Nothing is better on a trip than a great breakfast. At home it’s usually cereal with fruit, bagel with fruit or peanut butter toast. But when we camp, we do breakfast right. I’m talking really right; bacon, eggs, sausage, hash browns, french toast and more. This is especially true when we circle camp in the middle of the desert for some riding. Different RV’s handle different parts of the morning feast making for a super tasty buffet.
If Mark isn’t on bacon duty for the group, this is my choice for the breakfast buffet. You can make it and bake it right away but I prefer to make it the night before and let all the ingredients sit together in the frig. It sure makes the morning easy, pull it out and stick it in the oven. What could be easier than that?
We’ve had this recipe a very long time, before kids. He worked in office furniture and was given a cookbook put together by a stateside manufacturer. Employees contributed recipes that were bound together and given to customers. I just looked them up and they are still in business! I’m going to send them a thank you note for this recipe. Credit employee Barbara Nicholson for the recipe she titled Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole.
The original recipe called for 6 slices of cubed white bread as the bottom layer and we have made it that way several times. One time we decided to try hash browns as the bottom layer and it was a game changer. There are many ways to change it up depending on what you’re in the mood for. We’ve changed the sausage out for bacon, amazing. We’ve added diced hatch green chilies, amazing. We prefer the spicy sausage for a little kick. As I’m typing this I think I’ll try chunks of Challah bread next time. I’ve used Challah for an overnight blueberry french toast casserole and it holds together well after soaking overnight. One funny note, the teaspoon of mustard is dry mustard. It only took me about 20 years to figure that out. Yes, I was using squeeze mustard and never figured out why there was always a blob of the stuff in the bottom of the bowl. Face palm moment for sure.
For easy cleanup, and who wants to do a lot of dishes while camping, simply use a disposable foil pan.
Amazing Breakfast Casserole
Serves 8 – 10
- 6 eggs
- 2 good sized potatoes, shredded like hash browns (or 6 slices of thick diced bread or 1/2 of a big bag of frozen hash browns)
- 1 1/2 cups grated Colby cheese
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. mustard
- 2 cups milk
- 1 pound sausage or bacon
Preheat oven to 350. Cook and drain sausage. Whisk eggs and milk. Whisk in salt, pepper and mustard then stir in cheese. Shred potatoes and place in 9 x 13 pan. Layer sausage on top of potatoes. Pour egg mixture evenly over the top. Bake for 45 minutes.
Note: Can be made the night before and stored covered in the refrigerator until morning.