Recipe: 3 make ahead Christmas morning ideas

Love a good homemade breakfast but don't always have time in the morning? Personal chef and owner of LK Cooking, Lindsey Hargett saves the day with these easy and mouthwatering breakfast casseroles. Check out the different casserole recipes below!

Pancake Bites

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 whole egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Toppings- chocolate chips, raspberries, blueberries, nuts, coconut, etc.

Directions

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin liners in your muffin pan, then spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients until combined. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, egg, vanilla, and oil and mix well. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don`t overmix! There will be some lumps; this is ok!
3. Pour the batter into your prepared muffin liners. Top each muffin with desired toppings.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer and reheat in the microwave.

Pressure Cooker Chocolate Banana Steel Cut Oats

Ingredients

• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 3 ½ cups water
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
• Toppings- chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans, banana slices

Directions

1. Pour the oats, water, banana, vanilla, salt, cocoa powder and brown sugar directly in the bowl of your pressure cooker. Stir thoroughly to combine.
2. Cook for 12 minutes on the manual setting, then do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes. Quick release the rest of the pressure, if there is any remaining.
3. Stir in honey or maple syrup, then top individual bowls of oatmeal with desired toppings.

Biscuits and Gravy Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 can large, flaky biscuits (such as Grands) (or 8 homemade biscuits, unbaked)
• ½ pound ground breakfast sausage
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray a square baking dish (8x8 or 9x9) with cooking spray. Set aside. (If you want to use a 9x13 pan, double the recipe.)
3. Cut each biscuit into quarters.
4. Layer half of the quarters in prepared pan.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. In a heavy skillet, brown the ground breakfast sausage over medium-high heat until fully cooked.
7. Add the flour to the sausage, and use a spoon to stir until the flour completely absorbed.
8. Lower heat to medium, and cook flour/sausage mixture for 3-5 minutes stirring frequently.
9. Add milk, and stir to combine.
10. Add salt and black pepper.
11. Stir frequently until mixture comes to a slight boil.
12. Taste, and adjust seasonings as desired. (I usually add more black pepper)
13. If the gravy is too thick, add a bit more milk. You want the gravy to be thickened but not too thick, not "globby," it should still be slightly runny.
14. Pour gravy over the cooked biscuits.
15. Layer the remaining uncooked, quartered biscuits over the gravy.

16. Place casserole dish on a baking sheet, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. If they start to over-brown, you can cover with foil for the last 10 minutes or so.

For more of Lindsey's cooking, visit www.lkcooking.com or on Instagram @lkcooking