Baked Coconut French Toast with Tropical Fruit Compote

The French toast is plain and easy, just like the many other you can find easily. What's special lies with the fruit compote. The tart sweetness of the marinade is perfect for the tropical fruits, not to mention the crispy coconut flakes. I also sprinkled some almond flakes to the French toast prior to baking. Feel free to experiment with other fruits such as papaya for a more colorful display.

For a balanced morning breakfast, I served up a Scrambled Egg with spinach, sun dried tomato and goat cheese with sprinkle of chopped thyme.

Ingredients:

(makes 2)
Fruit Compote:

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh pineapple
• 1/4 cup chopped peeled mango
• 1/4 cup chopped dragon fruits
  
• 1/4 cup chopped peeled kiwifruit
• handful of dried blueberry and raisins (option)
  
• 1 tablespoons agave nectar (or honey/ maple syrup/ sugar)
  
• 1 tablespoons fresh lime juice

French toast:

• 4 (1-inch-thick) slices diagonally cut French bread baguette
  
• Coconut oil
  
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 egg
• 2 Tablespoon maple syrup
  
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinches of cinnamon powder and nutmeg (option)
  
• 1/4 cup flaked sweetened coconut

1. To prepare compote, combine all ingredients. Cover and chill overnight.
2. To prepare the French toast, arrange bread in a single layer in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine coconut milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg (if using) stirring with a whisk, and pour evenly over bread. Turn the bread over to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 175°C.
4. Remove bread mixture from refrigerator, and uncover. Turn bread slices over, and sprinkle evenly with flaked coconut. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes. Bake, uncovered, at 175ºC for 30 minutes or until coconut is golden. Serve warm with fruit compote.

Cinnful Apple Fruit Salad

This was my first at tempt of making fruit salad. I just can't resist it because it comes with cinnamon. And I thought it would work well with the Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast. Indeed. They went SO well together that the Breakfast Salad paled in comparison.
It's super easy - you just need to soak the raisin in apple juice the night before and toss all the ingredients together just before serving and Voila!

Ingredients:

(makes about 9 cups)

4 crisp sweet apples

2 bananas, sliced thin

2 sweet pears

½ cup raisins (I mixed raisins with dried blueberry and cranberry)

1 cup unsweetened apple juice

1 cup plain low-fat yogurt

¼ tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. cinnamon

Sliced roasted almonds (optional)

1. Pour raisins into juice and refrigerate overnight. Also refrigerate all uncut fruit overnight.
2. Chop fruit shortly before serving and mix in large bowl.
3. Fold in yogurt, lemon juice, apple juice with raisins, vanilla and cinnamon.
4. Sprinkle each serving with sliced almonds. (I forgot this last step....)