Breakfast

Ingredients

• 1 pounds breakfast sausage, casings removed
• 1 tablespoon cooking fat (like coconut oil)
• 1 acorn squash, cut in half and seeds removed
• ¹⁄₂ yellow onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 eggs

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375*F.  Place acorn squash cut side down on foil-lined baking sheet.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until squash is tender.  Remove from oven and cool.  
2. While squash is cooking, heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and onion and cook, stirring often, until onions are translucent.  Add sausage and cook, breaking apart with spoon as it cooks.  
3. Once sausage is cooked through, reduce heat to low.  Carefully scoop out flesh of acorn squash and add to skillet.  (If you want to, you can use the squash shells for serving.)  
4. Mix squash and sausage mixture together.  
5. In a small skillet, fry eggs in desired manner then serve squash mixture topped with a fried egg.  

Comments

This recipe is from PaleOMG and it was very tasty!  The squash and sausage were tasty together and the fried egg on top was delicious as well.  This would make a great breakfast dish, but I served it for dinner.

Ingredients
1 pound short pasta (I used shells.)
3 cups evaporated milk
2 bunches green onions, chopped
4 eggs
8 ounces deli ham, chopped
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
¹⁄₂ teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon seasoned salt, such as adobo
1 clove garlic, minced
¹⁄₄ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried parsley

Instructions
1.Bring large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta 2 minutes less than package directs.  Drain.  Heat oven to 350*F. 

2. In a large bowl, mix together evaporated milk, green onion, eggs, ham, half cheddar cheese, mustard powder, seasoned salt, garlic, and pepper.  Stir well then add pasta and stir to coat.

3. Pour mixture into baking dish and top with remaining cheese.  Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until top is bubbly and brown. 

Photo

Comments
This recipe is from my favorite Kayotic Kitchen.  I’ve made other breakfast casserole type things before, but they’ve always had bread or potatoes as the carb base.  The use of pasta in this dish is really exciting and different!  We enjoyed this quite a bit and I could see making it for breakfast with company some day.

Ingredients
4 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
1 pound sausage, casings removed (I used sweet Italian.)
¹⁄₄ cup onion, finely chopped
¹⁄₄ cup red bell peppers, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 (12 ounces) can evaporated milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
¹⁄₂ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Dash paprika
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions
1. Spray 9 by 9-inch baking pan.  Heat oven to 350*F if you plan to bake casserole on the same day as assembly. 

2. Cook sausage in large skillet over medium heat, breaking up with wooden spoon as it cooks.  Remove sausage to paper towel-lined plate and drain. 

3. Cook bell pepper and onion in sausage fat remaining in skillet.  Sauté 5 minutes, or until soft.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Remove to paper towel-lined plate with sausage. 

4. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in skillet and brown hash browns in batches, following package directions.  Continue until all hash browns are browned on both sides. 

5. Layer half of the hash browns in baking dish.  Top with half of the sausage and vegetable mixture and ¹⁄₂ cup of cheese.  Repeat layers to use all potatoes, sausage, and vegetables. 

6. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, evaporated milk, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper.  Pour this mixture evenly over the casserole and cover with aluminum foil. 

7. If baking immediately, place in oven and cook 50 minutes before removing foil.  Bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes then allow casserole to cool for 10 minutes before serving.  Top as desired with things like sour cream, jalapenos, salsa, green onions, etc. 

8. If baking another day, refrigerate until ready to heat oven.  Remove casserole from fridge and allow to come to room temperature while oven heats.  Then proceed as above. 

No photo – this happens when I have company.

Comments
This recipe is from Willow Bird Baking and it was suggested to me when I was looking for something unusual to do for a company breakfast.  This is sort of like strata, but the bread is replaced by hash browns.  It was scrumptious and we all enjoyed it quite a bit!  I think I used more peppers and onions than the recipe called for, since I seem to recall making it in a 9x12 instead of a 9x9.  But looking over the recipe now, I’m not entirely sure what I did differently!

Ingredients
2 cups cooked ham, chopped (I used deli ham.)
1 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
¹⁄₂ cup green onions, sliced
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
10 (8 inches each) flour tortillas
6 eggs
2 cups half and half
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt

Instructions
1. Spray a 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray and heat oven to 350*F. 

2. In a large bowl, stir together ham, bell pepper, green onion, and 1 cup cheese.  Split ham mixture evenly between tortillas, roll, and place seam-side down in baking dish. 

3. In now-empty bowl, beat together eggs, half and half, flour, and salt.  Pour over tortillas.  Sprinkle remaining 1 cup cheese over top then cover with aluminum foil.  Bake 35 minutes.  Uncover and bake 10 more minutes or until eggs are set and cheese is melted. 

Comments
This recipe is from Inspired Taste.  I enjoy having eggs for the proteins in our meals; I just have a habit of forgetting!  I saw this recipe and thought it would make a tasty meal, which is certainly did.  Like quiche, It’s infinitely versatile, you could easily add mushrooms, switch the cheese to Swiss, use bacon, whatever you like.  I served these with salsa and sour cream.

Internet - Inspired Taste

Ingredients
1 pound loaf Italian or French bread, torn into pieces
8 eggs
2 cups whole milk
¹⁄₂ cups heavy cream
³⁄₄ cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla

For the topping
¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
¹⁄₂ cups brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus extra for greasing baking dish

Instructions
1. Spread extra butter in a 9 by 12-inch baking dish to grease.  Evenly distribute bread pieces in dish. 

2. In large bowl, mix together eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Pour over bread and gently press bread down with spatula to ensure better absorption.  Cover and place in refrigerator overnight or at least 4 hours. 

3. In small bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.  Cut in butter pieces until mixture resembles crumbs.  Cover and store in refrigerator until ready to use. 

4. When ready to bake, heat oven to 350*F.  Remove dish from fridge and sprinkle crumb mixture over top.  Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on desired texture.  A shorter cook time will be more like bread pudding and a longer cook time will be firmer – I went with the hour cook time and it was perfect. 

5. Serve with maple syrup, the real kind please!

No photo – the perils of dining with company!

Comments
This recipe is from Pioneer Woman.  We joke that she’s my nemesis but, really, she has no clue who I am and I’m in awe/envy of her amazing success as a blogger.  While her recipes have been hit or miss with us, this one was a HUGE hit.  My parents loved it, Art loved it, I loved it and, as always, Lance prefers his breakfast foods not to be sweet.  So I knew that this wouldn’t win him over anyway.  I call that a resounding success of a breakfast dish. 

This also gets major props for being so simple to prepare.  It came together in about ten minutes the night before and I baked it in the morning when I was getting ready for my parents to arrive.  I was also able to easily bake bacon on the bottom shelf of the oven while this was on the top. 

We ate this with sliced bacon and grapefruit.  Nom nom nom.

Internet - Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
For biscuits
3 cups (15 ounces) all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4  teaspoons baking soda
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons sugar
1 1/4  teaspoons table salt
1 ¹⁄₂ cups buttermilk, cold
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

For gravy
1 pound loose breakfast-friendly sausage, or links with casings removed
12 tablespoons butter
³⁄₄ cup all purpose flour
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons salt
³⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
6 cups milk

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 475*F. 

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl.  Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons warm melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until buttermilk and butter for small clumps. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. 

3. Using greased ¹⁄₄-cup dry measure, or #30 disher, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches apart.  Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, about 12 to 14 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, cook sausage in large skillet over medium heat, breaking meat into smaller pieces with wooden spoon.  Remove cooked sausage to bowl. 

5. Melt butter in same skillet.  Stir in flour, salt and pepper.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until smooth and bubbly. 

6. Slowly stir in milk.  Increase heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil.  Boil and stir one minute.  Add sausage and stir to combine. 

7. To serve place one or two biscuits on each plate and top with gravy.  (Or three or four, depending on appetite!) 

Comments
This recipe is a combination of these biscuits and the gravy from Cooking for Seven.  I made the biscuit recipe earlier in the week and thought they were amazing.  Knowing that Art’s all time favorite breakfast is Biscuits and Gravy, I had my mission.  It’s safe to say that this was quite a success!  Art was thrilled and thought everything was delicious.  He loved the biscuits, he loved the gravy, he was sad he wasn’t home to gobble down all of the leftovers.  I, however, was happy that I didn’t have to share the leftovers with anyone!

Internet - Cooking for Seven

Ingredients
For the cake
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
¹⁄₄ cup sour cream
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt

For the filling
2 (8 ounces each) packages cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the topping
¹⁄₂ cup brown sugar
1 ¹⁄₂ cups flour
¹⁄₂ cup butter, softened

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F.  Spray a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. 

2. Cream together butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, about 3 to 4 minutes.  Add in eggs and sour cream.  Beat well, about 3 minutes. 

3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat well until combined. 

4. Spread half of the batter into the prepared baking pan. 

5. In another bowl, cream together all filling ingredients.  Carefully spread filling over batter in baking pan.  Spoon remaining cake batter over the cream cheese mixture.  (The batter doesn’t need to completely cover the cream cheese, just dot it around.) 

6. Mix all topping ingredients in a small bowl and then sprinkle over cake.  (I used my fingers to mix this us.) Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until middle is set and topping is golden. 

Comments
This recipe is from The Lonely Baker.  I’ve been attempting to make it for months and just haven’t had the chance.  Lance isn’t a huge lover of coffee cakes and Art, strangely enough, doesn’t love “cream cheese layers” in cakes.  Weirdo.  I, however, love this sort of thing. 

The opportunity to make this recipe finally arose in the form of a trip to visit my parents.  They, of course, love stuff like this too. The cake was fantastic, the cream cheese layer was delicious and we mused a bit about how to modify the recipe in the future.  Perhaps a drizzle of black raspberry jelly over the cream cheese? Or chocolate?  The possibilities are endless!  The cake was lovely and buttery and the topping was fantastic. 

The photo was taken in haste with my phone, so please excuse the quality and composition.

Internet - The Lonely Baker

Ingredients
²⁄₃ cup steel-cut oats
1 ³⁄₄ cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¹⁄₄ teaspoons cinnamon
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Instructions
1. Place the oats, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and maple syrup in the rice cooker bowl; stir gently to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.

2. At the end of the cycle, the cereal will be thick and will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Spoon into bowls and serve hot. 

Comments
This recipe is from The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook.  It makes enough to serve two people, so be sure to increase the amounts if you’re serving more people or using a large rice cooker.  Due to the milk, it’s not suitable for use with the delay timer. 

I thought the flavor from the cinnamon, vanilla and maple syrup was fantastic.  The texture was a little different than steel-cut oats made on the stovetop, but I think that I liked it.  The Porridge cycle didn’t take that long, maybe 30-45 minutes, so this would be easy to set up when you get out of bed in the morning in order to have a hot bowl of oatmeal waiting for you after you finish waking up and getting ready for the day.  The leftovers reheat very well too, which is always a bonus.

The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook

Ingredients
1-2 teaspoons olive oil (I like using wild mushroom and sage olive oil for this.  Regular olive oil is delicious too.)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 tablespoon soft goat cheese

Instructions
1. Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add eggs and stir until they have reached desired doneness.  Add parsley and cheese, stirring until cheese has melted.  Season with salt and pepper before serving. 

Comments
This is one of those recipes I feel silly for posting since it’s hardly a recipe at all!  A few weeks ago, when I was up in NY with my dad and brother, we had eggs prepared this way at the Bed and Breakfast.  It never would have crossed my mind to add parsley to scrambled eggs but I was blown away by how delicious the combination was! 

I made these for Art one morning when we had time for breakfast just to make sure I could do it and then made them again while my parents were visiting recently.  This is a quick and simple egg preparation when you’ve got breakfast company!

This recipe generates eggs for one person, it’s simple to scale if you’re serving more people.

Person - Gwen

Ingredients
Cake
1 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
³⁄₄ cup sugar
¹⁄₄ cup butter
1 egg, beaten
¹⁄₂ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping
¹⁄₂ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted
¹⁄₂ cup nuts, chopped (Optional.)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375*F.

2. Mix all dry cake ingredients. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in egg, milk and vanilla. Pour ¹⁄₂ batter into a greased 8 by 8-inch pan.

3. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle it on top of batter. Drop remaining batter by the spoonful over the top of the topping.

4. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until done.  (If it still wobbles when you shake the pan gently, it’s not quite done.)  

Comments
This recipe has been in my family for forever.  My grandma made it when my mom was a child.  My mom made it when I was a child.  Now my mom and I make it together on Christmas morning.  We make two of them, one with nuts and one without.  It also doubles very well and can be made in a 9 by 13-inch pan.  We don’t have many traditional Christmas foods in my family, but the holiday wouldn’t be the same without this one.  

The first year I was living in England my parents mailed me a box that had an 8 by 8-inch baking pan and this recipe on a card so that I’d be able to carry on the tradition with my new family.  :)

Person - Mom