A Great Breakfast That Feeds a Crowd Doesn’t Need to Take Ages to Cook

Last year I organized a weekend trip to Paso Robles to celebrate the 30th birthday of one of my besties. We rented a massive house to accommodate 18 birthday revelers. I love my cozy house but I’ll also never say no to livin’ large in someone else’s vacation home. Swimming pool? Check. Pool table and dartboards? Check. Big open kitchen? Check! We had so many fun activities scheduled for the weekend – relay races, Dance Central, wine tasting, bike riding – but the homemade meals were the highlight for me (no surprise, right?).

With such a large group and such a spacious kitchen at our disposal, we didn’t even bother with the hassle of going out to eat. However figuring out how to feed 18 people (including many hearty gentlemen) for 6 meals throughout the weekend meant a lot of advance meal planning (Hmmm, I wonder whose idea this was? And yes, there were several spreadsheets involved.). I took charge of all the dinners and let others sign up for breakfast and lunch duties. Luckily, I had some really smart meal planners who chose perfect large group recipes, including a delicious green chile egg bake for Sunday’s breakfast.

I’ve since repeated this egg bake many times. Even though I don’t usually cook breakfast for a large group, I do like to make a week’s worth of breakfast on Sunday, and this egg bake is great for a made-in-bulk breakfast. I’ve also discovered that it provides a great foundation for getting rid of leftovers. While the original recipe uses green chiles and chorizo, I’ve turned this recipe into a “everything but the kitchen sink” type of dish. The only essentials are eggs, cottage cheese, baking powder, salt, and flour. Aside from that, anything goes.

Last week, I threw in leftover corn, pepper jack, and the last few tablespoons of a tomato salsa (recipe below). Today I made it with chopped up turkey cold cuts, the last bit of some mozzarella, a few sprigs of cilantro, and leftover roasted cauliflower. I have yet to find a combination that didn’t work. Oh, and make sure you enjoy this with your favorite hot sauce.

What are your favorite breakfast recipes for large groups or to make ahead in bulk? Let me know below in the comments.