – I’ve actually been eating them pretty much everyday for the past week and I’m in love.

  16. I didn’t really eat PB&J’s as a kid…pretty much every year in elementary school, I had a kid with a severe nut allergy in my class. So, did not bring them to school. I usually had the meat and cheese combo!

    I’m thinking I need french toast sometime soon…

  17. OMG! Yes! So I’m totally a French toast girl. Granted, I haven’t had it in years, but every time my family went out to breakfast (rare occasion) or if my mom asked if I wanted something special, it was always French toast! And my mom STILL calls me to tell me if she’s had French toast somewhere, because she knows its “my thing” 🙂

    • That’s so cute! And it makes me want my post-competition breakfast to cinvolve french toast.

  18. Oh yum! PBJ is still a fave of mine too. And love the idea of mashing and heating raspberries for the jelly. Need to try that. And french toast? Always needs at least some syrup. Whole heartedly agree. 😉

  19. I know it is so wrong and I doubt I’d actually like it if I ate it now but dangit bologna sandwiches were the best back in the day. Hahaha asparagus toast… grody! My dad use to make homemade bread too. I could seriously eat an entire loaf all by myself.

    I ask a lot of you and here I am going to do it again. One day can I email you with a list of things I want to buy and get your favorite brands? I am so tempted to order stuff from iHerb but I have no idea where to start.

    • I would have starved if I’d had to eat those. The only time I’d eat at school was foot-long hotdog day. Classy kid, I was.

  23. I have no idea what bologna is, and I never ate PB&Js as a kid, because it’s simply not an Australian thing.

    Vegemite sandwiches and cans of tuna, though!

  24. Oh this looks so yummy! My grandmother used to make me French toast all the time. Can’t wait to try this! I used to eat a lot of soup in elementary and middle school. My mom would heat up a thermos, pour hot soup in it and then wrap it up in foil to help keep it warm until lunch. Yep guess I was spoiled also!

  26. Not only do I love the looks of this overall, I love the idea of adding flax seed to your peanut flour mixture for thickening (and I’m sure flavor enhancing). My stomach has been hating on nut butters lately, but peanut flour seems to settle OK, so this could be just the thing for me. 🙂

    • yes!!! it’s the best. a little caramel extract is good too.

      i think you over-nutted. 😉

  28. Y-U-M!!! You, my dear friend are like the other half of my brain! Of course, I’m a little disappointed in you for not going with the traditional strawberry flavor. To me, PB&J just has to be made with strawberry or grape jelly…I might let blueberry slide every once in a while, but that’s only in extreme blueberry-craving conditions! 😉

    On a more serious note, can I just say that I was a HELL of a freaking deprived child?!?! My mom NEVER made anything like this! Heck, her version of “grilled cheese” was a piece of bread and a slice of American popped under the broiler for a couple of minutes. I know, right? I didn’t come to know the awesomeness of buttered bread grilled toast until I was like 12 and had like the best babysitter ever! Like seriously, she changed my life…we made cookies that we “painted” with food coloring, bleach-died cut off shorts, and she taught me the secret to getting a bajiilion lives in Super Mario Bros! Lol

    • Awwww… I heart your brain! Except the grape jelly part. My grandmother made muscidine jelly, so anything grape-y that isn’t that is a no-go.

      My mom did the cheese uderthe broiler too, but that was just called cheese toast. She also made cinnamon toast uder the broiler. Lots of butter, cinnamon, and sugar all gooped together and crunchy… god, that was good.

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