Freezer Cooking - Toddler French Toast Sticks -

So having all the rolls is nice ... but it takes up way too much freezer space! I'm lucky because we have a small little freezer above our fridge, and a large deep freezer. All the rolls took up an entire section though! Definitely going with thinner ideas from now on.

I found today's recipe and knew it would be perfect. French toast sticks! I wish I could buy expensive, pre-made french toast sticks for my kids. But, they are very expensive & with four kids eating them, they really go fast! And with a almost one year old, these are the perfect finger food for him. My older kids each ate 5 french toast sticks, and the baby ate 3. So 18 sticks or 6 slices of bread make a meal for us.

We tried a small batch of the toddler french toast sticks (using pumpkin puree that I had from thanksgiving). The kids loved them & were all begging for more.

The cost breakdown? I doubled the recipe to make about 9 meals (one this morning & 8 more frozen) & took about an hour and a half. It used less than a quarter of pumpkin puree that I got for $1 ($0.25), 18 eggs ($1.18), 2 loaves of bread ($3.59), 1 stick of butter ($0.14) and almost 3 cups of milk (I used the food storage milk I keep pre-mixed in my fridge). So, $5.16 for 9 meals, or $0.58 each time, for four kids. And they all were a lot fuller & weren't scavenging for food as usual. :)

Sorry for the bad picture, I forgot to take one until they were all scrunched up.

Here's my take on her recipe for Toddler French Toast Sticks:

30 slices of whole wheat bread

1/4 c. butter, melted

8 eggs

1/3 c. sugar

1 1/3 c. milk

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. pumpkin puree

Mix all ingredients except the bread together in a bowl. Take all your bread and cut it into thirds. Heat a griddle and dip the bread into the egg mixture to coat it and cook on the griddle. Flip over once one side is brown & make sure both sides are fully cooked. Place finished bread on cookie sheet, keep separated & allow to cool completely. Once completely cooled, place cookie sheet in the freezer. Flash freeze the toast sticks for 30 minutes. (The flash freezing allows the food to start to freeze, so when you place them in a bag they won't stick together). Remove from cookie sheet and place in a freezer bag. Freeze until ready to use. To warm up: microwave 30 - 45 seconds.