Fancy toast…

I’ve had two words on my mind since Saturday, fancy toast. Fancy toast? One of my friends who has to follow a strict gluten-free diet told me about fancy toast. Toast doesn’t just mean breakfast anymore but can be for snacks, lunch, or dinner. I remember cereal commercials that said something like, “Juice, toast & Trix.” There was always toast included.

When I was a kid and watched cereal commercials, I wondered why they always had orange juice as part of a healthy breakfast. In my experience, orange juice and milk from my cereal tasted like vomit. Kind of drinking orange juice right after brushing your teeth. Bla!

It’s hard to pop in anywhere and find a muffin, scone, or breakfast sandwich when you are gluten-free. It’s equally hard to find something simple and easy like soup and a sandwich for lunch. It’s the same story with dinner. When you have to be gluten-free it gets tiring looking for restaurants or delis that have gluten-free choices. Gluten-free choices that can be trusted are a whole other issue. Luckily, there are a few very good places in the Albany Capital District area in NY.

It’s easier to eat at home when you are tired of always looking for someplace safe to go. Unless we are on the road, we eat three meals a day at home. It’s hard enough to come up with dinner ideas, but figuring out breakfast and lunch dishes as well is exhausting. It’s easy to get caught in a food rut so I was excited to hear about fancy toast.

Fancy toast goes one step further than avocado toast. Avocado toast became mainstream and trendy in the 2010s. When people think of avocado toast, they think of California and hipsters.

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True, Californians and hipsters love their avocado toast, but you can now find it in the most remote, unlikely places. In the beginning, people couldn’t wrap their heads around a piece of toast costing $3 with just some avocado slices, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lime juice. Today, avocado toast costs between $7-10 dollars in some areas!

Avocado toast has run its gamut to many people, and they over this trendy food. Enter fancy toast. Fancy toast isn’t new; it has been around since the mid-2010s but now gaining popularity.

Fancy toast isn’t anything new in England, where they have been eating Welch Rarebit since the 1500s. Welch Rarebit is a piece of toast topped with melted cheese, mustard, and spices. It’s economical, easy to make, and tasty! Today the Brits still love their Welch Rarebit, but their favorite is beans on toast.

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Beans on toast. I loved baked bean sandwiches on white bread when I was a kid, so this sounds delicious to me. They don’t fancy up their beans; they pour them right from the can over their toast. I would still be in on this one as well, plus the Welch Rarebit. Yum!

Now being gluten-free, we can’t have our fancy toast on gorgeous slices of sourdough bread, crusty peasant bread, or crispy baguettes. We have to have our fancy toast on the best gluten-free bread we can find. Most toasted gluten-free bread tastes and holds up better than untoasted bread anyway. We have found the companies Schar and Trader Joe’s bread the best.

My friend shared with me what they made that week for fancy bread. She showed me pictures from Instagram #toasts for all. The photos were gorgeous, with so many fantastic ideas. I also looked at #fancytoast and found more. Marty went on YouTube and found endless fancy toast videos.

What I am most excited about the new fancy toast idea is you can be as creative as you wish with endless possibilities. All you need to do is look in your refrigerator and pantry.

My friend found lots of fancy toast components in Trader Joe’s. She bought different fruits and vegetables than she usually buys. Then looked in the cheese section for anything spreadable or meltable. There are plenty of sauces, jams, pestos, and hummus to choose from as well.

We will be making a trip to the Albany area on Tuesday, another delivery day. By then, I will have a list of items to pick up at Trader Joe’s for our fancy toast. I want to pick three sweet and three savory ideas whose ingredients can be reused and recreated for at least six other toasts. The beauty of the elements is that they aren’t raw meats that must be defrosted or purchased for a meal idea.

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I have saved many fancy toast ideas to inspire me since I am new to the toast scene. I thought I would share them with all of you too. Many of the ingredients we already have in our fridges and pantries, we are one step from a new idea for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

For the folks that are watching their carbs, there is plenty of low-carb bread to choose from and sweet potato toast. Sweet potato toast! Who knew? Well, I did when I was watching my carbs, which turned out to be a bust, but that’s an old blog post.

Sweet potato toast is a thick slice of raw sweet potato that is lightly coated in oil and then baked until crispy. I made it once, and it was terrific. It’s a lot more work than toasting a slice of bread, but the idea and recipes are out there if anyone wants to give it a go.

Now it’s time to put on my thinking cap and decide what first types of fancy toast I will be making. Of course, I will share them with you and let you know what I think. Tomorrow I am making a batch of hummus to have on hand. I am also going to Aldis for groceries and start my fancy toast hunt.