If you follow me on instagram, you know I posted an “egg waffle” for breakfast – it was basically scrambled eggs, veggies and sausage poured into a waffle iron and voilà…an egg waffle! I had a few extras so I froze them and realized that was a great way to prep ahead and have an easy breakfast on a busy morning. With that in mind, I had a thought of cooking breakfast at night to make mornings less rushed and then suddenly the crockpot entered my mind — so this here, is what happened after a bunch of thoughts snowballed!
I always try to make week day meals easy. Meaning- prepping ahead will make the meal easier to put together. Whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner, I definitely have the thought of a busy week taking over and my meals would suffer if I didn’t plan/prep ahead. My breakfasts are usually just made the morning of unless I have prepped a bunch of paleo waffles ahead of time but normally, I am rushing through making, eating and cleaning up breakfast before heading out to work. Dinner is usually prepped ahead and lunch is always leftovers from dinner – so my dinner prep always includes extra’s so I have lunch the next day.
When I do have something on hand for breakfast, I can tell the difference in how I feel as I walk out the door. I feel calm, cool and collected! I know some would say, “Well why even make breakfast on those rushed days?” I honestly LOVE that first meal of the day and no matter how rushed I feel, I definitely make time to get some kind of protein, veggie/green and fat into my system. There are those days that I grab a protein bar as I head out the door and that’s certainly ‘ok’ from time to time but I personally like to sit and eat a “real meal”.
I like the idea of this crockpot breakfast! It takes a handful of minutes to chop up the veggies and cook up your protein but once it’s in the crockpot, it feels good to know that you’ll have a good meal waiting for you in the morning. This recipe can be made with or without the cheese depending on your likes. I like it both ways – and if you have someone who can/cannot handle cheese but you can, you can certainly just sprinkle some cheese on one side of the recipe.
Depending on your family size, this will be a great prep ahead breakfast that you can have divided up and in your fridge to eat before you head out the door or take along and warm at work. This would also be great for brunch or a holiday! I’m thinking an Easter brunch would be pretty darn easy if you have this all ready to go when you wake up!
- 1 dozen eggs
- 1 lb sausage, cooked & crumbled
- 1 lb bacon, cooked & chopped
- 2 bellpeppers (color of your choice), diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 large sweet potato (longer vs. fatter), thinly sliced
- 7 oz. block of Kerrygold cheese (optional), shredded
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the almond milk. Season with salt & pepper.
- Wipe down your crockpot with coconut oil or use a plastic liner* (but you should still smear it with coconut oil to avoid sticking).
- Pour about 1/4 cup of eggs into bottom of crockpot. Layer 1/2 of your sliced sweet potatoes to cover bottom ...then sprinkle on 1/2 of the following ingredients: sausage, bacon, veggies, cheese (if using). Pour 1/2 of the egg mixture on top.
- Continue with another layer, following the same pattern as above.
- Turn the crockpot on low for 8 hours.
- *There is controversy about using plastic liners in the crockpot. I hear ya -- and I use occasionally. I have made this with and without the liner. The reason I do like the liner in this recipe, is that you can lift out the casserole when cooled down a bit & slice into nice pieces. Of course, make sure you get liners that are BPA friendly. Again, I realize there is much to say about the use of the liners but sometimes I just pick my battles and though this recipe is just as good not using a liner, the pieces don't come out as nicely uniformed as they do when lifting the casserole out in whole form.
Hi Val, I was wondering if you could use a baking dish and use your oven for a faster bake time? If so, what would the comparison be for oven temp and cook times?
Yes Shay! I haven’t done it this way but I am certain you could. I will try this method soon and let you know. If you should try it, please keep me posted. I’d try 1 hour at 350 and go from there