The Messy Cook

The Truth:  I had high hopes for this blog.  I wanted to put all these awesome recipes on here and post these decadent pictures (you know....the ones that make your mouth water and make you have to make the recipe NOW).  Yes, that was the plan.  However, this has been the plan for about 2 years and if you've noticed, there are no decadent pictures.  In fact, there are hardly any recipes.  The reason for this is: life.  I have 3 little boys, I make a hand made craft, and I want to be room mother, baseball coach, tutor, and an amazing cook.  So, what I end up getting is a messy kitchen and everything I make goes straight to the mouths waiting for it.  Telling my kids to hold on while I put it in a fancy casserole dish, with a fancy colored napkin off the side, and getting the light just right is just not going to happen.  

I think the first step to moving on is realizing the truth.  So, I have just admitted the truth.  I admitted it to all of you.  Now, it's onto the future.  I set my standards to high before.  I kept putting off adding recipes to the blog until I got a great picture.  Now that I realize this is never going to happy, I will start the "Wish this was a better blog, but it is what it is" blog. 

To start off my new blog, I am posting a recipe......without a picture.

So, I LOVE my breakfast casserole that is in my book.  It's called the Cheesy O'Brien Casserole.  The reason I love it, is that I usually find that breakfast casseroles can be kind of bland, hard to get them to turn out right, and dry.  This recipe uses Cheddar Cheese soup....which is kind of weird, I know....but it makes it very gooey and definitely not dry.  Big fan. 

However, I found another good recipe.  My little sister has been making it for a couple years and it is SO fast.  My older sister had a big brunch this last weekend and I was put in charge of making two of them.  To make it easy, we made the "Easy Breakfast Casserole" (That's the name of it, great huh?).  So, I will share that with you today.

EASY BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
Click here for printable version to put in your book.

7 eggs
1 c. milk
4 c. shredded cheese
6-8 slices of bacon (I bought the kind from Sam's Club that's already cooked and you just have to microwave.  It made it just that much easier.  Since I felt like the slices were a little smaller I did more like 12. Plus, can you really have too much bacon.  Haha.)
8-10 frozen hash brown patties (This depends on how big your pan is.  I bought the Kroger Brand from Smith's.  It was $2 and comes in a 10 pack.  I used 9 to line the bottom of my pan.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground mustard

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Place hash browns in a single layer in a greased 9x13 baking dish (my pyrex dish worked awesome!). 
3.  Cook bacon and slice/crumble.
4.  Sprinkle bacon and cheese over hash brown patties.
5.  In a bowl, beat eggs, milk, salt and mustard.  Pour over bacon. 
6.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
7.  Uncover and bake 15 minutes or longer until edges are golden brown and knife in center comes out clean.

Super easy!  I think I put it together in 10 minutes.  It doesn't have as much flavor as the other recipe I have in my book already, but with some ketchup it's great and it takes a lot less time.  I would even think about making this for my kids before school.  Oh wait, that would mean that I would have to have it in the oven at about 6:00 a.m.  Nevermind.  Sorry boys, you're having cereal still.

So, hopefully this is the start to a wonderful new blog full of tips, tricks, and recipes.

Happy Cooking!
Allie