Breakfast Sausage Bake

This is a recipe that I got from my sister-in-law, years ago. It's so old, that the salad croutons the recipe calls for, are no longer made in boxes. You can easily substitute whatever salad crouton that is available in your area. I'm making a guess on the size bag, since I never wrote down the size box at the time - but if I had to guess on the size, I would say they came in 6 ounce boxes. Doing a Google image search, I find that the bags are 5 1/2 ounce bags, so I say, close enough.

This is a recipe that needs to be made ahead of time, since it needs to sit for at least 8 hours in the refrigerator before baking. The original recipe does not call for browning the sausage first, and I never did, but it still came out just fine. If you want to brown the sausage first so that you can drain any grease that might accumulate, please feel free to do so. You could easily substitute chopped up ham, if you would prefer. 

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1 and 1/2 bags of Brownberry seasoned salad croutons (Approximately 5 1/2 oz. bags each)*

1 16 oz. roll regular Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage**

12 eggs ( This also works well using 8-10 eggs, if needed)

1 cup milk

1 tsp dry mustard

1 (8 oz.) bag shredded Cheddar cheese (2 cups)

Grease a 9 x 13" baking pan. Cover the bottom of the pan with the croutons. Take the raw sausage and break it up, spreading evenly over the croutons. (See note below**) Sprinkle cheese over the sausage. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, and dry mustard. Pour over all in the baking pan. Cover, and allow to chill in the refrigerator overnight, or at least several hours to allow the egg mixture to soak into the croutons. Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees, for 40-45 minutes, until puffy and browned well.

* Note: These used to come in boxes but now they come in sealed bags. I 'm guessing they came in 6-oz boxes, but now come in 5 1/2 oz. bags. Use whatever is available to you. Feel free to use more than what is called for, if you seem to have too much egg mixture. The croutons should absorb whatever is there as it sits overnight in the refrigerator.

** Note: You may use without browning first, or you may brown is and drain any grease that accumulates. Either way, is just fine.