My Fresh Egg Bake, a light and easy meal for any time

For me any time of the day is a good time for breakfast! My got-to is a cheese omelet, the eggs whipped up with salt, pepper and parsley and cooked around a slice of American cheese. My mom’s go-to while I was growing up was two scrambled eggs and a slice of buttered toast. I know a lot of people add milk or something to their eggs but we never have. (Actually that’s why a lot of omelets turn into scrambled eggs.) I got into making breakfast burritos and egg muffins to keep in the freezer for easy meals but my lazy side was too much for making muffins. So, I started making egg bakes!

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This really is the exact same thing I would put into the muffins but far less labor intensive or messy. Filling each individual cup made the most adorable little breakfast muffin complete with one egg in each one but I find the entire egg bake like this actually turns out better besides being a lot less work.

Now, of course, you can add whatever you like to this but I like adding a lot of veggies wherever I can.

Here I use several cups of chopped up fresh bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach and onions. (That translates to one big bell pepper, one big tomato and one big onion. And when I say big I mean around soft ball sized.)

I’ve been experimenting with this recipe for awhile now because I was never quite happy with it though it was always still edible. I tried keeping the eggs “whole” from the very beginning but that was definitely where I went wrong. Layering the ingredients (no matter how well I chopped them up) made it impossible for fresh eggs cracked over top to reach everything which resulted in layers that didn’t hold together.

I tried putting the eggs in the middle between the veggies and the potatoes but that just meant I ended up with a cooked salad on top…

My biggest mistake I made once was adding a whole layer of thick sliced smoked ham in the middle which guaranteed the eggs never even got to the bottom of the pan and the ham ended up rather tough. My first lesson I learned was that an egg bake takes a long time to cook and, if its not covered, it will become very hard on top.

Next lesson was that these little hashbrown potatoes that are already cooked make an awesome base and they’re very tasty. (You could also use tater tots here or really any already cooked potato. Yes, even French fries work in this!) At one point I’m going to try air frying them (or baking them first) before putting them down as the base here. Doing it like this (with still frozen potatoes) definitely extends the cooking time.

I first spray my pan with oil (I use olive oil) and then lay down my hashbrowns. Then I chop up my onion, bell pepper, spinach and tomato. Chopping up all of it well is really important. (Yes you can absolutely use frozen spinach but if you use canned spinach make sure to drain it first.) Also, YES this is a lot of spinach lol but the rest of the ingredients balance the flavor so this doesn’t taste much like spinach, though you certainly don’t need to use this much!

To my chopped veggies I add in a dozen eggs, my seasonings, the 3 cups of cheese and scramble it all together before dumping it over my hashbrowns. I cook it covered at 350 until its done which is always at least an hour and a half.

I prefer cheddar cheese here but any type of your preferred cheese will do! You also can substitute the parmesan too if you’re not a fan but I really like the flavor it brings to this.

Eggs are super good for us but they’re often accompanied by carbs-covered-with-maple-syrup and a pound of pork which tends to make breakfast not so light which is why I like this just as it is. HOWEVER, this is an excellent recipe to add chopped up ham, sausage or bacon to and I would never judge anyone who feels like drizzling this with maple syrup!

If you like mushrooms they would be good in this as well as would many other different kinds of vegetables. (I would only avoid fresh root vegetables such as carrots here as they might not cook entirely.)

This freezes really well and is good made into breakfast sandwiches (cold or hot) on buttered toast. I cut it into 12 squares because one square is plenty for a whole meal for me and that’s only about half a hash brown and 1 egg per serving so its super light and vegetarian!

Fresh Egg Bake
• Hashbrown Patties
• 12 Eggs
• 10ozs chopped spinach
• 1Cup chopped onion
• 1Cup chopped tomato
• 1Cup chopped bell pepper
• 2Cups shredded cheese
• 1Cup grated parmesean
• 1Tbls Black Pepper
• 1Tbls Salt

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray and line the bottom with hashbrown patties or any precooked potatoes of your choice. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and scramble entirely before pouring over your potatoes. Bake at 350 covered until done which will take at least an hour and a half. Let rest before serving. I try to keep this light but adding more cheese (especially on the top) makes it even better!

Fresh Egg Bake
• Hashbrown Patties
• 12 Eggs
• 10ozs chopped spinach
• 1Cup chopped onion
• 1Cup chopped tomato
• 1Cup chopped bell pepper
• 2Cups shredded cheese
• 1Cup grated parmesean
• 1Tbls Black Pepper
• 1Tbls Salt

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray and line the bottom with hashbrown patties or any precooked potatoes of your choice. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and scramble entirely before pouring over your potatoes. Bake at 350 covered until done which will take at least an hour and a half. Let rest before serving. I try to keep this light but adding more cheese (especially on the top) makes it even better!