Baked Omelet.

Lately, I have been in a real "simple meals" rut.  My kids have eaten peanut butter and syrup sandwiches far more than I'd like to admit, and they haven't always just been for lunch.

They've had them for breakfast.

And then again for dinner.

Once they had them twice in one day.  I'll take that "Mom of the Year" trophy now, please.

I've been so busy lately, and the first thing to ditch from my list is almost always a sit down real deal meal.  Although I'm a big proponent of the family dinner time, sometimes it just isn't an option if that means Mommy taking the hour before dinner is to be served artfully prepping and cooking a meal for the ages.

So instead, we sit together and eat sandwiches, and though I don't mind this sometimes, I make a meal plan every month with a menu all pretty and written up on a chalkboard hanging in my dining room.  And the kids notice when I have spent days and days not erasing anything from that menu.

I try to write down simple meals most of our days anyway, but this month, we had "Brinner" twice on our menu board.

Brinner is a big deal at our house.  Breakfast for dinner?  Yes, please.  It's one of the few nights where everyone in our family will eat without a whine or whimper.  French toast, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon....there are so many yummy options when it comes to brinner.

The problem, however, is that it is never ever ever simple.  Flipping pancakes, scrambling eggs, and frying bacon takes real time, and so as much as we love it, I started putting it off or skipping those nights all together because I just didn't have the time or energy to devote to standing in front of my stove doing fifteen things at once.

Enter: baked omelets.

I can't even tell you how much I love this idea.  I'm not even calling it a recipe because really, what I put in it may not float your boat, and that's totally fine.  My family goes pretty simple with omelets- just ham and cheese.  Just add in whatever your family loves in an omelet (spinach, mushrooms, peppers, onions...), and brinner will magically become a quick, simple, weeknight meal!

What you will need:
1 1/2 cups of grated cheese
several slices of deli ham
8 large eggs
1 1/2 tbsp sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400, and spray an 8x8 glass baking dish with nonstick spray.

Lay out a layer of cheese in the bottom of the dish.  This will brown slightly while it bakes and make a heavenly crust on the bottom.  Chop up the ham into bite sized pieces and sprinkle on top of the cheese.

In a separate bowl, beat together your eggs, sour cream, and salt and pepper until they are pale yellow and a homogeneous mixture.  I will add here that I always make my scrambled eggs with sour cream.  Even if you don't try this "recipe," you should give that a shot.  It makes them so fluffy and delicious!  Pour the eggs on top of the ham and cheese.

Bake at 400 for 35 minutes, or until the center is set.  The eggs will puff up and make a creamy, fluffy pan of omelet.  This is great along with some pancakes or biscuits and gravy, and it was a huge hit with my kiddos.

Welcome back to our lives, brinner.  We have missed you.