Recipe - Western Egg Strata

I tweeted about this meal this morning and promptly got five requests for the recipe, so here it is. This one is made the evening before and cooked in the slow cooker. It comes from Campbell's Slow Cooker Recipes, a little digest of recipe cards my mom picked up in Wal-Mart. Don't know if it's still available, but she just got it, so you could check the magazine stands at your local stores to find out. There are several recipes in there I'm going to try. Anyway, here we go.

Western Egg Strata

• vegetable cooking spray


• 8 slices sandwich bread, cubed


• 3 cups frozen diced potatoes (hash browns)


• 1 pound maple-flavored ham steak, cubed


• 1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)


• 1 large green pepper, chopped (about 1 cup)


• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese about 16 oz)


• 1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup (regular or fat free is fine)


• 8 eggs


• 2 cups milk

1. First, spray the inside of a 4 1/2 - 5 quart slow cooker with cooking spray (this is a large meal, so you do need a large cooker). Layer **half** the bread cubes, potatoes, ham, onion, bell pepper and shredded cheese in the cooker. Repeat the layers.


2. Beat the soup, eggs, and milk with a fork in a medium bowl (I used an electric beater and it still came out fine). Pour over bread mixture in slow cooker. Press down the bread mixture into the soup mixture to coat (I didn't get everything completely coated, especially the top layers, and it still came out just fine).


3. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until set.

I set this up last night around 11:30 PM, and had breakfast waiting for me at 8AM. Nice! I also programmed my coffee maker to brew a pot of joe around 8AM, so the only thing I had to do when I got up this morning was set the table, pour some juice, and cut up some fruit. This was a very easy breakfast, and I'm likely to do this more often. In addition to the egg strata, the Campbell's book also has a Cinnamon Breakfast Bread Pudding, a Chocolate Almond Bread with Dried Cherries, a Harvest Fruit Compote, a Raisin Cinnamon Bread Pudding, and a Tropical Pudding Cake, all of which sound like good ideas for a Sunday morning breakfast.

Let me know if you try this recipe, and if you liked it. Personally, I thought it was great, and best yet, we've got enough to last the entire week! WIN!!