What’s for breakfast on Christmas morning? Ham and Gruyere Egg Casserole can be prepped the night in advance and will bake to cheesy perfection while the kids open all of the presents!
Well, this might be it. The last recipe of the year. I always like to take off the week between Christmas and New Years for a little reset of the mind and soul. Life as a blogger, while wonderfully flexible, never really stops. There’s always recipe development and planning to do, SEO to work on, social media to schedule, etc.
So while I will have a “Top 10” post and hopefully a healthy dinner roundup to get us set for the new year, new content is gonna wait until 2019.
I couldn’t leave out a good breakfast casserole recipe with all of my holiday recipes. Is there anything better than rolling out of bed on Christmas morning to the smell of a baking casserole?
I actually happen to be one of those people who truly loves getting up early for a jump-start on my day, so I typically am not the one who rolls out of bed smelling food already being made. But I can imagine it’s wonderful.
The past couple of months I have been making a habit out of baking a breakfast casserole early in the week and eating it all week long. The thing I love about doing this is that not only can I throw whatever meat, cheese, and veggies I have on hand in the casserole, but it’s practically a no-brainer every morning. Better yet, I don’t have to think about what to feed my kids for breakfast, either. Just reheat and eat!
This Ham and Gruyere Egg Casserole is my newest obsession when it comes to my weekly breakfast casseroles. It has smoky ham, nutty Gruyere cheese, leeks, and big chunks of French bread. I topped it all off with a simple combination of eggs, milk, and some dijon mustard and breakfast for the week was finished! Well, after some time in the oven.
Ham and Gruyere Egg Casserole Can Be Prepped In Advance
Another great thing about this egg casserole is that you can prep the entire thing the night in advance. So if you want to make it for a weekend breakfast/brunch or for Christmas morning when you’ll have other things to occupy your time, you can make it all the night before and then just pop it in the oven when you get up!
Now that I think of it, this could be the perfect solution for those of you not-morning people. You can snooze your alarms a few more times because you won’t have any breakfast prep to do.
So whether you’re feeding your family on Christmas morning or the troops before they head out the door to school, this Ham and Gruyere Egg Casserole will definitely please all of the bellies!
Ingredients
- 1 lb loaf French bread cut into 1” cubes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 leek white and light green parts sliced and chopped
- 1 5 ounce bag baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 8 ounces diced ham
- 8 ounces Gruyere cheese shredded
- 8 large eggs
- 2 ¾ cups milk
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Spray 9x13” baking dish with cooking spray.
- Heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add leek and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add in chopped spinach and stir, cooking until wilted. Remove from heat.
- Layer half of the bread cubes on the bottom of the baking dish.
- Top with half of the ham, half of the leek/spinach mixture, and half of the cheese.
- Repeat with bread, ham, leek/spinach, and cheese.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, dijon, salt, and pepper.
- Pour evenly over baking dish.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- In the morning, set out the baking dish for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, until golden brown and egg casserole is baked through.
- Serve and enjoy!
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