Breakfast Bowls

Every night someone on my cooking board will ask "what's for dinner?" One night my friend Heather said her husband was making breakfast bowls. I immediately asked her for the recipe. I finally got around to making them one weekend when we didn't have plans and needed a hearty breakfast to hold us over until dinner.

This dirties a few pans but it's worth it. So, so worth it. The flavors come together so well and the combination of hash browns, breakfast meat, eggs and cheese is very filling. You can also add any veggies you choose. I did onions and mushrooms, but Heather uses peppers as well. Use your imagination - this is a great way to use up any leftover veggies in your fridge.

I ended up putting everything into a large, round Corningware dish then dividing it in half for us to eat, but if you have larger, oven-safe bowls I think it would be fun to make these as individual servings. I cooked the full pound of breakfast sausage but froze half since it was just the two of us eating (Baby Girl stole bites from our plates since she'd already had breakfast). I can't wait to make these again.

Breakfast Bowls
From my friend Heather
Serves 4

1 pound ground breakfast sausage (Jimmy Dean's)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Shredded hash browns, fresh or frozen
1 tablespoon butter

1 green or red pepper, chopped (optional)
1 onion, chopped
8 mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1 cup shredded cheddar
8 eggs, scrambled
1 tomato, diced
4 scallions, sliced

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage, breaking it up into small pieces. Cook until the sausage is no longer pink. Remove the sausage from the skillet.

While the sausage is cooking, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in another large non-stick skillet. Add as much of the hash browns as you want to the pan. Cook, turning often, until they're brown and crispy. Divide the hash browns evenly among 4 oven-safe bowls or one, large oven-safe dish.

Add the butter to the now-empty skillet and add the veggies. Cook over medium heat until they soften. Add the veggies to the bowls on top of the hash browns. Sprinkle some of the cheese on top, then add the cooked sausage.

Add the eggs to the pan the sausage was in and cook until slightly under done. Divide the eggs among the bowls and top with the rest of the cheese.

Place the bowls on a cookie sheet and bake until heated through and the cheese has melted, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with the chopped tomato and scallion. Serve immediately.

NOTE: You can use cooked, chopped bacon instead of the sausage and cubed breakfast potatoes instead of the hash browns. You can also cook the eggs over easy instead of scrambling them and put them on the top of the bowls (potatoes, meat and cheese) once they come out of the oven.