Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, or so I’ve heard. With that in mind, Ryan and I have come up with a pretty easy, filling, and scrumptious breakfast skillet.
To be completely honest with you, I am terrible at making crispy hashbrowns. It’s probably because I refuse to cook them in oil. I always follow the lower-fat directions for cooking hashbrowns, and they end up soft and really just kinda bleh. That led Ryan and I to explore a new breakfast potato avenue, but I’m lazy in the morning and didn’t want anything that was too time- or effort-consuming. And so, the tater tot hashbrown was born.
Despite being a two-person household, we do shop at Sam’s Club for a number of staples that we prefer to buy in bulk, one such staple is Tater Tots. (Yes, I’m overly aware that I’m posting two meals in a row that use tater tots, please forgive me.) Buying tots in bulk means we always have them on-hand, which makes this breakfast go-to that much easier.
As you’ve guessed, tots play an integral role in this hearty breakfast meal. I started by baking some tots according to the package directions, with the tots, I cooked a half an onion, chopped. You could easily add other vegetables here, like peppers. I kept the tots and onion on separate sides of the cookie sheet, in order to make my mashing easier later on. After the tots had cooked the recommended time, I took them out of the oven and lightly smushed them with my potato masher (not too much or you’ll have a tater tot clump of a mess stuck to your masher). I sprinkled salt and pepper on top, mixed the browned onions into the potatoes, and topped with some shredded cheddar cheese. Back in the oven for my tot-mash, while I cooked up a few eggs.
We prefer our eggs basted, but you can make them any way you please. As the eggs cooked, I checked in on my tot-mash, to make sure the cheese wasn’t burning. Just before the eggs were finished, I pulled the tot-mash out of the oven. I put a few heaping spoonfuls into two shallow bowls. Pulled the eggs off the stove, and topped each bowl with two eggs. Viola, breakfast is served. The eggs were soft and creamy, oozing yolk-goodness into the tot-mash mixture. The tots were chewy inside, and crispy on the outside with a nice spice from the onion and gooey-goodness of the melted cheese. You could easily add in bacon or sausage to amp this meal up even more. Added bonus – this breakfast is easily adjusted to serve one, or a crowd!
Eggs & Tot-Mash
Tater Tots (amount depends on how many people you are feeding)
Onion cut into large chunks, other vegetables are optional
eggs (2 per person)
Shredded cheddar cheese
Cook onion on a cookie sheet. Cook tater tots according to tater tot directions. Keep the vegetables separate from the tots.
After cooking the tater tots for the full suggested time, remove them from oven and carefully smush the tots flat. Mix the cooked onions into the tot-mash, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and top with shredded cheddar cheese. Put the tot-mash back into the oven at the same temperature.
Heat a non-stick skillet on the stove and cook up 2 eggs per person, any way you like.
Keep an eye on the tot-mash, to make sure they don’t burn. When the eggs are just about done, remove the tot-mash from the oven and scoop into bowls.
Top each bowl with two cooked eggs. Dig in.