Denny's Build Your Own Skillet Menu

Give me a choice of anything for breakfast - crepes, french toast, pastries, cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles or a skillet and I am always going to choose the skillet. First, I really like scrambled eggs for breakfast and I can add them to a skillet with a ton of healthy veggies. Second, I love potatoes and those are a great addition to a skillet. Third, I love to have veggies with my breakfast and so many veggies work well in a skillet with eggs and potatoes, everything from mushrooms to spinach to onions and more. Fourth, I really like to have a little bit of meat with a morning meal and in a skillet, you can incorporate some bacon or ham or other meat without it being a huge serving that is the focus of the meal. And lastly, I love cheese and it goes well with all the ingredients mentioned above and a little bit melted throughout is a great finishing touch. Throw it all together and you've got a masterpiece with all the things I love in a breakfast.

So, seeing as a skillet is my favorite breakfast, I was more than willing to head to Denny's to sample the new Build Your Own Skillet meal. Skillets start at $6.99, which is pretty reasonable, especially if you do like me and divide it in half and bring home some for a later meal.

So, I recently visited the Calumet City location with my foodie friend, Michelle, and we both built a breakfast. You get a little order sheet to help you choose and it has six steps. Step 1 is your protein and you can choose one of the following: prime rib, grilled ham slice, bacon, turkey bacon, grilled seasoned chicken breast, hearty breakfast sausage, country-fried steak (or you can opt out of this step.)

Next you decide how you would like your eggs cooked, either scrambled, over-easy, over-medium, over-well, sunny-side-up or egg whites followed by selecting hash browns of red skinned potatoes. Next you're at the "top it off" stage where you can select grilled onions, fire-roasted bell peppers and onions, jalapeños, chipotle sauce, grape tomatoes, fresh spinach, pico de gallo or country gravy. Those additions let you take your meal in so many directions. You can then add your cheese (Italian cheese blend, smoky cheese blend, shredded cheddar cheese or pepper jack queso.)

Finally, you have the option off adding a number of other ingredients at $1 each, including fresh avocado, chili, diced bacon, broccoli, chorizo sausage, crumbles sausage, sautéed mushrooms or sautéed fresh zucchini and squash. Toast, tortillas or a biscuit can be added for 99 cents.

We had an extremely friendly server, Twan, who was uber patient as we tried to decide what to order, which wasn't easy with so many options. I settled on prime rib for my protein after seeing an appetizing photo on the menu. It was mixed in with red skinned potatoes, fire roasted bell peppers and grilled onions, grape tomatoes, fresh spinach, broccoli, smoky cheese blend topped with scrambled eggs and a side of wheat toast. I loved how they served them in cast iron skillets with a cute little potholder on the end so that you can move it around your table without scorching yourself! Everything in it was cooked to perfection and it was an awesome combination of flavors.

Michelle tends to always go the healthy route as she did this time. Hers was absent of meat, but loaded with other goodies: red skinned potatoes, jalapeños, grape tomatoes, fresh spinach, sautéed zucchini and quash, avocado and smoky cheese blend with egg whites. I, of course, sampled some of hers, too, and I loved the addition of avocado. It was super refreshing.

Hop on over to Denny's to try out one of your own. The Build Your Own Skillet menu continues through March 31.