Debbie's Breakfast Casserole.

As of today, it is officially college football season! LET'S GO........HOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SrTmaypDWFI]

That being said, its only appropriate that I share my favorite tailgating breakfast (...slash breakfast for any occasion). I am naming this deliciously simple recipe after my wonderful mother, who so kindly prepares this breakfast casserole for my brothers and I on game weekends!

This easy breakfast casserole is extremely inexpensive - all the ingredients only cost about $9 - and did I mention its a great base for drinking?!! It's so easy to prepare the night before and pop it in the oven/reheat it on the grill in the morning so it's ready when everyone wakes up/arrives at the tailgate.

What you need....

• 1 package southwestern hash browns*


• 1 lb regular or turkey sausage


• 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese


• 1 dozen eggs


• 1/2 of a medium Onion, diced (optional, but I always add it)

How to make it...

Place hash browns in a 9x13 greased pan.

*I use the Simply Potatoes brand found in the refrigerator section (near the eggs in most grocery stores). If you are using frozen hash browns, place hash browns in a 9x13 greased pan and cook in 350 degree oven for 30 min or until all the water is absorbed and they are turning brown.  Otherwise, you can skip this step.

Cook the sausage in a saute pan until browned. Add the onion and cook until they have softened. (You can obviously add whatever other veggies you'd like to this casserole, but I like to keep it simple.)


Spread crumbled sausage and onions on top of the hash browns. Layer cheese over sausage. Whip together eggs with a little milk (not a lot otherwise your casserole will be soupy...speaking from experience here) and pour over casserole.



Bake at 350 for 30 mins or until browned.



If you're feeling REALLY lazy, you can buy Jimmy Dean fully cooked sausage crumbles, skip the onions, and you'll have a breakfast casserole in no time.  With or without onions, pre-made or freshly prepared, it is going to be delicious (and I have about a dozen friends who can vouch for this statement). K, byeeeee!

Maribetso.

During my [first] senior year of college I decided that graduating on time was overrated. I made the decision to stay in school for another year and pursue a second degree (read: party and avoid the real world for as long as possible). It was really late in the year and most people had already figured out their living situation for the following school year. I ended up getting really lucky and found an awesome group of girls in my sorority to live with....downtown....in the perfect little apartment. Until my [second] senior year of college, I had never had pesto. My roommate, Nina (far left), introduced me to her mom's homemade pesto sauce and my life hasn't been the same since.



Every pesto recipe I've tried since college has not measured up to Maribeth's pesto. Aren't Maribeth and Nina the prettiest mother-daughter combo ever!?!



Sooooo I finally got smart and asked Nina if Maribeth would mind sharing her secret. As it turns out, I had all the ingredients right, but my ratios were off. Now I get to share the deliciousness with you all!

What you need...

• 2  cups fresh  basil,  lightly  packed


• 3/4 cup olive  oil


• 1  cup grated  parmesan  cheese


• 1 - 2 garlic  cloves


• 1  tsp. salt

How to make it...

Place  all  ingrediants  in   a food  processor (or blender) and  blend  until  smooth.



Sever over pasta or gnocchi...or just eat it with a spoon!



Other pro tips for Maribeth...

"Store  in  the  refrigerator,  covered,  until  ready  to  use.  Mix  well  before  serving,  use  hot  or  cold. Can  also  be  made  ahead,  placed  in  airtight  containers, and  frozen. When  making  a  salad,  I always  use  Italian  Dressing,  along  with  the  pesto  sauce."

I make a ton of pesto sauce at once and freeze it! IT'S SO GOOD. And on that note, I'm going to go defrost and devour some maribesto. K, byeeeee!

Garen's Salsa.

My best friend that I've known since pre-school just recently got married...and she looked absolutely stunning.



She married an equally handsome guy.



Meredith and her new husband Garen (still feels really weird to call him her husband) currently live in Atlanta, so my boyfriend and I made a trip down to visit them...and of course go to a Braves game!!

It wouldn't be appropriate to go to any major sporting event without throwing a proper tailgate...which brings me to the point of this post: Garen's Salsa. His homemade salsa recipe is only one of the many recipes that Garen's family shared with Meredith. If all of the other recipes are as good as this salsa, I'm going to need to visit them more often! The salsa recipe is very simple, but it's seriously the best fresh salsa I've ever tasted!

What you need...

• 8-10 roma tomatoes, diced


• 1 onion, diced (can add scallions too)


• 5 garlic cloves, minced


• 4-5 jalapeños, diced (remove seeds)


• Juice of 1 lime


• Add to taste: coarse salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and fresh cilantro

How to make it....

Uhhhh, that's easy...chop, dice, mince, squeeze, dice some more, and mix! If you have a food processor, obviously use that to cut down on the time it takes to cut everything up. This recipe yields....a giant bowl? If you're not feeding a crowd of twenty, you could stand to cut the recipe in half.

Serve with chips and a vodka watermelon and you'll be in tailgate heaven. K, byeeee!

Zucchini Creole.

Zucchini Creole was the first dish I made in my real adult life (meaning when I graduated college and joined the rest of the world in prison...I mean having a full-time job). It is very easy to make and continues to be one of my favorite dishes in my adult life.

What you need...

• 3 or 4 medium zucchini, sliced


• 2 tomatoes, chopped


• 1 onion, chopped


• 1 green pepper, chopped


• 3 tablespoons butter (I use I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!^® Light)


• 3 tablespoons flour


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 tablespoon brown sugar


• 2 cups grated cheese (I use Sargento^® Shredded Reduced Fat 4 Cheese Italian)

How to make it...

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Layer the sliced zucchini in the bottom of a casserole dish (I usually use a 9 x 13 pan, but sometimes you have to improvise). Melt the butter in a pan and stir in flour, onions, green pepper, and tomatoes. Add salt and brown sugar. Cook for 3-5 mins or until thick.

Pour the vegetable mixture on top of the zucchini slices (if you're using two dishes, distribute evenly). Bake for 30 mins.


Top with cheese and bake for an additional 10 minuets, or until cheese is brown and creole is bubbly.

Sidebar: I usually top the dish with cheese, cover it with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 mins. Then I uncover it and bake for an additional 10 mins. In this case, I didn't have foil, I added the cheese at the end, and it turned out just fine. Make it however you would like, either way, it will be delicious!

The best part (besides it being easy to make AND delicious) is how healthy it is! The dish makes 8 servings and, even smothered in cheese, each serving is only 145 calories!!! You could eat two servings (guilty of doing this) and still only consume 290 calories...crazy talk, I know. Guess you'll just have to give it a try...k, byeee!!

World's Worst Blogger.

I haven't cooked in months, which makes maintaining a food blog pretty hard.

In lieu of cooking, my diet has consisted of:

andand occasionally (woopsie)

and an embarrassing amount of

and some

and definitely not enough

or

That  being said, its [almost] time for me to stop being the world's worst blogger. Notice I said almost? Well, I'll be traveling (for work and play) for the next two weeks, and I don't see myself being too enthusiastic about cooking during that time...but maybe I'll surprise myself?

Either way, its time for me to set some goals and share them with my readers (which at this point might only be my mom...thanks mom!) to be held accountable! So here they are:

1. Stop being so lazy and cook!


2. Step outside of my comfort zone and don't just try things that seem easy


3. Post on my awesome-totally-only-read-by-my-mom blog at least once a week!!

And there you have it. I'll be back in a few weeks ready to cook and blog! K, byeee!