Another day in the life .. Breakfast Bake and Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms

Every morning around 7:30 to 7:40 I get up, walk sleepily into the kitchen, and fix Dan breakfast and pack his lunch for the day. Sometimes, well let’s face it, a lot of the times I am too tired to get up, but when I hear him clamoring for a bowl of cereal, a pang of guilt strikes me. And then when he doesn’t take lunch to work and has to go out and get food, another pang of guilt hits me.

Usually I get up and make him a breakfast sandwich with toast, eggs, turkey, cheese and sometimes tomatoes but it’s kind of a pain because it’s early, and I’m sleepy, and then I have to do dishes afterwards. So I thought about making him something where he can heat it up himself and then I thought, aha! Lets put a breakfast sandwich in a casserole! At least if he can microwave his own breakfast I can throw together his lunch in the morning and crawl back to bed! So here we go .. a Breakfast Bake! …

One onion, diced

Sliced Mushrooms (I used one package)

Ground meat (I used turkey to be healthy,

okay okay and I added some Bacon for flavor!)

**You can put in anything you want with your casserole, I already had ground turkey and bacon in my freezer, so it saved me some money (well, not that I didn’t already pay for that meat, but you know what I mean)

Pan fry all of these ingredients together, I suggest doing the Bacon, then add the onion, and then add the ground meat and then the mushrooms. If you find you have excess liquid I would drain it so that the meat mixture isn’t all soggy, but most of the liquid should evaporate by the time you’re done, it just depends on what meat you use. I had some liquid that I had to drain out but I think that’s because I dumped the turkey in at the same time I added the onion, just use your best chefs judgement.

As far as seasoning, I added some Lawrys seasoning to make it tasty and also fennel seed and fennel pollen because I really love sausage and fennel always gives meat that flavor of sausage.

10 Eggs

2 tsp ground mustard

3 cups milk (I used 1.5 cups 2% and then 1.5 cups non fat)

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

Chopped Green onion, about 3 stalks, white and green parts

Whisk all these ingredients together

Diced tomatoes (I used about 4 tomatoes)

Day old bread, chopped (luckily for me I had about half a loaf of garlic ciabatta from my fish stew)

Cheese (I used lowfat cheddar and peperjack you can use as much or as little as you want, I did about 2 cups)

Get a 13x9 baking dish, grease it (I used a light spray of Pam), layer half the bread, then half the tomatoes, then half the meat, then half the cheese and repeat. Pour the egg mixture on top.

Throw it in a preheated oven of 325 and bake for 50-55 minutes until cooked through, you'll know when a knife is inserted in the middle and comes out clean.

**I did mine this way and all the green onions ended up on top, so if you want you can take the green onion and layer it after the tomatoes, instead of putting it in the eggs to make sure you get green onion flowing in your dish. You could alternatively used roasted potatoes instead of bread too, I’m sure that would taste good, or a whole wheat bread to be healthier.

While this dish had flavor and tasted good, I found the bread in the dish to be soggy, but you can’t do anything about that except omit it. I also found my tomatoes to be a little bland so next time I will season the tomatoes first before layering it. This dish got the job done and now Dan can heat up his own breakfast while I dream a little longer!

Oh and if anyone is interested … here is what I made for dinner, Balsamic chicken and mushrooms over pasta.

It’s really basic, you take chicken breasts, about 4, season with salt and pepper throw it in a hot pan with olive oil. Takes about 5 minute per side, then take it out of the pan and cover with foil. Turn the heat down in the pan, add some butter, maybe 1-2 tablespoons, and add mushrooms (I used 1 package sliced white mushrooms, 1 package sliced cremini and 1-2 cups of shiitake that a rehydrated and sliced). Once mushrooms cook, add thyme (I used dried because I didn’t have fresh), salt, pepper, chopped shallots (about two) and chopped garlic (one to two cloves). Once that comes together add to the pan, one tablespoon of flour, then add one can of chicken stock, a few turns of the pan of balsamic vinegar and then a turn or two of the pan of cream or anything you have in the fridge to make it creamy (half and half, marscapone etc.) or you can omit cream and thicken with cornstarch slurry but the cream helps tone down the bite of the acidity of the balsamic vinegar. Slice the chicken, throw it back in the pan, toss altogether and serve over rice, orzo or any pasta you want. This dish is easy and quick to make especially when you have chicken breast already in the freezer (we go to costco and buy it in bulk). It tastes really good too!

Poor Dan, this is his lunch for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! =)

Don't worry I also add carrots, yogurt, and a dessert to his lunch too!

By the way I apologize that the pictures aren't so good on this post, I had to make both these dishes after work and I was too tired to make it all pretty