Peaches and Cream Croissant Bread Pudding and Visiting the Zoo

Oklahoma City Zoo Visit

Welcome to June; it's by birthday month! There’s always something interesting for me this month because we celebrate both my birthday and our wedding anniversary. June is normally a great month where we live. Summer has begun but it’s not really too hot and humid yet. I know summer doesn't officially start until later in the month but I think summer starts when it feels like summer.

I love to get out with my family this time of year. Recently, we took our son to the Oklahoma City Zoo. We had a great time last year and we had a wonderful time this year. This year our son was older and was able to enjoy the animals more. We were also lucky enough to choose a day that wasn't too hot. 

Our Son at the Zoo

The zoo was pretty busy that day. We unknowingly planned our visit on the same day as a big fundraising breakfast. Even with all of the extra people our son had a great time. 

At the Zoo Playground

Even though he enjoyed all of the animals, I think his favorite part was the little playground that he could run around in. 

Feeding Fish at the Zoo

Our son got to feed fish for the first time ever. He thought that was really cool. He loved watching the fish converge on the pellets I'd purchased from a little machine. 

Zoo Explorer

The Oklahoma City Zoo has a promotion going on right now called 110 Ways to Zoo It. If you live in the area you can go to this page and print a Zoo Explorer for you child to color and take a picture with at the zoo. You can also enter their contest to win a prize. 

Won a Zoo Ball

Our little explorer won this Zoo Ball from the Oklahoma City Zoo! Isn't it cool! Thanks, OKC Zoo! We'll be back soon!

After all of that traveling around the zoo my guys wanted a sweet treat. I made them one of my summery favorites. 

Peaches and Cream Croissant Bread Pudding

My second favorite desert on earth is bread pudding (my absolute favorite being tiramisu). I think it's normally considered a winter or fall type of desert. I’ve had plenty of traditional bread pudding, but I think it’s fun to make variations. Peaches are one of my favorite summer fruits and this Peaches and Cream Croissant Bread Pudding has a summery flavor. So, this is my summer bread pudding recipe and I'm happy to share it with you.   In my recipe below, I used frozen peaches, but later this summer I’ll make this recipe again using overripe Porter Peaches from near my home town.

Peaches and Cream Croissant Bread Pudding

Panera Croissants

Peaches and Cream Croissant Bread Pudding

Ingredients

3 large croissants (I picked up mine at Panera)
1 cup fresh or frozen peaches (I used Frozen)
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray your cooking dish with cooking spray.
3. Cut up the croissants and place in the prepared cooking dish. Mix in the peaches.
4. In a bowl mix together the cream cheese, milk, sugar, eggs and vanilla. I like mine to have little lumps of cream cheese so I mix it by hand. If you don’t like lumps mix this with an electric mixer.
5. Pour mixture evenly over croissant pieces and peaches. At this point I used my hands to mix it all together to make sure my cream cheese was evenly distributed with the bread and peaches.
6. Let stand 20 minutes.
7. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes or until set in center and golden brown.

Peaches and Cream Croissant Bread Pudding

8. Enjoy! You can serve this warm plain or with Cool Whip or ice cream.

I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful summer for all of us! 
What are some of your favorite summer treats?