Regina's Sausage Gravy

I have been making sausage gravy since I was a young teen. Over the years I have tweaked my recipe to this below. The recipe is requested every time I serve it. I believe that part of that is the combination of seasonings and the other reason is because of the method.

I never measure ingredients for the gravy so I am giving it my best guess. Adjust to you liking or as necessary. The picture below was obviously a large batch to feed a crowd. This is great for Easter Sunrise breakfasts.

Regina's Sausage Gravy

1 pound ground sausage
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon or more garlic powder
A shake of onion powder (Instead of using these two separate ingredients, I use about a 1/2 teaspoon of Wildtree Rancher Steak Rub.)
A quart or more of milk
A dash of hot sauce (to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method: Brown sausage slowly in skillet, breaking apart any large clumps. (I like it really fine.) I do this at medium low heat.

Turn burner temperature up a little higher for the rest of the process.

Do not drain sausage. Add flour to sausage in skillet and stir to coat. Add seasonings, but not hot sauce. Continue to stir until flour starts browning.

Add milk, stirring constantly. Either have additional milk or some water handy to thin if needed. Continue stirring until gravy has reached desired thickness. Add hot sauce. Add more milk (I usually use water) to thin if needed. If it does not thicken as you would like, take an additional 1/4 cup flour, mix with cold water until all clumps are stirred out and add to gravy. Just remember, gravy always thickens as it stands.

Serve with biscuits or pancakes.

Yogurt Honey Muffins

These were absolutely delicious and healthy enough I didn't mind serving them to the children for breakfast or a snack. This was one of the rare times I followed the recipe (almost) to a T.

Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons butter
5 Tablespoons honey
1 cup plain yogurt (I do not use non or low-fat anything)
1 egg
grated rind of lemon
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 cup all purpose flour (I always use unbleached)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1&1/2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of grated nutmeg

Method: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-muffin pan, or use paper liners.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and honey together. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly. In a large bowl, beat together the yogurt, egg, lemon rind and juice. Add the butter and honey mixture. Sift together dry ingredients and fold into the yogurt mixture just to blend. Fill prepared muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops spring back lightly when touched. Allow to cool in pan 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Cinnamon Rolls (aka Melt in your Mouth Heart Attacks)

Seriously, from dough, to filling, to frosting, this recipe took 7 STICKS of butter!

Ready for the oven

I recently lost 12 pounds on my mission to shed 40 and I'm convinced that just ONE of these cinnamon rolls would put all 12 of those pounds and then some right back on me. That's why I repeat this mantra when I look at them...

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter, melted

1 Tablespoon salt

5 eggs

½ cup milk

2 Tablespoons yeast

2 and ½ cup warm water

12 cups flour

Filling:

1 and ½ cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon (I doubled that)

2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

2 Tablespoons water

For Dough: Dissolve yeast in warm water. 

Mix sugar, salt and butter. Add eggs and milk and beat well. 

 

Add yeast mixture; mix in flour. Knead to make smooth elastic dough. 

Let rise until double. 

Divide dough in half. 

Roll one half into a rectangle ¼ inch thick. 

My little helper

Cover with filling. 

Roll up (starting with long edge) and slice into 1 inch rolls. 

Put a little filling into the pans and place rolls in pan.

 Let rise again. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

The two in the back are covered with cream cheese frosting and the two in front are covered with caramel frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

4 ounces cream cheese

½ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 Tablespoons milk

Mix all ingredients together and frost cooled cinnamon rolls.

Healthy-ish Breakfast Casserole

Even your pickiest eater will love! I wish all my "experiments" turned out so fabulous! I took our standby breakfast casserole and transformed it into something I would serve to royalty. (If royals are so inclined to eat such things as casseroles.) I really had NO idea whether this was going to work or not when I started and when I tested it on my husband, he had not even realized I had made some major changes. Other variations at the end.

Fresh from the oven

Instead of cubed bread, I peeled and chopped up 1 medium-sized eggplant. I also incorporated fresh vegetables and herbs.

Ingredients:
1 medium to large eggplant, peeled and chopped into small pieces. Place into a 9X13 pan.
1 pound ground sausage
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
7 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 handful fresh spinach
several sprigs of fresh parsley
1 medium onion
a few splashes of Wildtree's Smoky Chipotle Hot Sauce or hot sauce of your choice
1 teaspoon Wildtree's Rancher Steak Rub OR salt and pepper to taste

I did add 2 slices of my homemade "Rustic Cracked Wheat Bread" because I wasn't sure how absorbent the eggplant would be. (The original recipe calls for 6 slices cubed bread.)

1 pound ground sausage, cooked, drained and crumbled (We butcher our own so it is very low fat.)
Place on top of cubed eggplant

 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Sprinkle on top of sausage

In a medium bowl, mix together veggies and herbs of choice with eggs and milk and pour over everything. Sprinkle top with Wildtree's California Style Garlic and Pepper Blend.

If you don't have one of these awesome handy dandy Tupperware Food Choppers, you should definitely talk to my friend, Marcie! This is one of my MUST haves!

This is the egg and herb mixture to pour over the casserole

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes or until eggs are set. You can prepare this in the evening and bake the next morning so it is great for company, or you can bake immediately.

If you have a REALLY picky eater, put the eggs, veggies and herbs into the blender. Voila`. They will never know. I do that with smoothies all the time. My kids drink fresh spinach in their yogurt and fruit smoothies and think it is the best ever. A lot of times I throw a little fresh mint in the smoothies too, so if they see a fleck of green and ask what it is, I tell them it must be that yummy mint leaf.

This casserole really was INCREDIBLE! And I looked up some nutrition info.

For one cup of chopped cooked eggplant, you are looking at 33 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 g cholesterol, 237 milligrams sodium, 8 g carbs, 2 g dietary fiber, 3 g sugar, 1 g protein. Info from Self Nutrition Data.

1 slice of wheat bread (if you use 6 sliced cubed as in the original recipe) is 60 calories, 0 cholesterol, 100 milligram sodium, 12 g carbs, 1 g dietary fiber, 2 g sugar and 2.5 g protein. Info from Live Strong.

VARIATIONS: We also love this casserole with fresh diced tomatoes tossed in with the bread cubes or eggplant and then Wildtree's Fiesta Salsa Mix in with the egg mixture. We also like jalapenos and other hot peppers one on end on top for mommy and daddy.