Breakfast Casserole

Breakfast Casserole 

1 lb meat your choice - bulk sausage, browned and crumbled, bacon cooked crispy and crumbled or ham cut into bit size pieces

10 eggs

3 c milk

8 oz shredded cheese (swiss, cheddar, casserole blend, pepper jack, etc)

veggies of choice (green onion, asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, chiles, etc)

8 slices of sandwich bread cut into cubes

1/2 t kosher salt

1/4 t dry mustard

spray a 13x9 pan with pam first.

Mix eggs, salt, mustard and milk together until smooth

cube bread, mix with the veggies, meat and cheese and pour into the greased pan

add the milk egg mixture

cover and allow to sit in fridge for at least 8 hours, overnight is better.

bake at 350F about 45 minutes until top is golden browned and the center is set.  Casserole will be very puffed like a souffle when it comes out of the oven, it will deflate as it cools.

Zucchini Cakes

It seems that the Kitchen Witch has a love/hate relationship with zucchini.  If you've read this blog for any length of time you'll know that zucchini is something that is a staple in the Witches' garden.  Every year I say I won't worry or over plant, and yet every year I have a mini freak out -  will they grow?  Will they produce?  Will I have beautiful zucchini this year? And because it's me, every single year I over plant, too, just in case one or 2 of the plants don't do well.  In 3 years, I've never had an unsuccessful zucchini crop.  They're always TOO successful!  Despite my fretting over the wee plants in the early days they grow and become big time producers.  Before I know it I've gone from "oh my I hope they grow" to "holy shit someone needs to come get some of this zucchini!!" If you remotely like zucchini I highly recommend growing them yourself.  It's SO easy, they're very low maintenance plants, and have never failed to produce.  Oh, and the love/hate thing is because I absolutely love zucchini but as the season wanes on I grow to hate it...after all zucchini for 3 meals a day is only awesome for a few days.

Now that you've been informed about the trials and tribulations of zucchini growing, let's get to the point of today's post, shall we?  Zucchini cakes!  Oh sure they've been done before but boy, are they good!  A few weeks ago my girlfriends and I were out to lunch.  I spotted zucchini cake sliders on the menu and thought now that sounds good!  I ordered them and indeed, I was right, they WERE good!  So promptly I went to the store to buy zucchini (it's not zucchini season in Colorado currently, much to my dismay) so I could recreate these babies.  They seemed pretty basic in their ingredients, zucchini, red bell pepper and feta cheese, with some binders to hold it together.

The Witch decided to use an egg as one of the binders along with some panko breadcrumbs.  Not much, I wanted the veggie to be the star of this cake, but enough to hold it together.  The panko is very light in texture, not dense like traditional bread crumbs can be.  It helped the cakes have a nice firmness to them with out being dense or heavy.  The crunch of the red onions provided a nice contrast to the soft zucchini.  As the cakes brown the zucchini takes on a fantastic flavor, browned zucchini is the only way to eat it in this Witches' opinion!  As the cakes cook the feta softens and melts, adding it's salty flavor to each bite.  These zucchini cakes are a taste sensation, low in calories and vegetarian!   Sounds like a great lunch or side dish idea to me!


Zucchini Cakes
makes 4 cakes, 2 cakes per serving
1 medium zucchini (about 7-8 inches long) shredded
about 2T diced roasted red bell pepper
scant 1T fine diced red onion
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c panko bread crumbs
1/4 c feta cheese
approximately 1/2 t kosher salt
a pinch pepper, or to taste
about 1-2T olive oil for cooking

Shred zuccini using large holes on a box grater.  Squeeze zucchini to remove excess liquid.  Put squeezed zucchini into a small work bowl.  Add the diced roasted red peppers, garlic, onion, panko, feta and S&P.   Pour the beaten egg over top and using a fork, gently mix.  You'll want a cohesive mixture with no obvious pockets of dry bread crumbs or uncoated veggies.

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat.  Once hot scoop zucchini mix into 4 patties, about 1/4 c each.  Make about 1/2 inch thick by 3-4 inches diameter.  Cover skillet and fry cakes on first side until golden browned, about 5 minutes.  Cakes will still be very fragile so be careful when you flip them.  Gently flip and continue cooking covered on second side, until browned and cakes hold together.   Serve and enjoy!

Nutrition Facts provided by SparkPeople recipe calculator Amount Per Serving Calories 223.8   Total Fat 16.8 g Saturated Fat 4.9 g Polyunsaturated Fat 1.5 g Monounsaturated Fat 9.3 g Cholesterol 109.2 mg Sodium 562.1 mg Potassium 339.6 mg Total Carbohydrate 11.4 g Dietary Fiber 1.6 g Sugars 2.4 g Protein 7.3 g

Skillet Quiche with sausage and cheese

The Kitchen Witch loves quiche, let that be understood. Egg pie, filled with delicious things like cheese, veggies, meats, I mean hello!? Its delicious! Quiche is also a major caloric blow, thanks to the pie crust. Pie crust can be a nightmare to make. It can be disastrous to roll out. And even when both of these steps go well, the crust can fight back and be tough and dry, not flaky and flavorful like it should be. So why not forgo it all together and use something that we KNOW goes well with eggs? Something like hashbrowns.

A layer of hashbrowns serve as the crust, the fillings get piled on top and it's capped with an eggy custard that is so soft you'd swear there was a LOT of cream in it. But no, the Kitchen Witch strikes again - using a mere 4 eggs and 2% milk the custard will never miss the cream. Now this is not to say that quiche is low calorie, well at least not this version loaded with Swiss cheese and sausage. It rings in at 590 calories per serving, but that serving is 2 slices of delicious quiche. Add a salad with a low cal dressing and you're good to go.

When making quiche really look at what you have in your fridge to use up. Quiche is magic for left overs. What better place to use up some of that left over Easter ham than in a quiche, add some cheese and left over asparagus from the same meal and voila, a brand new dinner, using only 1/2 new ingredients. Experiment with your families favorite flavors or be bold and make up a new one of your own. I like to follow the guideline of 1 veg, 1 meat and 1 cheese when making quiche.

Any leftovers will reheat nicely but avoid the microwave. To reheat quiche place slices on a baking sheet and put into a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 350F. Heat quiche until hot through, about 5 minutes.

Skillet Quiche with sausage and cheese
makes 4 servings, 2 slices each
1 box sausage links (8 links)
4 eggs
1.5 c 2% milk
2 slices swiss cheese
1-2 roasted red bell peppers diced (jarred)
1/2 onion diced
3 large russet potatoes
3 T butter
2 T oil
kosher salt and pepper to taste

preheat oven to 375F

Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Shred potatoes for hashbrowns. Squeeze out the potatoes to drain the juices. Add 2T oil to the hot pan then put onions and potato shreds into the pan pressing firmly to make a solid layer. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Dab pieces of butter over top of hashbrown and sprinkle with salt, continue to cook until deeply golden on 1st side. Once browned flip hashbrown and cook on 2nd side.

While hashbrown is cooking cook the sausage until done. Remove, drain fat and dice sausage.



Once hashbrown is browned on 2nd side add the cheese slices, sausage and diced red peppers.



In a bowl add the eggs, milk and a pinch of salt & pepper. Whisk until well combined. Pour egg mixture over the hashbrown/sausage/cheese/peppers and place skillet in the preheated oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until center is just set and doesn't wiggle. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.



Nutrition Facts provided by SparkPeople recipe calculator
4 Servings, 2 slices each
Amount Per Serving
Calories 589.9
Total Fat 40.7 g
Saturated Fat 15.7 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 9.1 g
Cholesterol 263.1 mg
Sodium 894.8 mg
Potassium 544.0 mg
Total Carbohydrate 31.9 g
Dietary Fiber 1.9 g
Sugars 5.4 g
Protein 21.5 g

Breakfast taco

This morning I was reminded by my wonderful Witchy Sissy to use my left over roasted tomatillo sauce with eggs. I complimented her on her cooking prowess and great suggestion, when she told me that she had just read my blog on chicken enchiladas with roasted tomatillo sauce and that I was the one who mentioned it, in the blog. LOL!

Turns out the Witch was right, it was a damn good idea and it made an awesome breakfast!

If you're looking for quick, easy, portable and delicious, please look no further. From start to finish, including the time it took for my wee cast iron pan to heat up, it took about 4 minutes. If you're using a lighter weight pan I bet you can shave at least 2.5 minutes off that time.

Breakfast Taco
makes 1 taco
1 egg
1 T roasted tomatillo green chili sauce
1 T grated cheddar cheese
1 fajita size flour tortilla
pinch of kosher salt
dab of butter

Scramble egg in your favorite skillet with a dab of butter. I use my small cast iron pan for this.



Heat your tortilla in your microwave, about 20 seconds, until warm & pliable.

Heat up 1T of your roasted tomatillo sauce

Once egg is cooked transfer it to the warmed tortilla, top with shredded cheese and tomatillo sauce. Enjoy!



Nutrition Facts provided by SparkPeople Recipe Calculator
1 Serving
Amount Per Serving
Calories 243.2
Total Fat 10.4 g
Saturated Fat 3.6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.2 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.9 g
Cholesterol 221.4 mg
Sodium 327.4 mg
Potassium 68.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 22.2 g
Dietary Fiber 0.0 g
Sugars 0.0 g
Protein 12.1 g

Quiche with country ham, broccoli and Swiss

Quiche is one of those dishes that was really popular in the 80's and has fallen out of vogue since then. I don't know why its not in vogue today, its so easy and delicious, and pretty much any flavor combo you like you can turn into a great quiche. Today that happened to be country ham and broccoli with swiss cheese.

The country ham is part of the Southern Foods foodie basket that I won from Michelle at Girl Gone Granola. Please take a minute to check out her blog, Michelle is incredible! She has 2 beautiful girls, a great garden, back yard chickens, heck she even makes her own wine, and that's all in addition to writing a fabulous blog! Michelle recently took a trip to TN to visit family and brought home some yummies for her fans. I was lucky enough to be the winner of this gift basket! Included was the ham, a pound of pecans, candied jalapanos and a set of Paula Deen pinch pots. I am thrilled with the basket and couldn't wait to get cooking with my new treats!

Quiche is more than scrambled eggs in a pie shell, its really more of a savory custard. The filling should be a soft curd that wraps around the ingredients, smooth, creamy and delicious. When I saw the ham I immediately thought QUICHE! Country ham is salty so I thought it would go nicely with the broccoli and egg custard. A touch of Swiss cheese highlighted the flavors nicely. It came together quickly and in less than an hour from start to finish we had a dinner that everyone, even the little Witch, enjoyed!

Quiche with country ham, broccoli and Swiss
serves 4
4 eggs
1 c milk
2 slices (about 4-6 oz) country style ham (any ham will work here)
1 head broccoli cut into florettes
6 slices swiss cheese diced fine OR 4 oz shredded swiss
small bunch chives minced
S&P
unbaked pie crust in a 9 inch pie pan

Preheat oven to 350.

In a skillet over medium heat, sautee ham and broccoli. You want the broccoli to turn bright green and start to become tender, this takes about 7-10 minutes. This step also helps cook out extra moisture from the meat & veg so your quiche isn't a watery mess. While its cooking prep the rest of the quiche.

In a mixing bowl whisk the eggs and milk together, adding a touch of salt & pepper. Add fresh herbs to eggs.

Dice (or shred) cheese



Put your pie pan on a sheet tray to catch any spills and make handling easier. Put 1/2 the cheese in the bottom of the pie shell. Top with the broccoli and ham. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Pour the custard/herb mixture over top, slowly to allow all the trapped air to escape. Give it a slight wiggle to work out any air bubbles.

Cook for 45 minutes (at my altitude) OR until center is slightly jiggly but mostly set. Kinda like jello. Allow quiche to rest for at leasts 5 minutes before cutting, this rest period allows the custard to fully solidify so you can cut wedges. Enjoy!



~*~Nutritional info is based on using a frozen ready to bake 9 in pie shell, if you're making your own this will alter the nutritional information~*~

Nutrition Facts provided by SparkPeople Recipe Calculator
4 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 453.2
Total Fat 26.3 g
Saturated Fat 11.2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat 10.0 g
Cholesterol 256.8 mg
Sodium 850.4 mg
Potassium 719.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate 28.3 g
Dietary Fiber 4.9 g
Sugars 5.9 g
Protein 27.7 g