Overnight Asparagus Mushroom Strata - Recipe #3

It's cold, cold, cold this week in Minneapolis; staying in for a big, lovely breakfast/brunch on Saturday is the best way to start the weekend. Clearly.

I found a recipe for a breakfast casserole of sorts. I tweaked it, as usual.

2 teaspoons butter, or as needed
1 3/4 cups of sliced mushrooms
3-4 English muffins, split and toasted
2 cups shredded cheese of your choice
1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped broccoli
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir the mushrooms until their liquid has mostly evaporated and the mushrooms are beginning to brown. (It amazes me how much mushrooms shrink when cooked.)

- Grease a pan, I used an 9x9 baking dish, and arrange the muffin halves, cut side up, in the bottom of the dish. Stuff remaining muffins into the spaces between the halves.

- Spread 1 cup of the cheese over the muffins in a layer.

- Distribute the vegetables over the cheese.

- Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, dry mustard, and black pepper in a bowl.

- Pour egg mixture over the muffins and vegetables.

- Cover the dish and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, when you are sleepy and lazy in your PJs: preheat the oven to 375.
- Remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let stand for 30 minutes. Spread 1 cup of the cheese in a layer on top of the vegetables.

- Bake 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the edge comes out clean. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Review:

This was tasty and really awesome to just throw in the oven in the morning. Doing the prep-work the night before is brilliant for lazy-Saturday people like me. The english muffins were very smooshy and yummy at the bottom of the thing and helped keep it together when serving up the pieces. The veggies came out perfectly cooked, hot all the way through, but not overdone and limp.

It took more than the given 45 minutes to cook, closer to an hour - probably because I used a smaller, square pan instead of a 9x13 as the original recipe suggested.

I would change this recipe a bit the next time I make it. There was too much liquid left in the pan, I think because I added many more veggies than the original recipe called for but didn't cut down on the milk to balance it out. I'd probably try it with only 1 cup of milk next time to see how it goes. I think the tomatoes really add a lot of liquid to the dish, more than I figured on.

The PM suggested that the top layer of cheese be added later on in the baking so that it is more cheesy and gooey and less crunchy.


Netflix Rating:
Me: 3.5
PM: 3.5