Jill’s simple tip makes french toast easy and quick enough for weekday mornings:

Occasionally on a weekend, we’ll make a whole loaf of french toast, then freeze it. During the week, we just snap off a frozen slice and put it in the toaster. Egg and whole grain bread right there. If you add vanilla to the egg mixture you get a sweet flavor without having to add syrup.

YUM. Warm and comforting on a chilly morning. It’s even portable without the syrup.

To simplify this hack further:

If your kids love that maple-y taste but you don’t want to deal with sticky fingers in the morning, add the syrup to the egg mixture.

Much faster to make large batches of french toast in the oven. Good Housekeeping’s baked french toast recipe is a good place to start. The picture above was my solution to a stale baguette and the result was delicious. (I know, the French invented the concept.)

If you bake your french toast, your finished toast is already sitting on a lined cookie sheet. Let the pan cool on a rack, then pop it into the freezer. (I slide mine right on top of food that’s already in there.) After a short time the toast will be frozen enough to transfer a Ziploc freezer bag for longer-term storage, and the pieces will stay separate and easy to grab.

Now I’m hungry.

What’s your best warm weekday breakfast shortcut? For the kids or for yourself?

Leave a comment, or post on Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag #parenthacks.

I’m in Parent Hacks book research mode: a deep dive in the archives looking for gems among nine years’ worth of hacks. Many of the best ideas are hidden in the comments. This tip — left here in 2006! — is one example. — Asha