Loaded Twice Baked Potato Casserole (the easy, cheat way)

I am not one for elaborate fanfare in the kitchen, but I do appreciate attention to detail, quality ingredients, and effective execution of the dish.  My time should be focused on the important things in life, like kids, Big D, or Pinterest.  LOL  I love finding shortcuts on recipes.  This one is a goody.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 lbs potatoes
• 8-10 slices of bacon
• 1/3 c sour cream
• 2 green onions, chopped  (use those handy kitchen scissors)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese  (more or less, depending on your cheese preference)
• 1/2 c butter
• 1/3 c milk
• 2 Tbsp cream cheese
• 1 tsp pepper

Step 1:  prepare potatoes

• normally they would be baked for 45 min - one hour
• Who has time for that?
• Why would we do that?
• we are going to microwave them
• poke small holes across the top of the potato in a line
• place potatoes into a baggie
• add a few tablespoons of water
• close the baggie, except leave a small corner open to allow the steam to escape
• microwave for about 7 minutes per potato (or by your microwave potato settings)
• after cooking
• safely remove from baggie
• you can run cool water over them where they are touchable
• get the peel off them and get the potato into a large bowl

Step 2:  BACON 

• cook until crisp
• cut into small crumbles (use those handy kitchen scissors)
• You will only need 8 slices for the recipe.  The other two are for you to snack on while finishing the recipe.  I mean... Come on!  It's bacon.  Meat Candy  YUMMMMY

Step 3: Mix It Up

• put everything in the bowl with the potatoes EXCEPT about 1/2 c of cheese to use for the top of the casserole
• mix it with beaters on a medium speed, but don't overdo it because your potatoes will get sticky

Step 4:  Bake It

• spread everything into a 9x13 baking dish
• top with the reserved cheese
• bake on 350F for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and everything is hot

Christmas Breakfast Casserole

  

We wanted something simple and easy for Christmas morning.  This did this in spades!  It can be prepared the night before, left in the fridge, and baked when you get up.  It is simple and my crew got full!  We even had the newlyweds try it and they went back for seconds.  LOL

Ingredients:

• 16 oz container of biscuits
• 6 eggs
• ½ cup milk
• 1½ cups of shredded cheddar/jack mix
• 2 cups cut up breakfast sausage  (We used the frozen, cooked patties that you just heat and eat.  They were PERFECT!)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F 
2. Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Cut each biscuit into 6 pieces.
4. Spread cut biscuits in the bottom of pan.
5. Cook breakfast sausage according to package directions. 
6. Cut sausage into bite size pieces and sprinkle over biscuits.
7. Sprinkle ½ cup of shredded cheese over the sausage.
8. Beat 6 eggs with milk & pour over the biscuits and sausage.
9. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top.
10. Add a dash of salt and pepper.
11. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until the eggs are set.

Pancakes from Scratch - no eggs and no milk

We wanted pancakes. We discovered there was no mix in the house, no eggs, and no milk. Quite the conundrum! My lovely two youngest monkeys made pancakes from scratch! We found (& tweaked) a recipe we found online. It appeared in a few spots and had rave reviews all around.


In the original recipe, basic directions were to sift flour, combine dry ingredients, and mix in liquid. The butter was to be melted and used to fry the pancakes. I am sure that this would be an arduous process and result in lovely pancakes.


BUT we did not do it this way! We have a pancake making machine that turn out fluffy, round pancakes. So, the melted butter was not needed to cook them and we added it to the mix. We are pancake eating people and we needed to double the recipe. White sugar isn't very yummy and we opted to use brown sugar instead. (Plus, we were low on sugar!)

Original Recipe Link on Food.com

OUR VERSION:

2 cup white flour
5 tablespoons brown sugar (full but not packed)
4 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons margarine
1 3/4 cup water

We melted butter in a bowl. Then we dumped everything else in the bowl with it. All ingredients were mixed and whisked together until it was pretty smooth. THEN they started adding green food coloring. HA!  These turned out to be the yummiest pancakes we ever made!  You could easily do add ins or toppings to this recipe.  We will definitely use our recipe again.