Having guests this holiday season? This easy and delicious make-ahead breakfast casserole is the perfect thing to serve your company. They don't even need to know that it's 21 Day Fix approved. Oh, and it's gluten-free, too!
Looking at this picture makes me so happy that I get to eat this for dinner tonight. I know, it's supposed to be for breakfast but it's already made and in the fridge. This girl's got way too many things to do today and making dinner just didn't make the list. You feel me, right?
Speaking of things that I have to do, can I vent for just a moment? So it's December, right? One could argue the busiest month of the year. If you're like me, there are cookies to be made, decorating to do, presents to be bought, holiday traveling to prep for, advent calendar activities to do with the kiddos, and if you're really like me, blog recipes to create and photograph, and posts to write. It's a lot. And for those of you who are working full time, it's a lot on top of a lot. Hell, you probably even have extra gifts to buy for co-workers. Which is ok, because a lot of those things are really fun and what make December so special. But as fun as December can be (and it can be really, really fun) it's a crazy-busy and often a very stressful month. For pretty much everyone.
Enter an enormous school project for my 8-year-old. No really. I would never joke about a thing like this. I was basically out of my mind when she brought it home. It's not just one project either. It's actually eight time consuming projects masquerading as one. None of which she can do without supervision, by the way. Ok, so they're allegedly doing three of them at school, so it's actually onlyfive time consuming projects. I have mad love for teachers, seriously I do*. I just can't quite understand why my kid's teacher assigned a large project like this in December. Couldn't we have done it in November or January? Not to mention that she still has her regularly scheduled 2 hours or so of homework every night leaving no time during the week. At least she doesn't have to do her 20 minutes of reading every night. I guess that's something. Ugh.
Sorry, I bet you were hoping to wander into a more upbeat post.
Ok, rant over.Let me make it up to you. Because I do actually have some happy things to say today even through all of my stress 🙂
Specifically about this breakfast casserole. Because Oh. Em. Gee. This glorious bake is about to answer all of your breakfast-y prayers. It's easy. it's delicious, it's make-ahead, it's healthy and it'll feed a crowd. Ya know, like a Christmas-guest kinda crowd. Or any kind of crowd. Or maybe just you, but for like a week.
This is a remake of a dish that my family always makes when we have overnight guests and I've yet to feed it to anyone who didn't ask for the recipe. Oh yeah, it's that good. The other nice thing about this dish is that it's fully customizable to fit your guests needs. Your family doesn't like onions? Leave them out or even just put them on half. So awesome. Oh, and in case you're wondering, when I fed the final product of this healthier version to the hubs, he couldn't tell the difference. <insert happy dance here>
The thing that makes this dish so flavorful and utterly delicious is the breakfast sausage. I mean, everyone loves breakfast sausage, right? Well, that was also the biggest obstacle on my road to healthy breakfast perfection. But don't worry, I worked it out. Believe me when I tell you that it took more than a few tries to get this sausage right, but I'm telling you I did it. And it's goooood. The trick to making turkey taste like sausage (aside from the obvious sausage-y seasonings) is mixing the meat together with the seasonings prior to browning. I know. This sounds like a simple, maybe even obvious thing. However, the first time I attempted this I had high hopes that I could just throw the meat and the seasonings into the pan and cook away (ya know, without getting raw meat under my nails). Alas, it was not meant to be. But I have to tell you, I kind of don't even care, it's so freaking delish. Plus, I can usually get my husband to do it, If you have an available person in your life willing to do gross things for you, then I suggest you do the same. Unless you like getting in there like Rachael Ray does, and hey, if that's your thing, go for it. I'm just saying, husbands like to be useful. 🙂 Love you, honey!!
So let me break down the ease of this. The night before (or probably even two nights before if you like), cook your sausage and let it cool. Then, in your casserole dish, layer the potatoes, cooled sausage, veggies and cheese. Whisk up the eggs, almond milk, s & p and pour it over everything. Cover and stick it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, you uncover it and stick it in the oven for an hour. Done. Serve it with hot sauce, some fruit and maybe some toast and what'da'ya know? You just won breakfast.
*My bestie is a teacher. They work crazy-hard and spend hours and hours grading and planning (and all sorts of other extras) that go way beyond the work hours that most people assume. Do something nice for your kids' teachers this Christmas. Believe me they deserve it.
If you make this healthy breakfast casserole recipe be sure to snap a pic and tag me@thefoodieandthefixon Instagramso I can check it out! It makes me ridiculously happy to see what you guys are making 🙂
📖 Recipe
Healthy, Make-Ahead Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole
Yield: 9 Servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Additional Time: 8 hours
Total Time: 9 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
Breakfast Sausage:
- 1 ¼ lb ground turkey (1 package)
- 1 tbs dried, rubbed sage
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tbs pure maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- plenty of black pepper!
Casserole:
- 4 cups cubed par-cooked potatoes (such as refrigerated Simply Potatoes or frozen Ore-Ida southern-style hashbrowns, THAWED)
- Cooked and crumbled breakfast sausage (entire recipe from above)
- 4 cups chopped veggies of your choosing - I used 1 cup onions, 1 cup each of red and green bell pepper, and 1 cup of sliced mushrooms
- 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 12 large eggs
- 2 cups plain unsweetened almond milk
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- black pepper, as much as you like
- your favorite hot sauce, for serving (optional but delicious!)
Instructions
Make the sausage:
- In a bowl, mix together all of the sausage ingredients. Don't skip this step, trust me. I know it's tempting to throw the turkey in your pan to brown and add the seasonings on top, but I've tried it and it just doesn't work. If you want this to taste like sausage, ya need to mix it like a meatloaf 🙂
- In a large pan, cook and crumble your sausage. Set aside to cool.
Breakfast Casserole:
- Spray a 9X13 baking dish with olive oil or coconut oil cooking spray.
- In your dish, layer the potatoes, then your cooled sausage, the veggies, and last the shredded cheese.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, unsweetened almond milk, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over your casserole dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The Next Day:
- Do not preheat your oven. Uncover your casserole and place it in your oven, then heat your oven to 350 degrees, baking for 1 hour or until the center has set (stick a fork in, if it looks really wet, check it again in another five minutes until it isn't).
- Once, fully looked, pull it out of the oven and cut into 9 rectangles (3X3). Serve with your favorite hot sauce if desired!
Notes
21 Day Fix Container Equivalents Per Serving: 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue, ½ Green
Weight Watchers Freestyle Points: 7 points when calculated with 99% fat-free ground turkey; 9 points if using 93% fat-free turkey
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 9Serving Size: 1 Slice
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 418Total Fat: 24g
