Our two Favorite Breakfast Casseroles & a little Easter Recap
What a wonderful weekend it was! Multiple egg hunts, lots of treats, family, mimosas, food and even a little sunshine. Just how we like it! We spent Saturday in Suncadia with Chris’s family; Suncadia puts on the best Easter egg hunt and festivities. If you get the chance to spend Easter over there, I highly recommend it. It’s the largest Easter egg hunt I’ve seen (separated by age), adult beverages, the Easter bunny, toys for the kids and more. The Easter bunny will also come visit you at your house!
Sunday my mom hosted her annual Easter Brunch and it never disappoints. I mean any brunch that includes a beer, champagne and seltzer hunt for the adults is the greatest in my book. Not to mention all of the most festive treats, delicious breakfast casseroles and an epic egg hunt for the kids (they each get their own color of egg to hunt for so there isn’t any arguing and it works so well!).
Back to the casseroles… these are the two greatest breakfast casseroles (in our humble opinions) and they deserved a blog post of their own. Save these recipes and make them for your next brunch. Yum.
Sunrise Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 packages breakfast sausage links
- 9 eggs
- 3 cups milk
- 1 tsp ground mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 packages refrigerated shredded hash browns
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup diced sweet red pepper
- 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
- 2 cups salsa, optional
Directions
- Place sausage on large pan and bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes until sausage is no longer pink, turning once; drain and slice into small coins.
- In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, mustard, salt and pepper. Add the hash browns, sausage, cheese, red pepper and green onions and mix well.
- Pour into a greased 13 by 9 baking dish. Cover and refrigerate over night.
- Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 65 to 70 minutes or until set and golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve with salsa if desired.
Chrissy Teigen’s Everything Bagel Bake
Ingredients
- 1 pound breakfast sausage links
- 2 tablespoons butter, plus more for the baking dish
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed
- 3 day-old everything bagels, halved and cut into big chunks
- 2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 1 and 1/2 cups grated Gruyère or Swiss cheese
- 1 and 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 8 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, cold, cut into 14 cubes
Directions
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, turning occasionally, until cooked through, about 12 minutes or according to package directions. Remove the sausage from the skillet, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces, place in a large bowl, and set aside.
- Melt the butter in the skillet over medium-low heat, then add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly golden and translucent, about 9 minutes.
- While the onion is cooking, pile the thawed spinach into the center of a big clean kitchen towel and roll up the towel. Over a bowl or the sink, twist the ends toward each other and keep twisting until you wring out as much liquid as humanly possible.
- Transfer the spinach to the bowl with the sausage and add the onion, bagel chunks, tomatoes, basil, Parmesan cheese, 1 cup each of the Gruyère and cheddar, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and ½ teaspoon of the pepper. Toss it all together with your hands or a spoon.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, half-and-half, mustard, cayenne, and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper.
- Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking dish (I would recommend sizing up in pan size to a 15×10) with butter and arrange the bagel mixture in the dish. Pour the egg mixture over the top, pressing down on the bagels so they soak up the liquid.
- Nestle the cream cheese chunks in all around the pan (they can be peeking out).
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 1½ hours and up to 12 hours. (The longer you soak, the moister the inside will be.)
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Uncover the dish and sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup each Gruyère and cheddar.
- Bake for 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake until the top is golden and the center is set, 50 minutes to 1 hour.
So, in conclusion (ha), here are my tips for making Easter brunch one hell of a good time:
- Serve one or both of the above breakfast casseroles (that you make the night before)
- Make sure each child has their own Easter egg color they are hunting so they don’t fight over eggs
- Adult booze hunt (beer, spiked seltzers, hard kombucha, mini bottles of prosecco…)
- Mimosas and festive cocktails
We hope you had a fun-filled weekend! XO
