Easy egg breakfast

I guess if I was being fancy I could call them "crustless quiches", but then you might think they were more effort to make than they actually are, and skip over this so-easy recipe, and miss out.


Pictured: Purple onion, spinach, and cheddar cheese egg cups hot from the oven

Everyone who sees my little egg muffins has the same question - are eggs edible after you freeze them, and then microwave them? ABSOLUTELY. There are whole freezer aisles that are devoted to this exact truth. Are they as good as fresh out of the oven? No. If you use a toaster oven instead of a microwave to reheat are they better? Yes. Does the microwave do a perfectly adequate job? YES. From fridge or freezer, I can pop these babies in the microwave and have a hot yummy breakfast in minutes, as I juggle getting myself and a toddler ready for the day and out the door.

The thanks for this recipe/concept goes to my sister in law Ardella who gave me a whole platter of these things after I gave birth to my daughter. They were the perfect snack in the first couple weeks, as I got hungry at all times of the day and night but wanted REAL food, not some sort of processed junk.


Pictured: cold egg cups (see how the middles sink in after they cool?) ready to heat and heat. The one on the right has been cut so you can see the chunk of ricotta cheese! This on is a spinach, bacon, and ricotta cheese variation.


What you need

• About a dozen eggs
• Splash of milk into the scrambled egg mixture, just for luck
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fillings/add-ins. Reserve them in a separate bowl, do NOT add to scrambled egg mixture. 

How to get 'er done

• Preheat oven to 350*F
• Pour equal amounts of egg into a GREASED (I use spray) nonstick muffin tin (or use foil liners)
• Add fillings to each tin.
• Cook until centers are set. This is usually about 18-20 minutes.

Fillings

I find that the magic combination is 1 vegetable, 1 cheese, and 1 meat. There's a reason that most frozen egg products have a very tasty flavorful meat added in like bacon or sausage - it helps compensate for the slight hit of flavor and texture that the egg takes when subjected to the freezer and microwave. If you will be serving these fresh, you will have more lee-way. However, I still think that choosing an average of 3 filling add-ins is about perfect. Here's some of my favorite combinations: 

• 1/2 slice of bacon, a couple fresh spinach leaves, chunk or shredded cheddar cheese
• spoon of ricotta cheese, fresh sage leaves cut up, bacon
• smoked salmon, capers, spoon of ricotta cheese
• sauteed zuchinni, mozzerrella, olives
• Canned green chilis, chipotle hot sauce, cheddar cheese, minced purple onion
• sausage, shredded carrot, swiss cheese cube

Pictured: a pan of onion, spinach, and cheddar cheese egg cups ready to go into the oven. These cooked down in the cups pictured at the beginning of this post. Without the meat add-in, I used a little Penzey's sandwich sprinkle on top to make sure these had a good seasoned flavor. 

Making Ahead

The egg muffins reheat well from fridge or freezer with a couple minutes in the microwave. For a really stellar result, allow to thaw in fridge overnight and reheat in a toaster oven.

Hints

• Eggs like to stick, so make sure the non-stick coating on your muffin pan is in very good shape in addition to oiling the cups, or use foil muffin cup liners. I think the key to good muffins is to NOT add the fillings to the egg mixture. Instead, add it individually to the muffins tins AFTER you pour the egg mixture.
• I find that about 1 egg per muffin tin is perfect. I use 12 eggs for my 12 muffin tin pan. Scramble in a bowl. If you are going to add a LOT of "other" fillings to your muffins, reduce to 10 eggs for a 12 tin pan.
• If you are not using a seasoned meat for one of you fillings, consider seasoning your egg muffins more heavily.