- Looking for some cozy breakfast casseroles
to serve on Christmas morning?
I've got you covered with three amazing recipes
you can make ahead so you can rest easy knowing
you have a delicious breakfast ready and waiting for you.
Hey guys, welcome back to my channel,
it's Taylor from The Girl on Bloor.
I show you how to make easy, healthy recipes
and share meal prep tips and tricks
so that you can live your best life.
I know that traditional meal prep can fall by the wayside
when the holidays roll around,
but the same general principles still apply
in terms of making your life easier
during busy times like these.
Though I cook these make ahead breakfast casseroles
year round, I love them for the holidays in particular
because all you have to do is assemble ahead of time
and then bake the morning of
for an easy hands off experience.
Whether it's Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day
or any other special occasion,
you can relax and enjoy your morning with loved ones
but still get to eat something wholesome and delicious.
Today I'll be showing you
how to make a crockpot breakfast casserole with bacon,
a cozy and comforting French toast casserole
made a little lighter, and my personal favorite,
a cheesy tater tot casserole with sausage.
They're all perfect for serving a crowd,
but I also make these yummy breakfast options year round
because it's so easy to divide the whole recipe
into individual portions and then either enjoy
for breakfast each day or freeze for the future.
The casserole way is the best way to meal prep breakfast,
so without further ado, I'll show you how to make them.
We'll start with the crockpot breakfast casserole.
I absolutely love how hands off this one is
and anything in the slow cooker
just makes your house smell amazing all day.
Now, this one could almost be a one pot recipe
if it weren't for the bacon.
You can leave it out to make this casserole meat-free
but it's worth the effort in my opinion.
Start by heating a large skillet over medium-high heat,
then cook up 12 slices of bacon.
You'll probably have to do it all in two batches.
I'm using turkey bacon to make this casserole
a bit healthier but you can use whatever you'd like.
While the bacon is cooking up, you can dice up your veggies
and grate your cheese.
Dice up one red pepper, one yellow pepper, one green pepper
and one red onion, then grate one cup of cheddar cheese.
You can use any cheese you'd like by the way
so don't be afraid to switch it up.
Then you will crack 16 eggs into a large bowl.
Add in one teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper.
Whisk them together very well until the eggs are combined.
This recipe calls for a lot of eggs
compared to traditional breakfast casseroles
which cut the eggs with milk,
but this way you're getting more protein
and not adding any filler ingredients.
Okay, you should have everything ready to go,
so you can now assemble.
Grease your slow cooker with cooking spray,
then you're going to add your hash browns,
bacon and veggies in two layers.
You'll be using two cups of frozen hash browns,
so go ahead and add one cup of them
to the bottom of the greased crockpot.
I like these small diced up ones
but you could technically even use tater tots
or mini hash brown patties too.
Next up, crumble or chop up your bacon
and then add half of it overtop of the hash browns,
followed by half of your peppers and onions.
Use up the remaining ingredients in the same order,
hash browns, bacon and veggies.
Now pour your egg mixture overtop of everything
and finish up with your grated cheddar cheese.
All you have to do now is cook on high for 4 hours.
I haven't tested it on low for 8 hours
but I imagine it would work.
The reason I give you this 4 hour time period
is because it's easy to assemble everything
the night before,
let the inner crockpot sit in the fridge overnight
and then all you have to do is add the pot
back to the slow cooker
and turn it on first thing in the morning.
By late morning, you'll have a hot and fresh breakfast
that has been cooked completely hands off.
Perfect for doing your morning Christmas presents
and then enjoying afterwards.
You can make this casserole
up to two or three days in advance too,
which totally helps with other holiday meal prep
you may be doing.
Once you've cooked it and on the slight chance
that you have leftovers, you can keep them in the fridge
for up to five days or you can freeze them
for up to three months.
Just make sure to freeze in individual serving sizes
for easy enjoyment.
I like to add squares of the lasagna to glass containers
and then reheat in the microwave right from frozen
for three to four minutes.
Make sure to sprinkle some water overtop first
to avoid it drying out.
This is one of my meal prep favorites, holidays or not.
Okay, onto our next make ahead idea,
which is this French toast casserole.
This one's made a bit healthier with extra fruit
and natural sweetener such as maple syrup.
No processed sugar over here.
It's a family favorite that we continue to make
on holiday mornings to this day,
so if you're more of a fan of sweet breakfasts,
this one's for you.
Start by taking one loaf of bread,
any type of bread you'd like
and cut it into one to two inch thick pieces.
I prefer challah bread or brioche,
so today I'm using a brioche loaf.
It's super tender and really absorbs the liquid so well
so make sure you go with a bread
that will soak everything up
and provide a nice texture.
Once you have your bread cut up, set it aside
and then you can mix together the liquid components.
Take 4 eggs and crack them into a very large bowl.
Add one and a half cups of milk
and whisk until very well combined.
Whisk in one-third of a cup of maple syrup
for some sweetness, along with half a teaspoon of cinnamon
which will also add some sweetness.
If you're not a cinnamon fan, you can leave it out.
Now you'll see why I recommend a very large bowl,
and that's because you'll be tossing your bread cubes
in the liquid mixture.
It'll be a bit messy to get everything coated in there
but it'll take some time for the bread to absorb the liquid
as well so be patient.
Work it all gently so the bread doesn't crumble up too much
and then you can let it all soak for at least five minutes
or up to overnight.
You can either let it sit in the bowl
or add it to your baking dish.
You'll be greasing a 9 by 13 oven safe dish
with cooking spray, then adding your bread to it.
I don't recommend that this casserole be made
up to too many days in advance
but you can leave it overnight and as you can see,
assembly is so easy that you can totally make it
the night before in just 10 minutes.
Now, you'll want to melt one-third of a cup of butter
in the microwave for 30 seconds or so,
then drizzle the butter overtop of the whole thing,
trying to distribute it as evenly as possible.
You can do this either right before baking or ahead of time,
just know that the butter will become hardened again
in the fridge and will impact the appearance
of the casserole before baking.
When you're ready to eat, you'll preheat the oven
to 350 degrees, then bake for 30 minutes.
It comes together very quickly so this recipe
is a good last minute dish.
Now when you go on my site,
the recipe calls for frozen berries
that bake as the bread bakes,
but I've tested this recipe many times over
and since you're adding fresh fruit,
you don't also need frozen.
It's just if you want more of a mixed berry french toast
and love the taste of baked fruit.
When your french toast casserole is ready,
remove from the oven, and add some fresh fruit.
I like berries best but you could use any fruit
or toppings you'd like.
For instance, you could make it pina colada style
with tropical fruit and coconut.
This recipe is so versatile.
Now drizzle some extra maple syrup overtop if you'd like,
sprinkle with icing sugar
and you have the best breakfast ever.
Skip the maple syrup and icing sugar
if you wanna keep this recipe lower in sugar,
and serve with some breakfast sausage on the side
for protein.
Your guests will love this.
Again, you can freeze the final product
in individual portion sizes for up to three months
and then microwave or reheat in the oven,
sprinkling some water overtop so that it doesn't dry out.
Now, for our last recipe in this video
which is my favorite, tater tot breakfast casserole.
I'm actually obsessed with tater tots,
I think they are my favorite carb.
They're like little mini hash browns
and I can never have enough of them
so you know I had to do a breakfast casserole
with them as the star.
This one is similar to our crockpot casserole
but this one goes into the oven
and has sausage instead of bacon,
hitting all the core breakfast food groups if you ask me.
Okay, so first up you're going to cook up
your breakfast sausages.
To make this pretty much a one pan recipe and meat-free
you can skip this step, but breakfast sausages are the bomb
and you won't regret adding them.
I love these turkey sausage ones to save a bit on calories
and make this meal a bit healthier.
I also don't eat pork, so I sub a lot of pork products
for turkey.
They're trickier to find than turkey bacon,
but sometimes your local grocer will have their own brand
like my local store Longos.
I've been seeing the Lilydale brand more and more
these days too.
So fry up your sausages in a little bit of oil
on a large skillet over medium-high heat until browned
and mostly cooked through.
They should be done in about five minutes,
then you'll slice them up.
Don't worry if they're a bit pink inside,
they'll get cooked more in the casserole.
We just want them browned.
When the sausages are cooking you can go ahead
and dice up one red pepper, one red onion
and slice up one bunch of green onions.
You can also go ahead and grate one cup of cheddar cheese.
Once your sausages are done, you'll add a dozen eggs
to a large bowl along with one cup of milk,
one teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of pepper.
Instead of adding more eggs,
we're adding some milk to the mix to add more liquid.
You can totally use four more eggs though instead,
just as we did with the breakfast casserole
that went in the crockpot.
Now you can go ahead and assemble.
Grease a 9 by 13 oven safe dish with cooking spray,
then add in your sliced sausages, red pepper and red onion.
Now here's my favorite part, the tater tots.
These are so good.
Did I mention how much I love them?
Add your tater tots on top in a single layer,
it usually ends up being an entire bag,
then pour your egg mixture overtop.
Reserve your cheese and green onions for later,
so go ahead and package those up
if you're making this casserole ahead of time.
You can keep this assembled casserole covered in the fridge
for up to two days.
When you're ready to serve, you'll preheat the oven
to 350 degrees, then bake for 30 minutes.
Pull the casserole out of the oven, sprinkle with cheese
and then bake another 15 minutes
so the cheese gets nice and melted.
You could technically put this on at the beginning
but I find the cheese sort of hardens
and becomes a bit too overcooked for my liking
when you have it cooking for 45 minutes,
but that's just my personal opinion, do what's best for you.
When your tater tot casserole is ready,
pull it out of the oven, sprinkle your green onions overtop
and then you can serve and enjoy.
I like to enjoy mine with a dollop of sour cream
and some hot sauce but you can serve
whatever you'd like with yours.
Kids and adults will both adore this breakfast casserole
so put it on your holiday meal plan ASAP.
You can store any leftovers you have
for up to five days in the fridge,
and you can store them for up to three months
in the freezer.
Just be sure to freeze in individual serving sizes
for easy reheating.
Again, I like to freeze in my glass meal prep bowls
then I'll take one out when I'm in the mood for it,
sprinkle some water overtop
and then microwave for three to four minutes until hot.
These casseroles are going to be your go-tos
for your next meal prep day, trust me.
Okay, you've seen the ultimate make ahead breakfasts
for special occasions where I'm serving lots of people,
or for my meal prep days
where I want to have a freezer stash.
No matter which way you prep these, they are so delicious
and the perfect crowd pleasers.
Which casserole are you most excited to try first?
Now, I've got even more make ahead breakfast ideas
beyond casseroles on the blog,
I've listed out a huge variety of recipes
that'll help you prep ahead and get organized
for Christmas morning or even just cover your future self
for delicious healthy breakfasts
without all the day to day work.
I've put the link for that round up in my description
so check those out.
If you're loving these make ahead breakfasts,
be sure to give this video a thumbs up
and tag me on Instagram @thegirlonbloor
if you try any of them.
If you're finding my meal prep ideas helpful,
please share my channel with friends and family
so that they can get on the meal prep train.
I'll have more meal prep breakfast ideas
coming to my channel soon.
Thanks so much for hanging out in my kitchen with me today
and I will see you in the next video.