What Makes This Recipe So Good

This is the perfect second-half to baked french toast casserole for Christmas morning, requiring hardly any effort the morning-of. Additionally, there’s no puffy eggs acting as filler, distracting from the simple, savory richness of shredded potatoes, cheese, green onions, and crumbled sausage.

Eggs a must in your morning breakfast? Don’t forget that there’s only, oh, eight in the baked french toast.

I made a huge batch of this for O’s office, during their 16 Days of Real Food, or something, where everyone signs up to bring something each day. Most bring a box of donuts and a bag of Jolly Ranchers, but not us, no, no. No, we have to overcomplicate everything, naturally.

Yet, assembling everything for two double-batches of baked french toast casserole and hashbrown and sausage casserole only took me about an hour the night before, and they baked while we got ready for work the next morning.

Sausage and Potato Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 pound bulk breakfast sausage
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk (do not use low-fat or nonfat)
• 1 1-pound package frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
• 4 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 1/4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish. Cook sausage in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat until brown, breaking into small pieces with back of spoon, about 5 minutes. Mix in flour, then milk. Cook until mixture thickens and comes to boil, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

2. Arrange potatoes in prepared dish. Top with 1/3 of green onions, 1 cup cheese, 1/3 of green onions, sausage mixture and remaining 1/4 cup cheese.

3. Bake casserole until potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining green onions and serve.