Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Silk® through their partnership with POPSUGAR. While I was compensated to write a post about Silk®, all opinions are my own.

No Friday Favorites today, but I think you guys will agree that it’s still going to be a good morning.

I mean, any morning that starts off with blueberries… and cashews…and French toast… has got to be good, right? Please don’t tell me I’m the only one who thinks food needs to be involved in order for it to be a good morning.

Anyways.

This blueberry French toast casserole is the perfect make ahead meal to add to your weekend food prep or to bring to brunch. I’ve actually made it three times now! The first time was for Christmas morning with my family, and I made it with raspberries to make it more festive. I also made it for the bridesmaids brunch my friend Shannon hosted at her apartment last month, and that’s when I made the switch to blueberries. I busted this out again a few weeks ago during Sunday food prep, and I think the third time’s the charm!

Blueberry Cashew French Toast Casserole

Serves 8, or 1-2 for a few days of breakfast

Ingredients

• Bread of choice (I used a quinoa flax bread from Whole Foods)
• 8 large eggs
• 5 egg whites
• 2 cups Silk® Unsweetened Cashewmilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup raw, unsalted cashews, chopped
• 1 tbsp coconut sugar

Directions

1. Spray a 9×13 inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Arrange the bread in a single layer in the baking pan. I typically just do this with 8 slices, but you can also slice the bread into 1 inch cubes and layer it that way.
3. Whisk together the eggs, egg whites, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and maple syrup.
4. Pour the egg mixture over the bread in the pan, spreading it around so the liquid saturates the bread.
5.  Scatter the blueberries evenly on top, and sprinkle with the cashews and coconut sugar.
6. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for 2-3 hours during the day.
7. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Uncover the baking pan, and bake for around 45 minutes. Enjoy!

In this version, I used Silk® Unsweetened Cashewmilk as my milk of choice (previously I was using coconut milk). I am new to cashewmilk, and I was actually surprised by how creamy it was! Normally I don’t like the taste of milk by itself or something besides skim in my coffee, but I was pleasantly surprised that I could actually drink cashewmilk by the glass.

Since Silk® Cashewmilk has zero saturated fat and fewer calories than skim milk (only 25 calories per serving in the unsweetened kind I tried!), I decided it would make a good addition to my French toast casserole, and it did! I can definitely see myself using cashewmilk in smoothies and other baked goods as a dairy milk alternative.

To bring out the flavor of the cashewmilk even more, I also sprinkled cashews on top of the casseroles instead of slivered almonds like I did previously. Tim and I prefer cashews to almonds anyways, and it added both a nice crunch and texture contrast to the rest of the dish. You need a lot of eggs for this recipe, but they are spread throughout the 9×13 casserole. I’ve eaten this for breakfast at work over the past couple of weeks, and it keeps me full all morning – I’ve barely needed my mid morning snack.

Hope you enjoy this little slice of YUM as much as I do!

Readers, let’s chat! What makes a morning good for you? Do you have any French toast recipes to share? Have you tried cashewmilk before?

Silk Original Cashewmilk: 60 cal/serv; skim dairy milk: 80 cal/serv. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 27. Data consistent with typical skim dairy milk.