Holiday Breakfast Recipe: Farmer's Casserole

This Farmer's Casserole recipe is what we usually eat on Christmas morning.  You can prep this the night before or I have prepped it quickly in the morning and then it bakes while we open presents and have coffee and tea.  It easily doubles to serve 12, just use a 9 X 13 rectangular dish and bake for 45- 55 minutes, instead of the directions listed below.

Photo credit

What You Need:

3 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes (or hash brown patties chopped up works too)
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or Monterey Jack adds a nice kick)
1 cup diced cooked bacon or ham (I cook bacon the night before)
1/4 cup green onion
5 beaten eggs
1 and 1/2 cups of milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Coat a square baking pan with non stick spray.  Arrange the potatoes in the bottom of the dish to cover the whole pan.  Sprinkle with cheese, bacon or ham and green onion.

2. In a bowl, combine eggs, milk, salt & pepper.  Pour egg mixture over the potato mixture.

Bake, uncovered in a 350F oven for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

MAKE AHEAD TIPS:
-Do steps 1 and 2 and then cover and chill for up to 24 hours.  You'll need to up the baking time to 50-55 minutes when baking it from the fridge.

The Best Oven Baked French Toast Recipe

The first time I had this delicious over baked french toast, I immediately got the host to photocopy the recipe.  I promise, this recipe is 'fall off your chair' good!  I will be making this for a family get together on Boxing Day morning.  It's perfect for a crowd and super easy for hosting as you make it the night before and then just bake the morning of your gathering.

Challah Bread

What you need:

7 eggs
2 to 2 1/4 cups milk (if you use more bread, add the extra 1/4 milk)
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
12 – 18 slices Challah bread, crusts removed (2 loaves usually)
½ cup butter, melted
½  cup brown sugar

What you do:

Lightly butter 9 X 13 pan.

Combine eggs, milk and cinnamon.

Dip bread in egg mixture, coating both sides, and layer in pan.  Pour the rest of the egg mixture on top.

Stir together butter and brown sugar and drizzle over top.

Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, bring to room temperature, preheat oven to 400 F and remove foil.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until top is golden and custard has set.

*Another name for Challah bread is egg bread.

Cooking with Kids: Ice cream cone Christmas trees

momstown Oakville moms and their junior chefs got together this morning to have some festive fun.  We made a simple and easy treat but the kids loved it as they got to do pretty much all the work.  And there was green icing...what's not to love about that!  Here is how you can make your own ice cream cone Christmas trees.

What you need:

-as many sugar cones as you want
-white store bought icing
-green food colouring
-lots of 'decorations' for the trees

We used red, white and green mini chocolate chips, sprinkles, coconut, gummies and white chocolate curls. You can use whatever you have one hand, your favourite candy (maybe some leftover halloween candy?), or only items with holiday flair.

We gave each child two ice cream cones.  We took the white icing and stirred in a few drops of green food colouring until it reached our desired shade of green - nice and evergreen like!  Then we let the kids spread the icing on their cones gently, moms supervised to make sure the trees didn't break.  Next up, the fun part, decorating the trees!  It was great to see the kids each do their own version of their perfect Christmas tree.

The final product is delicious to eat but would also make a really cute centre piece for a holiday meal, don't you think?  You could even just use the white icing to spread on the ice cream cones and make a snow covered tree with decorations.  Lots of options!
 

Ice cream cone Christmas trees

We'll be decorating Christmas cookies in December and having a Junior Chef event with Nutella! All of the supplies for our Junior Chef program are included in your yearly momstown membership of just $45 a year. Sign up now for your free 4 week trial!

Healthy Holiday Dessert: Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Poached Pears

There are so many decadent desserts around the holidays.  And while I absolutely enjoy a sweet treat, one of my favourite desserts for the holidays is poached pears.  It's festive, easy to make, pretty healthy and always impresses!  This recipe also includes cinnamon which is a lovely holiday flavour.

What you need:

3 cups water
1 cup, firmly packed brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick (about a 3 inch piece), roughly broken
3 large, just-ripe Bosc pears, unpeeled, cored, cut into thick wedges
Low-fat  vanilla greek yogurt, frozen yogurt or ice cream, to serve

What you do:

-Combine water, sugar & cinnamon in a large saucepan over low heat.
-Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until the sugar dissolves.
-Add the pear and stir to combine.
-Cook, covered, for 10-15 minutes or until the pear is tender. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pear to serving bowls.
-Once pears are out, increase to high heat & bring the syrup to a boil.
-Boil, uncovered, for 5-10 minutes or until the syrup thickens slightly.
-Divide the pears into 4 bowls or serving dishes.
-Drizzle the syrup over the pears. Serve immediately with yogurt.

To add an additional presentation flair, you can drizzle some melted dark chocolate over each bowl.  Even though this recipe is pretty simple to make, it seems fancy and always gets rave reviews.