Toasts!

I was in Los Angeles last week, and my sister Betsy and I ate our way across the city. One thing I noticed was that toasts were absolutely everywhere, on every menu, in a million different forms. And if you don’t know what “a toast” is, you’re about to laugh at the simple description.

A toast is basically a piece of toast with stuff on top. As a foodblogger, I noticed over the past two years or so that avocado toast—a piece of toast with avocado mashed all over the top—has become a thing. And now, toast is, like, soooooo much bigger than avocado toast. There is no end to the possibilities!

Yesterday I made a handful of toast variations—a couple of which I saw along my journey across eating establishments in L.A.—just to show you that the sky’s the limit! Think of toasts as sandwiches without lids, and it’ll open up worlds of fun.

 

Start with…toast! Any kind you want, toasted in the toaster until golden. And use any kind of bread you’d like…

 

 

 

Plain old wheat sandwich bread…

 

 

 

Cinnamon-raisin bread…

 

 

 

Rye bread…

 

 

 

Heck, you can even toast up some bagels!

 

 

 

All of this bread is average, buy-at-the-supermarket bread, but keep in mind that the better the bread you use, the better the toast. If you can score some sourdough or other nice, crisp, crusty toasting bread, even better.

 

 

 

Next, spread stuff on the toast. This is whipped cream cheese on rye toast.

 

 

 

This is Dijon mustard on rye toast.

 

 

 

This is whipped cream cheese with herbs on a toasted bagel.

 

 

 

And ooooh. This is ricotta cheese on regular wheat toast. Now, I’m fairly sure the ricotta on the toast at Superba in L.A. was homemade…but this ain’t.

And I’m okay with that.

 

 

 

This is mayo on rye.

 

 

 

This is crunchy peanut butter on wheat.

 

 

 

And this? This is (forgive me) marshmallow creme on cinnamon-raisin toast.

 

 

 

With a side of Nutella.

I’m sorry!

 

 

 

Now…just put stuff on top! Strawberries are good on the Nutella toast…

 

 

 

And on the toasted bagel with herbed cream cheese, I added some tomato and cucumber…

 

 

 

And some feta and parsley.

 

 

 

Then, just some greens and tomato on the plain cream cheese version. Simple!

 

 

 

And check this one out: Rye toast, mayo, greens…

 

 

 

And a perfect sunny side up egg!

 

 

 

Against my better judgment, I put some banana slices on the peanut butter version…but only because I have children who like bananas.

Otherwise, I never would have gone near a banana. YUCK.

 

 

 

So check this out…

 

 

 

Perfectly scrambled eggs on the Dijon version. Yum.

 

 

 

Chives are growing in my garden, and they’re the perfect adornment.

 

 

 

And oooooh. Cherry preserves on the ricotta toast! Absolutely delicious.

 

 

 

And back to the banana-peanut butter toast…

 

 

 

How about a little honey?

 

 

 

Sriracha (or any hot sauce) is a must for the fried egg…

 

 

 

And have you had toast topped with nothing but mashed avocado?

Then you haven’t lived.

 

 

 

Oh my gosh. What fun!

 

 

 

Perfect for breakfast!

 

 

 

Perfect for everyone but me.

 

 

 

Perfect for breakfast…or lunch!

 

 

 

Perfect for a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.

 

 

 

Perfect for breakfast or a snack!

 

 

 

I put a basil leaf on this one. Perfect for lunch.

 

 

 

And can we just call this one perfect…period?

 

 

 

No specific recipe is needed for this, as it’s just toast and whatever you want to put on top.

 

 

 

But here’s a handy dandy printable, just for kicks.

.recipe-actions {
position: relative;
z-index: 2;
}

#pdf-popover {
background: rgba(255,255,255,.9);
border: 1px solid #efeeed;
color: #6e5c3a;
display: none;
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
right: 20px;
margin: 2px;
padding: 54px 20px 7px 10px;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
width: 380px;
z-index: 10;
}

#pdf-popover form {
margin: 0;
}

#pdf-popover h4 {
background: #b15818;
color: #fff;
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: normal;
left: 3px;
margin: 0;
position: absolute;
padding: 6px 12px;
right: 3px;
top: 3px;
}
#pdf-popover legend {
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 120%;
font-weight: bold;
margin-bottom: 2px;
margin-left: 10px;
text-transform: uppercase;
}
#pdf-popover fieldset {
margin-bottom: 15px;
}
#pdf-popover input[type="checkbox"] {
height: 14px;
margin: 2px 0 10px 10px;
padding-left: 14px;
position: relative;
visibility: visible;
width: 14px;
}

#pdf-popover input[type="checkbox"],
#pdf-popover input[type="radio"] {
margin-left: 10px;
}
#pdf-popover .close {
background: #b15818;
color: #FFFFFF;
cursor: pointer;
height: 35px;
font-size: 16px;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 26px;
position: absolute;
right: 3px;
text-align: center;
top: 3px;
width: 25px;
z-index: 1;
}

#pdf-popover .button {
background-color: #b15818;
border: 0;
color: #fff;
cursor: pointer;
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
margin-left: 10px;
padding: 8px 10px;
text-transform: uppercase;
}







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Recipe
Assorted Toasts

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time:
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 1



Print Recipe

Ingredients
1 piece Toast (wheat, White, Sourdough, Rye, Cinnamon-raisin, Bagel, Etc) Spread Of Your Choice (mayo, Mustard, Ricotta, Honey, Cream Cheese, Herbed Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Nutella, Marshmallow Creme, Sriracha) Topping Of Your Choice (jam, Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumbers, Avocado, Scrambled Eggs, Fried Eggs, Banana Slices, Apple Slices, Strawberries, Etc) Preparation Instructions

Spread and top the toast with whatever combination you'd like! Here are some suggestions:

Mayo + lettuce + tomato + basil leaf

Dijon + scrambled eggs + chives

Ricotta + jam

Whipped cream cheese + lettuce + fried egg + Sriracha

Nutella + strawberries

Nutella + marshmallow creme + sliced strawberries

Peanut butter + banana + honey

Posted by Ree | The Pioneer Woman on April 13 2015