When Jacob likes a certain food/dish/meal, he can REALLY put the food away. Although, from one day to the next, he may push something back as if he never wants to see it again. Keeps us guessing!

One of his favorites, that I make fairly often, is Breakfast Pizza. The recipe was first given to me by a friend in the early 90s. It was prepared in a 12-inch pizza pan. Once I discovered how much Jacob liked it, I made a couple of changes to simplify and started doubling the recipe to be sure we had leftovers to freeze or just for him to have for several days if the mood were to strike.

If you’ve gotten bored with the same meal or are adventurous and not afraid to try something new, your family might like this.  

Breakfast Pizza

1 lb. *precooked turkey sausage crumbles
2 pkg. refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
2 c. grated Cheddar Cheese
2 c. grated Mozzarella Cheese
12 eggs, beaten
1 c. whole milk
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp pepper

Line a 13″ x 18″ baking pan (half sheet) with **parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 375F.  
Separate crescent dough into rectangles and using fingers, press into pan to seal and form crust.  Bake for 5 minutes.  

Reduce oven temperature to 350F.  Sprinkle sausage and cheeses over dough.  Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the sausage mixture.  Return to oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until eggs are set and starting to brown. 

Cut into squares and serve.    Yield:   24 squares

*I’ve found Jimmy Dean and Butterball make the turkey sausage crumbles. Probably prefer the Jimmy Dean brand but both work great.

**Tip:  The parchment paper step can be skipped.  From experience, I found using it, makes for fast clean-up as otherwise, egg and cheese baked in a pan, can be stubborn to remove.

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When I cooked this last week, Jacob waited patiently for it to get done and cool enough to dig in. And then ate five squares as fast as I cut get one on his plate.

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As I mentioned, the original recipe called for a smaller pan. Also, buying already cooked sausage wasn’t an option when it was printed but sure makes it quicker to put together:

1/2 lb. bulk pork sausage
1 pkg. refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 c. grated Cheddar Cheese
1 c. grated Mozzarella Cheese
6 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. whole milk
3/4 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp pepper

Cook sausage until browned; drain and set aside.  Separate crescent dough into 8 triangles; place triangles with points toward the center in a greased 12-inch pizza pan.  Press to seal and form a crust.  Bake at 375F for 5 minutes. 

Reduce oven temperature to 350F. Sprinkle sausage and cheeses over dough. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over the sausage mixture.  Bake for 25 to 35 minutes.  
Cut into triangles to serve, pizza style.  Yield: 8 slices

“Try it, you’ll like it.” At least, we think you will.

We have a definite bedtime routine for Jacob- 

Take meds.

Remind him to use the bathroom.

Pajamas on.

Get him to put toys away in his closet.

Check under bed for toys.

Also check around and under chair plus ottoman for toys.

Turn on fun lights.

Turn off strip that powers TV and VCR.

Turn off ceiling light at fixture.

Lock closet door. 

Once those are done, he listens to a Wheels on the Bus app on his kindle.  Sometimes for minutes and sometimes only seconds.  He’ll hand it back to us when he has had enough.

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Say prayers.

Cover him up.

Turn off mirror ball lights.

Turn off window icicle lights.

Kiss him good night.

Leave the room, closing the door behind us.

The process is a nice routine for him.  The putting away all the toys and making it where he can’t turn his TV on, is to make sure he doesn’t watch TV all night or stay up playing with toys.  Every once in a while, we will forget to do something or miss a toy that gets left out. 

Sometimes a musical toy may be discovered shortly after it’s lights out for him because one of us will hear him playing.  Sometimes, one will be seen later on the video monitor or found the next morning either on his bed or nearby—thus explaining why he might be harder to wake up than usual. 

Last week as Mike was getting him to bed, a funny thing happened. They did their usual listen to the song and then Mike went to cover him up and Jacob leaned over the side of the bed, reached behind his chair and handed Mike this treehouse toy:

He knew he would be guilty of playing with it during the night and that it needed to be put in the closet and locked away. 

Bless his honest heart!!!  His dad had missed it in the clean swept to be sure toys were put away.  Jacob had spied it and knew he couldn’t be trusted. 

I wonder if he regretted it as his dad closed the door. Or could he have smiled knowing he did the right thing? 

I imagine he was asking himself, is honesty really, ALWAYS the best policy?