Different Ways to Prepare and Serve Toast for Breakfast

Toast is a common staple on the breakfast table often accompanying eggs or even a bowl of cereal. Eating the same piece of buttered toast, however, can easily become boring. My girls often request toast to be served for breakfast, so I have come up with many ways to make and serve toast to keep their interest.

One of my girls' favorite toast varieties is Cinnamon Toast. Cinnamon toast is super easy to make which is perfect for busy weekday breakfast. Making cinnamon toast is as easy as buttering a piece of toasted bread and sprinkling a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon on top. Keeping the cinnamon sugar mixture on hand makes preparing cinnamon toast a breeze. What I usually do is mix in 2 tbsp. of ground cinnamon with 1 cup of brown sugar. You can place this mixture into a sugar shaker or use an empty and cleaned parmesan cheese container. This mixture can also be used to sprinkle onto tortilla shells for Cinnamon Tortillas, recipe found here.

Another delicious variety of toast is French Toast. There are many different recipes available for creating delicious French toast for breakfast which can be found on the internet or in a cookbook. The recipe I always use calls for beaten eggs, a few sprinkles of cinnamon sugar, vanilla, and a few slices of bread. Mix the first three ingredients and then dip your bread in it and fry until golden brown on both sides. For an extra sweet touch you can sprinkle powdered sugar over the French toast. Sliced apples, berries, and bananas all make great toppings for French toast along with maple or fruit flavored syrups.

If you want to add some protein to your breakfast then you may want to try Eggs in a Basket. The concept of this breakfast dish is simple, you cut a hole out of the middle of a piece of bread, place it in a pan, crack an egg and pour into the hole, and fry. Of course like many dishes you can alter the recipe a bit to suit your own tastes. One way to change it up is to cut out different shapes such as flowers, stars, and hearts from the middle of the bread when serving to children. You could also use a biscuit and bake your Eggs in a Basket such as in this recipe. Another way to change up traditional Eggs in a Basket is to use different breads such as French or Sourdough.

A great way to change up your traditional breakfast toast is to experiment with different toppings. Here are a few you could try: Flavored Butter Toast, Peanut Butter Toast, Peanut Butter and Jelly Toast, Nutella on Toast, Honey Toast, Cheese Toast (heated under the broiler), Applesauce on Toast (children may like a flavored applesauce such as strawberry), Peanut Butter and Banana Toast, Peanut Butter and Apple Toast, and Berry Topped Toast (made by blending berries with sugar).

The next time you serve toast for breakfast try one of these varieties instead of the traditional buttered toast. The different toppings listed above would also make great toppings for bagels and English muffins.