The Brunch Dilemma

We love it when our daughter and her husband visit from Portland, about a 21/2-hour drive from us.  They love to eat, and I love to cook, so it's always a happy weekend.  My dilemma is how to make a breakfast that lives up to the dinner I served the night before?

I have heard of slow-cooker recipes for egg dishes that are perfect; load the crock up the night before, and in morning everyone is happy.  But the recipes are so good that no one will share them.  So I found one on the internet this Christmas.  I layered the eggs, cheese, hash browns and Christmas ham (keeping it on one side of the slow cooker so that the vegetarian daughter didn't have to pick it out) and went to bed.  Unfortunately, by morning the delicious ham had been leeched of all its salt and the dish was, well, inedible.  I suggested to my husband that he might sneak it into the dog's food, but he had more mercy on our black lab than I had on them.

I turned to a trusted source, the Fix-it-and-Forget-it series of cookbooks. I made this recipe, with minor adaptations from "Fit It and Forget It: 5-Ingredient Favorites."  While this is not an overnight dish, it takes less than three hours from prep to finish.  I put it on before I got on the exercise bike, then turned it down while I got ready for church - driving my husband crazy while he sniffed it cooking. 

Easy Egg and Sausage Puff

1 lb loose sausage (I used chicken)
Olive oil
6 eggs
1 cup all-purpose baking mix (I used gluten-free Bisquick)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups non-fat milk
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Sprig of parsley, snipped with scissors

 Brown sausage in a a small amount of olive oil.  Break up chunks of meat as it cooks.  Drain.

Spray inside of slow-cooker with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix all the ingredients in the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on high for one hour, then lower heat to low and cook for 11/2 hour or until the dish is fully cooked in the center.  

The recipe says it serves six, but it's closer to eight (allowing for my husband to take a double portion!).  For those of you on Weight Watchers, that is 7 Points Plus per serving.  If you use the heart-smart Bisquick, reduced-fat cheese and substitute whites for half the eggs, the points come down to 6.  To get it down to 4, substitute mushrooms, cooked in a tablespoon of olive oil, for the sausage.

I'm still looking for that elusive overnight egg dish, but this will do for now as long as I get before everyone else.  Meanwhile, I'm thinking I'll substitute mushrooms for the sausage for my daughter.  Good thing I have a triple Crockpot - one for the recipe as written, one for the gluten-free version, and one for the vegetarian!