The first time I had French Toast Casserole was at my friend's home during the holidays. His mother had already left for the morning but on the kitchen counter was this hot, fresh, delicious smelling breakfast casserole. It contained all my favorite flavors and ingredients. The best, in my opinion, being the cream cheese. 

The greatest thing about this dish is you can make it the night before, cover it, and pop it in the fridge. Then the next morning after it has marinated in all is goodness, just pop it in the oven. The sweet aroma will fill your home and excite your taste buds. 

1 loaf Jewish Challah or Hawaiian Bread

10 eggs

8 tbsp melted butter 

2 cups milk

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup of maple syrup

2 tbsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

powdered sugar optional

13x19 pan or baking dish

 

Cube bread and layer half of the bread in the pan

cut cream cheese into pieces and place over bread  (small chunks)

cover with remaining bread

 

Mix eggs, butter, milk, vanilla, syrup and cinammon in large bowl

and pour over top of the bread. Press the bread down so that all the bread is covered.

 

cover and let set overnight in the fridge

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 min

 

Sprinkle powdered sugar over top and serve with syrup.

rock the lunchbox

Hey Friends!
My family and I just tried a bunch of great free products from #influenster and I wanted to let you know what we thought about them.
The first thing we tried was the Applegate Lunch kit. It included crackers, turkey meat, american cheese, a yogurt tube, and fruit snacks. We all thought it was good! I think the yogurt and the fruit snacks were enjoyed more over the rest. Next we had some of Annie's brand animal crackers, they were such fun shapes and tasted yummy, my oldest son didn't like them very much, but the rest of us did. Next to quench our thirst we drank Honest Kids fruit punch flavored juice pouches. They only have half the sugar of other fruit pouches so again my oldest son didn't like them too much but the rest of us drank them all up. The lunch kit didn't fill me up so I made myself a bagel sandwich using the Rudi's organic bagels topped with turkey, cheese, and lettuce, they were so soft and delicious. For my husband's manly appetite I cooked up the Annie's mini pizza bagels, they were a big hit with everyone! I would definitely buy these products again they tasted great, the price was comparable to other products, but these are healthier! Thank you! #rockthelunchbox

Keep an eye out for the video review! youtube.com/themommydaze

summer begins

I am a terrible blogger. Good thing no one else reads this. I guess I wrote the same in my diary as a kid the same way, very sporadically. Well life has continued and we are well into summer again. Joshua is 5 months old and  I have adjusted to life as a mother of three. Sometimes it means not doing the household chores as well as I should be that also means my kids aren't bouncing off the walls because they have had plenty of outdoor playtime. I can't wait to get the fence built around the front porch so John and eventually Josh can go outside and play without me and I can get some work done. I am so addicted to Pinterest right now and gather many pins daily. I am excited about finding fun things for the kids to do during the day so they aren't so bored at home with me and Autumn can say she had a fun summer vacation. Yesterday we didn't do much more than swimming and playing on the porch. But they had fun. Autumn is so hooked on Netflix I have to limit her screen time. Matt's birthday is this Thursday i plan to make him some brownies and a great dinner. i printed out an application for a membership to a local shooting range for him I hope he does it. I also need to buy some beef jerky, beer and I'd like to get him a gun cleaning stand. Well Joshua is crying I'd better get off my behind and pick him up.

School and cloth diapers

Tomorrow is Autumn's first day of 1st grade and for weeks she has been telling me she isn't excited because school is boring. But she finally broke down today and told me she is scared, scared of meeting new friends. She is starting in the bilingual program to learn Spanish so it will definitely be a new group of kids. I feel so bad for her but I'm sure everything will be great, she will still see her old friends on the playground.
On a different note I am trying to switch John to cloth diapers, with the new baby on the way in January we will have two in diapers for a while and this should save some money. It has been a minor investment so far, I bought 3 covers off the internet for $27 and bought 8 usable pockets with inserts, and AIOs off of craigslist for $30. Not bad, plus Linda made me all those burp rags/cloth diapers and Andrea gave me all her old ones. Hooray! Unfortunately I have been battling a rash on his behind for about 3 days so we are back in sposies. :( For now.

Well I've gotta get these kids in the bath and into bed.....

Shopping for myself

It's not as fun as it used to be. I think I more enjoyed buying what I needed for others, the shower gifts and things for John. After wandering around Target forever I came out with a cute top and some dress shoes. Oh well, they are treasures. Driving my mom home was nice. It is so wonderful being able to help her out now and then. I hope it will work out if she needs to stay here at our house a few nights per week. I can imagine she is going to feel so weak. I hate cleaning house. I wish I could just get it done and be done. So a very ramabalicious post but at least i got it all out

The end of the begining

Lent is over but I don't want to go back to the old ways of sitting in front of the idiot box or wasting my energy with FB keeping up with the latest gossip. There was such a freedom keeping myself from it but I was also out of the loop. Well, lesson learned and I feel refreshed and cleansed. It will be nice to have the old cartoons back for when I just need a little peace and quiet to make dinner or do laundry. Let's hope it works. Well lots to do today after a whole week of spring vacation with the kids the house is a disaster and there is no food in the fridge, except for salad which we have to eat everyday for a week until it's gone.

It's hard to swallow

It came today. It's been hard everyday but today it's been hard to hold back the tears and I haven't even really cried yet. It's not so much hard to swallow but my heart feels so heavy. I want to hold her close and hug her tightly and tell her I'm scared too but I know she's going to be alright. I've never had to be this strong. I have always broken down and cried. Why doesn't it feel right to that this time? I guess it's her time to be fragile and breakdown and I want to be there for her. How hard it must be for others that love her too. The sons far away, the husband who sees her everyday and the sister that just lost her mom last year. It's hard on everyone, but she's mine. I need her. Please God, take care of her. Please.....