Cheesy Sausage Bake

To balance out the "unhealthy" stuff I was bringing to our recent Memorial Day BBQ, I decided to go with a good-for-you main dish that would be hearty but not artery-clogging.  This recipe popped into my email via one of the many foodie e-newsletters I subscribe to, and I thought it would do nicely.  And do nicely it did.  It's satisfying, but I felt something was missing.  Perhaps not enough cheese? I'll have to experiment a bit more with this one.  I also would use another choice for milk, since the almond milk added a slightly sweet overtone to it.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces turkey breakfast sausage (I used Jimmy Dean's Hearty Turkey Sausage Crumbles.)
• 2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 2 cups egg substitute
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard
• 13/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 3 large eggs
• 16 slices whole wheat bread (I used Wonder.)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) finely shredded reduced-fat cheese (I used a Mexican blend.)
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika  

Directions:

• Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sausage to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring and breaking sausage to crumble. Remove from heat; cool. (Since I used pre-cooked sausage crumbles, I didn't have to cook them in a pan before assembling the dish.)
• Combine milk and next 6 ingredients (through eggs) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk.
• Trim crusts from bread. Cut bread into 1-inch cubes. (I just tore up the bread. I liked the rustic look.)
• Add bread cubes, sausage, and cheddar cheese to milk mixture, stirring to combine.
• Pour bread mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking or 3-quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray, spreading egg mixture evenly in baking dish.
• Cover and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Remove casserole from refrigerator; let stand 30 minutes. Sprinkle casserole evenly with paprika.
• Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until set and lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes.