Faster breakfast skillet: Corned beef hash & eggs

This is the short-cut version of my breakfast skillet recipe. Because sometimes we have an extra 10 minutes in the morning, but not 30. By using canned beef & potatoes you eliminate the time needed to dice up and pre-cook the potato.

Ingredients:
1 can corned beef hash
2 eggs

sprinkle shredded cheese

 Step 1: Open the can and put it in a frying pan. Doesn't that look tempting? Haha... but we will eat it anyways!

 Cook the beef and potatoes about 5 minutes, until the potatoes start to crisp and turn brown. Put half the mixture into a bowl and save the other half.

 Step 2: In the same pan, spray with cooking spray and crack 2 eggs. Cook a minute until the whites harden. Flip the eggs and cook on the other side. If you like runny yolks, you can cook just a minute and place on top of your beef hash. I like my yolks cooked through so I left it in the pan about 5 minutes total.

 Step 3: Slide the eggs on top of the hash and sprinkle on some cheese if you like.

I'm sure the health level of this is questionable at best, but you can't beat it for a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs breakfast in only 10 minutes!

Sneaky bean & beefy pasta

In an effort to not only be healthier but also use up canned goods, I decided to take the old student standby of pasta with meat sauce and kick it up a notch. I had a half jar of Ragu from a few days ago, so I just used a small can of tomato sauce to round it out, and a can of chickpeas. (You could probably use any bean here, but chickpeas were what I had, plus they blend better than pinto or black) I didn't just want chunks of beans in my sauce, so I blended them. Makes the sauce thicker and adds protein and fiber.

Ingredients:
1/2 jar pasta sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 can chickpeas
1 box pasta noodles of your choice
1 pound ground beef
Handful spinach

Step 1: Open the can of beans and drain half the liquid. Pour the rest and the tomato sauce into blender and liquefy it. Add extra water if it's too thick.

Step 2: Fill a large pot half full of water, add salt if you want. Bring to a rolling boil, and cook the pasta 5-8 minutes. While cooking, complete step 3. Drain when al dente (aka soft but not mush).

Step 3: Brown the ground beef in a frying pan. You want to make sure it's fully cooked. Then add the handful of spinach and cover. Cook for 3 minutes to wilt the spinach. Pour the sauce on top, mix well and cook on medium, covered, until heated through.

The beans makes the sauce thick and gives it a certain depth of flavor without being too obvious. You could also blend in the spinach once cooked so you don't even know it's there. Mixed with the plain Ragu pasta sauce and ground beef, it isn't too noticeable. This is a good way to sneak extra nutrition past whiny kids and picky hubbys. Those adjectives are probably also interchangeable. Just saying.

Country style breakfast skillet

Weekends are great for me, because I can both sleep in AND have lots of time for cooking awesome breakfasts. I'm not normally a 'breakfast person', but sometimes the mood strikes and I want something big and filling and delicious in the AM. I had plenty of potatoes, that's usually a staple in my breakfast favorites. I also had some frozen turkey bacon (go ahead and groan, any males reading this, but it tastes delicious. As long as you don't expect 'real' bacon taste) and ground beef. Kind of just making it up as I went, I came up with a restaurant-worthy breakfast skillet.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound turkey bacon (go ahead and use real if you have it)
1/2 cup corn or other veggie (if you like that kind of thing)
2 potatoes, diced
1/2 onion, diced
4 eggs
Spray on vegetable oil or 2 tbsp oil

Step 1: Dice up the potato and onion, spray the pan with oil. Microwave the potato for 5-8 minutes to soften. Cook on medium heat for at least 10-15 minutes, until the onion and potato chunks are soft.

 Step 2: Cut up the bacon and add it and the ground beef to the pan. Cook until the ground beef is thoroughly browned. Add vegetables if you're using any. Transfer the cooked skillet to another bowl and keep warm.

 Step 3: Spray the pan again and add 2 eggs. Let them cook a few minutes, until the whites thicken. Carefully flip them to cook the other side.

 Step 4: Put about a cup of the skillet mix into a bowl, slide the cooked sunny-side up eggs on top. Viola!

This was amazingly delicious, hearty and filling. If I had the time, I'd make breakfast like this every day! But then I'd also probably weigh 50 pounds more than I do now... Anyways, enjoy!