This recipe just screams back to school to me! Peanut Butter and Jelly Uncrustables that you can make with your little ones using cookie cutters and instead of having leftover crusts that no one wants you bake it into a delicious Peanut Butter & Jelly French Toast Casserole! NO WASTE! It is a delicious brunch dish you can even serve company! Or hey, make 2 or 3 times the recipe for a large event at a church or school event and have enough brunch for a party! C’mon who wouldn’t want a delicious plate full of this… You can set up a little station with your kids in the kitchen and make a whole loaf of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then let the kids pick out their favorite cookie cutters (We used and love the 101 Wilton Cookie Cutters) and get to work stamping out their own special uncrustables. Take all the scraps (you can leave them together or tear into pieces and put in a baking pan and add the french toast custard. Now take that whole tray of sandwiches and you can freeze them for future lunches!
Not a fan of Peanut Butter & Jelly? Here are some alternate ideas!
- Nutella and Jelly (oh man, just typing this makes me hungry)
- Cookie Butter and Jelly
- Cookie Butter and Nutella (Ahhhh!!!)
- Alternate Nut Butters
- Cream Cheese and Jelly
- Cream Cheese and Carrot Cake Jam (oh trust me on this one, it is coming soon and is AMAZING)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make all twelve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Spread peanut butter on one side, jelly on the other side. We use and love Bonne Maman preserves. I had them once at a hotel years ago and now I am hooked!
OH! Amazing grown up version of these preserves that I love? Buy the cherry flavor, use a couple tablespoons of it. Then add in chopped pickled jalapenos, and stir. The longer it stays in the fridge the more amazing it is. Sweet and spicy and SO EASY! Add on top of toast with cream cheese or make grilled cheese sandwiches with it!Choose your favorite cookie cutters and press firmly down onto the sandwiches. You’ll be left with a bunch of crusts that look like a whole lot of food waste. Especially if you chose especially cute cookie cutters that don’t use up nearly all of the sandwich. The fun thing about this recipe is you don’t have to be great at maximizing sandwich size, you can choose the cute cutters that don’t all fit together in a perfect square shape.
Please note if you are really good at using ALL the bread for your uncrustables, you’ll have less for the casserole so you can kind of see in this picture how much bread was left over.Tear apart all the crusts into an 8×8 pan. Mix the milk, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and vanilla extract in a bowl. Pour over the crusts. You can cook immediately or put in the refrigerator until the next morning. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Top with crushed peanuts and preserves while hot, or if you let it cool a little, just heat the preserves slightly. And you have lots of pb&j sandwiches you can freeze for lunches during the week!
Ingredients
- 24 slices bread (1 full loaf)
- 1 1/4 cups peanut butter
- 1 cup strawberry preserves (We use Bonne Maman)
- 2 cups milk
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts (for topping)
- 1/2 cup strawberry jelly (for topping)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Make all twelve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
- Spread peanut butter on one side, jelly on the other side.
- Choose your favorite cookie cutters and press firmly down onto the sandwiches.
- Tear apart all the crusts into an 8x8 pan.
- Mix the milk, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and vanilla extract in a bowl.
- Pour over the crusts.
- You can cook immediately or put in the refrigerator until the next morning.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes.
- Top with crushed peanuts and jelly while hot, or if you let it cool a little, just heat the jelly slightly.
Nutrition
Linked up at: Weekend Potluck, Creative Muster, Too Cute Tuesday,
This is a great idea. I love the cute sandwiches and not wasting food.
Thanks!
These sandwiches look so cute and delicious. I will have to try making these for lunches this year. The kids will love them.
Thanks Ann! I hope your kids love it!
What a clever use of leftover PBJ sandwiches! This would be much more delicious!
Thanks Christie!
Wow! This is an incredible idea! I love not wasting the edges!
Thanks!
WOW – this is a healthy combo of adorable and yummy! Love both of these!
Thanks Lena!
YUMM! Who knew you could make something that yummy looking with crusts!
OMG, these look incredible! I would love to make them. Bookmarking!
Thanks Nancy!
What a fantastic duo. I love making my own PB & J uncrustables, but having the crust for a second recipe is pure genius.
We had so much fun pressing out the shapes! I see why they are so popular, haha.
This is great! I made french toast sticks with my leftovers from making uncrustables! I love your idea too!
Yum! That sounds delicious!
that’s great! I hate wasting food in our house, and the kids will love having fun silly shapes to eat their sandwiches! Definitely back to school 🙂
This is such a wonderful idea to use the leftovers when you make the fun bento box style sandwiches. Sounds yummy too.
I love seeing all the bento box lunches! I can’t wait until my kids are old enough for them!
This post came at such an ironic time for me! I was making uncrustable sandwiches a few says ago and thought what a waste it was to throw the crusts away!
Haha, now you can make an awesome breakfast dish out of them!
That is a fantastic way to use the edges and crust. Awesome idea.
Thanks Debbie!
Absolutely genius. Seriously, I have been tossing my daughter’s crusts and now I can save them and bake them??? I love not wasting.
Aww thanks 🙂
Brilliant! I need to make this for the whole family.
Aww thanks Melissa!
What a smart way to use all of the bread. I think you’re brilliant! 🙂
That is so sweet! Thanks!
Uncrustables and French Toast! We love both! How nice that you were able to use the unwanted crusts. I need to try this.
I hope you love it!
I wish I had this bake for breakfast this morning! It looks delicious and combines all my favourite flavours.
Thanks so much Thalia! I wish I had some now too… I need to go make the nutella version now…
Okay, mind blown. What a great idea, this looks so yummy!
Thanks Aimee! That is so sweet!
Mmm, these look amazing! This looks right up my kids alley!
Thanks Cynthia!
The sandwiches are absolutely adorable and I LOVE your creative use for the scraps! I’m fairly certain some people just toss them out and that makes me squirm a bit.
YES! It is way better than snacking on them as I make them too. Far less calories for me!
The uncrustables are adorable and the bake sounds amazing. Great ideas!
Thanks Valerie!
What you did with the crusts is so smart! Great idea!
Thanks Maureen!
That is awesome! That French Toast bake looks amazingly delicious!
Thanks Autumn!
That’s such a yummy way to get full use out of the crust that would have otherwise been wasted! I like it!
I used to eat the lowly crusts as my lunch but that was just sad. This version is much more fun 🙂
What a great idea! I love cutting my sons sandwiches into cute shapes and hate throwing out the crust, but I never knew what else to do with it. Now I know and it looks delicious!
And it knocks two meals out at once!
I love that the PB&J sandwiches can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer. I try to keep a bunch of these in the freezer for mornings when I am running late or forgot to go to the grocery store Cool there is no wasted crusts with the french toast recipe!
Yes! We have pb&j and nutella and jam versions in the freezer at all times!
Peanut butter and jelly is life and this looks amazing! Perfect for a back to school weekend breakfast.
Thanks Marcie! It is perfect for back to school! Make them together Saturday night, bake for a Sunday morning brunch 🙂
This would make such a fun breakfast or lunch. It’s such a clever way to use every bit of bread.
Thanks Liz! I’m all about not wasting food!
I love two-for-one recipes like this one. And the idea of PB&J French Toast is awesome!!!! I may have to make sandwiches just to make the breakfast part!
I like your style! I would totally just make the sandwiches for this too!
Interesting and good looking. Great way to not waste.
Yum!!!! I love easy recipes. I bet this would be a hit in my house.
I think that means you have to try it 😉
OMG — I have PB&J sandwiches everyday for lunch! I am amazed at your creativity applied to such a staple of mine! 🙂 Thank you, I will savor this for sure.
Wonderful! I hope you love it! PS I reach for a pb&j really often too, easy enough to eat while juggling an infant and toddler!
What a great idea to reuse food scraps! I tried making those sandwiches before and hated throwing out all of that extra bread. Can’t wait to try this!
Yay! I hope you try it and love it Amanda!
I love this! So creative in using crusts to make a whole other dish. My kid will love this.
Fantastic! If you try it, please let me know what you think!
Now that is a dish my kids would absolutely love for Breakfast! It looks positively delicious and so easy!
Thanks, Amber! I hope you get to try it and I hope they love it!
I was literally just thinking this morning that PBJ french toast would probably be delicious! Thanks for making all of my dreams come true!
Glad to be of service! 😉
French toast is my favorite breakfast food as it is, but you just made it better.
Thanks Robin!
I wish my family liked peanut butter. It’s not fun to eat this all alone… then again MAYBE that is not bad thing, it looks really good and I wouldn’t have to share!
I am all for not sharing, but I would also suggest trying it with Nutella! It is amazing!
Holy moly! My kids might actually eat bread crust now! That looks delicious, and I love the idea of home made Uncrustables. 5 stars for you!
Aw, how sweet! It works even better because the crusts have some texture in the casserole – it is a perfect use for them!
That is so awesome! I might actually eat bread crust with this recipe! Thanks.
My pleasure!
Love that you made two meals from one. I always feel bad throwing away all that extra bread too!
Me too! I used to feel so bad I would eat it all standing there! Now I get to make an extra dish out of it!