America is in the midst of a Velveeta shortage, so out of spite I’m using it too cook all week. First up is a Cheesy Bacon Breakfast Casserole that makes me question why I ever stopped eating the cheese that melts faster than hearts at a Boyz II Men concert.
Brunch was invented by a woman who was sick of not having an excuse to hang around after a one night stand. Girlfriends everywhere then latched on as a way to get more quality time. Now we all have to suffer through brunch every Saturday and Sunday even though breakfast is the cheapest and easiest meal to make. With this Cheesy Bacon Breakfast Casserole, you can invite guys over to reconstruct your fuzzy night while the ladies go out and pretend drinking at 10am is reasonable as long as it’s champagne.
Eggs, meat, and potatoes is really all you need for a full breakfast, so why spend 2 hours and $20 just to have them? Throw in some veggies and you have yourself a gourmet meal that can feed a very understaffed army.
Unlike cooking omelets, you don’t have to have much skill to cook these potatoes, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. There’s no flipping involved, just move stuff around every now and then like when you were eating as a kid.
You can put whatever you want in at this point, most notably some sausage. I stuck to Velveeta’s recipe though and didn’t feel like it was lacking.
Don’t do what I did the first time and combine eggs and cream cheese instead of eggs and sour cream. It’s a good way to waste a half dozen eggs.
Putting it all together has a very quiche-like feel to it, but there’s no crust so this remains completely manly. It’s the little things that make all the difference. It looks a little soupy until it goes into the oven, but it comes out perfectly every time.
That’s it. The rest is just sitting around waiting and fighting a hangover. You’re best bet is to make this the first time you wake up, put it in the oven, then go back to bed for 30 minutes. Sure, you might burn your house down, but it’s worth it for that extra half hour of sleep. Just be sure to set multiple alarms so you actually get up.
The supposed Velveeta shortage is really just a good excuse to go out and buy some. There are a ton of ways to use it, from Cheesy Bacon Breakfast Casseroles to biting it straight from the block. I took this recipe right from Kraft’s Website, and it turned out perfectly.
Ingredients:
- 8 slices bacon, chopped
- 2 cups frozen shredded hash browns, thawed
- 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 12 eggs
- 1/3 cup Sour Cream
- 3/4 lb. (12 oz.) Velveeta, thinly sliced
Instructions:
- Heat oven to 350ºF.
- Cook bacon until crisp.
- Remove bacon from skillet, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings in skillet.
- Drain bacon on paper towels.
- Add potatoes, mushrooms, peppers and onions to drippings; cook 10 min. or until peppers and onions are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.
- Dump vegetable mixture onto bottom of 13×9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
- Whisk eggs and sour cream until blended; pour over vegetable mixture.
- Top with bacon and Velveeta (I waited until halfway to add the bacon back in).
- Bake 40 min. or until center is set and casserole is heated through.
- Complain about how much your head hurts.
- Take Blowfish.
- Eat breakfast.
- Watch cartoons even though you’re an adult.
- Complain about how much cartoons suck now.