Overnight Carmel French Toast

1 cup brown sugar
½ cup butter
12 slices bread
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 eggs
1 ½ c milk
1 t vanilla

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, heat butter and sugar stirring constantly. Once sugar is dissolved/melted, remove from heat. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Top with the bread. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and remaining cinnamon. Pour over bread. Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight.
Remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

**Note-with the carmel topping, I find this french toast sweet enough. The bread itself (if bites are eaten apart from the topping) is not very sweet. If you desire more of a sweet bread, you may add about 1/4 cup of extra sugar to the egg mixture.
**Note-While eating this, I thought it would taste delicious with apples in the carmel topping. If desired, stir in about 1 cup of finely chopped apples after the carmel has melted in the sauce pan.

Pumpkin Apple Strussel Muffins

2 ½ cups whole wheat flour**
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups canned (pure) pumpkin
2 eggs
¼ cup veg oil
2 cups apples finely chopped**

¼ c sugar
2 T flour
½ t cinnamon
2 T butter

For muffins:
Oven at 350. Combine flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. In a separate bowl combine pumpkin, eggs, and oil. Stir into dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened. Stir in apples. Spoon batter into muffin cups (sprayed or lined w/ paper). Makes 24 muffins.

For streussel topping:
Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over muffin batter. (About one teaspoon over sprinkled over each muffin)

Bake muffins w/ topping for 30-35 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in pan then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

**Note-These muffins are quite nutty/chewy with all whole wheat flour. If you are more sensitive to that you may want to use half whole wheat flour and half regular flour.
**Note-I recommend shredding your apples, that way the peel is small enough that you can leave it on and not notice it in the muffins.

Fruit Pancakes Two Ways

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes:

Mix up everyday pancake mix as directed on the package. To it, add one cup of finely chopped apples and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Fry in a frying pan and serve.

Banana Pancakes:

Mix up everyday pancake mix as directed on the package. To it, add 3/4 cup mashed bananas and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Fry in a frying pan and serve.

**Note-as with other recipes in this collection, these are both staples from my childhood. I can remember my mother or father sitting at the kitchen table on weekend mornings, meticulously chopping up apples for the pancakes or saying that morning that the bananas were going to go bad so we were having banana pancakes. Although these two recipes are not very inventive or unusual, I included them purely for sentimental reasons. May your family start memories as I have.

Swiss Apple Muesli

½ cup rolled oats
½ cup milk (or 1/2 cup yogurt, flavor of your choice, or a combination of both to add up to 1/2 cup)
1 apple, chopped
1 tablespoon almonds
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Combine all ingredients-let sit overnight. Makes one serving

Cinnamon-Apple Oatmeal

One serving oatmeal, prepared with milk
1 apple, chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons walnuts

Prepare oatmeal using milk. Add cinnamon while cooking. Meanwhile, put apple in a microwave safe bowl and microwave about 1 minute. Add to cooked oatmeal, adding sugar. Stir to combine and top with walnuts.