[dropcap]I [/dropcap]LOVE sleeping in on the weekends and cooking breakfast. I love it, but don’t get to do it often. I usually wake up and head to the studio either to practice or teach. My husband and I have weekend “day dates” a lot which consists of going to yoga, going to brunch and then getting massages (rough life right?) and throw a ton of errands into the mix. He kids around with me that we leave the house at 9am and don’t come home until 6pm. Which SOMETIMES is true. Back when my life was a little more crazy and wild my weekends often consisted of waking up at 11am and heading to brunch with my friends. I am glad the partying and staying out late is behind me but I do miss a good brunch.
I also am allergic to eggs. I can eat things with eggs in them but I cannot eat scrambled eggs or omelets which really bums me out because I like them so much. So going out to breakfast can be a challenge. Trust me there are only so much pancakes and French toast you can eat. Half the time I don’t want a sweet breakfast anyway. I want a ton of veggies in an omelet. Period. I am also a big fan of breakfast skillets. Potatoes, veggies, often topped with eggs (this is an easy request at a restaurant to leave these off) but when a restaurant doesn’t have this I am stuck with the sweets or making something up off menu (HIGH.MAINTENCE.)
When I am at home on the weekends and we actually have time to make a brunch I get so excited because finally I can eat what I want. I also try to pack as many veggies in a meal as I possibly can. The good thing about a skillet is you can use whatever you have on hand. You can go as simple or as complex as you want. I never had a cast iron pan until my husband moved in and now I love cooking with it.
The basis for my skillet is potatoes. I used to try to cook raw potatoes on the stove and it took FOREVER. My secret now is to par boil the potatoes. You boil them until they are about 5 minutes shy to being cooked all the way through. Then when you throw them in the skillet they finish cooking and crisp up nicely.
In my skillet I cooked a few slices of bacon (if sausage is your breakfast meat of choice use that!). I kept the bacon grease in the pan (which is seriously less than 2 TBS so it’s not even a lot of fat). If you aren’t a fan of cooking with bacon fat or if you are a vegetarian you can use coconut oil or whatever your fat of choice is. I then added in onions, bell peppers and garlic to sautee.
Once those are done I push them over to the side of the pan and add the potatoes back in. Here is where I don’t do a great job – let your potatoes sit for a few minutes. I constantly want to stir everything around. Let them sit and get nice and golden brown. Remember the potatoes are almost done anyway so they really just need another 2-3 minutes on each side. Once I get the potatoes in I added zucchini (I hate when zucchini is over cooked because I think it gets mushy) and spinach.
I tried a new purple spinach from Trader Joe’s that was good but turned my potatoes a red color. Every time I added a layer in I seasoned. I used Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning Grinder. It’s got a great flavor to it and of course make sure to use salt and pepper. Salt and pepper I never tell people a measurement because it’s totally dependent on the chef. All I can tell you is start with a little and taste your food and add more. Don’t go crazy up front. You can’t remove too much salt from a dish.
Once everything was cooked all the way through I added fresh chopped chives. Fresh herbs really just brighten a dish and some shredded New Zealand cheddar cheese on the top. To garnish your dish you can really use anything like tomatoes, avocado slices, scallions, jalapenos…. Whatever you like. At this point my meal is complete. If you want to make it a full breakfast top the skillet with some scrambled or fried eggs and you are all set. Don’t forget the crumbled bacon you cooked off earlier!
sunday morning skillet
- Total Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients
- *2 lbs of potatoes (I used a combination of red skinned and Yukon golds)
- 5 slices of bacon
- 1 white or yellow onion diced
- 5 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 bell peppers diced
- 1 zucchini diced
- 2 cups of spinach roughly chopped (this may seem like a lot but it wilts down)
- 1 package/bunch of chives thinly sliced
- 2–3 TBS of Everyday Seasoning (I like the Trader Joe’s grinder or their 21 Seasoning Salute)
- Salt and pepper
- ½ cup of shredded cheddar cheese
- Optional toppings: diced tomatoes, greek yogurt, avocado slices, scallions, jalapenos, Tabasco, eggs cooked to your liking
Instructions
- Place potatoes in a pot full of cold water (this helps the potatoes cook evenly) and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes until they are just barely fork tender. You don’t want the potatoes cooked all the way through. Once the potatoes come to a boil check after 5 minutes. Drain the potatoes once they are mostly cooked.
- In a cast iron skillet cook bacon on medium to medium high until cooked all the way. Remove the bacon and set aside. If your bacon is super fatty and you have more than 2 TBS of bacon fat left in the pan remove some of the grease. Turn heat down to medium. Add in onions, bell peppers and garlic. Season with salt, pepper and Everyday seasoning. Cook about 8 minutes until veggies are soft (try and onion to see if it’s done) then push all the veggies to the side of the pan and add in potatoes, season again. Leave the potatoes for 3 minutes or until the bottom gets nice and crispy. Add in zucchini and spinach and cook a few more minutes (this gives you time to get the other side of your potatoes crispy). Taste the veggies, season more if necessary.
- Top with chives and cheddar cheese. Let everything sit a few minutes on low heat so that the cheese melts over the top. Serve with any of the additional toppings of your choice and crumble the reserved bacon on top.
- Prep Time: 25
- Cook Time: 25
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
