Easy Breakfast Casserole for Resilience, Vigor, and Vitality | Sara's Kitchen Witchcraft

It's the breakfast-for-dinner final boss.

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So I messed up pretty good this weekend, and now we gotta find a way to deal with the consequences—hence this here dish.

You see, every month, I try to bring about $75 - $100 worth of food to my church as a donation for their feeding ministry. Folks bring food items like snacks, buns, fruits, cheese, etc., and volunteers assemble them into meals that then get brought to homeless shelters and other facilities within Lil' Rhody to help combat hunger out there. It's an initiative that I felt was especially important at the start of 2025, and I've been doing my best to contribute to it regularly since, only missing months if I missed sign up (one time) or was out of the country (another time).

This time, though, I missed it because... I completely forgot I'd signed up for it. Oops.

However, when I realized that I was sitting in my house an hour past when I was supposed to drop off food this Saturday, I flew out of my house in a panic to grab the stuff anyway, thinking (quite delusionally) that I could somehow still make it down in time and that all would be well. However, as you might imagine... I was too late. Way too late.

So I went to bring the food back, only for BJ's to tell me that since I'd already taken it out of the store, that if they refunded me, they'd have to throw all the food away. All 96 hamburger buns, 120 cheese sticks, and 4lbs of American cheese slices. Food that had not been opened or used in any way, given I'd just bought it half an hour prior. In a time where people are facing more food insecurity in this country because of a messed up and dysfunctional government, the thought of letting that happen was worse than anything, and so I kept the food and left—thus requiring me to figure out what to do with it all.

After driving around trying to find a food bank that was open on a Saturday and would take it, only to be denied because this stuff was perishable and therefore couldn't keep in the food pantry stores, an acquaintance suggested I drop it off at a local fire station for the first responders to enjoy while on the job instead. This was successful, and I unloaded all the cheese and 2 of 5 packages of buns.

But... that meant I still had about 48 buns left that I had no idea what to do with.

After using them as sandwich buns, hamburger buns, and impromptu garlic bread, I was down to about 34 buns left, which is still a stupid amount of bread—so here we are with a breakfast casserole that makes use of a good deal of it in one go! And specifically in this big old pan of love, we're looking at the hot Italian sausage, peppers, mushrooms, onion, and of course, the egg for our magic, because this spell is all about picking ourselves up and forging ahead with vigor. Which I certainly needed after that whole debacle!

(And of course I e-mailed and apologized as soon as I realized, and the folks at church got back to me to tell me: all was well! Mistakes happen, and they just did a quick run to the store. Believe you me: I will be setting several reminders in my phone from now on, and that everyone has my e-mail and number now in case somehow I still mess that up.)

Magic in Easy Breakfast Casserole

With a lot of fiery, stocky items in here, as well as items that are classic symbols of death and rebirth (like mushrooms and eggs), we have a meal here that is cheap, filling, and most importantly, one that packs that energy of starting over and trying again. The peppers and hot sausage (as well as any other spices you include in something like this, such as onion and garlic and paprika) also act as a kickstarter for when you experience that rebirth: rather than sitting around like a lump after shedding and banishing the old things, you can hit the ground running with a powerful punch of energy, creativity, and strength to push you forward. (And remember: sausage has so much stuff in it to make it tasty! Usually it's got a pork base, with the Hog and its descendant, the Pig being all about courage, power, and abundance on principle—never mind with all those lovely spices mixed in.)

Fire, naturally, takes center stage here as an element, with a touch of water there to soothe old wounds before the fire burns the memory of them away. Moreover, the planet Pluto features here with the egg and the mushroom—a planet of Tower-esque endings and new beginnings. Combine that with Mars and the tiniest nudge from Jupiter, and there's plenty fodder here to take what was once a messy situation and turn it into something beautiful. This is a great dinner to eat to erase the old, and a wonderful meal to have the next morning to burn away any obstacles ahead of you.

Easy Breakfast Casserole

Prep time: 30min

Cook Time: 45-50min

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

• 4-5 hot Italian sausage links (raw)

• 1 large onion, diced

• 2 bell peppers, diced

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced

• 8oz mushrooms, washed and diced

• 12 eggs

• 3-4 cups of torn up bread (about 6 small hamburger buns)

• 1 1/2 cups of milk

• 8oz pepperjack cheese, grated

• 1/2 Tbsp paprika

• 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder

• 1/2 Tbsp onion powder

• 1 tsp basil

• 1 tsp oregano

• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Dice and fry your onions until translucent, then add garlic and fry until fragrant.

2. Add chopped mushrooms and peppers, frying until softened.

3. De-case your sausages and add to the pan, breaking them up into small pieces. Fry until mostly browned. Set mixture aside to cool.

4. Set oven to 350 degrees.

5. Tear up your bread into bite sized pieces and toss into a greased 9x13 baking dish.

6. Whisk eggs, spices, cheese, and cooled meat and vegetables into your egg mixture, then pour over the bread.

7. Put in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the dish is set and no longer jiggles in the middle.

8. Optional: broil the dish on high for 5 minutes for crispy crust.

9. Let sit and cool for 10 minutes, then eat up!

Sometimes, we do stupid things, and then we try to fix it and do even stupider things. It is what it is. What does matter, though, is that we own up for these moments, put it behind us, and try again—and a recipe like this surely helps us do exactly that, both in its delicious flavor and in the magical components within. Try it out if you've ever got extra bread laying around! ♥

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Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.

Follow Sara on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube, and explore her fiction writing here.