Recipe: Breakfast Egg-a-muffins

In my head, I actually call these "Egg-a-Mooby-Muffins" in my head, because of Kevin Smith's films, but I don't want to get sued for copyright infringement, so I shortened it to Egg-a-muffins.


But don't be fooled, there's no muffin-isms in these cute little breakfast beauties. They are baked in oven tins for the purpose of grabbing and going during the busy work week. Because if you are like me, you can't be bothered to make yourself breakfast every single day. Heck, I'm lucky to get out of bed in time to shower and get dressed before going to work.

I'm sure my co-workers mentally thank me for at least doing that. Heh.

Anyway, I promised to put up this recipe a few weeks ago, and I slacked.

*Hangs head in shame* 

But here you go, better late than never!

The original recipe is lost in time, in an old copy of The South Beach Diet. It's where I first read about it, but I'm sure if you dug up an old farm wife from just after the Depression Era, I'm sure they were doing something like this. I mean, yes, it's a light bulb moment when you realize you can (in one shot) cook yourself week's worth of a protein-packed hearty breakfasts in a compact little muffin-like disk, but that's personal. Especially when you really think of the ways to shake it up and add your own personal touches to each little one...

Egg-A-Muffins

What you need:

*6 eggs, scrambled with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of a liquid to stretch out your eggs.  This is dependent on your dietary restrictions and/or taste preferences. You can use milk, cream, unsweetened almond milk, chicken stock, or (bleh) water.

*Spices mixed into to you scrambled eggs: Salt, pepper, garlic, no-salt seasoning. What ever floats your boat. I won't tell anyone about your deeply perverted love affair with cardamon if you don't tell about mine with cumin. Srsly.

This batch I used sliced chicken, and bell peppers

*Any left-over meats you have laying around, such as chicken, beef, pork, lunchmeat, sausages, etc. Seriously, use up what's in the fridge and feel all smug that you put it to good use instead of letting your kid take it to school as a science experiment.

*Any veggies you enjoy in scrambled eggs or a quiche. Or again, any veggies you have leftover from a meal that you want to salvage into something else.  I've used bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, etc.  Get crazy and make a pretty rainbow concoction, because the colorful the more health beneficial, right?

*Optional: a pinch of shredded cheese for each muffin tin. If you are paleo or don't do cheese, don't sweat it, it's not integral to the recipe. It's more of a garnish than an ingredient.


What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Grease a muffin pan with coconut oil
3. Add a enough of your chosen meat to cover the bottom of each muffin cup
4. Pile the veggies on top of the meat, spreading them out evenly amongst each cup
5. Pour enough egg mix to fill each muffin cup 1/2 to 3/4 to the top. I find that a ladle from a gravy boat is pretty close to the perfect measuring device.
6. Stir the egg mixture thru to the bottom
7. Add the pinch of cheese if you are partaking
8. Pop in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops are starting to brown, and a knife poked in comes out clean.

 The eggs will rise a bit as they cook (they will also fall after you take them out of the oven, but it's not a souffle, so don't get depressed when they deflate).

let them sit for about 5 minutes after taking them out of the oven, then release them from their pan. Don't wait until they are completely cook to take them out, as they tend to stick.

I divvy them up into containers for breakfasts for DaMan and I. I found that 2 egg-a-muffins were a filling meal.

So, one 12 muffin tin equals 6 meals. Not too shabby!

Rachael: Review of The Best Paleo Bread Recipe We've found to date

I think the one thing that most people miss when they go Paleo/Primal is bread. 

You just don't realize how much of a staple it is in your life, do you? Because what's easier than slapping a sandwich together for lunch, or popping a couple of slices in the toaster for breakfast??

AMIRIGHT?

On our Companion FaceBook page, we've been cheering over the "Best" and "Easiest" Almond Bread Recipe.

It started with Sara's blog post: Battle of the Breads! And has gone on from there.

We agree that the recipe for the best for bread-like consistency is this one from Cooking Caveman. 

(which I confuse all the time with The Civilized Caveman. I don't know why, but I need to stop it.)
 
Sara and I have both doubled our recipes for a more full-looking bread slice (there is baking soda in there, but no yeast, so there is very little rise.) A single recipe looks will look like a quick bread, such as banana bread or zuchinni bread. but it's yummier.

Trust me.

Or don't trust me....try it your dang self.  And then come back here and thank me.  Or thank Sara. Or thank Cooking Caveman, since he made the recipe what it is. I'm just crowing about that dude's success....

Being that it uses almond butter as it's main ingredient, it's a very dense bread. It's also pretty darn moist, and that works in our favor, because it means you can slice it vereeeee thin for toasts and sandwiches.

Mmmm....toast.  How I've missed you...

Sorry. Where was I?

Oh yes.

Bread.

Make it....and you'll never have to pine for toast again...

Recipe: Joie's Primal "Granola" or "Cereal"

Joie's Primal "Granola" or "Cereal"

Adjust amounts as needed or wanted.   (Use nuts that YOU like)

½ cup almonds. 

½ cup pecan pieces.

½ cup walnut pieces.

½ cup pumpkin seeds.

½ cup sunflower seeds.

½ cup cashews.

½ cup dried fruit – craisins, raisins, diced prunes mix

2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut.

½ cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

¼ cup flax seed  (optional)

1-2 scoops of egg white powder (optional)

• In a small bowl, mix a large dollop of coconut oil
• Maybe ½ cup (more or less depending on taste) raw unfiltered honey
• A good splash of vanilla (or other extract as desired)
• Melt it down in double boiler or microwave to blend and liquify
• Pour over nuts.
• Mix till coated.   
• Taste for flavor and check for consistency, adjust as needed.
• Using a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper,
• Bake in oven at 350F for 20 min
• Check often to make sure you don’t burn it.  
• Allow to cool.  
• Crumble into an air tight container.

And a Word of Warning:
Take care to keep watch while baking, as this recipe can scorch easily. If your oven runs hot, lower the temp and check often. You might want to discard any charred bits as they get rock hard and milk won’t soften it up and you end up with a broken back tooth on the upper right side of your jaw.
(Yes, that happened to me recently. It’s ugly. I see $$$$ at the dentist coming up)

Recipe: Susan's Breakfast Casserole

Susan is a newer member to the Paleo Lifestyle in the Real World Face Book Page but she's been a friend for a lot of years. She's a mean cook, and she described her newest creation on the boards, which I'm sharing with you (with her permission, of course):

"This morning I found myself without a plan for breakfast, so I decided it was time to make a Breakfast Casserole for the week.

 I sautéed up:

·         an onion

·         bell pepper

·         zucchini

·         shredded sweet potato 

·         ground turkey 

 With copious amounts of:

·         cumin 

·         chili powder 

·         oregano

·         salt and pepper

 Spread it in a casserole dish and topped it off with:

·         10 eggs

·         a small can of spicy tomato sauce.

  

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes until cooked through.

 

This is key for me as I don't wake up early enough to make breakfast each day before work. So when it comes out of the oven, I'll go ahead and cut it into 8 squares and put each one in Tupperware, so I can just grab one out of the fridge each morning as I leave the house. It's ok cold, or I can heat it up in the microwave at work.

Picture from "What's Cooking America" website.

Thanks, Susan!

Rachael: Meal Ideas: What Do You Do With Scrambled Eggs?

Crazy egg chairs that I had to share. From www.wilwheaton.tumbler.net

Is it the breakfast of Champions? Is it a quick way to get some protein in your gut first thing in the morning? Are you getting sick of eggs for breakfast?

I go through bouts of eggs / no eggs for breakfast. My go to when I do want eggs is scrambed with cut up chicken, chopped bell peppers, broccoli if I have it, and if I'm feeling primal instead of paleo, a pinch of Parmesan cheese.

I put out the question on our companion FB page: What do you put in your eggs?  I didn't get much of a response, but here is what I did get:

• smoked ham, green peppers and sweet spanish onions
• whatever's in my fridge. The best things are usually leftovers. 
•  Almost anything, as long as it's topped with salsa/Shriracha!!
•  I was in the mood for something sweet today so my one son made a very thin egg pancake and topped it with apple slices, a few chopped grapes and a bit of cinnamon. Then he folded it over like an egg crepe and finished cooking it. It was very good actually because without spices the egg was basically tasteless. 
•  I'm pretty boring with my eggs, I think. Love spinach, sausage, onions, peppers, etc. Add a little feta, Romano or Parmesan cheese. 

Here's an article on Making Great Scrambled Eggs, from The Paleo Diet Lifestyle.  It's a basic tutorial on making the eggs themselves, and leaves you to your own imagination as to what to put in there.


So what do you think? Have you got a great way with eggs that you'd like to share?


For those of you that do not want to eat eggs every morning for breakfast (we all get tired of the same thing, trust me) here's 20 egg-less paleo breakfasts, a very thoughtful blog post from www.paleononpaleo.com.