Easy Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Y'all, I have been a royal mess lately.  I won't go into too many details right now, but my schedule for the past 2 weeks has not made it easy to prepare any homemade meals.  And I LOVE to cook!  It's been a real drag not being able to spend any creative and fun time in the kitchen. 

So I took advantage of the 3 day weekend and made time and planned ahead to make us a brunch casserole.  It was super easy and very tasty!  Hubby liked it, so that makes it a keeper recipe and to me... blog worthy so I can have it for future reference!

This is most likely 1 of probably 1000 recipes like it... but this is what I did today.  I even tried to measure some to help make it recipe worthy in case anyone wants to try it!

This recipe would be a great option when hosting out of town guests, brunch, and for the holidays!

Easy Sausage Breakfast Casserole

6 servings

Ingredients

6 eggs

1 package tube of Turkey Sausage

1 cup milk (minimum 2%)

1 cup shredded cheese of choice (I used a blend flavor)

1/2 cup shredded cheese 

4 slices of whole wheat bread (or whatever bread you have on hand)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp pepper

(These ingredients fit perfectly into a 2L or 11x7 rectangle baking dish)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Brown your turkey sausage over medium heat and then drain if needed.  I used Jenny O brand and rarely have I needed to drain this very lean sausage.

While your turkey is browning, 

Cut 4 slices of bread into cubes.  

Add the eggs and milk into a large mixing bowl.  

Whisk the eggs until frothy then add the garlic powder, pepper, the bread cubes and then the 1 cup of shredded cheese.  Gently mix to cover the bread cubes with the egg mixture.   

Let that soak while the sausage finishes browning, then add the sausage to the full egg mixture and gently blend.

Add everything to a greased (I used cooking spray) glass 11x7 baking dish.  

Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.  

Remove from oven and top with remaining 1/2  cup or less of shredded cheese and put back in the oven for 5 more minutes. 

(knife will come out cleanish, when testing.  The cheese will coat the knife)

Let stand for a few minutes to cool then serve.

  

Enjoy!

Enjoy and please don't forget to let me know you made it and any alterations you have made.  It's always fun to make recipes "your own"!

Win-Win Lasagna - Tracy Style

This recipe really is win-win for lasagna!  I mean it's lasagna!  So there's the first win.  The 2nd win goes to the low carb half!

Yummy goodness!

Lasagna was planned for the weekend, but I never got around to making it.  So here we are Monday at 5pm, just walked in the door from my lovely commute, and started supper.

Have you ever noticed that when you are cooking something that needs some serious multi tasking, that the phone rings?  It was my brother!  I rarely get to talk to him and I wanted to but I had 2 strikes against me.  1st strike: my battery on the cell phone was at 2%, so it was a waste to try to answer.  2nd strike:  I was right at that crucial moment of the lasagna assembly.  The crucial moment where you grate the side of your hand along with your mozzarella.  OWIE!!

Well, I guess I needed something to give me a 2nd wind.. Nothing like pain to do it.

I must note, that I really don't know how to assemble lasagna, so I guessed.  I also didn't have the time to google a "how to", so here's to winging it.  It was "delicious" as honey said.

Win-Win Lasagna
Ingredients
1 lb ground meat (I used organic ground chicken) crmbled and cooked - seasoned with Italian seasoning, one garlic clove, and about 1/2 cup of marinara sauce
3 cooked lasagna noodles
1 zucchini (organic zucchini is amazing... just sayin') sliced
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 egg (beaten)
grated parmesan and romano cheese
block of mozzarella cheese to shred (maybe 2 cups?)
1/2 red onion coarsely chopped
1 jar of marinara sauce (I used Walmart's Wild Oats organic)
Italian seasoning
1 large garlic clove

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Assembly:
Put about 3/4 cup of the marinara on the bottom of a glass baking dish to keep the pasta from sticking.
Cut cooked lasagna noodles in half horizontally.  Then cut one of the noodle halves in half lengthwise.  Place 2 of the halved lasagna noodles on the sauce and then 1 of the lengthwise cuts next to them.  On the other side, put half of your zucchini to sub for noodles.  See below.

Top with meat crumbles and 1/4 of the chopped red onion.

Top that with the ricotta blend (1 1/2 cups ricotta, 1 egg (beaten) and italian seasoning blend.

Top with a bit of sauce and some shredded mozzarella.

Do another layer of pasta and zucchini

Top with meat crumbles and the rest of the chopped red onion

Sprinkle some grated parmesan and romano cheese and sauce.

Final topping is the rest of the shredded mozzarella cheese!

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and brown cheese for 10 minutes.

Let stand for 10 minutes or so...

Low carb half

Enjoy the yummy goodness!

Any recipe requests?