Saturday started with sleeping in a bit and a Overnight Breakfast Casserole.

I’ve become one of those cooks – you know the type, no recipe or measurements. Just throw things together and cook it until it’s done.

No Recipe Overnight Breakfast Casserole  – I try to keep a reasonably organized freezer so we know what’s in it and how old it is. This was especially important post-surgery.

Friday I cleaned out & organized my refrigerator’s freezer. I pulled out 3 baggies of bread cubes and three half cup jars. One jar had cooked sausage and the other two had shredded ham. So I decided to make an overnight breakfast casserole.

There are so many recipes for overnight casseroles. Some call for shredded potatoes or frozen hashbrowns (I didn’t have). Some call for English Muffins or refrigerator biscuits, but I wanted to use my bread cubes. A lot of recipes make a huge amount and I didn’t want to make a 9″ x 13″ pan. So I decided to make my own. Sorry, no pictures of the process.

I started with a 9″ x 9″ pan and my bags of bread cubes. After Dinner I greased the pan with Cooking Spray (Pam) and filled it with the bread cubes to dry out a bit.

Before bed I assembled the casserole. I took some bread out as it looked too full. Then I spread the ham and sausage over the top. I had some onion & bell pepper in the refrigerator so I diced some up & sauted them in a little butter and spread them on top. No measurements. I just used the leftovers I had.

Next I needed the egg mixture.  I’ve seen recipes using anywhere between 4 and 12 eggs plus no milk or as much as 2+ cups. I started with 6 eggs, 3 heaping spoonfuls of Cottage cheese and salt & pepper. I blended this mixture in my Bullet Blender and poured it evenly over the bread. 

This mixture didn’t seem enough to cover the bread so I mixed another 4 eggs and a heaping spoonful of cottage cheese and salt & pepper. I only added about half this mixture to the bread.

Note to Self – Try using 6 Eggs, 1/4 to 1/2 c cottage cheese and 3/4 to 1 cup of milk.

I gently pushed any bread down into the egg mixture and covered the pan with aluminum foil.  The casserole then was placed in the refrigerator for overnight.

In the morning I took the casserole out of the refrigerator to sit for 30 minutes before cooking. While the oven was preheating I shredded some block cheese and covered the top. Again, no measurement, just enough to cover the top, so maybe 4 ounces.

Most recipes say to cook 55-60 minutes, but my casserole was smaller and I have a Convection Oven. I decided to cook mine 45 minutes. This was too long. The cheese was overly brown & the bottom was nearly burnt.

Note to Self– Check to see if Casserole is done at 25-30 minutes and add Shredded Cheese the last 5 minutes of cooking.

Cut into serving size pieces and served with fruit, Orange Juice and Lemon Ginger Tea.

Evaluation – Although it cooked too long (internal temperature over 212°F), the bottom was crispy and the cheese topping got a bit dark, the overall opinion was that it was tasty and worth doing again with a few tweaks. We now have leftovers for two more mornings.

Do you ever make up your own recipes? It can result in either a failure or a new favorite.

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In My Sewing Room

Fabric Sorting – When I take a break from quilting the Dino Quilt I continue sorting thru fabric for UFOs and Holiday Project inspiration.

I found the extra Dino fabric for the binding. Now to decide if I want to use the orange or blue/green for the binding. The Blue/Green Fabric matches the front but the Orange Fabric matches the back.

Plus, here’s the backing fabric for my Christmas Hexagon UFO.

Baby Quilt Progress– Well to be honest there’s been just a little progress. I’m still trying to decide which of 4 browns I want to use. I printed out the cutting notes and ironed the Green and the Focus Fabric.

I think I found the backing fabric I want to use. While sorting through some fabric I found 4 yards of this yellow Noah’s Ark fabric.

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We don’t have a lot scheduled this coming week so I’m expecting more time in the Sewing Room.

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Hope you are making progress on whatever you are stitching this week!

Happy Stitching!

Quilt Mouse