It has come to my attention that I don’t have any large breakfast meals on my blog…let’s remedy that.

Here’s a recipe that my sister-in-law made for my husband and I when she couldn’t find anything similar on my blog. Her bread pudding was so delicious that I immediately voiced interest in recreating it (especially since, as she pointed out, there aren’t any “brunch” style, large breakfasts on my website). I gave it my healthy touch and volumized it a bit, and this is the result.

Now I warn you: The trick to this bread pudding is to let it sit, either overnight or for a number of hours. Otherwise, the egg mixture doesn’t soak all the way through the bread.

I know, because I didn’t wait long enough. I only waited 3 hours, and while it was yummy, I knew it could have been better.

So prep this in advance, and you’re good to go.

Yields: 10 servings
Cook Time: 45-50 minutes

Ingredients:

nonstick cooking spray
8 slices Texas toast
1 Tbsp light butter made with canola oil
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 pound lean turkey breakfast sausage
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 (8oz) package mushrooms, sliced
1 ¾ cups Mexican cheese blend, made with 2% milk, shredded
8 egg whites
4 eggs
¾ cup fat free half-and-half
salt and pepper to taste

Toast the Texas toast. Set aside. In a large skillet, cook down the onions in the butter over medium heat until onions are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Move onions to a plate. In the same skillet, crumble and brown the breakfast sausage. Remove from heat. Rip the Texas toast into chunks. Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Layer the dish with half the toast chunks, half the breakfast sausage, half the onions, half of the red pepper, half of the mushrooms, half of the red pepper, and half of the cheese. Then repeat the layers. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat together the egg whites, eggs, and fat free half-and-half. Add salt and pepper to taste. Carefully spoon the egg mixture over the top of the layers in the casserole dish. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and place in the fridge overnight, or for a number of hours. When you are ready to bake it, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the dish in the oven with the aluminum foil for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown.

This dish is best hot, so serve immediately.

Nutrition Information:
Nutrition Disclaimer: I am not a certified nutritionist…these are just the calculations I’m pretty sure are close to correct. I use BodyMedia to generate my information.

Calories: 255
Fat: 9.2g
Saturated Fat: 3.9g
Cholesterol: 120.6mg
Sodium: 600.9mg
Carbohydrates: 20.8g
Dietary Fiber: 1.4g
Sugar: 4.7g
Protein: 21.5g

Dietary Exchange: 1 Starch, 3 Meat, 1 Vegetable
Jenny Craig:  Because of the high meat content but the low calorie count, I’d say this is closest to 1 Jenny breakfast and 1 milk serving (since 2 meat servings = 1 milk serving).
Weight Watchers: 6 Points (using calculatorcat.com).

Please note that this bread pudding is still high in cholesterol (120mgs), and I’m assuming that’s because of the breakfast sausage (even though I used turkey sausage) and eggs (even after cutting the yolks down by half).So if you’re on a special, low cholesterol diet (as I know some of my readers are), you could probably use a meat substitute, or just cut the sausage out all together, if you needed to.