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Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole

from SixSisters' Stuff

Ingredients:
10 eggs, lightly beaten (or 20 egg whites if you don't want to use the yolks)
3 cups milk (I use skim)
1 tsp salt
1 loaf of crusty French bread (day-old bread works great!)*, cubed/torn into small pieces
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 cups cheese (we love Colby Jack or Cheddar, but any kind works)
1/2 pound sausage, cooked and crumbled

*You could really use any kind of crusty bread . . . you just need about 6 cups worth.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (F). Combine the eggs, milk, and salt in a bowl. Distribute half of the bread evenly in a 9x13" glass baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle on half of the green pepper, half of the red pepper, half of the onion, half of the cheese, and half of the sausage. Repeat the layering again with the remaining ingredients. Sprinkle black pepper on top. Pour the egg mixture over the casserole and bake for 60 minutes. Refrigerate any leftovers. Serves 8-10.

I wanted to try something new for our Sunday morning brunch.  This casserole seemed easy enough.  Although I like most of the recipes from my Sis Sisters' Stuff Cook Book this is not one of my favorites.  

Husband rating:  2 stars

Boys say thumbs down except for one son who ate everyone else's!

Baked Pork Chops

(slightly modified) from allrecipes.com, submitted by bdld

INGREDIENTS:

6 pork chops 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon seasoning salt 2 egg, beaten 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 cups Italian-style seasoned bread

crumbs 4 tablespoons olive oil 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup 1/2 cup milk 1/3 cup white wine

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	Rinse pork chops, pat dry, and season with garlic powder and seasoning salt to taste. Place the beaten eggs in a small bowl. Dredge the pork chops lightly in flour, dip in the egg, and coat liberally with bread crumbs.
3.	Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the pork chops 5 minutes per side, or until the breading appears well browned. Transfer the chops to a 9x13 inch baking dish, and cover with foil.
4.	Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour. While baking, combine the cream of mushroom soup, milk and white wine in a medium bowl. After the pork chops have baked for an hour, cover them with the soup mixture. Replace foil, and bake for another 30 minutes.

I put a tsp of garlic powder in with the bread crumbs (I forgot the seasoning salt but I would have tossed that in there too if I'd remembered!).  I skipped the flour and just dipped the pork in the egg and then in the bread crumbs.  I mixed the sauce ingredients and put them in the 9x13 pan with the pork chops and then threw that all in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour.  

Husband rating:  4 stars

Boys say:  thumbs up

Black Bean Taco Soup

adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package mild taco seasoning mix
1 16 oz can corn or 1.5 cups frozen corn
1 16 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (you could use kidney beans or pinto beans)
1 14 oz can stewed tomatoes (I tossed these in the blender and gave them a spin before adding them to the soup because I like them better that way)
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 4 oz can diced green chilis
1 cup water

tortilla chips
Optional toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado

Brown meat with onion. Drain.
Stir in taco seasoning, corn, black beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, green chilis and water. Simmer on low heat for 20 to 30 minutes.
Serve with tortilla chips and your favorite toppings.

This makes an easy freezer meal too. After cooking, let soup cool down and then dump into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag or other freezer container. When you want to eat it, let it thaw in the fridge for 24 hours and then simmer on the stove until heated all the way through or microwave until heated all the way through. You could also put it in your crock pot and cook on low for 2-3 hours to re-heat it.

Healthy Snack Ideas

I had the chance to celebrate my grandmother's 95th birthday with her this last weekend!  95!  It was such a treat.  So this week I will give you some great healthy snack ideas instead of meal plans.  All the plans I'd made for the husband and kids ended up being used this week since they decided to let some fast food places cook for them while I was gone!

We have found these Aussie Bites at Costco.  They are all natural and filling.  They were great for a relay I did last year.  We were running off and on all day and these gave me some energy and were easy to toss in the car!

These aren't really healthy, but they are tasty!  Some friends had a long road trip to get to our place and they kept themselves full and awake by munching on these!  

This is a great twist on trail mix.  It's hard to feel good about eating trail mix with chocolate chips!  This one has yogurt chips and they have a great flavor with the dried berries and nuts.

Greek yogurt is popular now.  I like Dannon's light and fit vanilla greek yogurt.  Topped with fresh raspberries or strawberries this is pretty much the perfect snack!  This is also good topped with granola in place of the fruit or with the fruit.  That would make it almost a meal!

I like to mix a carbohydrate like fresh fruit with the protein of something like nuts, yogurt or cheese.  Sometimes I'll have a string cheese and an apple.  Or deli turkey slices and a veggie or fruit is also a good snack.