Stuffed French Toast

One thing I have learned about myself over the last 3 years is that the only way I can stay on track with my somewhat healthy eating is that I must trick brain into thinking I am having something totally and completely sinful while, in fact, it is something healthy and good for me. In addition to the whole healthy body thing, the guilt-free eating helps the healthy mind thing. No more guilty conscience for eating things such as sausage and cheese omelets or bacon & egg sandwiches (thanks to those loverly folks at Morningstar Farms who have graced us with their "bacon" and "sausage" that, at this point, tastes better than the real stuff to me).

Today's breakfast fits fully into this category of "feels and tastes sinful but is actually fairly guilt-free." Stuffed French Toast with sausage on the side. In all fairness, I cannot take any credit for this recipe - it is simply my adaptation on a weight watchers recipe. If you are interested in the recipe, it can be found in my favorite weight watchers cookbook: Weight Watchers in 20 Minutes" If you are looking for a cookbook that is packed with awesome recipes sure to be winners with those you cook for, this is one to get. If you want to buy it, here is the link for amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Weight-Watchers-20-Minutes/dp/0470287454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274638947&sr=8-1 If you want to check it out first, I got my copy at Borders, so you could drive on over to your local store and take a gander. If you didn't want to buy it at all, I am sure you could maybe find a friend who has it to loan it to you, see if your local library has one you can check out or hope that your photographic memory will serve you well while you read it at Borders (although I wouldn't recommend this move since 1) it is a little unethical and 2) there are so many yummy recipes, it would probably send your brain into overload). The recipe on the cover (the salmon) is a favorite in our house - we actually had it for dinner last night. But I digress. Back to the stuffed french toast...

The basic recipe is a fruit preserves and cream cheese sandwich soaked in an egg-milk-cinnamon-vanilla-nutmeg mixture and toasted. Below are the ingredients I made substitutions for:
Original / Substitution
Whole wheat bread / Tapioca Rice Bread
reduced fat cream cheese / Low fat cream cheese
fruit preserves / sugar free fruit preserves

This both reduces the fat AND the gluten (for those who are trying to have a low-g or g-free diet). It also called for slicing strawberries to top the french toast with, but I just went with a dollop of the preserves - mainly because I was lazy and didn't want to wash and cut strawberries.

I was a little worried since this was my 1st try with the tapioca bread, but it came recommended by my good friend Cindy. And being the good friend that she is, the recommendation came with the warning labels of what not to do (lessons she learned the hard way), so I was fairly confident that the french toast would be a success. And it was. I would definitely do this again. especially if I was cooking for someone I wanted to impress with my cooking skills...like people who knew me way back when I lived on puffy cheetos, frozen pizza and dr. pepper.