Breakfast Casserole

I get stuck in breakfast ruts with egg muffins or breakfast burritos or savory oatmeal. I don't try to break out of these ruts because the thing is that I am totally fine with eating the same thing for breakfast most of the time. I'm not sure what made me get a wild hair up my ass to try this breakfast casserole, but I did.

Honestly? I would probably not put this into my regular rotation for my weekday breakfasts - it makes a lot, and while I could scale it down, I'd rather not. It's also a little too much work for me for a standard weekday breakfast. This is a great option for brunch or holidays or a weekend with friends when you don't want to be a short order cook. It's hearty and delicious.

Ingredients
1 lb bacon, chopped, cooked, drained
1 small onion, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
4 green onions, chopped
20 oz bag of Simply Potatoes shredded hashbrowns - I used southwest
8 oz shredded cheese
9 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk


Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Spray the bottom of a 13x9 pan with cooking spray, arrange potatoes in a thin later on the bottom, and bake them off for about 10 minutes.

Cook bacon and drain (see my grease trick below). Add onion and pepper to the pan and saute for about five minutes.

Beat eggs and milk together, and add salt & pepper to taste.

Remove potatoes from oven. Layer cheese, bacon, green onions. Pour eggs mixture over. Top with the remaining cheese and green onions.

Cook for about 40 minutes, then hit it with the broiler for an additional five.

Line a bowl with tin foil, place strainer over it, and drain bacon into the bowl.
Much easier cleanup when the bacon grease hardens. 

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Haikuesday

An ode to bacon:

Savory love, sweet heaven.

Pigs would not agree. 

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...the moment your sandwich has an egg, boom, it's a breakfast sandwich.

Anyone recognize that title from The Fault in our Stars by John Green? Anyone? Bueller? A marriage of two of my favorite things: recipes and books. Excuse me while I have a moment.

For those of you who like to do food prep and make ahead meals, these are for you. I made 18 of these bad boys last week and froze them. They're also good to make for company so you're not being head chef while entertaining for breakfast or brunch.

Ingredients

6 large eggs
salt & pepper
Cooked ham from the deli, probably about 1/4 pound (any other thinly sliced meat will do)
Cooper sharp cheese from the deli, probably about 1/4 pound (any other sliced cheese will do)
Multi-grain english muffins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease the heck out of standard muffin tins or individual ceramic ramekins. Crack egg into each. Top with salt and pepper.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, turning pan halfway through to ensure even cooking. If you are making a bunch of these, it is still best to bake your eggs in batches of six. When I tried to do 12, it took forever and a day to get them to set, so ignore the photo where you see more than six. When I did six, it took 13 minutes and they were perfect. Chalk it up as a mystery of the universe.

Remove from oven and let sit for 30 minutes.

Split english muffins. Layer ham, cheese, egg, and another piece of cheese. The eggs are going to be a little smaller than the rest of the sandwich. Anticipate this, relax, and let that shit go, homie. They're still good. I promise.

Press down and serve, or press down, wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze. When you're ready to eat them, remove from freezer, remove plastic wrap, wrap in paper towel, and microwave for 45 seconds. Flip and microwave another 45 seconds to 1 minute. It might be a little wet. Don't freak out. Just dry it off with a paper towel and let it sit for 30 seconds before you start eating it.

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Haikuesday

No worry morning - 

think hakuna matata - 

starts with these sammies.

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Do you have a favorite make ahead breakfast?

Last day to enter to win $50 to the non-profit charity of your choice! Click here. 

Breakfast Burritos

They're super simple and customizable.

Ingredients
15 eggs
Whatever you use to flavor eggs - I use garlic powder, onion salt, & dry mustard
1 pound pork sausage or ground meat of choice 
2 small or 1 large can diced green chiles
Finely shredded cheese 
burrito size tortillas (two packs of eight, I typically get 12-14 burritos out of this depending on how heavy handed I am in filling them)

Instructions
Brown meat  until cooked through. Drain and set aside. do not clean pan, use it for eggs. 

Beat eggs well. Pour into greased, warm non-stick pan and add spices. Scramble, adding diced green chiles about halfway through. When eggs have reached desired consistency, set aside to cool.

Lay tortillas out on clean surface. Lay down a little cheese, top with some egg, add some sausage, bam. Roll up into a burrito and secure in wrap.

Continue until the egg mixture is gone.

Stack wrapped burritos in a gallon-size freezer bag and freeze. To prepare, unwrap burrito and place on microwave safe plate with the folded side down. Heat in microwave for 30-45 seconds, flip over, and heat for another 30-45 seconds.

Sometimes I look at my calendar and see very little time for food prep. So I need to make adjustments. One of those adjustments is using a weekend where I have more time to do some make ahead meals I can freeze. For breakfast, my favorite freezable option is the breakfast burrito.

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Haikuesday

Eggs are a good start.
So is winning the lotto.
Eggs...a better bet.

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So you say you want more veggies? Spinach muffins

Hey ohhh. Happy Saturday. One of my Choose Your Own Adventure Goals for this month is to try all new recipes in categories like breakfast, soup, appetizer, main dish, side dish, and dessert. Another one of my goals is to add more veggies to my diet. These spinach muffins kill two birds with one stone. Thanks to my friend AEB for sharing the recipe with me - she's also responsible for the zucchini pie I make!

This recipe is from The Green Forks with few alterations.

Ingredients
1 cup  flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup flax seed
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
¾ cup milk
1 (6 ounce) bag fresh baby spinach
2 mashed bananas - I used some out of the freezer

1-2 tbs applesauce 
2 tsp  vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F and line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. I only got 16 muffins out of these because I filled mine a little high.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl: both flours, flax seed, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

Using a food processor, process spinach until you get some room in there. Add oil and milk and process  until completely puréed. Add banana, applesauce, and vanilla; process just to mix.

Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and fold together with a rubber spatula until completely combined.

Fill muffin cups about ⅔ full and bake 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

When they cooled, I flash froze them in the pan then stored them in a ziploc in the freezer. All set to go for this week's breakfasts!

 

Vote. And eat eggs. Those are the messages for today.

It's voting day in many states today. You bet your sweet ass I am at the polls every election day - major, minor, mid-year, primary. If your state votes today, be at the polls. Many people have fought for your right to vote. Don't squander it. And if you don't vote, never ever complain about anything in this country. Ever again.

Now then. Eggs.

Most of my days start with them. I need protein in the morning or I am a major asshole by 11 a.m. My go to breakfast is eggs because they're easy to make, easy to transport, and they reheat well in the microwave at work. They're an integral part of my weekly food prep.

Sometimes I scramble them with cheese and veggies, sometimes I make egg salad, but most often I make egg muffins. I use a Pampered Chef brownie pan to do this, but a regular cupcake pan is fine. The magic of these muffin eggs is that you can put whatever you want in them. I've used ground turkey taco meat, tomatoes, cheese of all kinds, broccoli, mushrooms, ham - they hold it all. This week I used breakfast sausage and cheese.

Ingredients
Yields 12 muffins
11 eggs
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs milk or cream
1 pound breakfast sausage, browned (you will only use half)
Cheese - I used gouda

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.

Cut cheese into pieces - I usually put three small pieces in each muffin slot. You can add more or less.

Brown sausage. Drain and allow to cool, then add to muffin slots by the tablespoon, about a tablespoon and a half in each. I eyeball it.

Beat eggs with spices and milk. Make it easy on yourself and do this in a large measuring cup that has a spout so it's easy to pour.

Pour eggs over your sausage and cheese add-ins.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Easy peasy protein yeezy. Pack those sumbitches up and you have breakfast made for the week.

I froze the other half of the cooked breakfast sausage. BOOM. Already one step ahead for next time.

Haikuesday:

Chicken or the egg?

"It's an important question,"

Said no one ever.

What's your go-to breakfast?

Linking up with Blissfully Miller and Let's Get Bananas for

the weekend getaway that was

Diary of a mad hausfrau: MFD had a listing appointment so I was able to change the sheets, clean both baths and the kitchen, put laundry away, empty the dishwasher, sort the mail and vacuum the entire house. I love coming home from a weekend away to a clean abode. As you can see above, los perros were anxious to leave so as soon as MFD got home on Friday we were gone with the wind.

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We hit bad weather and had a bit of a harrowing drive, finally arriving at Lori & Jack's close to 11.

The dogs were ecstatic, and we were happy to have a weekend of relaxing ahead of us.

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Geege was up most of the night. He was too excited to sleep. 

We were up for good early on Saturday, which required a lot of coffee.

I didn't mind being up early since it was Lori's birthday and we had a lot to get in!

Excuse the schizophrenic photo frames in this post. 

Variety is the spice of life? Yes. That's the ticket. 

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A damp but invigorating walk in the woods. Lots of dogs scampering and fall foliage.

My boys were on the go with Max, Lori's youngest puppy.

Check out Darby, who's blind and will be 15 in December. She was out there

trucking along over the river and through the woods with the rest of the pack. Miracle dog!

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A quick jaunt into LeRaysville to The Cheese Factory.

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The LeRaysville Market. I'd never been there and was bowled over by their selection and prices.

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A stop at the Dandy is a must. I love the coffeepots. 

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Enjoying the great outdoors

Excuse my fuzzy deer

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I was showered and in my pajamas by 2 pm. It was fabulous. We feasted on a snack food spread,  watched a bunch of college football and had a blissful doze.

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Steaks on the grill, twice baked stuffed potatoes, steamed broccoli, red wine and cake from The Flying Cow Bakery. Happy birthday Lori!

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Dates from Hell on ID Channel

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I'd like to have coffee like this every day.

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Sunny Sunday woods walk

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One of Jack's big breakfasts. 

True fact: I only eat pancakes at Lori & Jack's.

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A seamless two hour and 45 minute ride home with some very tired dogs and some 

glorious fall foliage views. And of course the requisite MFD photo in Meshoppen.

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Enchiladas for dinner. Ole!

I sauteed some chicken and onions, added a bit of sour cream, enchilada sauce, 

cumin, garlic powder and some Tastefully Simple fiesta mix. 

I plopped some of that in the middle of whole wheat tortillas, grated some cheese on top, poured

enchilada sauce over them, added some more grated cheese on top, and baked at 400 for 20 minutes.

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Sunday soup: tomato, basil & cheddar

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TV: Revenge, Hart of Dixie, Vampire Diaries

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the weekend that was

What a wonderful weekend. I love going to Lori & Jack's, and it was even better this time because it was Lori's birthday and I got to spend it with her. I was so relaxed that I couldn't even bring myself to do the mountain of laundry that's currently in the basement. 

Toodleoo, tootsies. Happy Monday.

I'm linking up with Sami's Shenanigans, Five30Three, and Join the Gossip for the weekend update - check them out!