Good-bye Egg Junk; Hello gooey goodness

Growing up, my family's holiday breakfast tradition was infamous. It was my favorite part of EVERY holiday. We'd wake up, do whatever special thing there was to do(a.k.a. present opening) and then we'd all dive into my mom's egg junk that she served us on her good China.

Her egg junk was just your typical egg bake casserole made with whatever meat, veggie, cheese ingredients she had on hand. No matter how it was made it was always the best part of any holiday.

I just assumed that I would do the same things with my children. My husband loves egg junk, so he was all about making breakfast as big of a tradition for our family as it was for my family.

Then Maisie happened. You can't have egg junk with a daughter who is allergic to eggs.

In fact within hours of finding out she was allergic to eggs, I was talking to my husband and mom asking them what I am going to do now for the holidays if I can't make egg junk.

The beauty of egg junk is that it can be made the night before making the morning rush of holidays a little less stressful.

Well, I think I have found our holiday tradition. We make overnight sweet rolls.


I have now made these a lot, and every time, they are delicious and they are devoured. Are they healthy? Hmmmm. Not really. Are they egg-free? Yep. Are they delicious? Absolutely. 

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

Of course, we don't just eat the sweet rolls. For Easter, I had a yogurt bar with mixed berries and granola as toppings. My husband whipped up some hash browns, sausage, and scrambled eggs. It was a feast and it felt just as special as my mom's egg junk.

Now to come up with a fun kid name for the rolls. Egg junk just had a great ring to it. Hmmmmm.

My meal go-tos

I am by no means a great cook. I am by no means a chef. I am by no means original when it comes to meal planning, but there a few staples in my kitchen that make any dinner easy and ready to go.

I have gotten a lot better over the last year about planning ahead of time of what we are going to have for dinner, but there are just some days where either 1) I don't feel like cooking or 2) There weren't as many leftovers as I thought there would be.

So, I have learned to have a few things always on hand to make life just easier on myself.

Here are my easy go-tos that can make any meal easy:

1. Bell Peppers: I always make sure that I have peppers on hand. They are to me one of the easiest foods to make into a meal. They add an extra touch to any spaghetti sauce, or they easily make an easy stir fry in a pinch. Plus, it is one of the few vegetables that I don't have to argue with Calan to eat. 
2. Lemon Pepper & Rosemary: I swear any chicken or fish seasoned with a little lemon pepper and rosemary tastes amazing. I love throwing a whole chicken into our Crock-pot for 3 hours on low seasoned with lemon pepper and rosemary with a cup of chicken broth. Then put it in the oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to crisp-up the skin for the perfect tasting chicken. We eat it for dinner and then it makes great sandwiches for the week. 
3. Italian Sausage: I always try to keep bulk Italian sausage in my freezer to be used in spaghetti sauce. Adding browned Italian sausage instead of ground beef makes the spaghetti 100% better. I can not tell you how often I get asked for my spaghetti sauce and all I do is by whatever sauce is on sale and add Italian sausage to it. If I have them on hand, I also will throw in drained canned diced tomatoes to it as well. Instant amazing spaghetti sauce. 

4. 

   Homemade pizza has become an easy family favorite. 

   Yeast packets: Ever since learning how to make my own pizza dough, it has become a regular meal in our house. Calan loves helping me make the pizza from the dough to the toppings. I always make enough for 2 pizzas, so that we can cook one that night and freeze the extra dough for the next time I need a meal in a pinch. 
5. Tacos: I swear tacos is the meal that keeps giving. One night it could be tacos for dinner, then taco salad for lunch, and then maybe quesadillas another day that week. When I know that we are going to have a busy week, I include tacos so that I have an easy go-to leftover meal if I did not have time to make a new meal. 

So those are just a few things that I keep on hand that definitely help making meals for my family 100% easier. Having two toddlers running around does not give me a lot of time to prepare meals, so having some easy tricks makes dinner possible on a daily basis. 

What are your tricks?