easy breakfast casserole :: make ahead or eat right away {#meatballmasters}

“I made a delicious and easy dinner using Johnsonville® as part of a sponsored post for Socialstars – consider me a #MeatballMaster! 🙂 All opinion are my own.”

I am always looking for EASY meals to spice up our breakfast routine. I am not sure there is a soul in our house that is a morning person, unless there is something super exciting happening that day. If that’s the case, the kids are up before the chickens! However, most days I need to be the one tapping and prodding them like cattle until they roll over and get out of bed. From there, it’s one step in front of the other to get through the morning routine.

Breakfast is such a crucial part of the day and I love it when I can get something outside of oatmeal in them. My mom has been making a breakfast casserole for as long as I can remember for special occasions. I thought I would take that time treasured recipe and add my own little twist to it, to accommodate for early morning breakfast ideas!

Not only for breakfast, but do you have breakfast for dinner ever? We do all. the. time. So this is perfect for that too!!

This is something you will prep ahead of time. Like, the night before is absolutely perfect! You put it all together, it takes about 30 minutes, and that includes the browning of the sausage. There are so many breakfast casseroles out there that include hash browns, this one does not. While they are super delicious, I don’t like what the grease and other ingredients in many of the hash browns on the shelves contains.

So, easy. Right? Let’s dive in!

ingredients
1 lb johnsonville® sausage
6 slices of bread, i use buttermilk because we like that
2 tablespoons of melted butter
2 cups shredded cheese – sharp gives it a great extra taste, but my kids often prefer colby
6 eggs
2 cups whole milk
1 large pinch of salt

Brown the sausage. Did you know that Johnsonville® had sausage like this too? I did NOT until I dug further into this brand. I knew they had phenomenal meatballs, but that was about the extent of it. Ok, back on track. Once the sausage is browned, drain the extra fat in the pan. Once the meat is cooked, look at the seasonings already in there? Pretty great, right?

Tear up the bread into bite size pieces and throw them all in a mixing bowl. Melt the butter and then pour that over the bread. Once that is done, grease a 9×13″ pan and spread it evenly.

Then, add the meat and cheese, evenly spreading both across the pan.

For the rest of the ingredients, put them all in a mixing bowl (I use the same one that I combined the butter and bread in) and mix it all together. Once that is complete, pour the mixture over what’s in the pan.

You can chill in the refrigerator overnight to make sure it all soaks in, or, if you are in a hurry, just let it chill as long as you have and then place it in the oven. I bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, covered with aluminum foil. I then take the aluminum foil off and cook for another 15 minutes.

Let it cool and serve! I like to add fruit as a side dish when eating this 🙂

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Would you cook this up for your family for a fun mid-week breakfast break or even for a special occasion with family coming in town? {I have made other meals using Johnsonville® products – check them out!!}