Eggggg-xactly

When I woke up too late to make it to church on Sunday, I wasn't sad at all.  I've face multiple nights of insufficient rest, and I was glad to see 9:46 on my clock.   The problem (for some) was that I also slept too late to make breakfast.  Luckily, my children found a few donuts left over from the day before to snack on.  (which may have been part of the reason I got to sleep longer, come to think of it.)  I was ready for a hardy meal, and knew exactly what I wanted.  Breakfast Casserole. I ran through the recipe in my head, and I knew that I had all of the ingredients.  I be-bopped my bleary eyed self in to the kitchen to mix it up, and was disappointed to find that the sausage was frozen.  "No problem," I thought, "I will de-frost it in the microwave." OR NOT. There are little metal clippies on the ends of breakfast sausage to hold the meat in securely.  Metal bits should not be microwaved.  (Enter Husband) 
"Stink." I say.  "What?" he says. "Frozen," I say. "I'll be back," he says.  "Thanks," I say.  It is handy to have a grocery store less than a mile from my house in times like these.  I am thankful.  Husband returned quickly (because he was hungry) and I started frying sausage. 
Then my stomach turned. "UGH. Gross," I say.  "What?" he says.  "Smell," I say. "Ew." he says. "That's bad." we agree.  --back to the store he goes.
Now that its 11am, I decide this should be Brunch Casserole.  The second third pound of sausage fried up beautifully and I created this happy dish of deliciousness for my family.   My daughter even said it was one of the best things I have ever made.   Go make it. -and don't worry about whether you will know if the sausage is good or not, you will know.  If the smell makes you feel pukey, don't eat it.  -that's a good rule to live by, in my estimation.

 

Breakfast Casserole

What you'll need: medium skillet, mixing bowl, fork (or whisk), 9x13 casserole dish, 375 oven

6 large eggs
1 pound mild breakfast sausage
1 Cup milk
10 slices of bread
2 Cups shredded cheddar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry ground mustard

In a mixing bowl, beat the 6 eggs. Add milk and cheddar and stir around to distribute evenly.  Cut the bread slices into small pieces ( I cut like this #) drop them in the egg mixture and stir to coat.  Let them rest in there while you fry up the sausage.  In a medium sized skillet, over medium high heat, fry the sausage breaking it up pretty fine and stirring every few minutes. When it is all brown (8-10 minutes) rinse it in cold water and drain all of the grease off. You may have to do this twice. -and it will cool the sausage down so that it doesn't cook your eggs when you add it to the mixture that's soaking over in the mixing bowl.  I like to add my seasoning to the sausage at this point, I don't know that it matters, as long as you get salt, pepper and mustard all in the mix.  Spray your casserole dish with non-stick spray and transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to the casserole dish and bake it 45 minutes in your 375 oven.

**variation: if you do not like sausage, you can replace the sausage portion with 2 Cups of spinach and 2 tablespoons of basil.  I like this option, but the carnivores in my house are not so moved by it.

** yes, you can make this the night before. However, if you keep it in your fridge over night, it will take a lot longer to bake.  I suggest frying the sausage the night before, and mixing up the rest when you are ready to bake it. The mixing up part only takes a few minutes anyway