Maggie Monday: Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

What’s with no love from Maggie for the slow cooker? I’ll have to agree with her that few overnight ones have driven me wild, but I love it for a work night dinner. Check out Maggie’s latest below!

I spend a lot of time cooking during the holidays. There is nothing more tiring than spending all day cooking dinner, only to realize I have to get up in a few hours and prepare breakfast for a crowd.

Having a few make-ahead breakfast dishes is not just convenient: for me it is a survival technique. If I cook a full breakfast, by the time it is cleaned up, it is time to start dinner. Ugh.

I have often made breakfast casseroles the night before, and gotten up early to pop it in the oven so it is ready when everyone else gets up. You all know I am not a huge fan of my crock pots. However, sometimes they are useful. Even though I don’t like them, I own 5 of them. What? Yes. 5. Shaking my head…

At Thanksgiving this year I decided I wanted to sleep in, so figured I’d try tossing the breakfast casserole in the crock pot, and take my chances. These days an extra 45 minutes in bed is a great gift.

Sooooo, this was… fine. It would have been better in the oven, but this was OK, and certainly worth the extra time snuggled in my bed on Thanksgiving morning.

Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

What you need:

1 lb sausage

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 bag of frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed (2lb)

1 ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

12 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp dried dill

salt and pepper

What you do:

Spray inside of crock pot with cooking spray. Brown sausage over medium heat, then remove from pan. Drain sausage, and set aside. Leave about 2 tsp of drippings in pan, and cook the onion and peppers until softened. Stir potatoes into the vegetables.

Spoon 1/3 of the potato mixture into the crock pot. Add 1/3 of the sausage and then 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat layering with remaining ingredients, ending with cheese.

Whisk eggs, milk, dill, salt and pepper together in a bowl; pour over ingredients in the crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours.