sausage, spinach, bread and cheese breakfast casserole

I think I am addicted to breakfast casseroles.

I mean, they are so unbelievably easy. How in the world had I manage to survive Sunday mornings before this amazing discovery?

This is my fourth breakfast casserole, and I have been tweaking things as I experimented to come out with casseroles that better suit my taste each time.

This week, I wanted to add some vegetables to my casserole. I picked spinach because, well because I like spinach. A lot.

And since breakfast casseroles are supposed to be easy cooking, I thought I would use frozen spinach. All I needed to do was to thaw the spinach, squeez the water out and give it a rough chop, and I was good to go.

I also happened to have half a loaf of garlic focaccia left from one of the weekday dinners, and it was a little stale. So I cut the bread into cubes, and then I found I had 4 slices of normal bread left so I toasted the bread and cut them into cubes too.

The bread was placed onto the bottom of a greased 9x13-inch casserole dish.

I took the meat out of a pack of sausages and browned the meat in a little extra virgin olive oil. The meat was scattered over the bread, followed by the spinach.

I whisked the eggs, milk, mustard powder, onion powder and garlic powder and poured the custard over the bread, meat and spinach.

The cheese was strewn over this, and finally, I poured the cream of mushroom and milk mixture over everything. I topped this with some coarsely grounded black pepper.

At this stage, I wrapped the casserole in cling film, and placed it in the fridge over-night so the bread could absorb the custard.

The following morning, I baked the casserole for 50 minutes at 170C.

Breakfast casseroles are really so simple.

No fuss, no muss.

RECIPE
Sausage, Spinach, Bread and Cheese Breakfast Casserole (Serves 8)

Ingredients:
300g pork or chicken sausages, meat removed from casing
8 slices of white bread, toasted and cubed - I used half a loaf of garlic focaccia and 4 slices of toasted bread
2 packs (about 500g) frozen spinach, thawed, with liquid squeezed out and then chopped
2 cups shredded cheddar, or any combination of cheese you have on hand
6 large eggs
2 cups milk - I used low-fat
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 can (10oz) cream of mushroom, mixed with 1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp coarsely grounded black pepper

Method:
1. Grease casserole dish. Place bread at the bottom of the dish.
2. Scatter meat and spinach over the bread.
3. Whisk eggs, milk, mustard powder, onion powder and garlic powder. Pour mixture over bread/meat/spinach.
4. Add cheese.
5. Mix cream of mushroom with milk, and pour over everything. Wrap with cling film and refrigerate overnight.
6. Bake, uncovered, at 170C for 50 minutes.
7. Serve immediately.