Fully Loaded Cheesy Breakfast Casserole

We are so excited to be partnering with our friends at Jones Dairy Farm to bring you a scrumptious breakfast or brunch recipe perfect for the holidays with family and friends, starring one of my favorite ingredients: Sausage!!!

I really love brunch but my family prefers breakfast. I like to relax in the morning where my crew wakes up famished. Breakfast casseroles give us the best of both. I can prep breakfast the night before and toss it in the oven in the morning. I get to kick back while it is in the oven and the family gets to eat pretty soon after they wake up.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That’s a given. Too bad it’s usually skipped with a hot cup of coffee or a quick drive-thru at McDonald’s for those 2-for-1 sausage egg mcmuffin deals. And a giant maple bar at your local donut store.

Wait, is that just me?

No, but really, with this make-ahead breakfast casserole here, breakfast really becomes the most important meal of the day. It’s so important, you’ll end up having this for dinner too. After all, breakfast foods taste so much better at nighttime anyway, right?

Hearty breakfasts really rock my world! This one is loaded with bacon, sausage and eggs with potatoes and veggies. It is amazing and stress-free, which is right up my alley.That is one of the many reasons I absolutely love love love make ahead breakfasts!

A hearty casserole like this makes an amazing breakfast, lunch, dinner. Not to mention it is incidentally gluten-free which makes it perfect for company!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound Italian sausage (I prefer hot, but mild or sweet also work)
• 1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced (or 1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained and diced)
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 (20 ounce) bag frozen hash browns, thawed (I used the cubed kind)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
• (optional topping: thinly sliced green onions)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Add the sausage to a medium saute pan. Cook over medium-high heat until browned, crumbling the sausage with a spoon as it cooks. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Reserve about 1 tablespoon of sausage

• 1 pound Italian sausage (I prefer hot, but mild or sweet also work)
• 1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced (or 1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained and diced)
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 (20 ounce) bag frozen hash browns, thawed (I used the cubed kind)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
• (optional topping: thinly sliced green onions)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Add the sausage to a medium saute pan. Cook over medium-high heat until browned, crumbling the sausage with a spoon as it cooks. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Reserve about 1 tablespoon of sausage grease in the saute pan, discarding the rest. Add the onion and red pepper* to the saute pan, and saute for 5 minutes until cooked. Add the garlic and saute for an additional 2 minutes until fragrant. (If using the jarred roasted red peppers, wait to stir them until after the garlic.) Pour the vegetable mixture into the mixing bowl with the sausage. Add the hash browns and 1 1/2 cups cheese to the mixing bowl with the sausage and veggies. Stir to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and black pepper until combined. Then add them to the hashbrown mixture, and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into a 11×7-inch or a 9×9-inch baking dish (a 9×13-inch dish will also work), and top with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the aluminum foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the potatoes in the center are cooked through.  (I recommend just using a fork to pull out one of the potatoes in the center of the casserole, and test it to see whether it’s tender and cooked through). Remove and let the casserole rest for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions and serve!

*Update: Some of you have reported back that your casserole took closer to 45 minutes (total) to bake, so I’ve updated the recipe instructions accordingly.  In general, just keep an eye on the casserole while baking, and once the potatoes are tender, it’s ready to go!

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