Breakfast Strata with Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Spinach

Made this for a brunch with neighbors. This does take about 1 hour to bake, so prepped this the night before. This recipe is similar to a breakfast sausage casserole that I have made from allrecipes.com. I served this with potatoes, asparagus, fruit tart, and vegan donuts.

Update:  Also tried once putting tomatoes and last layer of cheese on the casserole the night before and turned out fine. 

Here is what I did:

1)     Cooked the Italian sausage.

2)     Cooked fresh spinach and mixed it with the sausage.

3)     Mixed 10 eggs, with milk, salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon mustard

4)     Toasted 8 slices of bread, cubed. Placed toasted/cubed bread at bottom of greased 9 x 13 pan

5)     Topped with sausage and spinach.

6)     Topped with 1 cup of shredded cheese

7)     Topped with sliced mushrooms

8)     Poured the egg mixture on top

9)     Put in fridge overnight

10)  Next morning, cut grape tomatoes and topped breakfast strata with tomatoes and ½ cup shredded cheese. Update. Could also put tomatoes and cheese on top the night before. 

11)  Baked for 1 hour at 350 degrees

12)  Topped with shredded basil

Breakfast Strata with Mushrooms, Tomatoes and Spinach (~from delish.com)

Ingredients

·        1 tbsp. butter

·        1 lb. ground Italian sausage

·        10 large eggs

·        2 c. whole milk

·        Kosher salt

·        Freshly ground black pepper & 1 teaspoon mustard powder

·        4 c. cubed bread (used 8 slices of bread, toasted and cubed)

·        1 1/2 c. shredded Fontina, divided (used shredded cheddar, divided into 1 cup, and ½ cup)

·        1 c. frozen spinach, defrosted, drained, and chopped

·        1 c. sliced baby Bella mushrooms

·        1 c. halved grape tomatoes

·        1/4 c. torn basil, for garnish

DIRECTIONS

1)     Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9"-x-13" baking dish with butter. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add sausage and cook, breaking up large pieces with a spoon, until golden, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

2)     In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk and season with salt and pepper. Gently fold in bread, 1 cup cheese, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cooked sausage.

3)     Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bake 50 to 55 minutes, until cheese is golden and no liquid remains. Garnish with basil before serving.