Mashed Potato Baked Eggs

As we usually do on the weekend, we had a “real” breakfast on Saturday. Exciting, eh?

I got up bright and early trying to imagine how I was going to use leftover mashed potatoes for breakfast. Sounds simple enough unless you want a blog-worthy breakfast. That increases the challenge a bit.

Or so I thought. Look for many more mashed potato-y breakfast recipes in the near future as we seem to be on a mashed potato kick lately.

Saturday morning we did a test-pack for Africa to:

1. Make sure that our gear actually fit into our bags.
2. Check that our bags were not too heavy to check under Continental’s stingy 1 bag x 50 lb. weight limit even for international travel.
3. Figure out what, if any, gear we were missing from our checklist.

Chris tried on his proposed safari getup. He figures that his “sun runner” hat, Omni-Shade shirt, and ie lavalava should make the perfect outfit. Maybe he’s on to something.

Notice our sweet 1970’s bathroom, complete with groady previous owner carpet. I bet we could have renovated our bathroom if we skipped out on this trip, but what fun would that be?

Results:

1. Gear fit in bag test:
   1. No problem for Chris, his backpack is slightly bigger than mine.
   2. Somewhat problematic for me, I figured it out, but it could have been a stressful night before departure if I hadn’t completed this pre-pack exercise.
2. Bag weight:
   1. My monster suitcase weighs 15 lbs. (No wonder I have so much trouble keeping it within the weight limit, right?)
   2. My gear in a duffel bag weighs 35 lbs. without toiletries or my case of Clif Bars packed*. (Anyone else see a baggage fee on the horizon?)
3. We each needed (or wanted) a few new items:
   1. A “safari” dress for me. Just go with it. It will be phenomenally cool in the pictures.
   2. Down mittens for Chris. Ok, more practical than my “need”.
   3. A dry bag for our camera equipment. I think we should just use a few trash bags, I honestly trust them more.**

*Some of you will ask “Why on Earth are you bringing a case of Clif Bars with you to Africa? Don’t you want to experience the food?”

Yes, of course I want to experience the food, but I tend to be over the top adventurous in my experimentation with local cuisines. So much so that I have spent more than a few days on the bathroom floor of an “interesting” hotel room in a few remote locales fighting off impending death by dehydration and/or electrolyte imbalance.

At the conclusion of each of these experiences, I only wanted to eat something sweet, cake-like, and familiar. Thank you Clif Bar & Company. Your Clif and Luna Bars are very well responsible for my survival on more than one of these occasions.

**My last soaked camera experience was at Machu Picchu last year. Guess what. The camera was in a dry bag. Fail!

All in all, the packing test was a success!

Do these gaiters make me look like I have cankles?

Ok, on to breakfast.

From Country Egg, City Egg.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups mashed potatoes, heated through
• 4 eggs
• Coarse salt and cracked black pepper
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, chives, oregano, or thyme

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F.
• Divide the mashed potatoes into four individual baking dishes.
• Make a deep well in the center of the mashed potatoes.
• Crack an egg directly into each well.
• Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
• Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese over each egg.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until eggs are done to your likeness.
• Remove from oven, garnish with fresh herbs.
• Serve immediately.

Servings ~ 4
Calories (if your mashed potatoes are just that, mashed potatoes, no fancy stuff)  ~ 165, Fat ~ 6 g, Carbohydrates ~ 16 g, Protein ~ 10 g