Mushroom Spinach Baked Egg Casserole

Good morning!  I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready for 2013.  If you didn’t catch yesterday’s post, I am running a 31 Day Abs Challenge for the month of January.

Did anyone do their timed plank yesterday?  I did and my time was 4:05, which is close to my personal best plank record of 4:30.  I know I’ll get that back up there!  Today’s challenge is to sneak in some crunches before you go to bed!  Beginners, do 25.  Intermediate folks, do 50.  And if you are advanced, shoot for 100.  Don’t forget to leave a comment on this post or on my Facebook page once you’ve completed today’s challenge!

Moving right along, I wanted to share the recipe for the Christmas breakfast Tim and I made on Christmas morning.

I recently subscribed to The Food Network magazine, and one of their breakfast recipes caught my eye.  Since making something different for breakfast on Christmas morning is now a tradition of ours, I thought this one would be fun to make.

Recipe inspired by The Food Network.  Note the recipe below serves 6 people, even though we cut down the ingredients to serve 4.  Also, some of the ingredients below are altered from the original.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced
• 6 cups baby spinach
• 6 slices wheat bread, lightly toasted
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Salt & pepper

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms and cook, undisturbed, until they begin to brown, about 2 minutes.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste; continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 4 more minutes.
5. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and let cool.
7. Brush a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with olive oil (or in the case of four servings, 8×8).
8. Arrange the bread in the dish in a single layer with the edges slightly overlapping, then spoon the mushroom-spinach mixture on top.  If making ahead, cover and refrigerate overnight.
9. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
10. Crack an egg onto each piece of bread; season with salt and pepper.
11. Pour the milk evenly over the top and sprinkle with the cheese.
12. Bake until the egg whites are set, 25 to 30 minutes.

This was really good and definitely something different.  I would recommend this as something to serve if hosting a brunch, it definitely was too much food for just the two of us on Christmas morning, despite cutting down the ingredients.

Doesn’t that egg look kind of weird and gross up close like that?  I swear it wasn’t gross.

Does anyone else have any Christmas breakfast traditions?  Ever baked an egg before?  Any favorite brunch recipe suggestions I should try?

Happy Wednesday!

Christmas Day 2012

Like I mentioned last week, this Christmas was one of the better Christmas’s I’ve celebrated in a while.  Tim and I celebrated Christmas Eve with his mom’s side of the family at his cousin Kelly’s house (his dad’s side celebrates earlier in the month, so we already had that under our belts), and we celebrated with my family on Christmas Day.  I was pretty worried this year about being able to see everyone, but somehow it all worked out which I was really happy about.

Last year was actually our first Christmas morning together, but this year was our first Christmas morning together in our own place.  Big difference!

We started the day by exchanging our stocking stuffers.  I seriously love filling stockings for people.  Can you guess whose pile is whose?

We then exchanged our gifts to each other.

I didn’t get a picture of everything, but we somehow ended up with four gifts each for one another (unplanned).

For me:  A kindle, an immersion blender, new tips for my frosting gun, and the Peanuts holiday special DVD set (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas).

For Tim:  A new backpack, a water bottle, slippers, and two cookbooks.

After we exchanged our gifts, we continued the tradition we started last year of making a fun and different holiday breakfast.  Last year we made green apple cinnamon protein pancakes.  This year we made a mushroom spinach baked egg casserole with maple pepper bacon on the side.  Recipe coming soon!

We then ended up rushing a bit, but were only 20 minutes late to my parents’ house where we exchanged gifts with my immediate family (parents, brother, sister).  I got some more really fun stocking stuffers.  My mom Santa puts together a mean stocking.

My parents gave me some really nice things including a Keurig (woo!)…

…a cover for my Kindle (took some collaboration with Tim), a new workout top, red pants, a new scarf, and a nice serving bowl for dip.  My sister got me some Bath & Body works things and my brother got me a set of 15 pound weights for my apartment since the weights I own (8’s and 10’s) are way too light.

After the present exchange, we helped my parents get the house ready.

And do some prep work in the kitchen.

Then my mom’s side of the family began to arrive.

We had dinner first, which consisted of avgolemono soup, a holiday ham (Tim cooked up the one my company gives us every year), pastitio, tiropita, salad, rice, bread, and souzakakia.  So good… and Greek!

We opened some more presents after dinner, but by that I mean we watched my almost four-year old god-daughter tear through all of her gifts at record speed.  She’s the cutest thing, but phew, does my cousin have her hands full!

How cute is Layla?

She’s getting so big!

Here are some more pictures from the day!

Me and my dad:

Me, my dad, and brother:

Me, my mom, and brother:

Me & Tim:

Annual 5 cousins photo:

Around 5:00, Tim and I packed up our stuff and drove down to see my dad’s side of the family.  My immediate family all took Wednesday off to see my grandfather, etc. but Tim and I did not have the day off from work so we wanted to make sure we could see everyone on Christmas Day itself.  I unfortunately didn’t take any people pictures on Christmas night while we were visiting them, just of the cookies I brought down.

We were very happy to get to visit with everyone, and had a great time catching up with everyone.

Twas a very Merry Christmas, but I can’t believe it’s all over!  The season always comes and goes so quickly, and then BOOM it’s over.  Don’t you think?

Leave a comment on this post telling me what the best part of your Christmas this year was!