Breakfast Casserole

This past week my in-laws were in town visiting. For their visit, I pulled out my trusty breakfast casserole recipe. It’s a great recipe to prepare when you have guests – it’s a crowd pleaser and fail-proof. It’s a meal you prepare the night before and throw in the oven the next day. It’s about as easy as easy can get. In my family, we usually pull this recipe out for Christmas morning; that way, no one is stuck in the kitchen cooking when presents are being opened.

The original recipe I have is rather….ahem… Midwestern. The recipe calls for “white bread,” “whole milk,” “crumbled pork sausage,” and other not necessarily healthy ingredients. I mean, that’s great if after breakfast you are going to rototiller the fields or guide a herd of cattle somewhere, but let’s get real. The most taxing thing on my agenda is usually working an office job, attending a class lecture, or pushing women out of the sale section at Banana Republic so I can have free reign. That being said, I figured it was time to add my own touch to the recipe. It turned out very well and proved that YES! you can have vegetables in the morning.

Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients

10 eggs

3/4 C egg whites

3/4 of a loaf of french bread, torn into pieces (if stale, even better)

12 oz cheese (I used low fat shredded cheese)

1 lb crumbled sausage (I used the prepared turkey sausage by Jimmy Dean)

2 bunches of spinach, sauteed

1 C mushrooms, sauteed

1 C onions, sauteed

1 tsp dry mustard

Salt & Pepper

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 1/2 C lowfat/fat free milk

Preparation

The day or evening before.

Saute your spinach in a large skillet until nice and wilted about 6-9 minutes. Remove to a plate and allow to cool. In the same skillet, saute the mushrooms and onion for about 5 minutes. Once finished, also set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, mix together eggs, egg whites, 2 cups of the milk, salt & pepper, and dry mustard together. Set aside.

In a 10×13 dish, tear bread into piece. Take sausage crumbles and sprinkle over bread. Add cheese, then spinach, mushrooms and onion. Pour egg mixture over that. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit in fridge overnight.

The morning of.

Preheat oven to 350. Unwrap casserole. Mix can of soup and remaining milk together in a small bowl. Pour over casserole and use two knives to cut into the dish (do not stir in the soup).

Put into oven and bake for 70 minutes. Remove, allow to cool for about 5 minutes and serve with fruit.