My Easter Brunch: Cheesy Egg Bacon and Broccoli Casserole (pics) (customizable)

Apologies in advance because I'm horrible at taking pictures.

I made up a new recipe for my Easter Brunch, based on this post: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10888158/breakfast-fried-rice-definately-adding-this-to-my-rotation#latest by @DJill68 and I wanted to share how it went!

I guess I'm calling it a "Cheesy Egg, Bacon and Broccoli Casserole" because it's pretty much... that, lol. It's basically fully customizable and easy/fun to make and pretty tasty!

I made it with only 6 ingredients: Cheddar Cheese, Eggs, Bacon, Broccoli, Rice, and Butter. It ended up being 6 servings, at 269 calories per serving.

I used:

6 large Eggs -
calories 429
Total Fat 29
Total Carbs 2
Protein 38

1 cup Brown Rice (Earthly Grains) -
calories 320
Total Fat 2
Total Carbs 72
Protein 6

2 cup Frozen Broccoli Florets (Great Value) -
calories 50
Total Fat 0
Total Carbs 8
Protein 4

6 slices Maple Bacon (Oscar Mayer) -
calories 270
Total Fat 21
Total Carbs 0
Protein 18

3 Tbsp. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light! -
calories 105
Total Fat 12
Total Carbs 0
Protein 0

1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese (Kraft)
calories 440
Total Fat 36
Total Carbs 4
Protein 24

You're going to do basically everything else while the rice is boiling, so it doesn't take too long, but the other steps don't take more than ten minutes or so, so I started once the water was boiling!

Preheat: Preheat the oven to 350°F (or 177°C)

Prepare the rice (20 minutes total): boil water (8 minutes) add rice, bring back to a boil (1 minute?) let it simmer covered (5 minutes) remove from heat, let sit uncovered (6 minutes) and fluff with a fork. (You can sub out cauliflower rice if you want (I don't like cauliflower) to reduce the carbs and calories.)

Fry the bacon (5 minutes?): Just pop the bacon into a skillet and fry it to just before your preferred level of crispiness. You're going to bake it and you don't want it over-cooked, but if you put it in raw it gets rubbery! Put the bacon on a paper-towel lined plate. (If you use turkey bacon, it reduces the calories, and you prepare it the same way. If you use ready-to-eat bacon, you don't need to heat it!)

Cook the eggs in the bacon grease (1 minute?): You're going to half scramble the eggs. You don't need to pre-whisk them, just crack them into the skillet and give them a stir, then remove from heat when they *just* start to firm up. (You can substitute egg whites if you want!)

Chop the broccoli (2 minutes?): I just added the broccoli to a food processor and pulsed a few times, till it was very finely chopped!

Combine (2 minutes?): Crumble the bacon and eggs into a large bowl. Add the broccoli, butter, and cheese, and mix well. When the rice is fluffy, add it to the bowl and mix again.

Bake: Pour the mixture into a baking dish. I used a 9x13 which gave me 6, 3x6x1inch servings. You don't need to grease the pan unless it's metal! Pop it in the oven, and bake for 30 minutes.

The RESULTS:



The eggs were a little firm, I'd probably shave 5 minutes off the baking time if I made it again!

My daughter and I each had a serving right away last night, and it was perfect. This morning when it was reheated, it felt a little dry? So we added an ounce of cheddar over the top of each serving and it was perfect!

We did need to add salt and pepper! If I made it again, I would likely add salt/pepper to the rice and to the eggs while preparing them!



Obviously if you make substitutions, your numbers will be different (which is why I included the ingredient totals above!) but what I had was:

Calories: Total: 1614; Serving: 269
Carbohydrates: Total: 86g; Serving: 14.3g
Fat: Total: 100g; Serving: 16.7g
Protein: Total: 90g; Serving: 15g

The serving size was perfect for me with a lil fresh fruit on the side: Had 5 strawberries, quartered, which adds 30 calories and put me at 299 calories!

I'll definitely make it again, and as I stated, it's fully customizable. You could swap out any meat, use egg whites or avocado, sub out the 2 cups of broccoli for any 2 cups of veggies you like, so I will probably experiment with this recipe a lot!

Hoping someone else can get some use out of it.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it, and happy Sunday to any who don't!