Team Alpha’s Tasty Turkey Bacon and Hash Brown Skillet
As college students, most of us don’t really want to spend time cooking healthy breakfast meals the morning before an 8:30am class when we could be sleeping in. But never fear! Our Tasty Turkey Bacon and Hash Brown Skillet is the perfect dish for you! It’s super simple and quick to prepare and can easily be reworked into a lunch or dinner meal using whatever you have left over in your fridge/spice cabinet! The best news? Our recipe will leave you with enough leftovers for nearly a week’s worth of breakfasts and it’s WAY cheaper than going to Starbucks for a bagel every morning!
Tasty Turkey Bacon and Hash Brown Skillet (5-6 servings)
Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 15 ounces of shredded hash brown potatoes
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- ¾ cup of carrots, shredded
- 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
- 1- 2.8 ounce package of turkey bacon bits
- 6 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon of rosemary
- 1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon of thyme
Cooking Instructions:
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium-size skillet on medium-low heat. Add the frozen shredded potatoes and cook until they start to brown.
- In a small skillet, heat the remaining olive oil. Add the onion, carrots, bell pepper, and turkey bacon bits. Cook until vegetables are slightly soft.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs. Add black pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, cilantro, and thyme.
- Pour the egg mixture into the hash browns. Mix thoroughly and allow to set slightly—around 3-4 minutes. Stir in the vegetable combination and cook on medium-low heat until the eggs are fully cooked. Serve hot. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator—this recipe can easily be reheated in a microwave and still tastes equally as delicious!
Ratings:
- Taste: 9
- We could have definitely enhanced this dish by topping it with sharp cheddar cheese to provide a nice contrast of flavors! Our dish was really savory (and delicious!), but the cheese would have given it the tangy element that we may have been lacking.
- Consistency: 8
- Not totally softening the vegetables was a good idea! It added a little bit of crunch to the dish, which mostly consisted of softer foods (eggs and potatoes). However, we think that the potatoes needed to be a tad bit crispier to add another layer of texture.
- Smell: 10
- The combination of spices that we chose for our dish made it smell absolutely delicious! They were definitely a stronger combination than some of the others that we have tried, as these were more herby as opposed to spicy!
- Visual Appeal: 8
- Having the vibrant colors from the vegtables in our dish definitely makes it more appealing to the eye! However, we could have had neater/more creative presentation.
- Creativity: 7
- Scrambles are a pretty common breakfast food, but we thought that the versatility that this dish allows for really makes it stand out! The spice combination that we used was also pretty unique, given the different ingredients that we mixed together! Using cilantro, rosemary, and thyme gave the dish an herbier taste that isn’t typically associated with eggs but is relatively common with potatoes. In the end, it was a risk using these spices with the eggs, but it really made the dish pop.
** Sidenote: We also bought a Kiwano fruit to try and incorporate into our dish (having no idea how to prepare it or what it tasted like), but ultimately we decided against putting it in our dish. However, it would have made a wonderful glaze to go on top of a sweeter meal when cooked down, so we may try to use this again in the future with ingredients that compliment its flavors better! **