Good morning, morning! I want to share a delicious, filling camping breakfast from last fall-and can you believe it did not include bacon?! Pie Iron Leftover Potatoes and Eggs was quick and easy, and it was a delicious campfire breakfast even though it didn’t include bacon!
I love cooking bacon over the campfire, it smells so good-especially on a crisp, fall morning.
But no one wanted a big, bacon-y breakfast: it was a chilly, gray morning, everyone was sleeping in, the youngest needed to go to work soon, and we had cooked bacon for supper the night before.
That was ok- I could still cook my breakfast over the campfire and later, they could eat poptarts.
I used to feel bad bringing poptarts, cereal and granola with us when we went camping. It didn’t seem like camping food to me. I have learned, though, that it is good to have options. On rainy or windy or gray, lazy mornings, when I can’t have a campfire, they still need breakfast.
That fall morning, I cooked only my breakfast over the campfire. I could have made bacon, but I decided to experiment with an easy, meatless breakfast using leftover potatoes and eggs.
And it was delicious!
Now, it was not bacon-y delicious or sweet funnel cake delicious, but it was an easy, yummy, quick camping breakfast.
Leftover boiled potatoes made my breakfast quick and easy- leftover baked potatoes would work great also.
Leftovers are great for cooking when camping. Some of our favorite pie iron meals start with leftovers, like mock-lasagna and maid-rite pie irons. I’m surprised I haven’t used leftover potatoes more often!
Since the potatoes were already cooked, I started my breakfast by cooking a little chopped onion in 1-2 teaspoons of oil in both sides of the pie iron.
Using both sides of the pie iron helped me cook more onions faster- and I love onions! I wanted the onions to get just softened before I added the sliced leftover potatoes.
Once the potatoes were added, I closed the pie iron and continued to cook over the campfire. It probably took about one whole potato, sliced, to almost fill the pie iron. I needed some room to add the egg later, but the pie iron needed to be full enough for the potatoes to squish in and have good contact with the pan. This helps them cook and brown over the fire.
I rested the pie iron on the fire grate while it cooked.
I love cast iron pie irons because I often get impatient and cook right in the fire. This is how our teflon pie irons were ruined, but the cast iron ones are very durable and even easy to care for.
They are heavier than the teflon ones, so it works great to rest them on the fire ring or grate.
Sometimes, the fire grates are not level though. Logs can be used to level and prop up the grate. Eventually mine caught on fire, but it was ok- breakfast was already done.
I cooked, checked and turned the pie irons over the campfire.
When the potatoes and onions were golden brown on both sides, I added the egg.
Then, I closed the pie iron to finish my breakfast. I wanted an over-easy egg, but I ended up breaking the yolk to finish cooking it quickly since I didn’t want the whites to get brown.
It only took about 8-10 minutes for my easy, yummy breakfast to cook over the campfire!
Even though it was not bacon-y or an over-easy egg, the leftover potatoes and egg breakfast was quick and yummy.
Next time we go camping, I am going to make extra potatoes on purpose. It was nice to be able to quickly cook a delicious, filling breakfast over the campfire! Though, I do wonder how it would be with leftover bacon crumbles in it!
Happy Camping (or finding leftovers!)
Frugal Campasaurus