3-Cheese Breakfast Grilled Cheese
Who says grilled cheese sandwiches are only for lunch or dinner? This 3-Cheese Breakfast Grilled Cheese will give you a good reason to hop out of bed on a cold, winter morning!
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Over the years, my grilled cheese sandwich tastes have evolved. Grilled cheeses can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. As a kid, putting 2 pieces of white bread and a couple slices of American cheese in the toaster oven was how I rolled. That was probably one of the first meals that I mastered! From there, I started playing with different kinds of cheeses to create fun, new twists on a classic.
That eventually led us to one of our favorite meals: the Smoked Brisket Grilled Cheese. I happened to have some Texas toast left over from another sandwich recently, and we totally raided the freezer for some smoked brisket. Put those 2 together, and you’ve got our dinner for at least 3 of the last 5 nights. I don’t think I could ever get tired of that one!
But then it hit me. Why are grilled cheese sandwiches only reserved for lunch and dinner? Is it possible to create a breakfast grilled cheese? Trade the smoked brisket for breakfast sausage. Add some scrambled eggs. Add some fun cheeses. Boom. 3-Cheese Breakfast Grilled Cheese. And this is one legit sandwich, folks! We got hammered with a foot+ of snow from the nor’easter last week, but the thought of waking up to melty cheese piled into a sausage and egg sandwich made me a little more willing to get out of bed. Of course, the promise of a strong cup of coffee helped a bit, too!
For this 3-Cheese Breakfast Grilled Cheese, I used a combination of mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheeses because both are great for melting. But I also mixed it up a bit and added some feta, too. Now feta doesn’t melt very well, but that’s ok as the other cheeses help hold the sandwich together. Plus, feta brings a ton of flavor to the finished product here. Oh, and another key to this sandwich? Texas toast. The thick slices of white bread toast up perfectly in the skillet and provide a great base for this sandwich. It’s really tough to beat starting your day off with a warm, melty 3-Cheese Breakfast Grilled Cheese! Enjoy!
3-Cheese Breakfast Grilled Cheese
Ingredients
- 8 oz. ground breakfast sausage
- 6 large eggs
- 2 Tbsp milk
- ½ tsp dried basil
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp black pepper
- ⅔ cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- ⅔ cup Monterey jack cheese shredded
- ⅓ cup feta cheese crumbled
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter softened and divided
- 2 tsp Italian seasonings
- 8 slices Texas toast
- ⅔ cup fresh spinach
- {optional} green onions sliced
Instructions
- Using a large skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat until fully cooked. Transfer sausage to a paper-towel lined plate and pat dry.
- Using a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, dried basil, salt and pepper. Cook eggs in large skillet, stirring often, until almost scrambled. Add cooked sausage and continue cooking until eggs are fully scrambled.
- Using a small bowl, combine mozzarella, Monterey Jack and feta cheeses.
- Spread butter on one side of each of the slices of Texas toast. Sprinkle Italian seasonings on top of buttered bread. Place 4 slices buttered-side down on a large plate or cutting board. Divide eggs evenly on top of bread and then top with cheese. Add several spinach leaves and then top with the remaining slices of bread, buttered side up.
- Using a griddle (or working in rounds), toast sandwiches over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Flip, and continue cooking for 3-4 more minutes, or until bread is golden brown and cheese is completely melted.
- {Optional} Sprinkle chopped green onions on top of sandwiches.
- Serve hot.
I’m not a profi when it comes to grilled cheese, but even I know for sure that better than regular grilled cheese could only be…3 cheese grilled cheese. Combined with sausage, this must be so good. Hint: you should create pizza grilled cheese too, David (Genius idea, isn’t it?) And as a credit, you’ll be sending some grilled cheese every 2 weeks. Agreed?
Hmmm…a pizza grilled cheese, eh? I like the sound of that! Some pepperoni. Some mozzarella. Maybe some other toppings…like my jalapenos! What else?? I think that needs to happen. Let’s talk. We can arrange these grilled cheese shipments to start up soon. Haha! Thanks, Ben!
Grilled cheese sandwiches are my love language. How have I never thought to make one for breakfast? This recipe is a total game-changer. I love that you added feta too–it’s one of my favorite cheeses and totally not added to grilled cheese often enough. I hope you guys are staying warm under all that snow! And tell Laura that sprinkling some Italian seasoning on the butter is probably the best idea I’ve ever heard!
I’m right there with ya on the feta train, Kelsie! Feta is like a little secret weapon that is so good on so many things. For instance, Mexican street corn. We make that one every summer, and feta is a totally acceptable substitute for queso cotija…which is surprisingly hard to find up here. Anyhoo, breakfast grilled cheese is where the party’s at! Oh, and if you miss the snow, then come on up…they’re calling for another 8-12″ tomorrow. You can take Robbie out sledding if you want! 🙂
You can never go wrong with a grilled cheese. I love them. I also love this recipe for a breakfast grilled cheese. This would be such a great way to start the day. Sounds delicious
Breakfast grilled cheese is totally a great way to start the day. I’m all about some comfort food, and this one makes a great weekend breakfast…especially on a cold morning! Thanks, Dawn!
I’m not much of a sandwich person, but boy does that look absolutely perfect!!
Thanks, Mimi! I’ve always been a sandwich kinda guy, but I don’t know why I never thought of breakfast grilled cheese sammiches. Game changer! 🙂
Yes! Grilled cheese for breakfast! Brilliant! Look at all that ooey gooey cheese…right up my alley! I could seriously eat this for every.single.meal. No lie. Though, I’d never get off the treadmill, lol. Have a lovely week, David 🙂
Hah! I agree that grilled cheese sandwiches aren’t an every day kinda thing…but man are they delicious on a cold weekend morning! All that delicious cheese combined with eggs…yum! Thanks, Dawn!
Yup, a sandwich like this definitely makes getting out of bed more appealing! I don’t know why I’ve never thought to sprinkle seasoning on the bread for grilled cheese, but I’m excited to try it!
Mara! Hello! I’m going to guess you’ve been buried in dissertation writing, but it’s good to hear from ya. (Also, can I read your dissertation??) I’m all about grilled cheese sandwiches, too…but you HAVE to try sprinkling salt and Italian seasonings on the buttered part of the bread before grilling it. It takes grilled cheese sammiches to a whole new level!
Yes, I’m now in the post-defense recovery period – although I only have about two weeks to make revisions and finalize everything. I’ll send you a copy when I’m done, so you can have some light bedtime reading 😉
Good luck with the revisions! The hardest part is done now. 🙂
YUM! This sounds fantastic, David! My family is all about grilled cheese,, and if it’s for breakfast, they will think they’ve died and gone to heaven! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks so much, Laura! I have no idea why I never thought about grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast until now…but they are amazing! I mean I love a good scrambled egg on toast, so this just takes that idea and elevates it to grilled cheese status. 🙂
Can I just say…Yum!!! This sounds amazing. I love me some grilled cheese (not toasty cheese!!) . Living off that and tomato soup has happened more than a few times in my life and it is oh so good!
I’ll definitely be trying this one morning! Though I can’t promise I won’t give it a go with bacon too!
Grilled cheese and tomato soup is a thing of beauty, Matt. Like I said, I’m pretty sure that’s what helped us survive that first winter up here in the frozen northland of upstate New York. Well, that and the bar down the street that we could walk to and get amazing buffalo wings! Definitely give the breakfast grilled cheese a try…and bacon is an amazing idea here. I’m definitely putting that on my list to try now!
Grilled cheese is good for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight snack. Have you seen the movie Chef? He makes Scarlet Johansson a killer grilled cheese, just thinking about it makes me drool. of course, you had to step it up making it a breakfast grilled cheese. How did you know my favorite meal of the day was breakfast. Grilled cheese has defiantly evolved. Have a great week David 🙂
So I haven’t seen Chef…and come to think of it, I haven’t even heard of that movie. I’ll have to look it up. Maybe it’s on Netflix?? Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day, too, Mary! And I have no idea why I haven’t thought about grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast before…but they’re totally on the menu here now. 🙂 Thanks so much, my friend!
This just looks so good David! Reading through your post began to remind me of when I was at school and my mum would make scrambled egg toasted sandwiches for mine and my brothers lunches. When we knew we were having that, there was always a rush to get home at lunchtime. Now, here made with breakfast sausage and all those delicious cheeses too. This is a killer breakfast! Pinned!
You know what? I think scrambled egg toasted sandwiches is what gave me the idea for these breakfast grilled cheese sandwiches. Seriously! I eat a scrambled egg on toast quite often for lunch, and if I have any cheese open then I’ll grate some cheese in there while the egg is cooking. You can see how it’s not a far jump to land on a grilled cheese breakfast sandwich! And this one is so, so good, too! Thanks so much, my friend!
You are right! Why not grilled cheese for breakfast? So simple, yet so brilliant! This sandwich makes quite a breakfast!
Yes! This really is one heck of a breakfast sammich. I love grilled cheese, and I’m kinda surprised I’ve never thought of making a breakfast version before. So good!! 🙂 Thanks, Kathy!
Yes to tomato soup with grilled cheese – such an awesome combo! It probably sounds weird, but I used to eat PB&J with soup too…I swear it’s strange but good!
PB&J with soup? Now that does sound a bit odd, but then again those are two ultimate comfort foods! Have you ever tried toasting your PB&J, Nicole? Like a grilled PB&J sammich? So good! 🙂
A grilled cheese for breakfast is such a freagin genius idea!!! Breakfast is my favorite meal and gawsh – waking up to all that melty cheese with breakfast sausage and eggs …gawsh… am drooling so bad I can hardly type! I don’t have all the exact ingredients for this but I am going to have to make an adapted version of this soon! Dude! Ingenious!
Btw – do I need to send my drone with a shovel to dig y’all out? a foot of snow makes me shudder! Brrrr!!! Stay warm and safe my upstate NYC genius-food-creator friend!
Breakfast is my favorite meal, too, Shashi! On a weekday, I usually just do cereal or yogurt with granola. But on the weekend, it’s time to have fun! I can’t believe it took me this long to think about making grilled cheese sammiches for breakfast! But I’m glad I did. You should totally make your own spin on these…with beets. Hah! Also, yes to the snow-shoveling drone. I HATE snow now. 🙂
I don’t eat sandwiches often..they are usually very boring..But this one is over the top delicious!!! It’s so decked up! Sausage, egg filling and cheese extravaganza!! I mean who wouldn’t love that…Personally I love feta..but its not cheesy at all.. I am glad the other two cheeses are in there to make this so yummy!
See, I used to agree with you, Deepika. Sandwiches can be so boring. But sandwiches can also be amazing if you combine the right ingredients! They’re like a blank canvas waiting for you to design a masterpiece. 🙂 Ok, that might be a bit extreme, but it sounded good, right? Haha! This breakfast sandwich is one heck of a great way to start the day! Thanks so much for stopping by, my friend!
Amen
Preach on, Brother Jeff!
Now that is a sandwich that can get you out of bed, even on a very cold morning. Is your area getting hammered with snow again today?
Hey Karen! We actually avoided the worst of it yesterday. We got lucky in that the snow was piling up in the yard, but it kept melting on the road/driveway. But then the temperature dropped last night and we got a bit of accumulation on roads. Overall not too bad, though…an hour east of here got hammered! Thanks so much, my friend!