Tater Tots for Breakfast

 

Saturdays are Karate mornings around here.  We don't have to leave for the dojo until a little after 9, but we're not morning people.  Nobody wants to get up even earlier to make a decent breakfast in enough time to not be gobbling it down on our way out the door.  We've decided to try out some crock-pot friendly breakfasts that we can put together on Friday night and have waiting for us Saturday morning.  One evening, we spent an hour scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration.  Looking for crock pot-friendly breakfasts, we saw that many casserole-style recipes call for some kind of potato. Anything with diced potatoes was out -- neither Luke nor I had any desire to peel and dice potatoes on a Friday night, and we don't usually have frozen ones on hand.  Hash browns were out as well, for the same reason.  Then we saw a recipe that called for tater tots.  Perfect!  Those are something we always have in the freezer.   We were out of ham when we made this recipe, so we swapped pork roll for the meat in the casserole (you could use Canadian bacon, too). 

We got the crockpot loaded up and headed to bed, and woke up to the smell of yum coming from the kitchen.   Not only was breakfast delicious, but we made it to the dojo with full bellies and time to spare!

Dairy Free Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole

(This fills a large (7 qt.) slow cooker.)

1-  2 pound bag tater tots
2 - 6 oz packages pork roll
2 - 7 oz packages Daiya cheddar style blocks
1 c. diced onion
1 c. coconut milk
8 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
dairy free margarine (we used Earth's Balance) for greasing the crock

Prep:

Cut the meat into bite sized pieces.  If you are using a large piece of meat, cut it into slices first, and then finish cubing it.  This allows you to distribute the meat more evenly through the casserole.

Shred the cheese.

Crack eggs and beat with the milk.   Add salt if desired (we skipped it because the meat is pretty salty) and pepper and stir.

Assemble:

Grease the crock pot. 

Place a layer of tater tots (about 1/3 of the bag) in the bottom of your slow cooker's crock.  Top with about 1/3 each of the onion and meat, and cheese.

Repeat the layers twice.

Pour the egg mixture over the entire assembly, letting it settle down into the spaces.

Put the lid on,  set the slow cooker to low, and go to bed.  Sleep for 8-10 hours.  (Don't forget to brush your teeth first!) 

In the morning, take the lid off and serve.  Store any leftovers in the fridge.

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