Breakfast Sausage Muffins

Yum
It's Saturday and even though I don't work anymore I still tend to grocery shop over the weekend. Before heading to the store I always check my freezer, refrigerator and pantry items to see what's available. There is a fair amount of breakfast sausage available so I went looking for inexpensive recipes to make. This one is adapted from Betty Crocker recipes and I hope you enjoy it.

The beauty of a recipe like this is that you can swap out ingredients. For instance if you don't like mushrooms use bell pepper. If you want a bit of a kick to it use some finely diced jalapeno pepper. If you don't have fresh sage, use dry sage, about 1 1/2 teaspoons. Swap the cheddar cheese for a Monterey Jack cheese if that's all you have. Use an Italian sausage in place of breakfast sausage - experiment with the recipe and make it your own.


Be sure you drain off the fat well - in fact you may even want to place the drained mixture on a paper towel to absorb more of the fat before adding the sausage mixture into the cups. Also if you use fresh mushrooms you can slice them or dice them to the size you want.

The fact is these are filling and depending on the ingredients you choose pretty economical. I was fortunate enough to only have to purchase mushrooms for the dish. The recipe calls for canned mushrooms but I would recommend you use fresh if it's affordable to you. A 10 ounce package of sliced white button mushrooms cost $1.79. A 4 ounce can of whole mushrooms was $2.39 and the stems and pieces were $1.49 at my store.

I made more Bisquick mixture than the recipe called for as I ended up with not quite enough. The sausage mixture was enough for 10 good sized muffins. You can totally make this with just vegetables and leave out any meat.

Sausage Mixture:

• 3/4 lb. pork breakfast sausage
• 1 med. onion - small dice (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 - 4 oz. can mushrooms pieces and stems (drained and rinsed) - or use fresh mushrooms (1/2 cup or so sliced and chopped)
• 1/2 tsp. salt (I skipped the salt because of the salt in the sausage and the baking mix and found it was just fine because I added just a pinch of kosher salt when sauteing the onions.)
• 3 tbsp. fresh sage - chopped
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Baking Mixture:

• 3/4 cup Bisquick™
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 eggs

 

1. Heat your oven to 375°. Spray 12 regular sized muffin cups LIBERALLY with cooking spray.
2. In a large skillet cook the sausage and onion over medium high heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring until the sausage is no longer pink then drain off the fat. Cool for about 5 minutes and add in the mushrooms and saute quickly for a minute or so then add in the salt, sage and cheese.
3. In a bowl combine the baking mixture ingredients with a whisk until fully incorporated.
4. Spoon 1 scant tablespoon of baking mixture into each cup.
5. Top each with about 1/4 cup of the sausage mixture then spoon 1 tablespoon of the baking mixture over the top.
6. Bake about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. You want the tops golden brown.
7. Cool 5 minutes then using a sharp knife loosen the sides of the pie from the pan. Remove the pies from the muffin tin to a waiting cooling rack.
8. Serve immediately with some fresh fruit on the side or a green salad.

This recipe cost me approximately $10.48.