Food: Christmas Morning Casserole

What are your Christmas morning traditions? Lauren here, and one of our traditions is this brunch casserole that my mom makes every year. In addition to being downright delicious, it's also perfectly festive thanks to spinach and roasted red peppers. 

If you don't have a favorite breakfast for Christmas morning, I hope you'll give our casserole a try this year. Of course, it's a good dish to serve guests on non-holiday days, too. Keep reading for the recipe, and happy holidays!

I used pre-sliced mushrooms (just chop them a bit smaller) and pre-shredded Parmesan and Provolone cheeses to save time, but you can slice mushrooms and grate your own cheese from a block if you prefer. 

I love the flavor the basil and roasted red pepper add to this dish. If you don't have a gas stovetop, you can just roast your pepper in the oven.

It's all about the layers: sausage, onion, peppers, spinach...then egg and cheese!

Ingredients:

-1 lb. hot bulk sausage

-1 cup sliced mushrooms

-1 cup chopped onion

-1 large red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and chopped

-1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

-1 cup flour

-1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

-1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

-1 tsp. basil leaves

-8 eggs

-2 cups milk

-2 cups grated Provolone cheese, divided

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 13x9 inch baking dish.

2) Brown, crumble and drain sausage in large skillet. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until onions become semi-soft.

3) Arrange sausage mixture in greased baking dish. Sprinkle half of the chopped pepper over sausage; top with all the spinach. Sprinkle one cup of Provolone cheese on top.

4) In a large bowl, combine flour, Parmesan cheese, salt and basil. In another bowl, combine eggs and milk; beat until smooth. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, beat until well blended. Pour over spinach.

5) Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until knife inserted into the casserole center comes out clean. Sprinkle with remaining red pepper and Provolone cheese. Return to the oven for two additional minutes just to melt the cheese.

6) Let stand five minutes. Cut into squares--serves 8-10.

-post & images by Lauren Craig