Sandra Lee's Money-Saving Tips ... and French Toast

by Sara Bonisteel, Posted May 1st 2009 @ 10:30AM

Sandra Lee's French Toast. Photo: Sara Bonisteel

Love her or hate her, Sandra Lee can stretch a dollar.

For her latest Food Network show, the queen of "semi-homemade" cuisine is teaching her viewers "Money Saving Meals" with tips on how to make dishes like this French toast without breaking the bank.

"This show is like Suze Orman meets Julia Child," she told Slashfood Thursday in the Food Network test kitchens.

Get her three tips on how to save at the grocery store and the French toast recipe after the jump.

1. Use Spice Blends Instead of Herbs
Lee, who grew up cooking for her four siblings while the family was on welfare, says the easiest way to save money at the grocery store is to buy spice blends.

"I'm a McCormick Schilling seasonings girl," Lee said. She recommends buying blends like pumpkin spice and taco seasoning rather than individual herbs to knock a Hamilton off your food bill.

2. Buy (Slightly) Fattier Meat
"Meat is probably the most expensive thing [on the shopping list]," she said, adding that a meal isn't a satisfying meal for her without it. By trading 90 percent lean ground beef for 80 percent lean, shoppers can save on average 80 cents a pound, she said.

3. Hold the Alcohol
Save the booze for special occasions like holidays and birthdays. "We do a lot of mocktails," Lee said.

French Toast with Brown Sugar Banana Syrup
Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee

For Syrup:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
2 bananas, cut into 1/2-inch slices

For French Toast:
1 loaf challah
2 cups milk
3 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Nonstick cooking spray

To Make Syrup: In a small saucepan, combine butter, pumpkin pie spice, molasses, brown sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil, add bananas then lower heat and let simmer for 3 minutes. Remove syrup from heat, cover and keep warm. Serve over French toast. Cook's Note: Also makes a great topping for ice cream.

To Make French Toast: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Slice bread into 12 slices. Reserve 2 slices plus the ends for Lee's bread pudding recipe. Place remaining 8 slices on a baking sheet. Toast in oven for 3 minutes.

Remove and lower oven temperature to 250 degrees F. In a large bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, flour, vanilla, brown sugar and salt. Spray a 12-inch skillet with nonstick cooking spray and place over medium heat. Working in batches of 4, dip the bread into the batter and soak both sides. Remove allowing excess to drip back into the bowl and place in the hot skillet.

Cook until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the toast to a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack and keep warm in a 250 degree F oven. Repeat with remaining slices of bread. Save remaining batter and extra syrup for bread pudding recipe. Serve hot with Brown Sugar Banana Syrup.

Yield: 4 servings

Sandra Lee

Sandra Lee on the set of her new show "Sandra's Money Saving Meals."

Food Network

Sandra Lee on the set of her new show "Sandra's Money Saving Meals."

Food Network

Sandra Lee makes an appearance at the 2009 South Beach Wine and Food Festival Whole Foods Grand Tasting Village on February 22, 2009 in South Beach, Fla.

John Parra/WireImage

Sandra Lee makes an appearance at the 2009 South Beach Wine and Food Festival Whole Foods Grand Tasting Village on February 22, 2009 in South Beach, Fla.

John Parra/WireImage

Television personality Sandra Lee attends the "Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade" magazine launch party at the Empire Hotel Rooftop on Jan. 28, 2009 in New York City.

Jason Kempin/WireImage

Sandra Lee and Sir Elton John attend "An Enduring Vision," the seventh annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Benefit, at Cipriani Wall Street on Nov. 11, 2008 in New York City.

Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

Sandra Lee attends Bette Midler's New York Restoration Project's 'Hulaween' at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Oct. 31, 2008 in New York City.

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

New York State Attorney General-elect Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee attend the third annual UNICEF Snowflake Ball at Cipriani's 42nd Street, Nov. 28, 2006 in New York City.

Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Lee's show, "Sandra's Money Saving Meals," debuts on May 10 on the Food Network.

Filed Under: Television/Film, Food News
Tags: food network, FoodNetwork, french toast, FrenchToast, sandra lee, SandraLee, television

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-01-2009 @11:53AM Annie said... The hubris in comparing herself to Julia Child! Most of those FN folks make me cringe, but she's just crossed the line into offensive.
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5-01-2009 @12:45PM Andie said... How does french toast ever "break the bank"??
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5-01-2009 @1:31PM michelle said... 3. Hold the Alcohol?!! Semi-homemade has a special graphic for "cocktail time". I'm glad this new show will be as much of a sit-com has semi homemade...

And yeah, Julia Child -- even 1/2 Julia Child? Are you kidding me?
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5-01-2009 @1:42PM KF said... Thank you Annie for speaking for me. The sheer hubris of comparing herself to Julia Child is just astounding. In my best Senatorial voice, I'll just say "Sandra, you're no Julia Child."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator,_you_are_no_Jack_Kennedy

.
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5-01-2009 @4:03PM rainey said... The commercial spices she's recommending are probably among the most expensive on the market! All the packaged seasonings she uses to disguise the fact that she can't cook are probably even more expensive and full of additives to boot. Ms. Semi-Half-Assed has no idea what she's talking about and I can't believe a "food" site takes her seriously. =o

Use some high volume/lower cost alternative like Penzeys, get the real fresh deal and make your own blends. The commercial ones are heavy on the cheap fillers don't-you-know.
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5-01-2009 @4:42PM SaraFist said... I concur with Andie--French toast isn't exactly a spendy dish.
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5-01-2009 @5:09PM MoPoDNAtest said... Sandra Lee cannot be considered a chef by any stretch of the imagination. Her whole show consists of mixing together pre-made crap and calling it gourmet. The arrogance to compare herself to Julia Child is just shocking.
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5-01-2009 @5:29PM Bernie B said... I actually like the concept of Semi-Homemade, but really dislike her. Funny thing, the recipe in this post has less commercial additives than anything I've seen on her show.

Tablescape /wrist
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5-02-2009 @2:17PM Megan said... "3. Hold the Alcohol
Save the booze for special occasions like holidays and birthdays.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the biggest hypocrite of all ?

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5-02-2009 @5:27PM NoNaMe said... J.H.C.
Ms. Semi-Half-Baked couldn't cook herself out of a paper bag. Cooking on a budget? Callah? I'll bet they aren't serving callah at the soup kitchen, unless it's a couple days old and they're pinching off the moldy parts. If she were honestly trying to help, she'd shop the day old bread stores (no challa there) and places were they sell the crash and dented cans. Like those who are really pro's at stretching a buck and feeding a family because they make a couple bucks above the poverty/food stamps cut off.

Her story is getting worn and tired.
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5-04-2009 @2:04PM justin said... I think that everyone posting comments is doing so from the viewpoint of someone who knows how to cook and enjoys doing so. You are not the target audience of Sandra Lee and her shows.

Her target audience is people who would just eat out instead of cooking something quick at home. Sure, there is 30 Minute Meals with RR, but that still requires some skills. Semi-homemade isn't about gourmet, its about getting started because cooking is not scary once you try it.

As for the comparison to Julia Child, perhaps she is a spy like Julia? All kidding aside, Julia is famous not because of how incredibly awesome everything she made was, but because she was a food personality that brought French cuisine to mainstream America. Lee is trying to do her part to bring cooking back to mainstream America, which is not all that different from what Child did to bring an influx of French culinary style to a country that already cooked.

As far as the spice blends, I do not use them myself because I usually have reason to buy full jars of the individual spices; but not everyone is going to stock high end spices of all varieties and to suggest that they do so instead of blends just shows a misunderstanding of her market.
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5-05-2009 @4:50PM scandichef said... Such sniping over so little; writers complaining over spice mixes and french toast! Get a life. You sound like 12-year old girls; oh, maybe you are 12-year old girls? I'd like to see substantive, creative contributions. No more nonsense about celebrities. Come on, rise to the challenge. Stop the bitching. Start being a contributing member of slashfood or go to another website.
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6-12-2009 @11:38AM pats said... Sandra Lee's cooking and ethos are shameful. Her new premise of cooking for saving money is a fraud. Her dishes full of processed food, sugars, sodium, bad fats and oils will send health care costs soaring - besides tasting awful. Why does the food network think this is right - giving her a show? Do they not know there is a diabetes and obesity crisis. This show makes a mockery of food and cooking - and nutrition.
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6-22-2009 @10:22AM Upnorth said... I have a question - why at the beginning of her Semi-Homemade show does she say that she's been cooking and entertaining since she was a child and on her commercial for the Share the Strength program she says that "sometimes she didn't know where her next meal was coming from"? Seriously? Which is it? Was she hitting up the food banks to supplement her cooking and entertaining? And now we are going to be "dumbed down" with yet another show of hers that has nothing to do with cooking.
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