Recipes from Easter breakfast, part 1

I thought I would share the two main-dish sort of recipes which I made to take to church for our Easter breakfast following the outdoor sunrise service.  One is tried and true; the other is new for me this year but a definite keeper.  I signed up to bring an egg casserole and hash browns.  Baked goods too, but I'll post about those tomorrow.

(Photo by Taste of Home)

For hash browns, I brought my usual recipe:  Hash Brown Casserole.  Instead of cream of chicken soup, I use my own cream soup substitute*.  Since I'm not eating wheat now, I substitute gluten-free all-purpose flour for the flour in this recipe and it works perfectly.

(Photo by Skip to My Lou.)

For the egg dish, I tried the gorgeous egg casserole pictured above.  Here is the link:  California Egg Casserole.  I needed to find a recipe without bread, crackers, croutons, etc. in it (so that I could eat it myself), but I didn't even have to hunt for this one.  It came right into my email inbox in an email from Skip to My Lou.  I really had no idea how the avocados would behave as I was planning to prepare the casserole (without baking it) the night before, refrigerate it,  and bake it in the morning so it was ready just as we went out the door.  I was somewhat concerned that the avocados might discolor, but I pushed them down into the egg mixture as much as I could, covered the top of the casserole with bacon bits (just in case) and hoped for the best.  I was so pleasantly surprised.  The avocados stayed nice and green.  I plunked the casserole on a warming tray when we got to church and so it was just right when we were ready to eat.  As I said, this is going to be a keeper recipe for me.  Simply wonderful!

(I should add here that I did not use all of the cheese this recipe calls for. I used a total of perhaps 1-1/2 cups, and I used cheddar.  For cream cheese, I used the lower fat Neufchatel.)

Now I want to quickly share the recipe for the cream soup substitute.  It's here in the archives, but just in case anyone would like it and can't take time to search, here it is again:

* CREAM SOUP SUBSTITUTES

Do you hate buying canned soups for use in recipes? This recipe makes a perfect substitute for 1 can of soup.

3 Tblsp. margarine
3 Tblsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk or other liquid (as specified in variations)

Melt the margarine in heavy saucepan; blend in flour and salt and cook until bubbly. Remove from heat and gradually stir or whisk in liquid. Return to heat and cook, stirring, until smooth and thickened.

VARIATIONS:
Cream of chicken: Use 1/2 c. milk and 1/2 c. chicken broth as the liquid. Add 1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning or sage.
Cream of celery: Saute´ 1/2 c. chopped celery and 1 T. finely chopped onion in the margarine before adding flour. Use milk for liquid.
Cream of mushroom: Saute´1/4 c. finely chopped mushrooms and 1 T. finely chopped onion in margarine before adding flour. Use milk for liquid.
Tomato: Use tomato juice as liquid. Add a dash each of garlic salt, onion salt, basil, and oregano.
Cream of shrimp: Drain the liquid from a small can of tiny shrimp into a measuring cup. Fill cup with milk to measure 1 cup of liquid. Add a dash of pepper, onion salt, curry powder, and paprika to the finished sauce, and stir in the shrimp.

This recipe came from the More-With-Less Cookbook.  The shrimp variation is mine.