Breakfast for dinner is always a winner. Try this Easy Egg Bake loaded with vegetables, bacon and cheese! It’s easy, versatile and easily customized.
Egg casseroles always seem like a great idea for breakfast, but I almost never make them. Once in a while I’ll make it when we have company, but they take quite a long time to actually bake. And when you wake up with hungry kids, who wants to wait an hour to eat? For dinner, however, this is a great meal.
It took me about 15 minutes to broil the bacon in the oven. While that was baking, I was able to chop all the vegetables and layer them in the pan. Dump in the eggs, and top it with cheese, then throw it in the oven. Another nice thing—you can make this ahead of time, and let it sit in the fridge until you are ready to bake it for dinner. I was able to prep this after lunch and then play out in the backyard with my kids until it was time for dinner.
Feel free to customize this meal by adding what ever strikes your fancy. The base is the shredded potatoes and eggs. You can make it vegetarian by skipping the bacon, or substitute ham or sausage. For the cheese, I used cheddar, but pepper jack or any other cheese would be delicious too. Also, It’s a great way to clean out the vegetable drawer! I used zucchini, peppers, onion, tomato and mushrooms. Top it with hot sauce or salsa and you have a tasty meal.
Another tip for customizing, you can layer the vegetables rather than mixing them all together. This made it possible for me to have mushrooms but leave them off for my husband’s side (he has a strong dislike of mushrooms).
For the kids, my baby loved this meal. He dipped it in ketchup and gobbled it up. My older kids were a little more hesitant, but add a little ketchup and kids will eat just about anything. English muffins and cherries were a great fallback food for them though. I’m confident with a few more times of trying this, they will eat it up like the little guy.
The casserole made 8 servings, so more than we needed for a single meal. But the leftovers were great and super quick breakfast the next day. Give it a try!
The Meal:
1 portion Breakfast Casserole
Hot Sauce or salsa
1 whole wheat English Muffin with butter
2/3 cup Cherries
Recipe Used in this meal:
Easy Egg Bake
Serving size: 1 portion
Servings per Recipe: 8
Ingredients
8-10 slices of bacon
3 cups shredded potatoes (frozen, hashbrown style)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 ½ cups chopped red peppers
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped tomato
1 cup chopped mushrooms
10 eggs
1 cup milk
½ tsp seasoned salt
½ tsp pepper
1 ½ cups shredded cheese
Directions:
Cook bacon: line a baking sheet with tin foil, lay out bacon in single layer. Broil for 10-12 minutes, flipping halfway through. Chop into bite-size pieces
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
Spread 3 cups of shredded potatoes over the bottom of the baking dish.
Chop the remaining vegetables and spread them evenly over the potatoes in the baking dish. Spread chopped bacon over the top, distributing evenly.
In a large bowl, crack eggs, add milk, salt and pepper and whisk until well blended. Pour over the potato mixture.
Top with cheese and bake for 50-60 minutes until the egg is set in the center. Cover with foil after 25 minutes to prevent over-browning. Serve hot
Nutrition Facts Label for Entire Meal:
Nutrition Facts Label for Easy Egg Bake:
