Sometimes life gets busy and we forget to do things.  This recipe is from the summer but it is a good analog for throwing it all together and moving on. 

Seriously, I meant to post this in August-ish but I just found it so here you go.

When camping, there are 2 kinds of people.  One kind plans food amounts perfectly and there are never any leftovers.  The other kind always has something leftover.  I’m in the second group.

Clean out the cooler breakfast bake is more of an idea than a recipe.  It shows that you can take disparate items and put them together and make something tasty.  It can be easily sized up or down depending on what you need to use up.  The recipe as described feeds 4-6 quite easily — maybe 8 with something on the side.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of an onion diced (from BBQ Chicken Foil Packs)
• 1/2 of a green pepper diced
• 1 box of Hungry Jack dehydrated hash browns reconstituted per the package directions
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 bratwursts, precooked and sliced (from Hard Apple Cider Grilled Brats)
• 1 chicken breast, precooked and diced
• 3 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 pieces of cornbread, crumbled
• Shredded Cheese
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

• 8 quart dutch oven

Instructions:

Heat your dutch oven over fresh coals until it is at a medium-high heat.  Add the vegetable oil and let it heat up.  Then add the onion and peppers.  Saute for a few minutes until both become soft.

Add the hash browns and let them cook until browned on both sides.  Now is a good time to add some salt and pepper.

Add your meats to the pot and give it a good stir.  Since they are all precooked, they just need to be heated through.

Pour in your eggs, sprinkle on the cheese and crumbled cornbread.  As you can see, we had a block of cheese so we just cubed it and dropped it in.

Cover your dutch oven add a half dozen hot coals to your lid.  There will be enough residual heat in the pot to cook the eggs and melt the cheese.  You can add an extra coal or two if it looks like the top isn’t browning fast enough, but it should be OK.  Let this bake for about 20 minutes and then check on it.  Ours took about 25 but I think the coals were burning themselves out toward the end.  Fresh coals would have been just fine.

So here it is.  Slice it up and serve.  It would go great with some fresh fruit.  I served it with Door County Cherry Scones on the side. It slices up nicely and is easy to remove from the dutch oven, which makes cleanup super easy.

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda’s

• This recipe is really flexible.  You can add just about anything you want and it will be good.  Have some left over french toast?  That might be OK.
• You could make it a bit healthier by taking out the meat and adding some other vegetables.
• You could replace the hash browns with some other sliced or diced root vegetables.