Sausage Breakfast Casserole

I will eventually get better at taking better pictures of my food.  I'll remember to take a picture BEFORE I slice in to it and I'll get a good picture of it on the plate.  This is as good as it gets for now. 

My friend Irene and I made a bet over the weekend.  I won't say what the best was, but we wagered food on it.  I lost that bet.  Irene wanted me to make her breakfast.  She wanted something with potatoes and sausage, so I decided on a sausage breakfast casserole.  

Irene was supposed to come over and eat it, but Utah decided that April 15, 2015 needed to be the first day of winter and dumped like 8 inches of snow in a 24 hour period (I might be exaggerating, but it seems like it's snowed non stop for over 24 hours now) so she didn't make her way down Weber Canyon.  That didn't stop us from enjoying her dinner. 

I was pleased with the way it turned out and decided that the sausage drippings couldn't go to waste, so I made sausage gravy.  I wish I would've made biscuits to go with that gravy.  I may have eaten a lot of it with a spoon.

My recipe is good for about 4 people, but you can easily make it for more.  My husband enjoyed it, my daughter loved it and I enjoyed it despite the large amount of sausage in it. 

I only had smallish potatoes so don't be thrown off by the amount of potatoes.  I also recommend seasoning with salt and pepper each step of the way if you don't want a bland dish. 

You could use shredded hashbrowns. You just wouldn't need to bake them before adding the sausage and eggs.  I've made many a breakfast casserole with them.  I just prefer fresh cubed potatoes to the frozen shredded hashbrowns.  You could also use the egg beaters substitute if you wanted.  Whatever works for your family. 

 Sausage Breakfast Casserole

6 smallish potatoes

1 lb of breakfast sausage

5 jumbo eggs

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese 

1/4 cup of butter 

2 tablespoons of whole milk

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Peel and dice potatoes in even cubes, put in a casserole dish
• Dice butter in to small even cubes and sprinkle over potatoes
• Season with salt and pepper
• Cover with tinfoil and bake for 20 minutes
• While potatoes are cooking, brown sausage.  Reserve drippings. 
• Drain sausage on a paper towel
• Beat together 5 eggs with 2 tablespoons of whole milk 
• Mix potatoes, sausage and eggs in casserole dish.  
• Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes
• Remove and sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake for 10 more minutes
• Let cool before serving 

Sausage Gravy

Sausage drippings

2 tablespoons flour

2 1/2 cups of whole milk

• Whisk flour in to sausage drippings and cook for 1-2 minutes
• SLOWLY whisk in milk (If you don't do it slowly you will get lumpy gravy)
• Bring to a boil and simmer until you reach your desired thickness.  If you get it too thick you can add more milk. If it is too thin you can make a slurry of water and cornstarch and whisk it in
• Season with salt and pepper
• Serve over top of the breakfast casserole,or yummy biscuits.