Christmas is a TO-DO around here. No matter if I or one of the kids are sick. After all we have 5 KIDS to buy, hide, prep, and display for all in a short period of time. There have been Christmas Eve’s when I was up until 3am desperately wrapping and using my hubby’s electric tape to get the paper to stick.
All that is part of the fun but it’s hectic and energy draining. I am thankful that as I have gotten more tired and ill I have planned MUCH better ahead. I also have a growing team of elves to direct.
This year I thought I would branch out even more and have one of those nifty overnight breakfast recipes ready to go. Turn on the oven when everyone wakes up. Then as the clean up is happening breakfast cooks and voila!
I can even squeeze in a nap before I need to think about the BIG Christmas Dinner we normally host.
Yeah! for me organization and pre-planning all came together in a glorious early bedtime.
The next morning like clockwork I started out oven pre-heating. Dusted the top of the Overnight Carmel French Toast casserole with cinnamon sugar and put it in the oven. My older teens used our new foodie tools to start up bacon, sausage, and fried eggs for the rest of the meal.
It all came together great until my hubby came in and asked, “Is it really done,” he said as he poked the middle with a fork like it was a dead fish.
“Yes, it is cooked through that is a caramel sauce from the bottom causing the wet look.”
No seriously I did double and triple check the time and temps. My oven is ready to die so I takes a careful watchful eye.
Hubs then encouraged me with, “Hmmm then you can skip me. Just give me double eggs.”
The rest of the kids were now gathered and looking at the casserole with squirrely looks on their faces. I could sense it. Mutiny. My new all pulled together recipe was going down the drain fast.
I asked hubs quietly to help me out by just trying a full bite. That way our finicky eaters would continue to at least trying new recipes.
He was game. Then he tasted it. Then he started fighting what was in his mouth with huge chops.
Glad it looked like fun so my teens tried it but they had the same problem.
The top was wet custardy goodness. The bottom layer was the caramel. It was either too hot or it turned to hard balls of teeth clenching rock candy.
My sensory son…. about went through the roof. Lets just say he didn’t wait to find the wastebasket to empty his mouth.
And that was the end of the good tasting but HORRIBLE SENSORY BREAKFAST of CHRISTMAS 2014.
I found that extra rations of bacon and sausage patties helped smooth over the issue. Though I sense this will become a family story for years to come.
<sigh> that’s what I get for being prepared and on my game… or so I thought. 😉
You may have a completely different experience with this recipe (ours was a gluten free version.) The problems we had were the texture of the caramel changed in their mouths and the top was so different a texture from the bottom of the casserole that no one liked it. I can’t eat but I was able to taste the flavor to reassure myself it was fully cooked. It was cooked had a yummy cinnamon French toast flavor but I too could not handle the caramel.
Here is the link to the Christmas Disaster casserole… oops I mean Overnight Caramel French Toast from East Drink Smile. I hope your experience with it is better than ours.
For what it’s worth, it happens here too. All 3 of our kids are special needs–all 3 on the autism spectrum at varying levels, all 3 adhd at different levels, and one has MR and bipolar disorder. I totally understand what you went through!!
We don’t homeschool anymore–after 3 unsuccessful tries–but we have some similar struggles, as we help with any homework, we’re there when the teachers need us, we handle disciplineary and behavioral issues at home and school, we do the outside of school activities, we’re trying to teach them independence as much as possible to prepare them for the world away from home. I commend you and other special needs families that keep on going at home!!
For the next time you try a casserole while the oven is going out–try the crockpot. You can do quite a few things in it that are breakfast items and they turn out pretty well! 🙂
Heather, we did a crockpot breakfast — super easy too. (eggs, sausage, hashbrowns) Recipe called for 12 eggs, milk, seasoning, meat of choice (pre-cooked), veggies of choice and shredded hashbrowns. I used 2-packs of Potatoes OBrian, and sausage (oh, and I didn’t drain the sausage because the friend that gave me the recipe said she found 30 ounces of potatoes with 12 eggs dry since I used 2-28 ounce packs I figured we’d need more moisture). Right before serving it I stirred it up so the extra grease was redistributed throughout the casserole.