Kitchen Sink Breakfast Casserole with Eggs & Bread

This recipe for a clean-out-fridge — or kitchen sink — breakfast casserole with eggs is the perfect way to make use of what’s left in your fridge! I love adding day-old croissants or other types of bread, shredded cheese, a mix of veggies plus crispy bacon. Extremely easy, super versatile, and an absolute breeze to whip up in the morning. Recipe yields 8 servings.

My Love Affair with Breakfast Casseroles 😍

First, if you don't follow me on Insta then you need to head over and do that ASAP! The kitchen sink breakfast casserole was born over on Insta story and I have the original creation that my husband and I made together saved on my highlights.

In every good Southern cook's arsenal is a variety of delicious casserole recipes. Classics like Baked Chicken Pot Pie Casserole with Flaky Pie Crust Topping or Southern Baked Broccoli Rice and Cheese Casserole. Or the holiday table stables, Frozen Broccoli Casserole with Velveeta Cheese (our fam's most favorite!), and Old Fashioned Baked Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows. We all have back pockets filled with casserole recipes that have been passed down throughout the generations.

But on this particular morning, I was feeling a little frisky and had wild hair for a breakfast casserole. My mom made one for Christmas morning every year growing up, but on this day I just had the craving. I didn't want something sweet like Make-Ahead Sourdough French Toast Casserole but savory full of cheese and bacon - and definitely with a BIG side of mimosa. 😉 

So I opened our fridge to see what random cheese we had, any veggies that needed to be eaten up and could be thrown in for good measure, and some poor croissants that had seen better days and I knew I could work it that. Let me show you how I did it and how you can "just use what you have" to make your own leftover buns casserole.

This breakfast casserole recipe is just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. An egg bake of sorts. Use what you have. Nothing fancy or fussy but is destined to be yummy every single time.

Key Ingredient Call-Outs

This doesn't have a "set recipe" to follow - it is more general guidelines and you can use what you have. This is the base of what you will need and then you can add in additions based on what you have in your fridge.

1. Bread - any bread will work here. Whatever you have in your pantry that needs to be used, a day past good leftover buns, croissants that may be a little squished, sourdough bread, french bread - WHATEVER! It can be slightly stale or not. Usually, a more "sturdy" bread like French bread or sourdough is called for in a breakfast casserole, but this one the traditional rules go out the window and it's a use-what-you-have kinda recipe! I used croissants that needed to be eaten up in this particular one I photographed but I also made it with some sourdough bread we had on hand. Both were delicious!
2. Eggs - you will need 12 eggs for this recipe. I find most breakfast casserole recipes don't use enough eggs in my opinion - so I really like to bump that number up and use more in the eggs-to-milk ratio.
3. Milk - I always use whole milk since that is what we have in our fridge. You can use low fat but I would not recommend skim or any plant-based milk as that would significantly alter the taste and texture of this recipe. You can use half and half or cream though - or a split combo of either with whole or low-fat milk. There are lots of options and I have used them all. My mom particularly likes to make breakfast casseroles with cream or half cream half whole milk and it is GGGGOOOOOODDDDDD haha.
4. Shredded Cheese - surprise surprise - just open up your fridge and use whatever cheese you have. I have used pretty much all of them. From bagged and shredded to slices that I cut up into small pieces to a block that I shred myself. Mozzarella, cheddar, pepper jack, parmesan, gruyere, swiss, goat cheese, Colby, American, etc etc etc. You can use one kind or a bunch of different kinds if you have small amounts of several that need to be used - again - NO RULES! 😉
5. Meat - Again, like above. Use anything. Bacon. Ham. Steak. Prosciutto.
6. Veggies - Spinach, peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh herbs. If you have some veggies that you have roasted that week, throw them in. Have ½ a bag of spinach that needs to be used up quickly, add it in!

See a theme? I think you get the idea by now.

How to Make

I have written this in a way of what I call a "no-recipe recipe'. Measurements and ingredient amounts are loose, to say the least, lol.

More Idea Combos to Play Around With!

• You can just go for plain cheese
• Cheese and Bacon - or any type of breakfast meat for your meat lovers out there
• Cheese and Veggies - for all the vegetarians
• Loaded supreme using all the different kinds of cheeses, meats, and veggies

This makes for great leftovers too. Enjoy for up to 4 days after making - just keep wrapped airtight in the fridge (if you have any left). You can also easily half this recipe to make a smaller portion for 2-4 people. You can also prep the night before if you want! Say you have guests coming over for the weekend, toss this together the night before, wrap it completely in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, pop in the preheated oven and bake as directed! Who doesn't love a hot breakfast with no work on a Saturday morning?! ME! More time for pouring mimosas than cooking! 😉

Easy is the name of the game for this casserole. No rules. No-fuss. Just clean out your fridge and make something delicious everyone will enjoy!

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