Saturday Morning Veggie Skillet

When I thought about it, there was only one recipe that could be my first posting, and it is the oldest recipe that I call my own. My Saturday morning veggie skillets date back to my first apartment in college. I was inspired by the first kitchen that I could call my own, and immediately loved grocery shopping and coming up with meals to share with my roommates. Saturday morning breakfast was the meal that you could always count everyone being home for. One thing that I bought early on was frozen bagged hash browns to fry up for our communal breakfasts. I quickly learned that frozen hash browns were less than inspiring and set out to come up with a recipe using fresh potatoes instead. After much trial and error with very bland hash browns (garlic and salt just doesn't cut it) I found a simple and satisfying answer in all purpose seasoning salt. The first veggie to find it's way into the pan with my homemade hash browns was onions. When I decided to expand that to almost any vegetable that I had on hand and top it with eggs and cheese, the Saturday morning breakfast skillet was born. Many years/roommates later, this is still a Saturday morning favorite at my house.

Saturday Morning Veggie Skillet

This recipe is so versatile, the only thing you need is potatoes and eggs, and then you can throw in just about any vegetables or cheese you have on hand. This particular Saturday to serve two I used 3 medium sized yukon gold potatoes, chopped into 1/2" pieces. Cook potatoes in a few Tbs of olive oil over medium heat (an iron skillet is my favorite for flavor). Once the potatoes are lightly browned on the outside but still quite a ways from being done mix in all purpose seasoning salt to taste. I usually go for slightly too salty, because once the vegetables are mixed in it balances it out. Continue to brown the potatoes for another 2 minutes or so and then start adding the vegetables. You'll want to stage it so that vegetables that need longer go in first (broccoli, peppers, onions) and leave out the ones that only need 1 to 2 minutes in the pan (mushrooms, tomatoes). For this particular skillet I used onions, asparagus, and cherry tomatoes. Cook the potatoes and vegetables to your liking, turn off heat and sprinkle a light layer of cheese over the top (I used swiss on this skillet). Fry 1-2 eggs per person in a separate pan, cooked any way you like them, and serve on top or to the side of the potatoes and veggies.

Here are some ideas for other ingredient combinations that I have tried:

Sun dried tomato, basil, goat cheese
Black beans, jalepenos, onions, tomatoes, jack cheese
Broccoli, mushroom, cheddar
Spinach, tomatoes, onions, feta cheese
Vegetarian sausage crumbles, country gravy, cheddar

Let me know what yummy ingredient combinations that you come up with!