My "Work With What I've Got" Slow Cooker Breakfast Casserole

I've been using the crock pot a lot this week. Here is my lesson schedule for one day:

 You can imagine what the whole week's schedule looks like. So, the crock pot is a life saver.

I decided to try a breakfast casserole for the first time. Of course, thanks to the crock pot, if you use the ingredients suggested, it will taste the same as the original. Easy.

Here is my motivation: http://www.allkindsofyumm.com/2011/10/crock-pot-breakfast-casserole.html

The problem (come on, it would be a boring blog if I wrote about creating the same things as others, the same way and getting the same results) is that I didn't have the exact things suggested in the recipe. Sure, I could have gone to the store and got them, but 1, I wanted to save money and use what I had, and 2, that would be too simple.

The first problem I ran into (and have run into multiple times attempting to follow recipes online) is that the recipe is made for a large slow cooker. I actually even opened the manufacturers page, and compared pictures of cookers to hers, to try and figure which one hers is. I'm 95% sure she is using a 5 quart cooker. Mine? 2 quart.

Time for some math. Sigh.

Her recipe:                                  My recipe:
12 eggs                                       4 eggs
1 cup of milk                                1/3 cup of milk
1 tablespoon mustard                      Ew. I hate mustard
Salt and Pepper                            Probably not as much as most people
1 16 oz roll sausage                       6 Cumberland sausage links , cut up
16 oz  cheddar cheese                    2 cheddar cheese slices
1 bag frozen hash browns                About 8 large crumbled tater tots (I will explain)

As you can see, my ingredients were a litttle different than hers. Not the actual thing,
sausage is sausage, cheese is cheese, but just the pre-cooked forms of them were different.

First in goes the "hash browns". Other blogger "peeled and shredded" 8 potatoes. Yeah, I don't think so. We had some large tater tots left over, so I used them. I guess I piled them up about an inch high in the cooker. Potatoes are potatoes, right?

 Next comes the sausages. Blogger uses a roll of it. We always get the Cumberland links, because my man loves to make the traditional Bangers and Mash, and they are ideal for it. No sense in buying two types of sausages. Blogger tells you to brown it first. Again, no time. Using my handy-dandy slow cooker information site (love it- http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blcrocktips.htm) I found that it isn't necessary. So of course, I didn't.

 By the way, cutting up the sausage was one of the most disgusting things I have ever done. Not going to describe why, cause it might put you of sausage. I would suggest getting the roll of sausage (without any kind of skin) just for the pure reason of avoiding the yuckiness.

Next was the eggs. Pretty sure I couldn't screw that one up.

 Sorry my head is in the picture. Was too tired to set up the shots better.

Next is the cheese. These are my man's favorite, so I stole a couple of the ones he uses for lunch (rather than buying some to grate). Hand ripped cheese is just as good as grated.

 The order of the pot is as follows: hash browns, meat, cheese, then eggs over all.

 And that's it :-) About 8 minutes of prep, and 8 hours to cook on low.

This morning I woke up to this! Ok ok, it doesn't look like the most appetizing thing in the world.. but it's not the worst either! And the smell was awesome!

Clump of casserole :-) Very nice at 6am!

Overall analysis? I really liked it. Pretty sure it tasted the same (or close to) as hers did. I now see the reason for browning the meat, because it was very greasy. My use of tater tots made the consistency a bit soggy, and some of them burned to the cooker (reminds me, I need to go scrub it). But it was still yummy, and my batch made enough for either a smallish breakfast for 4 people, or big breakfast for 2. Looking forward to eating my leftovers tomorrow!