20 Healthy French Toast Recipes You Can Enjoy Guilt Free

Written by Michael Matthews

Stuffed Strawberry French Toast

This French toast is over-the-top with a strawberry cheesecake filling. Yet as decadent as this breakfast is, it’s equally nutritious with a mixture of cottage cheese, chia seeds, and vanilla protein powder.

You’ll need thick slices of bread for this, like Texas toast, big enough to make a pocket in the middle so there’s space for them to get stuffed.

One or two slices is plenty per person because there are so many upgrades to the standard bread, eggs, and milk. This recipe also includes a coating with coconut, almonds, and oats for even more flavor, not to mention the health benefits. You’ll want to try it on other types of French toast too.

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Overnight Cinnamon Pecan French Toast

With toasted pecans, lightly coated in brown sugar and butter to make a streusel, you won’t need much maple syrup to top this cinnamon French toast.

It’s already so sweet and satisfying, you could even use sugar-free maple syrup made with stevia, which can be purchased or whisked together in your own kitchen. This would also be awesome with an alternative breakfast topping like roasted fruit with yogurt or coconut whipped cream.

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Whole-Wheat French Toast

Prepare classic French toast with whole-wheat bread, and it’s a nutritious breakfast with complex carbs and a little protein. French toast can get fancy, but that doesn’t mean you need a lot of extra ingredients.

Make it with just bread, eggs, milk, and honey. Then top with fresh fruit, like strawberries and bananas, and finish with a dollop creamy vanilla yogurt.

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Baked Stuffed Orange French Toast

This French toast is s over-the-top it’s basically a breakfast cake. Only instead of spreading frosting in the middle, there’s cream cheese. What makes it into thick, stacked slices instead of individual pieces of bread is baking the French toast in a big casserole dish.

After being assembled, everything has to soak in the fridge for a few hours. So get it ready a day ahead, and bake for about 45 minutes in the morning. Or put it together in the afternoon, and you’ll have a tasty dessert to serve with fresh fruit.

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PB & J Chocolate Protein French Toast

Turn your peanut butter and jelly sandwich into French toast with this awesome meal that’s good for breakfast, brunch, or lunch. It’s even a great post-workout meal with over 30 grams of protein per serving.

To make this nutritious PB & J French toast, start by whisking together egg whites, cocoa, whey protein powder, and flaxseed to dip the bread into. Cook it in a hot pan, and serve with peanut butter and jam. Or for a low-fat French toast, mix PB2 right into some jelly, and spoon it on top.

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Apple Cornbread French Toast Cake

For an extra-flavorful French toast, start by making your own bread – and not with white flour.

This rustic breakfast starts with a vegan cornbread made with polenta and almond flour. Then, rather than using milk and eggs, this French toast is soaked in the liquid reserved from cooking legumes.

Next time you open a can of chickpeas or beans, reserve the liquid, called aquafaba. It’s great for more than making this dairy-free, egg-free French toast. Aquafaba is often poured down the drain, but it can be used as a vegan egg replacer to make desserts like meringue and brownies. And it can even be used to thicken frosting like buttercream.

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Honey Lemon French Toast

This French toast looks gourmet, and yet it’s actually amazing for all kinds of dietary restrictions. Start with gluten-free bread, and you’ll wind up with gluten-free French Toast. Then by using almond milk and chia seeds, this French toast can be vegan too.

Special ingredients aside, everyone will enjoy this bright, flavorful lemon cream sauce, which cuts down on the sugar. No need to add syrup or a pat of butter because this sauce will satisfy cravings for both toppings. Serve it with other recipes too like pancakes, waffles, or plain whole-wheat toast.

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Everything Bagel Savory French Toast

Even if you’re trying to avoid added sugar, you can enjoy tasty French toast. You just have to think outside the bread box and grab half a dozen bagels instead. That way you can load it up with cheese and sausage instead of fruit and maple syrup.

This bagel French toast is also surprisingly well-balanced for a breakfast that’s two guilty pleasures in one, and you can make it leaner by leaving out the heavy cream, subbing chicken sausage, and opting for low-fat cheddar cheese.

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Pumpkin French Toast

In order to make eggless French toast, you don’t have to worry about exactly how to replace them. Ground flax or chia seeds will work, if you want to use that, but this recipe has a different idea.

Pumpkin puree makes for delicious low-fat French toast – perfect to go with maple syrup for fall – and it also rounds out the custard mixture that the bread is dipped into.

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Cinnamon Raisin Stuffed French Toast

This decadent French toast would be at home on any holiday breakfast table. After all, it’s stuffed with cream cheese and raisins, then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

Nobody will be the wiser that this is a lightened up French toast using reduced-fat cream cheese. And everyone at the table can choose how to top their stack: pure maple syrup, sliced bananas, or a sauce made from PB2 with just a touch of honey.

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Lightened Up Crème Brulée French Toast

Serving a large breakfast doesn’t have to be a ton of work. Even if you’re a morning person, you might prefer to use that time for a workout to help wake you up.

When you plan a day ahead to assemble overnight French toast, in the morning you just have to move it from the fridge to the oven. For a decadent brunch, serve this one with rum-soaked raisins – also ready the day before – and finish with a drizzle of maple syrup.

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Cinnamon French Toast Muffins

Craving French toast, but don’t want to eat a whole plateful – or don’t want the macros that come with?

Try these awesome French toast muffins, made with just a handful of ingredients. It’s a great method since, unlike French toast in a pan, these cinnamon breakfast muffins are unlikely to burn or come out too soggy.

Cube up a loaf of bread, preferably one that’s going stale so it soaks up more of the custard mixture made of milk, eggs, and your sweetener of choice. Add flavors like cinnamon and vanilla to taste. Then, divide the mixture between muffin cups, and bake for about a half hour.

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Peanut Butter & Banana French Toast Roll-Ups

French toast isn’t often portable to take to a potluck brunch, but this clever version can be wrapped in foil and reheated later without getting dry.

That’s because the bread is flattened and rolled up with a delicious mashed banana filling. If you’re making a whole extras, any leftovers can be put in the toaster oven for breakfast.

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Baked French Toast Sticks

Forget about the flavorless frozen French toast at the grocery store. Since these are easy to make at home and stash in the freezer, you’ll be able to prepare any serving size to eat – even in a rush.

French toast sticks are great for when you need a quick pre-workout bite or late-night snack. And when your breakfast isn’t quite big enough, pop a couple in the microwave or toaster oven. Serve with a dipping sauce like cinnamon cream cheese, strawberry puree, or PB2 mixed with maple syrup.

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Easy Country French Toast

Craving diner French toast? Luckily it doesn’t take much to recreate that classic flavor at home.

However, you can’t use just any bread. Start with Texas-style toast – that’s the extra-thick slices – then you just need a simple three-ingredient mixture. Dip the bread, let it really soak up the liquid for a few minutes, and add it to a hot pan with melted butter.

To take it to the next level, make sausage or bacon in the skillet first. Wipe out some of the grease, and then you won’t have to use butter. The French toast can cook in the bacon drippings instead and benefit from that unmistakable savory flavor.

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French Toast Breakfast Casserole

Have a loaf of bread that’s getting stale, and don’t know how to use it? Cube it up, and dump it in a casserole dish to make this easy breakfast. You don’t need any extra ingredients, just the staples you’d need for classic French toast: bread, milk, eggs, and vanilla.

Unlike other French toast casseroles, this one doesn’t need to soak in the fridge overnight. Instead, top it with pieces of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar right before it goes in the oven.

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Baked French Toast for Two

Overnight French toast is easy, but what if you don’t want to use up a whole loaf of bread? This breakfast for two comes together in a loaf pan, so you can prepare it the night before and bake it in the morning.

Simply cut the bread in quarters, stack it in the pan to fit, and pour the rest of the ingredients over the top. And if you go with a side dish like fruit salad – or even whole fruit – you can have everything ready in the fridge when you wake up.

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Chocolate Cream Protein French Toast

Think you can’t enjoy a sweet and protein-packed breakfast at the same time? Upgrade your French toast with luscious chocolate cream, and you can sneak in half a scoop of protein powder.

This recipe for whole-wheat French toast is pretty simple. What makes it special – and nets you over 40 grams of protein per plate – is sandwiching chocolate cream in the middle rather than pouring maple syrup on top. Just mix together Greek yogurt, half a scoop of protein powder, and a spoonful of cocoa powder.

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Caramel Overnight French Toast

Not only is this caramel French toast full of flavor, but it can be prepared the day before and just popped in the hot oven in the morning.

The only extra step for this is making the caramel sauce on the stove, which takes just a few minutes. And if you can’t get it to melt into a perfectly smooth caramel, that’s ok. When it’s heated up again in the oven, it’ll still make one side of this baked French toast sticky and sweet.

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Protein French Toast

The only way to make French toast is to soak bread before it’s finished in a hot pan or oven. But that doesn’t mean you have to use a mixture of just eggs and milk. While you’re at it, whisk in a scoop of whey protein powder.

That’s the only difference between regular French toast and this version, which delivers 50 grams of protein per serving. Just be sure to use a protein powder that uses real vanilla flavor – like Legion WHEY+ – since you won’t be adding vanilla extract.

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