Breakfast Casserole

Although most of my posts are about dinner and dessert I wanted to bring you guys a post featuring a different meal. Breakfast. This recipe is one of my favorites for a holiday morning or an afternoon brunch. This recipe is more than enough for one person and although this blog is about food for four people this is a great chance to invite the extended family over for something new and enjoy the whole family.

Breakfast Casserole

Yields: 8-12 servings                                         Prep Time: 1 Hour                                            Cook Time: 1 Hour

2 Pounds of Bob Evans Sausage

4 Eggs

2 Cups of Milk

¼ Tsp. of Dried Mustard

1 Loaf of Italian Bread

4 Cups of Cheddar Cheese

The first thing that needs to be done in order to prep for this meal is to cut the crusts off of the Italian bread and cut the bread into one inch cubes. After you need to brown the ground meat and drain off the grease.

Now spray down a 9 x 13 and layer the bread, cooked sausage and the cheese in the pan. Now you’ll need to mix the eggs, milk and dried mustard in a bowl and pour that mixture over the bread, sausage, and cheese mixture. Refrigerate the mixture over night. And allow the bread to soak up that mixture.

Finally it’s time to cook. Bake your casserole in the oven at 350 degrees for fifty minutes with foil over it keeping the moisture in and locking in that goodness. With 10 minutes remaining remove the foil and allow the top to crisp up.

A lot of the recipes that I deal with are actually recipes that have either been passed down through the family or found on the internet and tweaked to how my family and I like them. I hope you guys do the same thing and add your own twist to each recipe.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Now that summer is approaching and it’s starting to warm up we have a nice cool dessert that taste great. Come on now who doesn't

 love chocolate, or pudding, and gram crackers. What do you get when you put all these together? A delicious dessert a beautiful Chocolate Éclair cake. Although it might take a little while to make most of the time is spent cooling and allowing the pudding and chocolate to harden. All in all this dessert is a great way to cool down on a warm Spring/Summer evening.

Chocolate Éclair Cake

Yields: 12                                             Prep Time: 30 minutes                                                     Cook Time: 10 minutes

2 3.3oz Packages of French Vanilla Instant Pudding

3 Cups of Milk

8 oz of Cool Whip

2 Sleeves of Honey Gram Crackers

2 Unsweetened Chocolate Bars

2 Tbs. of butter

2 Tbs. Light Corn Syrup

1 Tsp. of Vanilla

1 ½ Cups of Powder Sugar

3 Tbs. of Milk

The first thing you want to do is make the pudding. Mixing the instant pudding mix with the 3 cups of milk for about 2 to 3 minutes till the powder is fully dissolved. After the 2-3 minutes you need to add the 8 oz. cool whip to the pudding mixture and continue to fold in until completely mixed.

Now that you have your pudding mixed you need to line the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with the gram crackers. Then pour ½ of the pudding mixture over the gram crackers. Add another layer of gram crackers and spread the reaming mixture over the top of the second lay of gram crackers and refrigerate for 6- 8 hour (overnight is best).

Now it’s time for the chocolate part of the Chocolate éclair cake. Take the chocolate bars and butter and melt them together. Take this melted mixture and add the corn syrup, vanilla, powder sugar, and milk and blend them together. Pour the chocolate mixture over the pudding and gram crackers and set it in the refrigerator to harden. Once it becomes stiff its ready to be cut and served.

Some might say that this is not worth it but this is a labor of love and a truly delectable dessert.

Banana Pudding Dessert

Sometimes as a family you cannot enjoy dinner together. I understand this I used to work in retail not too long ago. It’s hard to have that nice Sunday family dinner when you have to be at work till 9:30 p.m. In my family we try not to let that get in the way of sharing some time together as a family. On nights like these we use desert as a way to get together as a family. From time to time when you don’t feel like cooking a scoop of ice cream or a small dish of jello will work but when you have that urge to create a simple but elegant desert here is an option that you may want to try out.

Simple Banana Pudding Dessert

Yields: 4 servings                                 Prep Time: 10 minutes                                                      Cook Time: 5 minutes

2 3.3oz packs of Jell-O Vanilla Instant Pudding

4 cups of cold Milk

1 8oz container of Cool Whip

2 Banana’s

36 vanilla wafers

In a bowl mix the instant pudding mix and cold milk. You will want to wisk this together till the pudding is full dissolved and there are no lumps left. Your pudding should be a yellowish color like the picture. Place the pudding in the refrigerator to this should only take a couple of minutes. In the mean time you can gather your other ingredients and most importantly your glasses in which to serve them.  In my family we enjoy this desert so we tend to use a larger glass like a margarita glass. Another great glass to use is a martini glass these are smaller therefore you might not need as much pudding for these.

Well waiting for the pudding you can also peel and cut your bananas. You will want to cut them relatively thin somewhere between a ½ - ¼ of an inch thick. No need to measure just guess its dessert it’s supposed to be fun.

Now that the pudding has set and you have all your ingredients out you just simply start to layer your dessert first a scoop of pudding, next a layer of Vanilla Wafers, then the bananas, more pudding, topped off with a dollop of Cool Whip and another Vanilla Wafer.

Now this quick and simple treat is ready to eat!