Pineapple-Stuffed French Toast

Treat this recipe as a template and tailor it to your personal preferences: Make it sweeter by stuffing more pineapple into each serving, add moisture by adding more cottage cheese. And if you prefer less texture altogether, substitute a creamy ricotta cheese for the cottage cheese.

Ingredients

1/2 fresh pineapple*
1 tablespoon honey*
1 teaspoon cinnamon*
Dash of salt*
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
16 slices whole grain bread
5 eggs, large
1/2 cup low-fat or fat-free lactose-free dairy milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Nonstick spray
Confectioners' sugar

Instructions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Finely dice the pineapple and combine with the honey, cinnamon, and dash of salt in a roasting pan. Bake for 30 minutes.
After the pineapple has been removed from the oven, drain the juice from the roasting pan and into the cottage cheese; stir together.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract.
Assemble the French toast: Scoop a spoonful of cottage cheese into the center of half of the slices of bread. Place a spoonful of roasted pineapple on top each scoop of cottage cheese. Finish with another slice of bread.
Gently press together the sandwiches and using a round cookie cutter or a drinking glass, cut a round out of each stack. Pinch the edges of each circle together to seal in the filling.
Dip each round into the egg mixture and place in a hot skillet that has been coated with nonstick spray.
Toast each side until crispy. Serve warm with a sprinkle of confectioners' sugar on top.

Notes

* To save time (and further play with flavors), substitute your favorite jams, jellies or fresh fruit for the roasted pineapple.

Allow leftover crusts to get stale and pulse into homemade breadcrumbs in a food processor. Don’t let anything go to waste!

Nutrition

Per serving: Calories 250 Total Fat 5g Saturated Fat 1.5g Cholestrol 110mg Sodium 370mg Total Carbohydrate 35g Dietary Fiber 5g Protein 15g

With alterations the nutritional values will be affected, including lactose content.

Attribution

Recipe and photo used with permission from: National Dairy Council