Quick Breakfast at a Prepper's House

            Ever have one of those mornings where you want to go back to bed, but your child is screaming for breakfast? Mine didn’t scream, thank goodness, but sleep was out of the question this past weekend until after I fed the boy who seems to outgrow things by the hour. So I went hunting in my kitchen for something, anything that would be acceptable for my son, and easy enough to not need hours of work. I love my pantry! <- a saying I have adopted from a friend with a similar pantry as mine.

Breakfast consisted of: scrambled eggs – fresh, hash browns, and bacon. Sounds normal enough until I admit that it only took 15 minutes to fix. Now don’t doubt me yet, I’ll explain.

Everyone understands that time is at a premium these days, and my own time is split between the full time job, the full time course load at college, and being a single mother with boy scouts and the whole nine. This is where having the prep work done in advance gives you a serious advantage. Anytime I know I will have a few hours free, I try to work on preps. I have shelves of soup in jars of all different types, homemade jelly for quick PBJ’s, and home-canned veggies to add as needed to anything.

The first time saver I used this past weekend is: canned bacon! Yes, I have jars of bacon housed in wide-mouth pint jars that was put through the pressure canner a few months ago. The slices are separated and rolled in parchment paper then canned with nothing else added. I did pre-cook mine a little before canning so I could pour off some of the grease, but I have read that it’s an optional step.

Next are the hash browns. I was lucky enough to get a food processor as a gift from my boyfriend for Christmas and tested its abilities with potatoes; LOTS of potatoes, and some onions. Potatoes are very easy to dehydrate if you have a dehydrator. Slice them however you like, then blanch them in boiling water until they are opaque. Rinse them until the water runs clear and spread them onto the trays of the dehydrator. I added shredded onions to mine since I like potatoes and onions together, and the next morning I had racks full of dried hash browns. Store these in an airtight container and use whenever you want.

To reconstitute the potatoes, I tossed a few handfuls into a pan, and added enough very hot water to cover them. Put a small plate on top to keep them underwater as much as possible and leave them alone for about 10 minutes. I drained off what water had not soaked up, and added some of the bacon grease from the bottom of the bacon jar (there is a little bit there), then fried it up as the eggs were cooking. The kitchen smelled amazing; you will have the bacon smell still, not to worry.

My son smelled the food and came out just in time to get a plate. He was glad it didn’t take too long to make, sharing my opinion on the matter, and he did not notice that we were eating preps.

Dehydrating fell out of popular favor in the 70’s according to my mother, but has found a place in my home. My single attempt at making fruit leathers failed, but turned into stiff sheets that looked like fish flakes for humans since I left them on too long. So accept that some things just will not turn out quite right and try again. Bananas can be tricky, but pineapple is really easy. I’ll try to add pictures when I make more hash browns since I have requests now. But if you have a dehydrator, dust it off and try making something other than jerky.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Prepping!