Meatless Mondays: Brookledge Breakfast Casserole

Here's another family-favorite recipe that has been present for every major holiday I can remember!

While the original recipe calls for sausage from meat, we typically either leave the meat our or use vegan/vegetarian sausage instead.  And here's the thing: when you add faux meat products to a casserole, you can't really tell that it's vegetarian (boyfriend disagrees, but admits that it still tastes good).  Of course, just because it's fake meat doesn't mean it's healthier, and many meat substitutes are highly-processed and list lots of unpronounceable ingredients (or at least unpronounceable to me: I was a social science major).  Two brands that are recommended across cyberspace include Gardein and Quorn, and here is a recipe to make your own vegan sausage.  


Whatever you decide to do, I hope you enjoy this as much as we do at Brookledge, the old name for our family home.  (And keep in mind, our family tends to eschew following recipes and measuring, so feel free to adjust the amount of cheese, mustard, spices, etc below based on your tastes and how much Dijon is left in the jar.)  This is not necessarily the healthiest of recipes, but it's quite the treat.  Plus, I served it with vegetables.  Bam.


Ingredients:
6-8 slices bread, cubed
1 lb sausage
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 can cream of celery soup
8 eggs
1 and 1/4 tbsp Dijon mustard
3.5 cups milk 
1 tsp yellow mustard
1/4 tsp salt
pinch nutmeg


Optional: try green chilies for more zest, and asparagus or broccoli also work well in this dish.


1. Cook onions and sausages and/or asparagus/broccoli in butter until onions are translucent (this makes them sweeter) but with care not to overcook the veggies. 
2. Place bread in greased 9 x 19" glass pan.  Add onions and sausages and/or asparagus/broccoli, followed by cheese.  Then layer the rest of the ingredients.  You can store this raw overnight.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for about 2 hours, with the last 1/2 hour uncovered.  


This casserole is nice and filling, and freezes well after baking.  Enjoy!