Mothers Day Casserole

I got a lot of requests for this recipe so I'm throwing it out there for everyone. I've got the regular dish for you, and the WW dish in pink.

Serves: 6 (in WW portion world, this should easily feed 8-10 people)

Regular Ingredients:

- 1 lb bag of hash browns
- ½ cup of green pepper and ½ cup of onion
- 1 lb deli ham chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 doz. eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 2 cups of cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup of butter
- Salt and Pepper
- ½ lb of bacon, crumbled

I did the WW thing for this meal and modified the recipe as follows -

- I doubled the amount of green pepper and onion
- You can use turkey instead of ham, or half turkey/half ham
- I used half regular eggs, and half egg whites - may need a few extra egg whites. I did.
- I didn't use any cream
- I used fat free cheese. I also think that Swiss cheese would be really good for this
- I didn't cook my pepper/onion mixture in butter. Rather I used some olive oil
- Put salsa on top in lieu of bacon

Directions:

1. Dry the hash browns with a paper towel or two until most of the moisture is out of them and they feel relatively dry, but not totally smushed.
   


2. Put the dried hash browns in a 9x13 casserole dish, sprinkle salt and pepper on top and put in the oven while it’s pre-heating to 350 degrees. They should stay in there for at least 20 minutes.
   


3. While the hash browns are baking, do the following:
   
   a. Sauté the green pepper and onion in a quarter cup of butter (or olive oil)
   b. Break open the eggs into a bowl and whisk
   c. Add the cooked green peppers and onion, and the milk to the eggs (or just the green pepper/onion if you aren't using the cream)
   


4. Once this hash browns have been in there the allotted 20 minutes, take them out and begin the assembly:
   
   a. Spread the ham (or turkey) evenly, over the hash browns
   b. On top of the ham, spread 1 cup of the cheese
   c. Pour in the egg/green pepper/onion/milk mixture over the casserole
   


5. Throw that sucker in the oven for 40 minutes in a middle rack
   


6. Take back out once that’s done, and add the remaining cheese and the crumbled bacon (or just the remaining cheese if you're not using bacon), if you’re using it and put back in the oven for about 5 minutes, on one of the racks closer to the top of the oven
   


7. If you're going to add the salsa, I would keep that on the side and have people add as much or as little as they like.
   


8. In case you're wondering how to keep peoples serving sizes small, I served this with a fruit salad of strawberries, bananas and clemintines with a squeeze of lemon juice over top. It's good to balance out the heaviness of the casserole with something a little lighter.
   

And that’s it! I hope you enjoy it.

ps - Unfortunately, I don't have a picture so just use your imagination as far as the deliciousness is concerned...