This Peanut Butter French Toast Casserole is a yummy make-ahead breakfast your kids will love, and is a great way to use up leftover sandwich crusts or bread ends!
It’s official. I’ve crossed into full on mom territory. Last month, for Molly’s “school” (aka daycare) Halloween party, I had to bring in sandwiches. Though I didn’t go too Pinterest crazy, I did decide to make them into cute little pumpkin cutouts. Here are some cute pumpkin cutters if you’re feeling crafty!
I was pretty proud of my not-very-crafty self, and supposedly the sandwiches were a hit! But what I didn’t realize about making the cute lil pumpkins was how much waste I’d create! I had 2 loaves of perfectly good bread crusts left over, and just couldn’t bring myself to throw it all out.
So what can you do with leftover bread? I thought of a few things– croutons, breadcrumbs, meatballs. But the problem was that most of the crusts were smeared with PB&J. I wasn’t sure how grape jelly croutons would taste!
Which narrowed it down to bread pudding or french toast casserole. Which really, are kind of the same thing, aren’t they? Dessert for breakfast? I used whole wheat bread, and since peanut butter and jelly are both breakfast foods… healthier bread pudding is totally an acceptable breakfast.
I made one batch of this Peanut Butter French Toast Casserole and it was so yummy (Molly gobbled it up too), and I had so much leftover crust that I made a second batch just a couple days later. I thought the sweetness was perfect but you could get away with even less sugar for an even healthier dish.
Molly goes to “school” two days a week and is loving it. She comes home with the cutest art projects, had school photos taken a couple weeks ago, and I seriously just cannot believe how fast she is growing up. Someone stop time!
It’s so fun to see how much she is learning there from the older kids, even though it comes along with some of the more annoying things– she recently picked up “mine” and “gimme”. She can count to ten with a little help (for some reason she goes from 6 to 9), is starting to understand colors and consistently identifies green correctly, and has started singing “Rain, rain, go away” (odd since we live in the desert) and jumbled ABC’s.
As for foods, she goes back and forth between being kinda picky and only wanting smoothies, and being super adventurous and scarfing down things like spicy Kung Pao noodles! I can’t figure her out, but I do know that this casserole was a hit. It’s a great easy make-ahead breakfast for kids, so next time you have leftover crusts or bread ends, try it out!
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup milk
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ~6 cups cubed bread/crusts
- ½ cup raisins
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square pan or 9-inch pie plate with nonstick spray and set aside.
- Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Add peanut butter and whisk together.
- Spread cubed bread and raisins in pan. Pour egg mixture over top and toss lightly to coat the bread. Press bread down into pan.
- Bake 30-35 minutes, until the center is set and top is golden brown.
- Serve warm or cool completely, refrigerate and reheat to serve.
What are your favorite ways to use up leftover bread!?
Emily says
Oooo I love the pb in there! I totally agree that bread pudding & baked french toast is the same thing. Glad to hear daycare is going well! I might need to work on “eleven-teen” not being a number, but for now it feels cute. xoxo
JC says
I was looking for a way to use up the leftover crust and my this is absolutely delicious!!
Regina says
Jess my family loved this dish! Topped it with Blueberry topping I had leftover from a cheese cake, then the next morning made a strawberry topping, it reheats well! Thank you for sharing!
Elyse says
Do you leave out the peanut butter if the crusts already have peanut butter and jelly on them?
jessfuel says
No, I would still add it!