Breakfast Casserole

I love breakfast casserole. I love that it's all-in-one, like an omelette and toast mixed together. I love that you can put it together right before you bake it, or you can also put it together the night before and stick it in the fridge to bake in the morning. I love that it's portable. And I especially love that it's delicious. What I never did love is having to make an entire 9x13 pan of the stuff. It doesn't reheat well as leftovers, and 2-3 people are not going to be able to eat the entire thing in one sitting.

So I did a little experimenting and came up with this recipe that can be made in an 8x8 square pan. I call it a recipe, but really there aren't many measurements. You don't have to be exactly precise when it comes to breakfast casseroles. They're hard to mess up.

Use your imagination when it comes to ingredients: use what you like. I usually use some sort of meat, either 4-6 strips of bacon chopped up, or 1/2lb of some sort of sausage, like a pork or turkey breakfast sausage, chorizo, longaniza, etc. Just make sure you cook and drain and cool the sausage before you add it to the mix. My casseroles usually contain whatever veggie bits and pieces I have leftover in the fridge from the previous week.



A couple ideas: The casserole in the first picture was pork breakfast sausage, mushrooms, onions, broccoli, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and mozzarella cheese. The one in the 2nd picture is longaniza sausage, grape tomatoes, chives, artichoke hearts, mixed bell pepper strips, sliced jalapeno, and cheddar cheese.

Whatever you like in an omelette, put it in the casserole!

Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1c. milk
any fresh herbs you would like to add (chives, basil, thyme, tarragon, oregano, etc)
salt and pepper to taste
3-4 slices crusty day-old bread (I prefer italian or sourdough, but if you use soft sandwich type bread, let it sit out overnight to get crusty. If the slices are thin, add an extra slice or two)
1c. shredded cheese
1/2 lb (or 6 slices) whatever type of meat you prefer, cooked, drained and cooled (if sausage or bacon, brown/fry in a pan, if ham buy cooked deli ham)
about 1c. whatever types of veggies you want to add to the mix, chopped (this is NOT an exact measurement, add as much or as little as you like)

Directions:

Whisk the eggs and milk together in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add any fresh herbs you plan on using. Cut the bread into cubes and add to the bowl. Stir in the shredded cheese, the cooled meat (if using), and all the veggies.

Butter or spray with nonstick spray a 8x8 casserole. Transfer the contents of the bowl to the pan and either cover and refrigerate overnight or pop straight into a 350 degree oven, uncovered, for approximately 20-30 minutes. Start watching the casserole at about the 20 minute mark in case you need to pull it out early, as it is done when the top is starting to brown and the center no longer seems wet.

If you opt to refrigerate it overnight, take it out of the fridge and place it on the counter for about half an hour to take some of the chill off before you bake it.

Cut into wedges and enjoy!