EASY CHEESY BREAKFAST CASSEROLE Recipes

My mom and I were talking the other day about how different life would be if we lived a little closer to one another.

Right now, we live about 3 hours apart — close enough to definitely be able to drive and visit fairly often, but just far enough away that you can’t exactly grab coffee together on a whim.  But that’s what we were talking about.  It would be so fun to just be close enough to grab lunch together spontaneously!  Or pop over for a glass of wine on the back deck.  Or bribe her and my dad with cookies if they’d come help me unload a new sofa.  Or do our grocery shopping together.  You know, the random everyday things…together!

Sure, our time hanging out when they’re here or I’m there is great.  But we usually see each other over the course of a weekend or a few days back-to-back, and you can’t help but feel the pressure to squeeze in All The Things while we’re in the same city at the same time.  It’s like that with any long-distance relationships.  And we both have major roots in both of our cities, so I don’t see that changing anytime soon.  So we talk a lot on the phone, enjoy our time together in person when we can, and make the most of it.  You know, as you do 3 hours apart.  🙂

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 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.
3. 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.
4. …………………………..

for full recipes please see : www.gimmesomeoven.com