Country Breakfast Casserole

My husband and I were shopping recently which is a rather rare event because I am not a shopper at least in the convention way.  While going through the check-out I notice a Taste of Home booklet of Bacon Recipe cards.  Now here's the thing...bacon is a food group all by itself!  I briefly debated then decided to buy the booklet.  It was $4.99 but each recipe is on a card so if I used recipe cards that would be useful.   What I was really interested in were new ideas to use one of my favourite foods.

The kids, parents to oldest and youngest grandbabies were home on the weekend so I decided to try the country brunch skillet recipe in the booklet but quickly realized I'd have to do a bit of modifying since I needed to feed 8 rather than 6.  My 20 - inch skillet wasn't quite big enough so I decided to change the cooking method to the oven.  The resulting casserole started with the original recipe but ended up quite different.  It did go over well so this breakfast casserole goes into my file of family favourites.

Country Breakfast Casserole

6 bacon strips
1 750 g (1.6 lb) bag cubed frozen hash brown potatoes
1 c broccoli, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
8 eggs
¾ c  shredded colby cheese
2 tbsp butter
salt
pepper

Cut bacon across strips, fry, drain and reserve.  Melt the butter then pour into casserole pan. Mix vegetables together and pour into the casserole pan.  Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.  Cover with tin foil and bake at 175ºC (350ºC) for 15 minutes.  Remove casserole dish from oven.  Make 8 wells in the vegetable mixture.  Crack an egg into each well.  Cover and return to oven for 8 - 10 minutes or until eggs are completely set.  Sprinkle with bacon pieces and cheese.  Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Serves 8