Breakfast for Dinner – Texas Hash

It’s so easy to forget sometimes that you know what?  Breakfast for dinner sounds like an excellent idea.  It’s hearty, it’s easy to be healthy, and it’s delicious because I honestly don’t know many people who hate breakfast foods (ok, I know people who don’t like, say, pancakes or waffles, but I’m talking – not that many people hate eggs or potatoes or bacon… or all three!).  So I admit, I was watching 30 Minute Meals and was inspired to make this dish, but it came out so delicious and easy, I probably will make it again.  (It took me longer than 30 minutes, but I like taking my time, and I like making sure it’s really what I want instead of just rushing through to beat the clock…)

I used:

10 red bliss potatoes
sliced portobellos
diced red onion
4 slices of bacon, chopped
chopped scallion
pepper jack cheese

Pierce the skin of the potatoes with a fork; microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a skillet – I used my trusty cast iron skillet that I adore – I put the bacon in over very low heat and let the fat start rendering out.  Once the bacon bits were good and crispy, I removed them and set them on a paper towel to drain/dry.  I poured off some, but not all, of the bacon fat and returned the skillet to medium heat.  Sliced the potatoes into nice sized rounds, then spread these out in the bottom of the skillet and let these crisp up – it took a while, but I got them to really crunchy on the outside, with a nice crust, but the inside soft and almost mashed-potato like. 

I pushed all of these to one side of the skillet and tossed in the portobello mushrooms and onions, letting these soften up quite a bit.  Note that because of something in the portobellos, it tends to leak this juice that’s dark brown and stains the stuff around it.  (I read somewhere or saw on the Food Network someone explaining what it was, and a way to prevent it, but I can’t remember exactly what it was right now…)  It still tastes good, but if you’re planning on making a dish that you want clean, bright colors, you may want to skip the portobellos…  (This is why my onions seem a bit muddy/dirty in the pictures… it’s from the portobellos.) 

After everything was just about done to my preferred state of done-ness, I tossed the bacon back in, then added the scallions (which I like just lightly cooked).  Then, I made the eggs… BF got two eggs, scrambled, and I had my standard sunny side up.  I added bits of pepper jack cheese and found that it melted beautifully and added a nice zing to the potatoes…. Rachel had suggested using a homemade salsa on top, and putting the whole bunch on top of toast, but I found this to be filling enough. 

Plus the leftovers made a great breakfast the next day…

Happy Eating!!!