Papa's Egg Casserole and my version

large egg casserole

Easter is next week so I'm posting my egg casserole recipe.  I made this last month and will most likely make it for Easter.  This is one of our family favorites.  It started when my girls were little and their grandfather, Papa, made it with a can of green chilies and canned milk added to eggs and cheese.  I have revised the recipe several times and now make it with lots of fresh vegetables and regular milk added to the eggs and cheese and don't use the canned chilies at all but use fresh sweet peppers instead.  I'm including both versions in this post and both are very tasty. I usually make it in a large rectangle Pyrex dish but this last time I made 2 smaller casserole dishes and that seemed to work better for us.  I also added cooked bacon which was a great addition.  As with the majority of my recipes, it's very versatile and can add whatever you have on hand and then change it up the next time you make it.  I almost always include zucchini, broccoli and spinach but have added other vegetables as well depending what's in season or that I have on hand in my freezer.  I've also changed up the cheese as well adding gouda, white cheddar or again whatever I have on hand. Here's the recipes:




Papa's Egg Casserole

1 lb grated cheddar cheese
1 lb grated Monterey Jack cheese, or bag of shredded blend
8 to 10 eggs
5 oz evaporated milk or can use regular milk

bottom veggie layer

4 oz can chopped green chilies

 Bamah's variations

2 T sofrito, 1/2 to 1 t seasoned salt, pepper, turmeric and parsley

10 eggs

1/2 c milk

1 lb grated cheddar cheese and 1 bag shredded blend cheese

1/2 cup each of fresh chopped veggies, onion, garlic, sweet peppers, yellow squash, zucchini and broccoli.  Sauté in skillet or microwave

until tender, 5 to 10 minutes. 

Also fresh tomatoes,  spinach or kale. Cooked chopped bacon can also be added

Beat eggs, add milk and seasonings in bowl. Assemble in large casserole dish, (or 2 smaller casserole dishes) starting with cooked veggies, add egg mixture, chopped tomatoes, spinach or kale and cheese, stirring a bit.  Bake at 300 for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until set and eggs cooked through.
Enjoy, Bamah

topped with cheese

smaller egg casserole with bacon

Cauliflower "Rice"

ready for the freezer

I'm tagging this post as Farmers market addiction as well as recipes since I discovered cauliflower "rice" by following Murphy Farms on Facebook.  I also follow the Lawton Farmer's market and several of the farmer's home pages on Facebook.  Stalking farmers, yep, that's me.  Last month I saw another customer post pictures of her baggies of "rice" ready for her freezer so immediately looked up how to do that online. I'm always looking for more ways to use fresh vegetables in my cooking. I have a freezer full of baggies of fresh vegetables cut up and ready to be added in to whatever I'm cooking plus have been able to continue throughout the winter to get fresh local produce from Murphy Farms.  They have an organic farm in Walters with several greenhouses so are able to grow year around and bring in produce each week to Cameron University for people to purchase.  I pretty much have gone every Saturday so have kept my freezer stocked plus cooked for the week with what's in season.  I like chopping in small batches, I feel I have a better control over consistency. My absolute favorite tool is my Tupperware Chop and Prep Chef, I call it my lawnmower since it has a pull handle and is perfect for me. I have several baggies of roughly chopped cauliflower in my freezer that I've been throwing in whatever I'm cooking for the week along with everything else.  On average, all my recipes have 5 to 10 fresh veggies added in some type of chopped form. I was making yellow rice that weekend so thought I'd try reducing the rice and adding in the cauliflower "rice" and it turned out great.  I'm always looking for ways to reduce carbs so the last time I had made my yellow rice I added quinoa and it was good but not the same consistency I wanted and the cauliflower "rice" turned out perfect. I made a large pot of yellow rice (my recipe is on a previous post) and only added 2 cups of instant rice and added about 1 1/2 cups of cooked cauliflower "rice", about 10 vegetables, smoked sausage and cheese. My husband noticed I was finely chopping cauliflower and had it in a container sitting on the counter and looked like rice so he figured it was going in the yellow rice but he said he couldn't really taste it.  He doesn't really like cauliflower and won't eat it by itself but when I mix it in like this he was fine with it.  This last weekend I bought more cauliflower so used some for roasted vegetables and added some  chopped to pasta salad and the rest I finely chopped for the freezer (raw) for future rice dishes. To cook the "rice", saute in 1 T of oil, I used olive oil, seasoned salt and pepper, covered 5 to 10 minutes, stir so it doesn't stick then add to whatever dish desired.  I haven't used it by itself yet but will probably just keep doing half rice and half  cauliflower "rice".  I hope this inspires you to try it.
Enjoy
Bamah



chopping process

 

 

My lovely Tupperware chopper

finely chopped "rice"