Cheesy-Easy Bread Pudding

Blog's Category: My Own Fast and Easy, My Staple Food, Perfect Breakfast

Inspiration
Combination of bread and cheese, served hot, was always my favorite thing for breakfast. Bread pudding I'm about to describe is one of those perfect breakfasts "my way".

Why I Liked It
This dish is very flexible - the only mandatory ingredients are bread, eggs and cheese. All others are whatever you have on hands today - vegetables, pieces of bacon or sausage, even smoked fish if you wish so! 

Taste Description
It's crunchy on top, chewy and warming in a middle and juicy-melted on a bottom.

Variations
- Use any nicely melting cheese - mozzarella, cheddar, gruyere.
- Vegetables are optional. Ideally it has to be vegetable that releases some juices during cooking process - tomato, zucchini, mushrooms.
- Use any bread you have, really - any, even if it is stale one.
- Use dry herbs that you like in place of fresh parsley.

Tips
- If you want to use root vegetables such as carrot or parsnips instead of juicy ones I suggested above, or do not want to add vegetables at all - add a splash or two of water or milk to the bread pudding mix before cooking - it will save you from pudding being too dry.
- If you put some additional cheese on a top before baking - you will get nice and cheesy golden crust on a top. Although, I like my pudding crunchy on a top - I'll get to that melted goodness while digging it down :)

Cheese-Easy Bread Pudding

For a 4 servings:

6 eggs
8 oz mozzarella
2 slices of baguette diced into .5" cubes
2 slices of dark rye bread diced into .5" cubes
12 grape tomatoes, quartered
dash of salt
black pepper
some fresh parsley
2 tbs light olive oil

- Slightly whisk eggs, then add diced mozzarella to the egg mix.

- In a large bowl stir all ingredients, except olive oil, together: diced bread, quartered tomatoes, chopped parsley, egg/mozzarella mix, salt and pepper.

- Take 4 ramekins, splash .5 tablespoon of olive oil into each one and, using your fingers, nicely oil bottom and walls of ramekins.

- Distribute bread pudding mix evenly between ramekins (or not evenly: papa-bear got to eat more than baby-bear :))

- Bake pudding in a pre-heated to 375F oven (or toaster-oven as I like to do) until golden-brown on a top. 

- Enjoy!

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IN PICTURES

Before oven...

..and after

It is really crunchy on a top. Dig down and you'll find melted treasure down there!