Quick and Easy Brunch Recipes to Make This Weekend!

 

I seriously love a good breakfast casserole, but I don't love spending Saturday morning in the kitchen frying meat and chopping veggies.  I want something that can be assembled by the time the coffee is made because not much else happens around here until momma gets her coffee. 

These recipes are my favorite tried and true recipes that can be made with precooked meats, mixes and canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls. 

This Sweet Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Casserole has over 22,000 pins and is one of my go to breakfast recipes.  I lightened it up a bit with egg substitute.

Because it was so popular, I came up with a Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Casserole which uses pumpkin butter and pumpkin spice coffee creamer.  I actually prefer it to the original.

Another sweet breakfast favorite is Monkey Bread.  This version is simple and quick, using canned biscuits.

This Bacon, Egg and Cheese Casserole goes together in a flash and tastes a lot like your favorite breakfast sandwich!

If you like a good, hearty breakfast, you'll love the Farmer's Breakfast Casserole with hash browns, sausage, bacon, cheese and eggs.  Everything is premade so you just have to assemble it. 

If you're trying to cut back on calories, these Sausage and Egg Muffins are perfect.  They're full of flavor and can be made ahead.

Now that I've shared some of my favorites, I'd love to hear about yours!  Leave a comment below to share a recipe or link!

Farmer's Breakfast Casserole

I'm a sucker for a breakfast casserole whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner.   My most popular post, Sweet Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Casserole is testament to that.

Since bub #2 was born, one of my favorite things to do is to make a breakfast casserole for dinner or for a weekend brunch so I can have the leftovers the rest of the week.  It makes for a quick and delicious breakfast.  

The original recipe that I found at Food.com had nearly 3 pounds of meat and cheese in it which seemed a bit over the top for me.  I cut it way back and used precooked meats because I don't always have a lot of time to prep meals.  Egg substitute cut out a few more calories.  I think it works better in casseroles anyway because it's easier to mix up and bakes well. 

The end result was delicious and filling with a calorie count that I could live with. 

If you like this recipe, give my Bacon, Egg and Cheese Casserole a try! 

Ingredients
3 c. shredded hash browns (like Simply Potatoes)
9.6 oz. pkg. Jimmy Dean fully cooked Turkey Sausage Crumbles (or 12 oz. cooked and crumbled sausage)
1 pkg. precooked bacon slices (12-15 slices), diced
2 c. (8 oz.) cheddar/jack cheese blend
2 1/4 c. egg beaters or 12 eggs
2 c. milk
1 1/2 tsp. season salt or Lawry's
3/4 tsp. pepper

Directions

1. Spray 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.  Layer the following in the pan: hash browns, sausage, bacon and cheese.
2. Mix a medium bowl, whisk together egg substitute, milk, season salt and pepper.  Pour mixture into baking dish, tilting dish gently from side to side to evenly distribute eggs.
3. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Bake 50-55 minutes at 375 degrees.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Casserole

Since October is the month of all things pumpkin, I decided to try another take on my most pinned recipe, Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Casserole.  I added pumpkin butter, pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin spice coffee creamer.   The result was even better than the original. 

This casserole is special enough for Thanksgiving Day breakfast, but easy enough for any morning of the week.  The leftovers reheat wonderfully.

Ingredients
2 (12.4 oz) cans of refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing like Pillsbury (can use light cinnamon rolls)
1 3/4 c egg substitute like Egg Beaters (or 6 large eggs)
1/2 c pumpkin spice coffee creamer or half and half
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2/3 c pumpkin butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 c chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease an 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish.
2. Cut each cinnamon roll into 8 pieces and place in dish.  
3. In a medium bowl whisk together egg substitute or eggs, coffee creamer, vanilla, pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie spice.  Pour over rolls.  Give the whole thing a good stir.  Sprinkle with pecans.
4. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool 10-15 minutes (if you can wait that long!!)  Remove covers from icing and microwave 5-10 seconds or until it's the perfect consistency for drizzling.
5. Drizzle icing over top.   Serve with light syrup and powdered sugar.   

 Linked to:

Link Party Palooza - Strut Your Stuff Saturday - Super Sunday Linky Party - Munching Mondays - A Pinch of Joy - Mouth Watering Mondays - A Southern Fairytale - Gooseberry Patch Recipe Round-Up - Lady Behind the Curtain - Cast Party Wednesday -

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

 My favorite meal of the day is breakfast, no matter what time of day it is served.  Even my hubby who never cared for breakfast gets up on Saturday and looks around for his eggs and bacon.  He's more of savory breakfast man, but I like it all as is evident by my obsession with Cracker Barrel and IHOP.

This recipe is a slightly moister, eggier version of a recipe I found on the Pillsbury site.  I love using canned biscuits, cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls in recipes even though I don't care much for them on their own.  Adding fresh ingredients takes away the canned flavor.

My other shortcut is to use precooked REAL bacon bits, keeping the prep time under 10 minutes.  Would freshly cooked bacon be better?  Probably, but it's not worth the time and mess to me while trying to keep up with a newborn and 3 year old wild child. 

You can save a few calories by using egg substitute which works great in casseroles, low fat cheese and turkey bacon or ham in place of the regular bacon.  Throw in any of your favorite breakfast meats, cheeses and veggies to come up with your own version.

Recipe
Adapted from: Pillsbury

Ingredients
4 eggs or about 1 c egg substitute
1/3 cup milk
salt and pepper
16 oz refrigerated breakfast biscuits (I used GV Texas style biscuits.), cut into 4 or 8 pieces
4 green onions, diced
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 pkg Oscar Mayer real bacon pieces or bits (the kind you put on salad)

Directions

1. In an 11 x 7 dish, whisk together eggs, milk and salt and pepper.  (You don't need a ton of salt because many of the ingredients are salty.) 
2. Add biscuits, onions, cheese and bacon.  Toss to coat with egg mixture.
3. Bake 25-28 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown and cooked through.

Linked to:

Gooseberry Patch Recipe Round-Up - Lady Behind the Curtain - Cast Party Wednesday -

Sweet and Savory Green Beans

If you've ever made green bean bundles you know what a pain they are, but you also know how amazing they taste.  It's one of those things you love to eat at someone else's house, but you don't want to spend the time to make for yourself.  Maybe I'm the only one...

These sweet and savory green beans are the perfect solution.  You get all of the flavors with half of the work.  I served these for Thanksgiving and they were amazing!  You will rarely hear me calling a member of the bean family amazing, but these really were!

I found the recipe on Pinterest.  I know, shocking  It let me to  Nancy Creative.  Her beans look wonderful, but I did tweak them a bit to lower the calorie content. 

I hope you'll give them a try and enjoy them as much as we did!

Recipe
Adapted from Nancy Creative
4 or 5 (15 oz) cans cut green beans, drained
8 slices thick cut bacon, cut up
1/3 c brown sugar
1/4 c light butter
7 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Fry diced slices of bacon until about half way done.  Drain on paper towels.  (It's easier to cut them up first, in my opinion.)
2. While bacon is frying, melt butter and brown sugar together.  Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce, garlic powder and pepper.  
3. Dump green beans into a 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle with bacon and then pour butter mixture over the beans.  Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Stir and enjoy!

Bubble Up Enchiladas - 11 Points +

This Weight Watchers' Bubble Up Enchilada recipe has been all over Pinterest so it's definitely not an original, but here is our family's review:

To be honest it doesn't taste much like enchiladas, but it's still good comfort food, a real stick to your ribs kind of dinner.  You don't often find that from Weight Watchers.

For the heat seekers out there, you can up the heat level by choosing hotter enchilada sauce or tossing in some diced jalapenos.  To boost the flavor, I added garlic and onion to the ground beef mixture.  Shredded veggies like carrots or squash could be added in also to sneak in extra nutrition.

We've made this kid friendly casserole several times already and would make again it regardless of whether it was a Weight Watchers recipe.  It's that good.

Recipe
Adapted from Chef in Training
1 1b lean ground turkey
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 can reduced fat refrigerated biscuits or whole wheat (I used about 8 biscuits)
1 c reduced fat Mexican cheese
Healthy garnishes- green onions, cilantro, olives, jalapenos, fat free sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9 x 13" pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large skillet brown ground beef, onions and garlic; drain and return to skillet.  Separate biscuits and cut each one into 4-6 pieces.  Add enchilada sauce, tomato sauce and biscuits to pan and toss together.  (I didn't end up using the entire container of biscuits because I wanted my enchiladas to be more moist.)    
3. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven, top with cheese and bake 10 minutes longer.  
4. Garnish with one of the suggestions above if desired. 

Serves 6 Weight Watchers Points Plus: 11

Chicken Pot Pie - 9 WW Points +

It's taking some time, but we're slowly adapting to the Weight Watchers lifestyle.   The biggest thing I've learned is to plan ahead and to plug recipes into WW myself instead of trusting what I read online.  The worst thing is enjoying a "healthy" WW recipe, then putting it into the WW calculator and discovering it was way more points than I thought.  Now I figure it out ahead of time so there are no surprises.

That being said, you can totally trust me.  {Wink, wink.} 

I found this yummy Chicken Pot Pie Recipe on Food.com.  The points shown there were most likely based on the old system, but I recalculated them at 9 points + for a really good sized portion. 

To boost the flavor I added some spices, and we really enjoyed the result.  If you're expecting a traditional pot pie crust, this won't be it, but the biscuit-like topping has all of the flavor without the guilt.  The hubs even went back for seconds and he's a diehard fan of pie crust.

Add a salad for a quick and easy weeknight meal!


Recipe
Adapted from Food.com
2 c chicken breast, cooked and cubed
1 can 98% ff cream of chicken soup
1 can 98% ff cream of celery soup
2 c frozen mixed veggies (like peas, carrots, green beans and corn)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp parsley
1 c Bisquick Heart Smart Baking Mix
1/2 c skim milk
1/4 c egg substitute like Egg Beaters

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray.
2.  In a large bowl combine soups, seasonings, chicken and veggies.  Pour into pan.  In a smaller bowl, mix together baking mix, milk and egg substitute.   Pour over soup mixture.
3.  Bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Weight Watchers Points - 9 pts + for 1/4 of recipe.

Pizza Pasta Bake Freezer Meal

Lately, I've been contemplating the idea of doing some freezer cooking which basically means I've been sitting in front of the computer, reading up on what other bloggers have done and "pinning" away. 

Although I love the concept of freezer cooking, I think 1-2 freezer meals a week would be sufficient for us tackle those busy nights we when normally would fall prey to the drive-thru.  Soooo... instead of cooking for the entire month in one day, my goal is to cook a double batch of something each week to freeze for a later date.

Sooo...for my first attempt, I found this yummy Pizza Pasta Bake recipe on Freezer Meals for Us which is full of freezer friendly recipes.  I have a hard time following directions (just ask my kindergarten teacher)  so I changed it up quite a bit.  You have the option to throw in a bunch of veggies to bump up the nutritional value or leave them out if you're in a hurry.  The hubs liked that it was pretty meaty, but you could definitely cut back on the meat to save money and/or calories.  This recipe is totally customizable.

We really enjoyed this.  It was moist and full of flavor.  I'll update when I try the frozen one. 

Recipe
Adapted from: Freezer Meals for Us
(Makes 2 9x13 pans, 1 for now and 1 to freeze)
1 lb lean ground beef
12 oz reduced fat pork, turkey or chicken sausage (I used Jimmy Dean, but will try a lighter turkey sausage next time.)
1 lg onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 c veggies, (ideas- shredded carrots, shredded zucchini or squash, chopped spinach, diced green or red bell pepper, olives)
1 46 oz jar spaghetti sauce
1 8 oz can tomato sauce with basil, onion and garlic
1 small can mushrooms, diced
16 oz penne pasta (regular or whole wheat)
4 c mozzarella cheese
1/2 parmesan cheese
4-6 oz turkey pepperoni

1.  Spritz a large pot with olive oil.  I found a natural olive oil in a can that I like.  Some day I'll splurge for a real spritzer.  Saute meat, garlic onion and veggies over medium heat until meat is cooked and veggies are soft.  Make sure you break up the meat as you cook it.  Drain well.
2.  In the meantime, cook pasta according to package directions, but under cook by 2-3 minutes.  Drain.
3.  Add sauces, mushrooms and 2 cups of mozzarella cheese to meat and veggies.  Mix well and stir in pasta.  Divide evenly between 2 9x13" pans sprayed with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Top each dish with pepperoni.
4.  Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 or cover and freeze.  To cook from from frozen, thaw in fridge and then bake as normal. 

Printable Version

Baked Ravioli (aka, Lazy Day Lasagna)

How would you like to be able to assemble a delicious "lasagna" in 5-15 minutes?  This super easy Baked Ravioli Casserole mimics a lasagna with layers of sauce, ricotta filled pasta and cheese but takes almost no time to make.  I think of it as a Lazy Day Lasagna.  ;)  It's good enough to impress guests without having to dirty a lot of dishes or spend much time in the kitchen.  Even if you're normally a disaster in the kitchen, you could pull off this dish!

I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website, but added meat and a jar of pizza sauce to add more substance.    The extra sauce also helps it to reheat nicely without drying out.  Adding sauteed veggies to the sauce would be a great way to sneak in a few veggies into your family's diet and give the casserole more of a homemade taste.  I'll definitely be trying that soon!

We've made this twice now and both times it's been a hit.  I can't wait to make it for company or the next church potluck.  I also have a crock pot version here.


Recipe
1 lb ground beef
1 jar (26-28 oz) pasta sauce (I like Prego)
1 small jar pizza sauce
1 25 oz bag frozen cheese ravioli
2 c shredded mozzarella (I used a little less)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 inch dish with cooking spray.
2.  Brown and drain ground beef.  Pour enough sauce into the bottom of the dish to lightly cover it (about 3/4 cup).  Pour remaining sauce into cooked beef.  Layer half of ravioli in dish followed by half of the sauce and half of the cheese.  Repeat layers ending with cheese.
3.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.  Remove foil and bake and additional 15-20 minutes or until bubbly and hot in the center. 


Source: Adapted from Betty Crocker
Printable Recipe

The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti

OK, I confess... this is the first time I've tried a Pioneer Woman recipe.  *Hangs head in shame.* However, I've been searching for a good chicken spaghetti recipe and Google led me to her website.  I'm so glad I finally visited her recipe section.  Her recipes and story are truly inspiring. 

I have tried several chicken spaghetti recipes in the past and they all end up tasting kind of wonky- too dry, too soupy or too bland.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who has this problem.  I've never been able to figure out the right mix of seasonings and liquids.  However, this time I fought the urge to tweak the ingredient list and just stuck to the Pioneer Woman's original recipe.

The result was cheesy, creamy, perfectly seasoned chicken spaghetti that melted in my mouth and made the hubs very happy.  Needless to say, I'll be trying out a lot more Pioneer Woman recipes in hopes that they will all be this successful.

Here is the recipe, but for step by step instructions and purty pictures, visit the The Pioneer Woman's post.

Recipe
2 c cooked, chopped chicken
3 c dried thin spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
3 c grated sharp cheddar, divided
1/4 c finely diced bell pepper
1/4 c finely diced yellow onion
1 (4 oz) jar diced pimentos, drained
2 c reserved chicken broth
1 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

1. Poach a cut up fryer chicken in salted water.  Pull out chicken pieces, leaving broth in pot, and pull off 2 cups of chicken.  Remove 2 cups of the chicken broth and boil the pasta in the remaining broth.  Be sure to under cook the pasta by 2-3 minutes.  Drain pasta.
2. In a large bow, mix the chicken, soup, pepper, onion, pimentos, 2 cups of cheese, seasoned salt and cayenne.  Stir in pasta.  Add a cup of broth, stir and continue adding broth until the consistency is moist, but not soupy.  I think I used about 1 1/2 cups. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding extra salt and pepper if needed.  Pour into 9x13 pan and top with the remaining cup of cheese.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 35- 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  

Source: The Pioneer Woman
Printable Version