We celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week last Friday with a Breakfast Brunch courtesy of the classified staff (that included me). I was all set to bring muffins or some sweet treat, figuring I could squeeze that into my tired schedule. When I arrived in the office to sign up, these pleading eyes kindly asked me to please bring something with eggs. I saw all the blank lines next to egg dishes, counted up the number of people on staff, and reluctantly signed up for something I had never made. Oh, I’ve made omelets and towering Pop-Cakes–to feed four, but I’ve never made an egg casserole to fit in a 9×13 pan and serve some 25+ people.
     I went home and scoured my recipe books. Pulling a Pampered Chef cookbook from my pantry shelf, I found this delightful looking omelet. If doubled it would make a good dent in the number of people craving eggs for breakfast. It took a bit of chopping and prep work (always more time for me than what the recipe calls for–I’m naturally slow), but it was so tasty, I asked my family to make it for Mother’s Day.
     The omelet for school was casual and in a large baking pan. For Mother’s Day, Oldest whipped up almost the same omelet in a pie plate and it served up elegantly with marbled pudding cake and bacon on fine china. I’m including both recipes so that you can take your pick. I think I actually liked our son’s forgetful twist on the omelet better. It tasted “eggier.”

32  round miniature frozen homestyle waffles, thawed
1&1/2 C frozen chopped broccoli, thawed (I used C&W florets)
1 C chopped red bell pepper (I used the whole pepper)
1/4 C chopped green onions with tops
2 C shredded cheddar cheese
2 C small curd cottage cheese
1/2 C all-purpose flour
12 eggs
2/3 C milk
1 tsp salt
2/8 tsp ground black pepper

1. Thaw waffles at room temperature 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter a 9×13 glass baking dish (or use non-stick cooking spray). Drain broccoli on paper towel. Chop bell pepper, broccoli, and green onions. Combine them with 1&1/2 cups of the cheddar cheese in a small bowl and mix gently.

2. Sprinkle vegetable mixture evenly over bottom of the dish. Arrange waffles, slightly overlapping, around edge of dish and press lightly into vegetable mixture.

3. In a large bowl, whisk heartily cottage cheese, flour and 2 eggs until well blended. Whisk in remaining eggs, milk, salt and black pepper; pour over vegetable mixture.

4. Cover edge of waffles with aluminum foil so that they don’t brown or get overly crunchy. Bake 45-50 minutes or until egg mixture is set. Insert a knife into the center and when it comes out clean, the omelet is done. It may take less time so start checking at 35 or 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 C of cheddar cheese. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

16 round miniature frozen homestyle waffles, thawed
3/4 C frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1/2 C chopped red bell pepper (he said he used the whole pepper)
1/4 C chopped green onions with tops
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
1 C small curd cottage cheese
1/4 C all-purpose flour
6 eggs
(he forgot the milk right here in the recipe and the omelet tasted yummier)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Follow the directions above for making the omelet, only use a deep dish pie plate instead of an 9×13 glass baking dish.

1. The difference in step one is that you will use only 3/4 C of the cheddar cheese.

3. In this step, you will initially whisk the cottage cheese and flour with 1 egg. Then whisk in remaining eggs, (no milk), salt and black pepper.

4. In this step, there will be only 1/4 C of remaining cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top.

The elegant Mother’s Day brunch by Oldest and Hubby