Fondue Souffle Casserole

Ever looking for a simple, great comfort food that doesn’t take a special trip to the store and goes together quickly? This just might do it.

Ingredients:

3.5 cups stale bread cubes, such as leftover Italian Bread (fresh is ok, too, but I had stale)

3 egg whites

4 whole eggs

½ cup cream or half and half

½ cup 1% milk

½ teaspoon dry mustard (gosh, I love this stuff!)

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

1-2 teaspoons dry onion soup mix (the regular kind doesn’t have meat, but check your labels. This is an optional ingredient)

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

½ cup shredded cheddar

1 cup shredded or finely diced Monterey jack cheese

1 cup shredded or finely diced Swiss cheese

¼ cup grated parmesan (yup, the stuff in the can-it’s very dry and holds up well in this)

Directions:

Spray a 1.5 glass casserole dish with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet. Place the bread cubes into the dish. In a large mixing bowl, mix the egg whites, eggs, cream, milk, dry mustard, Worcestershire, onion soup mix, salt and pepper very, very well. Add in the cheeses and pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Make sure the bread cubes are saturated by pushing the mixture down with a spoon. Let stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. When the oven is ready and the bread cubes have soaked for 15 minutes, put the casserole in the oven and bake for 55 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before dishing out billowing, soft-as-a cloud, gorgeous mounds of soufflé.

Get Creative on Me: Change the bread, change the cheeses, add more herbs, add some veggies, whatever! I’m thinking this would be fantastic with rye bread in autumn with a side of apple slaw.