Make Ahead French Toast Casserole

I mentioned earlier today that I was going to bake a Make Ahead French Toast Casserole today for my pantry/freezer challenge.   This recipe is not only very frugal, but tastes great!  

Melt a 1/4 cup of butter and spread around the bottom of your baking pan

You will use `12 slices of bread for this recipe.  I cut them in half before putting them in the pan.   On the bottom layer lay down 6 slices of bread (or in my cases 12  1/2 slices.  

Make a mixture of 1 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.   Sprinkle half of the sugar mixture on top of the bread.   Layer on 6 more slices and sprinkle the rest of the sugar mixture on top.  

You will next make an egg and milk mixture.     Mix together 5 eggs,  1 1/2 cups milk and a tsp of vanilla extract.    My mixture was not mixed as well as it could have been, because I used a bowl that was too small.    Pour mixture over the bread. 

Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight, OR  if you want it for dinner like we did at least 4-6 hours.  


When your are ready to bake,  place in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes with foil on, and then 15 more minutes with foil off.    Makes 4-6 servings 

Before eating I added some strawberries and syrup on my serving and it was delicious! 



** BAKING TIP** When mixing my sugar mixture, I found that my brown sugar was hard.   I did a quick search on the internet  to figure out how to soften it.   I found if you add a small bowl of water in the microwave with the hardened sugar (beside it, not on it)  it will soften  your sugar.    Well this sort of worked.   I did a one minute round and then three 30 second rounds but my sugar was still not soft enough to use.   It reminded me of the consistency of a block of cheese.   I then thought,  hmm, I wonder if I can grate it.  Turns out YOU CAN!   It made a little big of a mess, but I quickly got the amount of brown sugar I needed. 


**SAVING MONEY TIP**   This meal is perfect if you need to feed a lot of people on very little money.  With sales, this recipe literally cost my just pennies to make.       I bought the Aunt Millies bread on sale Buy 1, Get 2 free..  Depending on how you look at it, this could have been the FREE loaf (LOL) or it averaged out to be $1.06 per loaf.       The brown sugar was only .89, and I used only 1/8 of it, about .10 worth.    The cinnamon and vanilla extract was such a small amount, they were only only a few cents each.   Lets say .10 for each.   The eggs were on sale for $1.18 and I only used 5 or about .50 worth.  The milk was on sale for only $2 and only a  cup and a half is needed.    The Log Cabin syrup I bought on sale with coupons for only $1 a bottle.  We used only half of bottle.   The butter I used was FREE with coupons.   The strawberries were also only $1 and only 2 members of my family used them.    This casserole cost me way under $5 and the family loved it and wanted more.    This recipe is definitley a keeper.