Who doesn’t love a meal that you can put together whenever you want, and then just pop in the oven at dinner time. I don’t know about you, but for me dinner time is always when I have the least time, or I’m just the most tired. Life has slowed down somewhat now that my children are getting older, but this recipe was great during the crazy car pooling or sports days. Even though a strata is a perfect brunch dish, I make this for dinner along with a salad. It makes a ton, and freezes well for another night’s dinner.
The nice thing about a strata is that you can pretty much put whatever you want in it. You can add mushrooms, or use different vegetables instead of the spinach. This is the recipe that I enjoy making (and eating) and I hope you will enjoy it as well.
Ingredients:
Loaf of French bread (cut into cubes)
Package of Jones or Jimmy Dean sausage
Fresh spinach
1 cup shredded cheese
A dozen eggs
2 1/2 cups milk or half and half
Salt, pepper, and dried oregano
Cook sausage in a frying pan until it is no longer pink. I like to drain the grease on paper towels while I am preparing the other ingredients.
In the same pan I saute a bunch of fresh spinach. I’m not exactly sure how much I use, I guess as much as I can fit in the pan because it cooks down so much. I probably should have used a larger pan because it didn’t yield much cooked spinach.
Once the sausage and spinach are both cooked, you can start putting the strata together. Grease a 9″ x 13″ glass baking dish with cooking spray and use half of the bread, sausage, spinach, and cheese for the first layer, then repeat the ingredients for a second layer ending with the cheese. I used 2% Mexican cheese in this strata, but you can use whatever cheese you prefer.
Once the layers are complete, beat a dozen eggs with 2 1/2 cups of milk, salt, pepper, and dried oregano. I use about 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of each spice, it all depends on how much seasoning you prefer. Sometimes I might use some half and half in place of the milk. This time I used 2 cups of 1% milk, and 1/2 cup of half and half. If you would rather it fattened up a bit, use all half and half.
Once your egg mixture is beaten, slowly pour it into the glass dish making sure to cover every bit. Since I tend to make a mess, I use a ladle.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Overnight is best, but at least a few hours. When you are ready to put it in the oven, remove the plastic wrap and cover with aluminum foil for about the first 35-40 minutes of baking at 350 degrees. Remove the foil and cook about another 10 minutes or until it starts to brown.