Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast

I had an epiphany the day before on Saturday, the day before Mother's Day - I should prepare some baked French toast and stick it in the fridge overnight so Joe could just pull it out and bake it for me for Mother's Day! Otherwise I'd wind up with cold cereal for breakfast....not very festive. So I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com, made a couple of changes per the reviews for the recipe, and got it all ready. Joe baked it with perfection and it tasted wonderful! It's my favorite new French toast recipe. I bought an extra challah bread loaf so I can make it again soon. YUM!

BLUEBERRY CREAM CHEESE FRENCH TOAST

• 1 loaf of challah bread (Italian or sourdough would be good too)
• 4 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
  
• 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, diced
• 1 cup blueberries (I used frozen and it worked great)
• 8 eggs
  
• 2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Tear the bread into small, bite-size pieces and layer half of the bread chunks on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of cinnamon over the bread and the layer the cream cheese and blueberries on top. Spread the rest of the bread chunks over top and sprinkle with the rest of the cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, syrup and vanilla. Pour this mixture over the bread. Cover with foil and put in the fridge overnight. The next morning, set the casserole on the counter for 30 minutes to get to room temperature. Bake the casserole at 350 for 30 minutes with the foil covering it and then 30 minutes without the foil.

Serve with maple syrup and enjoy!