Ahh, breakfast! It’s the most important meal of the day, but sometimes we have a really hard time squeezing it in. If you’ve missed breakfast at home, you may be use to grabbing a warm sandwich along with your coffee at a drive thru on your way to work. The problem with that is, is that you really just don’t know what’s in that sandwich. Is there real egg in there, or just a substitute? Is the cheese real, or is it imitation? These tasty, homemade Ham, Egg & Pepper Jack Cheese Bagel Sandwiches can be made quickly, and even ahead of time so you can enjoy a delicious breakfast from home even if you are running late in the morning!

You can make just one bagel sandwich, but most of the time I prefer to make a half a dozen at a time. My family loves these for breakfast on the weekends, but I’ve also made them ahead of time and stored them in our refrigerator or freezer for busy mornings.

To get started, grab a bag of your favorite bagels. We like whole wheat bagels for this recipe, but any variety will do! Toast the bagels, and then butter them as soon as they pop up, while they are still nice and warm.

Then add 3 slices of thinly sliced honey or smoked ham from your deli onto the bottom of the bagel.

On a stove top griddle or in a large skillet, melt some butter and crack your eggs. Add some black pepper and a little salt if you wish. As soon as the eggs are white and start to get crisp around the edges, carefully break the yolk with your spatula to help ensure cooking.

You are going to want a soft creamy yolk, not a runny one for this sandwich. I sometimes flip my egg over at the last minute to make sure it’s not runny.

When your eggs are ready, place 1 egg on top of the ham on each bagel bottom.

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Now for the best part… the cheese! I don’t know about you, but I’m a cheese person. I can’t imagine enjoying a breakfast sandwich without it!

Sargento® Sliced Cheese is always delicious, convenient, natural and 100% real and authentic.

Did you know that Pasteurized Process Cheese Food (PPCF), sometimes known as American singles, is only required to contain 51% real cheese? With other brands, who knows what the other 49% is?!

We love Pepper Jack for this recipe, but if that’s a little to hot for you, don’t worry…  you can find several different Sargento® 100% real & natural cheese slices like Sharp Cheddar, Provolone, or Swiss at your local grocery store.

You can feel good serving this cheese and sandwich to your family because you know it’s real!

Place a slice of cheese over the egg and then cover it with the bagel top while pushing down slightly.

If I have a little extra time, I’ll put all of the bagels on a baking sheet and place them under the broiler for a few minutes to help melt the cheese and allow the sandwich to be nice and hot when served. It’s so worth it!

If you are making these ahead of time, prepare these as usual and then after the sandwiches cool, wrap each one in a paper towel and plastic wrap.

When you are ready to warm them, remove the plastic wrap, set the sandwich on a plate and reheat it in your microwave and take it on the go if you need to! Yum!

With cooler mornings ahead, I’m sure your family would be thrilled to have one of these warm, homemade breakfast sandwiches waiting for them at the table in the morning!

By the way- these yummy sandwiches aren’t just for breakfast! Enjoy them for lunch or dinner too!

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After a few rainy days, we are enjoying some beautiful fall weather. Every morning while I’m out walking around our property with our new puppy I pass by my garden. It’s a little overgrown, but it’s still producing. The corn, sunflowers and summer vegetables have browned, but there’s plenty of color left from my San Marzano Tomatoes and my Red Peppers. Sometimes I get distracted and for the last few days I just haven’t made it out there to harvest them. Well, the slight chill in the air today motivated me to grab those peppers and make this yummy Cheesy Pepper Jack & Roasted Red Pepper Soup!

Roasting your own peppers is easy and most of all delicious. Don’t get me wrong, buying roasted red peppers in a jar is convenient and tasty too, but there’s nothing like fresh & homemade. Instead of storing my roasted peppers today, I’m using them in this flavorful soup.

After preheating your oven, put all of your peppers into a large bowl, drizzle them with olive oil and toss them around good to coat with your hands. This ensures that every yummy part of that pepper gets some oil on it for roasting! You can then line a large baking sheet with foil and place your peppers on it. Now it’s time for the oven! Roast for 45 minutes or until blackened a bit and that’s it! Easy, right?!

I don’t know about you, but I seem to eat better in the Fall. Sure there are all sorts of amazing, comforting desserts we like to enjoy this time of year, but I also like to make a lot of soups. Soups are a great way to get more vegetables into your diet.

While this soup isn’t exactly a low calorie meal, soups do tend to fill you up, which can curb your appetite so you might not overindulge too much at dessert time. Comforting soups like this also help you feel satisfied. A warm fire, a cozy blanket and a homemade bowl of soup sounds like the perfect Fall evening to me!

For this simple recipe, Roasted Red Peppers are pureed with sauteed garlic, onion, vegetable broth, half & half and of course that creamy and spicy Pepper Jack Cheese for a homemade soup that’s bursting with flavor!

This soup makes a perfect weekend lunch or a wonderful weeknight dinner with a grilled cheese sandwich. Either way, you are going to want to warm up this season with this meal. My husband and even my child who doesn’t like peppers even loved this soup. Everyone must have been hungry too, because there were absolutely no leftovers! Next time, I’m doubling the recipe!

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Easter is only a week away and in the next few days, I am going to be sharing with you some of my family’s favorite Easter traditions. I thought I would start with Brunch. Our family’s Easter Brunch is something that everyone looks forward to. After celebrating mass on Easter Sunday each year, we gather together at either my house or my mother’s house.  My four young children are always very eager to begin looking for hidden eggs filled with little toys or treats while the women of our family get busy cooking in the kitchen.

A lot of the prep work for the meal and even the table setting is done the day before. We like to take our time with this because it is a special occasion and well, it’s just fun!  I believe the key to really enjoying Easter with your family is preparation. I know it is hard sometimes to get things done ahead of time, but it’s worth it on that day when you yourself can sit down, relax and really enjoy your family.

These flavorful Shredded Hash Brown Potatoes are then mixed with eggs, broccoli, chopped ham (for Easter), red pepper, onion, garlic, sour cream, milk and Sharp Cheddar and spicy Pepper Jack cheeses for an amazing dish that will satisfy everyone in the family! My children really don’t care for ham by itself, so for Easter I like to just chop some good quality deli ham and add it to the casserole. They don’t seem to mind it a bit and they never complain about the veggies in this either! To make your Easter Brunch preparations even easier, this casserole can be made ahead of time. That’s right!  Make this casserole the night before, cover it and place it in your refrigerator until you are ready for it on Easter! How great is that?!  I don’t know about you, but the feeling of having a main dish like this already made and ready to go helps me sleep a lot easier the night before a big family gathering.

Here’s what you will need:

You start by softening your red pepper, onion and garlic in a little butter.

Set that aside, and then combine the Ore-Ida Shredded Hash Brown Potatoes with the cheese and chopped ham in an extra large mixing bowl.

In a large, lightly greased 11 x 15 (5 Qt.) baking dish , evenly spread half of the potato mixture and then top it with the broccoli and red pepper and onion mixture.

Top the vegetable layer with the remaining potato mixture.

In the same mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk, sour cream and salt and pepper.  The pour the egg mixture evenly over the potatoes.

Sprinkle the casserole with parsley and top with the remaining cheese and bake for 40- 50 minutes ( a little longer if refrigerated overnight) at 350 degrees.

After this comes out of the oven, you will want to let it cool a bit before serving.  If it’s covered with foil, it should stay warm for a while and I actually prefer this more at almost room temperature.

After my family enjoys our big Easter Brunch together, we usually get comfy in the living room and just relax.  It a great time to just sit and reflect and not let the busy world in.  Our children usually take a little break before they start running around again and sometimes we watch a movie together and eat some Easter candy or dessert.  How do you spend Easter with your family?  Do you make any special dishes?  I would love for you to share your family’s #OreidaHashbrown recipes with me!  You can even leave a link in the comment section if you would like. 🙂  Have a wonderful Easter!

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I know I can’t be the only one out there who has been dealing with this cold winter by making warm, big one pot meals for dinner.  It seems like that’s all I have been making lately because it makes my house feel warm and cozy while the meal cooks on top of the stove all day and then comforts me in the evening when I sit down with my family to eat.  My favorite warm wool socks have taken quite a beating this season too.  Some days it seems like I just can’t warm up or get rid of that chill!

If you’ve got soup or chili on your menu this week, then you have got to try these tasty Pepper Jack Biscuit Muffins!

Today’s frigid temperatures have got me cooking up another big pot of hearty chili.  After I got my chili going this afternoon, I thought I would make some type of bread to go along with it.  A fresh loaf of french bread from the bakery section in the grocery store would have been just fine, but I didn’t feel like going anywhere in this cold.  As I looked through my cupboards and refrigerator for ingredients, I came across a block of Pepper Jack cheese.  So I decided I would make some type of cheesy bread!  Yum!

These cheesy “biscuit muffins” turned out sooo darn good!  Usually when I am photographing my food, I take a few nibbles after I am finished.  Well, not today folks.  When I broke this apart to share with everyone how cheesy and moist these were, I just had to eat one.  After one half, I said what the heck- and ate the other half too.  I guess that counts as my afternoon snack

You won’t believe how easy these delicious things are to make!  In under a half an hour these Pepper Jack Biscuit Muffins can be prepared, baked and be on your table for dinner with your family’s favorite meal.  These almost melt in your mouth when they are eaten warm from the oven, and go well with a variety of different foods.  If you didn’t want to serve these with dinner, they would also be wonderful for breakfast in the morning along with some scrambled eggs and fresh fruit.

However and whenever you decide to serve these, I think you and your family will just love them!

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