Some people just know how to find the free stuff. My mom has access to day old Panera Bread, and so I’m the recipient often of some yummy bagels and sometimes bread past its prime. So what should you do with old bread?

Make some French toast! What’s nice about this casserole is that you can make it the night ahead, pop it in the oven early in the morning, brew your coffee, get dressed, and by then breakfast is ready!

This casserole is really easy. First, cut up the bread. If you do larger chunks like me, you will get some soft pieces and some chewy crust pieces. I like the variety, and I don’t want to spend my life trimming crusts, so I did larger pieces and left the crusts. 🙂

Here’s what you need: 8 cups diced bread cubes, 3 eggs, 2 cups milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Preheat your oven to 400, then generously grease a 9×13 pan with cooking spray or butter. Put your bread in the pan.

Whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla. Add the milk to the egg mixture, then pour over the bread cubes. At first, it will seem like a lot of liquid, but it will begin to soak into the bread. If you are going to bake it right away, be sure to toss the bread cubes in any remaining liquid one last time before putting in the oven.

If your bread is extra dry, drizzle some more milk over the top. Cover with foil.

If you plan to bake it the next day, pop it in the refrigerator. I baked mine later, and I let my glass dish set on the counter for a few minutes before putting it into the hot oven.

Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. I baked mine with a foil cover on, and when I opened up it was nice and steamy.

Serve with butter and syrup.

Yum! Time for coffee!