Sausage and Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole

Sausage and Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 lb breakfast sausage
• 2 cups of frozen hashbrowns
• 8 large eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of cheese
• chopped green onion
• oil
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

1. Cook hash browns- Place the hash browns into a baking dish with a little bit of oil  and seasoning salt and broil in the oven until crispy.
2. Brown the sausage until no longer pink and drain.  
3. Mix eggs, milk, cheese and green onion together in a mixing bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 
4. Combine hash browns and sausage in the baking dish.
5. Pour egg mixture evenly over.
6. Bake in oven at 325 for 40-50 minutes  

Sausage Biscuit and Gravy Breakfast Casserole

Sausage Biscuit and Gravy Overnight Breakfast Casserole

6 frozen biscuits
1 (12 ounce) package ground sausage (I used a full pound and it was a little too sausagey)
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided use
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups milk
1 package country gravy mix
3 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Bake frozen biscuits according to instructions on package. Cool slightly. Cut across center to create top and bottom. Set aside.
2. Brown crumbled sausage in skillet over medium heat. Drain.
3. Layer biscuit bottom halves in 11 x 8-inch baking dish that has been lightly coated with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Sprinkle sausage over biscuits. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of the cheese over top of sausage.
5. Whisk eggs, milk and gravy mix. Pour over cheese. Layer biscuit tops browned side up.
6. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
7. Bake uncovered at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes, sprinkle with remaining cheese and return to the oven for 5 minutes or until a knife is clean when removed. Drizzle butter over biscuits. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

PB Banana Smoothie

What should you do when your bananas start to turn brown and you know that no one is going to eat them?  Stick them in the freezer because they taste so yummy in this smoothie recipe!  You'll want to avoid the ones that are too brown or have been in the freezer for too long.  

Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie 

2 frozen banana, cut into chunks
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup milk

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Serves 2 

Egg Muffins

Egg Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
(recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from The South Beach Diet book)

15 eggs (for silicone muffin pans, use 12 eggs for metal muffin tins or individual silicone cups. You can use less egg yolks and more egg white if you prefer.)
1-2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (I made mine without and they still tasted yummy)
1-2 cups grated low fat cheese
Optional, but highly recommended, 3 green onions diced small.
Optional: chopped veggies such as blanched broccoli, red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, etc. (Using veggies will reduce the fat content)
Optional: diced Canadian bacon, lean ham, or crumbled cooked turkey sausage

Preheat oven to 375 F. Use regular or silicone muffin pan, 12 muffin size. If using silicone pan, spray with nonstick spray. If using regular muffin pan, put two paper liners into each slot, then spray liner with nonstick spray.

In the bottom of the muffin cups layer diced meat, if using, vegetables, if using, cheese and green onions. You want the muffin cups to be about 2/3 full, with just enough room to pour a little egg around the other ingredients. Break eggs into large measuring bowl with pour spout, add Spike, and beat well. (I used to add a bit of half and half or milk, but lately I like the way they turn out without it.) Pour egg into each muffin cup until it is 3/4 full. I like to stir slightly with a fork. Bake 25-35 minutes until muffins have risen and are slightly browned and set.

Muffins will keep at least a week in the refrigerator without freezing. Egg muffins can be frozen and reheated. For best results, thaw in refrigerator before reheating. Microwave on high about 2 minutes to reheat.

I used some leftover ham cut up into small chunks.  The salt from the ham  and the cheese added plenty of flavor without needing to add any additional seasoning.  Between Brett and I we had a hard time leaving any for leftovers.  But we saved a few and they worked great!

Mini Monkey Bread

This Monkey Bread Recipe comes from  from Ryan via The Pioneer Woman.  I reduced the recipe  by about 1/3 and made them in a muffin pan instead of a bundt pan.  It yielded 12 "muffins."

3 cans Buttermilk biscuits (not the flakey kind)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 sticks butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.
3. Next, combine the white sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. 3 will be really cinnamon-y. Dump this mix and the biscuits into a gallon size zip lock back and shake it up really well.
4. Drop all of the biscuit quarters into a bundt pan (or muffin cups).
5. Melt the butter with the brown sugar in a sauce pan over medium-high heat until combined. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, pour it over the biscuits. 
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes (or 20 minutes for the muffin cup ones) until the crust is deep brown on the top.

I should now say that you should let it cool for about 15-30 minutes, but that’s practically impossible. Just tear you off a piece, blow on it for a minute and stick it in your mouth.

Oh man, it’s good.

These were easy to make, and super yummy!  As I said above, I only used 2 cans and it filled 12 regular muffin cups with about 6-8 in each cup. 

Homemade Granola

There are lots of way to do homemade granola.  This is the recipe I typically follow.  You can adjust it easy to meet your need/preferences.  It makes a lot and we love having it around for a quick snack or to throw into yogurt or ice cream. 

Ingredients:

-6 C Quick Cooking Oats

-1/4 C Flour

-1/2 T  Cinnamon

-1/4 t Nutmeg

-3 C Random dry ingredients (raisins, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, small chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, dried banana chips, rice crispy puffs)

-1/2 C Vegetable Oil

-1/2 C Honey

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients but oil and honey. Mix oil and honey and microwave until hot. Pour oil and honey mixture over dry ingredients and mix well. Spread mix over 2 baking sheets and bake until lightly golden brown on top (appx 20 min, stir and cook for longer if necessary).   Let cool, then break up into chunks.

Oatmeal

I love oatmeal.  When the weather starts to turn cold my breakfast routine changes a little.  It is hard to get out of bed in the morning when it is dark and nasty outside.  I'm often a little slower to get moving and make up the time in the kitchen.  It is so easy to stick some oatmeal in the microwave and continue getting ready.  I buy the large containers of plain oatmeal and then eye-ball the measurements when I make it.

Oatmeal
Water
Brown sugar

That is all.  Combine water and oatmeal and stick in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Stir in Brown sugar and some milk if it is too thick.

I usually add some brown sugar to sweeten it, but other options include: flavored coffee creamer, fruit like frozen blueberries or some sliced peaches, honey, nuts, yogurt, syrup, jam.  The possibilities are endless. 

This is a great breakfast when you are rushed for time but want something that will warm you up and stick with you past 10 am (read: cold cereal).

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Burritos

This easy recipe is good for breakfast or lunch and can be adjusted to personal preference and serving size.

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Burritos

1. Cook hash-browns in a large skillet. 
2. Add a few eggs and scramble them into the hash-browns.
3. Add meat- either left over bacon or ham or we usually just cut up some lunch meat ham and toss it in.
4. Top with some shredded cheese.
5. Wrap it up in a taco shell and enjoy.

Variations:

• Leave out the meat and add salsa on top.  
• If you don't have hash-browns just make scrambled eggs and add toppings. 
• Add any other variety of ingredients that you have around and sound good (ie: onions, peppers, etc)