Breakfast Casserole

Breakfast casserole is one of those dishes that I love but have never attempted to make. And really, the only time I've ever had it has been on holidays. My aunt almost always makes them at Christmas. I think my parents made them a few times when I was growing up. So breakfast casseroles have always been a "special" dish for me.

But the other day, I saw a recipe for one and thought, why does this have to be reserved for Christmas?! Unfortunately, I didn't save that recipe, and later couldn't find it - bummer. Last Friday night, I decided it was the perfect night to attempt my very first breakfast casserole.

I searched the web and found one that sounded delicious: Country Breakfast Casserole at Allrecipes.com. It made way more than my little family needed, but I froze quite a bit, so hopefully it will taste just as good in a few weeks. It was delicious on Friday night, and even more delicious the next morning for breakfast.

Of course, I tweaked the recipe just a bit (cause that's just how I roll). I'll add my changes in italics:

Country Breakfast Casserole

1 (16oz) package breakfast sausage - I have no idea how much I used. I used "our" sausage from the hog killing earlier this year. I had some links in a Ziploc bag, but I didn't count how many. I just thawed them out and cut the casing off to make bulk sausage.
1 chopped green onion - Who keeps these on hand? I just used regular yellow onions.
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese - I used cubes of cheese, cause that's what I had on hand and it needed to be used.
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk - I used Silk, just in case.
1 package country gravy mix
I also added about 6 small potatoes, diced
6 slices of break, cut into 1 inch cubes - I omitted this completely, as we only had a few slices of bread and DH needed it for toast the next morning. I bet it would have been a great topping, though!
2 tablespoons melted butter (optional) - I think I added butter, but I really can't remember now...
paprika to taste (optional) - Totally forgot about this little ingredient!

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 11x8 inch baking dish (I used a bigger one; it was all I had close to that size.)
Brown sausage in large skillet; drain fat.
Combine sausage with green onion and spread evenly across the bottom of the baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Whisk together eggs, water, milk, and gravy mix, add mixture to baking dish. Arrange bread squares evenly on top. If desired, drizzle butter over bread and sprinkle with paprika.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside 10 minutes before serving.

We ate it almost straight out of the oven cause we were starving by the time it was ready. It took longer than 40 minutes, too. More like 50-55. Next time I'll bump the heat up to 350. As good as it was that night, I think it actually tasted better the next morning.

It certainly didn't turn out beautiful, but it tasted amazing! I'll definitely be making more breakfast casseroles in the future, especially if it tastes good after being frozen (we'll find that out sometime soon).