Looking for truly memorable breakfast casserole for that family get together? This Southwestern Breakfast Casserole is essentially a classic, but with heat and flavor pumped up.

I started with my favorite breakfast casserole, but boosted flavor and heat by using a distinctively hot Italian sausage, Canino’s Hot Italian Sausage (available at Walmart). Note that they come in sausage casings that I cut off in order to cook up sausage crumbles.

This recipe uses a hot, spicy sausage and also sharp cheddar cheese. A sharp cheese is important to offset  the heat and intense flavor of the sausage. Feel free to add more cheese or tweak the balance of sausage and cheese to taste. Note it is spicy but not hot-hot; if you are serving wimps, you can reduce the sausage or mix it with a milder sausage. Personally, I like the heat level at this level very much.

This casserole also keeps well in the fridge and is just as good reheated several days later. Hope you enjoy it!

Southwestern Breakfast Casserole

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

easy peasy

Author: Anita

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Southwestern

Serves: 10 servings

Ingredients

• 3 Canino's Hot Italian Sausage Links * (at Walmart)
• or 8 oz Canino's Hot Italian Bulk Sausage
• 12 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 4 green onions
• 1 green (or red) bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup diced medium hot green chiles (see note)
• 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13’’ glass pan with cooking spray.
2. Cut the casings off the Canino's sausages: With a sharp knife, slit each sausage lengthwise just to cut the casings; then peel the casings off and discard.
3. Place a large skillet on stove over medium heat. While it heats up, add sausage, breaking it up into small pieces with large wooden spoon and cooking until browned.
4. While the sausage cooks, combine the eggs, sour cream, milk, green chiles, cheese and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Beat with a fork or mix on low speed with electric mixer, until combined. Drain most of the grease and add the sausage to the bowl with the egg mixture.
5. Add the bell peppers and onion to the same skillet the sausage was cooked in and sauté for 2- 3 minutes. Add to the bowl with the eggs and stir everything to combine.
6. Pour mixture into greased 9x13’’ pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until the edges are set and the center barely jiggles..
7. Leftover egg casserole can be stored in the fridge, then reheated in the microwave and enjoyed within 3-4 days.
8. Note: Canino's Italian Sausage also comes in bulk 16-oz packages, but my Walmart only had the sausages. I would use half a package of the bulk Hot Italian if it's available.
9. Sausages are already hot. Use your judgement on heat level for chiles.

3.5.3208

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An easy main course casserole that’s tasty and a meal in itself

This Green Chile Cheeseburger Casserole is a complete meal cleverly disguised as comfort food. Personally, I always have all of these ingredients and I can pretty much throw it together in about a half hour of work. Of course it takes another hour or so to bake, but it’s really the time it takes to make that’s important.

I always have ground beef, usually in 1-lb packages, onion, shredded cheese, potatoes and lots of spices. This is just a matter of browning the beef and onion with spices while roasting the potatoes in cream of mushroom soup, and then topping the potatoes with the beef and shredded cheese. Bake another 10 minutes or so and voila! You have a 1-dish meal for the whole family. Note that I often adjusts the seasoning on the beef to taste. I might want to make it fairly mild or pretty spicy depending on the crowd I’m serving it to.

This is a combination of a balanced complete meal and comfort food. If you want to make it more robust or elegant for guests, serve it with side toppings of sour cream, sliced black olives, pinon nuts, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, or whatever your imagination can concoct. Here I chose to top the casserole with chopped lettuce and fresh tomatoes.

Note this is a great dish for a football game potluck where people serve themselves. The rectangular dish won’t fit in a microwave, but you could make it in two smaller dishes that would or you could pop it in the host’s oven for 15 minutes right before serving, put it on the serving table topped with lettuce and tomatoes. Or you could put the lettuce and tomatoes on the side so guests can add it themselves.

Hope you like it!

Green Chile Cheeseburger Casserole

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

 

An easy, robust dish that can be varied to suit your family's tastes. Guaranteed bombproof.

Author: Anita

Recipe type: Main dish

Cuisine: Southwestern

Serves: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 lbs russet potatoes
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• ½ cup milk
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 medium-large onion, chopped
• ½ to ¾ cup diced green chiles, depending on heat level
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• 1 tsp fajita seasoning
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp beef bouillon
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 2 cups shredded cheddar or jack cheese
• Chopped lettuce and chopped fresh tomatoes for topping.

Instructions

1. Note: use a large rectangular baking dish ( 11x7 or 13x9)
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Peel the potatoes, cut into quarters lengthwise, and slice into pieces about ¼ inch thick. Spread evenly in the bottom of the baking dish.
4. In a bowl, blend the cream of mushroom soup with ½ cup milk. Pour over the potatoes and spread evenly in the baking dish. Bake in oven for 30 minutes.
5. While the potatoes are baking, break up the ground beef in a medium skillet, add onions, green chiles, garlic and seasonings and brown evenly and set aside. Note: I often add seasonings to taste while the beef is cooking (more fajita seasoning, cumin or chili powder). Drain fat off and set aside when beef is browned.
6. Check the potatoes to make sure the potatoes are fully cooked by pricking with a fork.
7. Remove from oven and spread the beef mixture evenly over the top. Then sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top.
8. Bake another 10 minutes or until cheese is fully melted.
9. Top with lettuce and chopped tomatoes and serve using a large serving spoon or spatula.

3.5.3208

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Incredibly easy to make and very tasty just by themselves or in sandwiches or other dishes

Sweet Hot Pickled Peppers are simple to make and are ideal to serve as a side or condiment for festive occasions. They are really good just as specified in the recipe, but it’s also easy to tweak the recipe to your own taste. You just adjust the amount of sugar for more or less sweetness, adjust the vinegar for sour-tartness, and adjust the amount of jalapeno for more or less heat.  You can’t go wrong – if you think it’s too mild, just put more vinegar or jalapeno in the brine and marinate the peppers for a few more hours … or even days.

This particular batch was fairly mild with just one small jalapeno.  I ate the whole batch by itself, just popping them in my mouth. You could chop them into smaller pieces but I like to keep them whole because they’re really pretty. We have Thanksgiving coming up, and these are an ideal addition to the holiday spread. Right now I have them in a seal jar in the fridge, but when we have company over I’m likely to use them to garnish other as well as offering them in a serving bowl as a dish in its own right.

Just try this out – it’s so easy and yummy you just might make it a family keeper.

Sweet Hot Pickled Peppers

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Author: Anita

Recipe type: Appetizer

Cuisine: Southwestern

Serves: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb Mini Sweet Peppers (Kroger)
• olive oil
• 1½ c. water
• ½ - 1 cup vinegar
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 jalapeno, sliced

Instructions

1. Set oven to 450 degrees.
2. Cut off stems and remove seeds from each pepper.
3. Brush each pepper with olive oil, place on cookie sheet, and roast until soft and starting to blister. They roast more evenly if you turn them over after they've started to blister and roast a few minutes more..
4. Remove from oven, let cool and peel.
5. Put water in a medium saucepan and add vinegar, sugar, and jalapenos. Boil for 5 minutes and set aside to cool.
6. Remove jalapenos and add the roasted peppers. Refrigerate overnight.
7. Store in a jar in the refrigerator in the brine and fish them out to serve.

3.5.3208

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A closeup of a slice of Black Bean Quesadilla with cheese and beans oozing out, yummy & maybe a little messy

Black Bean Quesadillas are my latest experiment with main dish quesadillas. I’m on a quesadilla kick because: 1) we love quesadillas, 2) quesadillas are super easy to make, 3) they are great in front of a TV, and 4) I came home with a package of about 25 12-inch tortillas so I’m making lots of dishes using tortillas!

In the photos here, I’m showing a closeup of a quesadilla slice, a photo of a half-made quesadilla, and a photo of a complete quesadilla except for the top tortilla.

This really takes only 10 to 15 minutes to make. Most of the time is spent cooking it – I cook it over medium heat until the tortilla is starting to crisp and brown and bottom layer of cheese is fully melted. Then I flip it over onto a flat pizza pan, place the skillet upside down over the quesadilla, and flip it back over so that the uncooked side is on the skillet ready to get browned. I peek inside to see how much the cheese has melted and I use a spatula to check the bottom to see if it’s lightly browned and starting to crisp yet.

First I sautee the onions and bell peppers and set them aside. Then I actually put the the skillet on the burner, put the first tortilla in, turn the burner on (it’s electric so it takes a minute or so to warm up) and start building it while the skillet is heating up. The quesadilla only takes about 2-3 minutes to assemble, but it takes at least 5 minutes to cook each side. One quesadilla will typically make a main dish for 2 to 4 people; generally I eat about a fourth and my son eats at least a half quesadilla.

Also note that you can use any size tortilla, even little 4-inch corn tortillas if you want.  You’re just layering the fillings to be no more than 1/2 inch thick total. You can also add seasonings if you wish, but the canned beans already have a lot of flavor.

Black Bean Quesadilla half-made, with bottom tortilla, layer of cheese, and filling of black beans, onions, bell peppers, and green chiles

Black Bean Quesadilla, complete except for the top tortilla

Black Bean Quesadillas

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Quick and easy main dish or appetizer - filling comfort food great for that game day party.

Author: Anita

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Southwestern

Serves: 2-4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small bell pepper, diced
• ½ cup diced red onion
• 1 15 oz can black beans, drained (I used Safeway's Signature Select brand)
• ¼ to ½cup diced green chiles (depending on desired heat level)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese or cheddar jack blend
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese (approximately)
• 2 12-inch tortillas (white or whole wheat)

Instructions

1. Drain the black beans and set aside the liquid.
2. In a small to medium skillet, saute the bell pepper and red onion in olive oil until soft.
3. Stir in the black beans, then add the green chiles, adjusting the amount to get desired heat. Set aside.
4. In a very large skillet, place the bottom tortilla and then spread half the shredded cheddar cheese evenly so that the tortilla is mostly covered. Then lightly spread half the feta cheese over the cheddar cheese.
5. Evenly spread the black bean mixture over the cheese, then top with a second layer of cheddar and then feta cheese. Top with the second tortilla.
6. Cook over medium heat until bottom layer of cheese is melted and bottom tortilla is getting crisp.
7. Using a very large plate or pizza pan, flip over and cook the other side.
8. Slide off onto a large platter, cut into wedges, serve & enjoy!

3.5.3208

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