Enter…My Imagination

It’s no secret if you have been reading my blog from the beginning…we love peppers, and we love cooking with them!  I’ve also been exploring different ways to use vegetables at breakfast on the weekends.  Honestly, my breakfasts aren’t very exciting through the week.  So, I always try to make something fun for us on the weekends.  My Maw-Maw has a recipe for Breakfast Casserole.  It has always been a holiday favorite when family is over for breakfast.  It’s a nice warm breakfast that warms you to the very core of your soul.  With this being said, it contains yummy sausage, eggs, milk, white bread, and lots of cheese (yum).  This isn’t quite a healthy concoction and certainly doesn’t contain vegetables.  But, oh so good!

Enter…my imagination and my lust for bright colored dishes!

Why couldn’t I concoct my own casserole, with the same principles, using what I had available in my home, with a healthy twist?  Why not?  The search was on for my ingredients.  I found an orange and red bell pepper, broccoli florets, baby carrots, turkey sausage crumbles, egg whites, low sodium chicken broth, WhiteWheat bread, and minced onion (no yellow onion available, sadly).  After preparing and tasting the final product, the conclusion was made to alter the amounts of some of these items and eliminate one.  The picture is of what I did today with the aforementioned ingredients, and the recipe is what the ideal one would be.  Hint: Use the recipe below…

• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 cup coarsely chopped broccoli florets
• 2 tablespoons of EVOO
• 1 small yellow onion
• 2 1/2 cups of Turkey Sausage Crumbles (Jimmy Dean sells these pre-cooked in the refrigerated section with the bacon, sausage, etc. One pre-cooked pack is 9.6 ounces, which yielded 2 1/2 cups sausage.)
• 1 cup egg whites (I used the carton of egg whites)
• 1/2 cup low sodium, fat-free chicken broth
• 3 pieces of WhiteWheat sliced loaf bread
• 1 cup shredded cheese (your choice)

Preheat the oven to 350°.  In a Pam-sprayed glass baking dish, I placed the bread in a single layer.  I sautéed the first five ingredients in a pan until everything was softened.  Then, I added the sausage crumbles and continued to cook down more.  Drain all excess liquid off.  I poured the sausage mix over the bread and then mixed the egg whites and broth together and poured over the sausage mix.  This is where I would sprinkle the cheese over the top.  Bake for 1 hour or until when the dish is shaken it doesn’t jiggle.

We decided to top our servings with Texas Pete Hot Sauce for an added kick.  Feel free to add the carrots back in to the recipe.  I originally used 7 baby carrots.  In the end, they didn’t soften like what I wanted.  Therefore, I didn’t like them in this recipe. 

By the way, I found that Costco had a wonderful selection of fresh beautiful produce.  Highly recommended!  Happy healthy eating!

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