Italian Sausage Egg Bake

I created this recipe because I wanted to use up some ingredients that we had, because we were going out of town. You could scale everything down except the bread, eggs and milk and it would still be great! That being said, who wants a half of a green pepper laying around? Or a 1/4 lb. of Italian sausage? This recipe, as written, will fill a 9" x 13" casserole dish to capacity, with plenty of goodness in every bite! Otherwise, feel free to reduce the amount of sausage or veggies and it will still be wonderful!   Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. Italian sausage (removed from casing)
1 green pepper, 1/2" dice
1 red pepper, 1/2" dice
1/2 med. onion, 1/2" dice
1 pkg. baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1/2 small loaf French bread, cubed (about 4 cups)
6 eggs
1- 1/2 cups milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper

2 Tbs. olive oil or butter
1 cup shredded cheese

DIRECTIONS:
Lightly coat 9"x13" casserole dish with olive oil, or butter. 

Tear or cut bread into 1" chunks and place in bottom of pan.
In large frying pan on med. heat, cook and crumble sausage. Drain and set aside.
Sauté mushrooms, peppers and onion in butter until mushrooms have lost some of their liquid and peppers are tender. Drain and mix with sausage. Spread this mixture evenly over bread chunks.
Meanwhile, whisk together eggs and milk, add salt and pepper, then pour over bread and sausage mixture.
Sprinkle with cheese and push down ingredients to make sure everything is coated with the egg mixture.
Bake at 350 f. until set, approx. 30 - 40 minutes. Cover with foil if it gets to brown before it is done.