Cheesy Egg Bake

I think my husband would make a stop at the Golden Arches for breakfast every day on his way to work if he could.  Because of that, I thought I’d see if I could come up with a way to please his palate and the wallet at the same time.

Here’s my low carb, ketogenic friendly version of a baked breakfast omelet.  Carbs can be added with more control through, say, a piece of toast, an English muffin, some hash browns, a bagel, whatever floats your carbohydrate boat. 

This is for 6 servings.

• 1 pkg Brown ‘n’ Serve sausage links
• 3 pkgs real bacon bits
• 1 8oz pks pre-sliced mushrooms
• ½ purple onion, chopped
• 18 eggs, minus 6 whites
• 2 2cup pkgs shredded Cheddar cheese

First, I take the sausage links, in their frozen state, and chop them – it’s just easier that way.  Toss them into a skillet to heat through.  I add a little coconut oil to get things going.

Once that is cooked, I pour it into a prepared glass 9×13 baking dish that’s been liberally sprayed with cooking spray.

Then I heat up the bacon bits until cooked through, and into the dish they go.

Next, I sauté the mushrooms in the sausage/bacon oils, then add them to the dish.

Here’s what it looks like at this point.

Finally I sauté the onion until it’s nice and softened and add that on top.  Sautéed in sausage, bacon, and mushroom oils.  Mmmm!

Pretty, no?

Next comes one of the packages of cheese.  My husband loves cheese, Cheddar cheese.  Your taste buds may vary and I don’t see why you couldn’t use pretty much any cheese you like, alone or in some kind of wonderful cheesy combination.    I don’t bother with the knuckle buster and trying to shred cheese myself anymore.  It simply isn’t worth it and the pennies you might save get spent in the time lost and scraped knuckles. 

Now for the eggs.  Because we’re trying to make this as low carb as possible, I use whipping cream to mix in with the eggs, and a splash of water.  I don’t use milk.  Sometimes I’ll use half and half if I have that on hand as well.

Now for the 2nd bag of shredded cheese.

Into the oven it goes!

• 325°
• 30-40 min

Ovens vary and I like to leave just a bit of a jiggle since I know that eggs will continue cooking for a few minutes even after you remove them from the heat, and my husband will be using a microwave to reheat it at work.  I check at 30 minutes and adjust accordingly.  I almost never go past 40 minutes.

This is what it looks like when you pull it out of the oven,  Yummy!

I divide it into 6 portions and voilá, my husband has ready-made breakfasts for a week! 

He likes to add a little salsa with his but certainly this recipe is versatile enough that you could add different vegetables or sauces to find the taste you love.  Peppers, chilies, tomatoes, whatever you like in an omelet, the list is pretty much endless. 

All told, it takes me perhaps 20-30 mins to sauté the meat and veggies (depending on how high I cook them), and the oven is preheating while that’s going on, and add the 30-40 mins cook time, and you can have this done in an hour, easy. 

Have fun experimenting!