Bread

Yesterday morning when I walked into the kitchen, I noticed the empty bread bag on the counter and said, "oh no, the bread's all gone?"  Hubby replied, "yup, no bread."  "This calls for drastic measures," I exclaimed.  Hubby agreed, "you'll have to go to the grocery store."  Double oh no!  Not the grocery store!  I love getting terrific deals with coupons (for instance, Target paid me $0.08 this morning to take home an 18 oz box of Quaker quick oats, an essential ingredient in my morning routine, Walmart gave me free yogurt and paid me $1 to bring home some cocoa, and Walgreens paid me $1.21 to take home a bottle of Pantene shampoo and a bottle of Pantene conditioner), but the coupon knowledge I have makes it excruciating to pay full price for anything.  It's torture.  Besides, preparing for a morning of running errands is like preparing for going into battle.  It's not something I can just do on a whim.  Uff-da.

No, the drastic measures I was talking about were not quite so drastic as actually going to the grocery store.  I made bread.  I put ground flax in it.  The children I was caring for literally dug into it while it was still warm from the oven.  Hubby came home and said the house smelled nice--that it brought back good memories.  I pressed him for more info and he finally admitted that the smell reminded him of when I used to make bread...

I used some of it to make this delicious breakfast casserole for supper.  I thought it was yummy--the boys were not so enthusiastic--I think maybe I should have warned them that there were apples and cinnamon in it before they tried it: they're not used to having sweet things for supper.

Apple Sausage Breakfast Casserole
6 Morningstar Farms Maple Flavored Veggie Sausage Patties (I used 1 lb bulk breakfast sausage, but any sausage will do)
1 small cooking apple, cored and chopped
1 T sugar
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
4 c. cubed, firm-textured multigrain bread (this is why I had to put the flax in my bread--so it would be multigrain :-)
1.5 c. shredded cheddar cheese (6 oz)
6 eggs, beaten
1/3 c. sour cream
2 T sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1/4  t salt
1.5 c. milk

1. Chop sausage patties into bite-size pieces. Set aside.  In small bowl, toss together apple, 1 T sugar, and cinnamon.  Set aside
2. Place half of the bread in a 8x8x2 inch baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray.  Top with half of the sausage, half of the apple mixture, and half of the cheese.  Repeat layers.
3. In medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sour cream.  Whisk in 2 T sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Add milk; whisk until combined.  pour over mixture in baking dish.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 325 about 70 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Tasty.  If nothing else, it's a nice change from the same old breakfast casserole.  Something different.