egg/sausage/vegetable casserole, mashed squash,
baked tomato, roasted purple potatoes, scone
The title sounds much lovelier than the actual meal. It was a garden brunch. It just wasn't in a garden. I used all vegetables from the garden: purple potatoes, green peppers, Swiss chard, tomatoes, and winter squash.
Midday meal menu:
Roasted squash
Oven-roasted purple potatoes, roasted in rendered beef fat
Baked tomatoes
Scratch scones
Evening meal:
Homemade pancake syrup
Leftover egg and sausage casserole from brunch
How I made the meal easy on myself
I roasted the squash on Friday afternoon to use half in Friday's dinner and save the other half for Sunday brunch. I put together the egg and sausage casserole and washed the potatoes on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning all I needed to do was bake the casserole, roast the already cleaned potatoes, season the squash, bake the tomatoes, and make the scones. I did these in the hour and a half before we left for church. When we came home, I reheated everything in the microwave.
This meal was an easy one to put together. My only regret is that since I baked/roasted everything before we left for church, we didn't get to benefit from the residual heat from the oven just after pulling foods out of said oven.
The real aspect that made this an easy Sunday meal was the assembly of the most complex dish the day before. Pair that with using the simplest sides I could come up with, and I had a winning menu. Roasting and baking single vegetables takes very little hands-on effort. The most complex dish I made on Sunday morning were the scones, which are basically a sweetened biscuit that uses butter as the fat.
My family is in agreement that the brunch menu is the most liked, with the crockpot sausage pasta right behind. Both of those meals are super easy for me to throw together, so this is great they prefer these over the others I've made. Ditto on pancake suppers. I'm happy to make pancakes every Sunday if that's what they would prefer.
Sometimes it's really easy to please my group.
Lili, I admire your creativity with these pre-prepped Sunday meals with less to do at the last minute. They sound so tasty and appreciated by your family.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cat. At the very least, I'm getting a change in the usual by cooking this way one day per week.
DeleteThe work you put into the meals sounds like a lot of work to me, but I guess the key is that you are spreading it out over several days. You must find great satisfaction finding a practice that makes things easy on you and makes every one happy. I know I would be happy to share your Sunday brunches. They always sound delicious.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteYou hit the nail on the head with how this is working for me, I'm able to spread the work out over a couple of days. Sundays feel easier this way. And it usually gives us some leftovers for supper or lunch the next day, which in itself is a bit of a break.
Sounds delicious. Your scone looks perfect. Scones can be tricky to get right. I have a scone recipe that uses heavy cream rather than butter, an I get good results from that (not that I make them often).
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this would appeal to your family, but my husband prepped scrambled egg wraps for our midday meal this past Sunday. He cooked up sausage, scrambed eggs, and sauted veggies beforehand. All he had to do was microwave the egg combo, heat up some tortillas, and brunch was served. We had homemade applesauce on the side. If you want fast, easy, and tasty, this is a good one. We topped it with salsa and plain Greek yogurt.
Thank you for that idea, Kris! Breakfast burritos sound tasty, and something I could prep in advance! I think we'll add those to the menu soon.
DeleteThe recipe for the scones comes from an English cookbook. The original recipe is for bramble scones (with berries in the dough). We've modified the recipe for plain scones. One of my daughters is a master at this recipe. Most of the time we get her to do the scones. I think one of the keys to scones is a light hand, and she can do that well. Your heavy cream scones sound good, too.
Is bramble a British term for berries? Your daughter's scone-making ability would be very popular with my family. :)
DeleteHi Kris,
Deleteyes, bramble berries are those that grow on prickly canes like blackberries. I don't know if it's still this way, but in the countryside of England there were bramble hedgerows lining country roads, and it was a common activity to go out and pick a basket of these blackberries in late summer. Where I live in the PNW, we also have wild blackberries everywhere. Sadly, only a few of us go out blackberry picking every year. But we never call them brambles. This recipe for bramble scones is the only time I ever use that term.