If you’ve been following the blog for a while, then you know how I love to meal prep my breakfast. It’s just so much easier to spend a little time on the weekend to get my breakfast in order so I can just pop one in the microwave every morning and have a nice hot breakfast in about 90 seconds. These Country Breakfast Bowls are one of the first breakfast meal prep recipes that I ever made. And I haven’t stopped since.
Shown with Pyrex 3-cup glass meal prep containers, which can be found in my Amazon Shop.
I got the idea for these Country Breakfast Bowls while watching TV. I saw a commercial for some frozen breakfast bowls that no doubt cost about $4 each and thought, “I can make that!” And for much less, of course. These breakfast meal prep bowls are so incredibly easy, you can make them while you’re watching TV on Sunday afternoon and have breakfast sorted for the rest of the week.
What’s in a Country Breakfast Bowl?
My breakfast bowls start with a bed of seasoned roasted potatoes, and are then topped with scrambled eggs, a little salsa, and cheddar cheese. You could also add these fun toppings:
- sautéed breakfast sausage
- crumbled bacon
- green onions
- ham
- bell pepper
- hot sauce
How Long do The Breakfast Bowls Stay Good?
You can keep these Country Breakfast Bowls in the refrigerator for about four days, or in the freezer for about three months. To freeze the bowls, make sure to cool them completely in the refrigerator first (overnight), then transfer them to the freezer the next day.
How to Reheat Country Breakfast Bowls
I reheat my Country Breakfast Bowls from the refrigerator in the microwave for about 90 seconds on high, but the total time needed will depend on the wattage of your microwave and your containers. To reheat from frozen, first use the defrost setting for about 3-5 minutes, then finish on high for 1-2 minutes. Or you can transfer the breakfast bowl from the freezer to the refrigerator the day before and skip the defrost step.
And who says you have to eat this for breakfast? NO ONE. They’re also great for taking to work for lunch, or a quick lazy dinner!
Country Breakfast Bowls
Servings 4Ingredients
- 2 lbs russet potatoes ($1.00)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- ¼ tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.03)
- 6 large eggs ($1.40)
- 2 Tbsp butter ($0.26)
- 1 cup salsa ($1.49)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese ($0.85)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Wash and cut the potatoes into ½-inch cubes.
- For extra protection against the potatoes sticking, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Otherwise, rub 1 Tbsp of the olive oil over the surface of a large baking sheet. Spread the potatoes out onto the baking sheet. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of oil over the potatoes, along with the smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat the potatoes in oil and spices.
- Roast the potatoes in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until they are golden brown and crispy. Stir once half way through roasting.
- When the potatoes are close to being finished, crack the eggs into a large bowl and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Gently whisk the eggs.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. When the butter is melted, pour in the eggs. Gently move the eggs around the skillet until they are mostly solid, but still soft and glistening. Be careful not to over cook the eggs at this point because they will cook further when the breakfast bowls are reheated.
- To prepare the bowls, divide the roasted potatoes and scrambled eggs between four freezer safe containers. Add 1/4 cup of salsa to each container then top with about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese.
- Chill the bowls in the refrigerator before transferring to the freezer. Or, leave them in the refrigerator if you plan to eat them within 4-5 days.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
How to Make Country Breakfast Bowls – Step by Step Photos
Begin by preheating the oven to 400ºF. Clean and dice 2 lbs. russet potatoes into ½-inch cubes. Line a baking sheet with parchment for extra protection against sticking, or, if you like to live dangerous like me, just smear a tablespoon of oil over the surface of a baking sheet. Spread the potatoes out over the prepared baking sheet.
Add a second tablespoon of olive oil to the potatoes along with 1 tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp salt, and some freshly cracked black pepper. Toss the potatoes to coat them in oil and spices.
Roast the potatoes in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes or until they are golden brown and crispy. Stir once half way through roasting.
When the potatoes are almost done roasting, crack six large eggs into a bowl and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Lightly whisk the eggs.
Heat two tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Once melted, add the whisked eggs. Cook the eggs slowly, gently moving them around the skillet with a spatula, until they are mostly set, but still soft and glistening. It’s really important not to overcook the eggs at this point because they will cook even further when you reheat the bowls.
To build the country breakfast bowls, divide the roasted potatoes between four containers.
Next, divide the scrambled eggs between the four containers.
Add ¼ cup salsa to each container.
Lastly, add ¼ cup shredded cheddar to each container. Refrigerate the containers for 4 days, or freeze for longer storage.
To reheat, simply microwave until heated through and enjoy!
I used golden potatoes because they needed to be used up, and I didn’t have salsa so I used cholula. My boyfriend said this was the best breakfast I’ve ever made haha.
How long do these freeze for?
I usually keep recipes like this for about three months in the freezer, but your mileage may vary depending on the conditions within your freezer. There’s no hard cut off, unfortunately, instead foods tend to just slowly lose quality over time.
I’m new to this site but absolutely love it! Meal planning felt impossible until I found this website. Thank you!
Made this past week exactly as is and definitely adding into our regular rotation!! Love that I can mix it up with sweet potatoes, adding beans or veggies or turkey sausage, egg whites, different kinds of salsa, etc!
I almost didn’t put the salsa and cheese on while prepped because I thought I’d want to add those after reheating, but I loved the way the potatoes soaked up the flavor. We refrigerated since they were just for the next couple days and they reheated great for us in the microwave.
Budget bytes recipes seriously never let me down.
I’m new to the site so maybe I’m missing something, but do you ever bake the finished bowl in the oven?
And could you make one larger casserole for a family meal together?
I reheat the finished bowls in the microwave as a quick reheat breakfast on the go. :) You could probably do something like you mentioned, baking it as one large casserole!
so simple to make and great to have on hand for a quick breakfast.
I added some bacon and spinach, forgo the cheese and top with tomato sauce.
This sounds lovely. Quick question: if I wanted to add bell peppers to the potatoes, would you recommend sautéing them or roasting them?
Your preference really! But I’d recommend sautéing them. Enjoy!
I love these bowls because they’re so easy to make ahead.
Instead of using all of my glass containers for make-ahead meals, I use plastic storage containers but stack everything in reverse order.. When it’s time to reheat, I place the container upside-down over a microwaveable plate. The food drops away from the plastic while heating and I have the plate to spread the “bowl” over (it gets pretty hot).
I know not everyone likes to have anything plastic in their microwave but this works for me.
I made this delicious recipe and you should too! Thank you Bugetbytes for posting this. It’s actually not bad at all reheating in the microwave.
When freezing, is it better to also cover the container with plastic wrap or foil or something before closing it and freezing? Or does it depend on the container?
Depends on the container Kayti. If there is room at the top, if you’d like you can definitely create a “seal” with some additional plastic wrap.
Thanks for this recipe.
I will really love this for breakfast.
Made tonight for dinner; was much better than I anticipated. Requests to make it again! Added small amount of breakfast sausage. We had no leftovers…
These were DELICIOUS! I made them for breakfast two days in a row, and will be making them again this following weekend too. :)
Thanks! This is a great recipe for the sausage patties I make.
I can’t currently see the nutrition estimates for Country Breakfast Bowls. I see the disclaimer link, but no info before it.
Thanks!
We only recently brought on a Registered Dietician to our team. She’s working hard behind the scenes to update the entire recipe database, over 1500+ recipes, with nutritional information. She’s working her way from the newest recipes back and it takes some time to update them all. Stay tuned!
Thank you so much for doing this! I’d noticed that the new recipes had nutritional information, but hadn’t realized you were updating the old recipes too – that’s really wonderful news. I use BudgetBytes recipes all the time and have been calculating the calorie counts myself, and this will save a lot of time.
Another huge hit with the family from Budget Bytes! Only cost $8 CAD to make with ham, peppers and onion added 😋
Wahoo! Winning!