Sunday, June 13, 2010

Yummy breakfast 'muffins'

I have been trying to introduce my husband to this thing called nutrition, and it is a slow, slow process.  He loves all things bad for you, like chips, top ramen, snack stuff.  He will willingly eat good stuff if I cook it and put it in front of him without much complaint, but when he is left to make the choices himself?  Well let's just say he reverts to his old habits! 

He works very early and gets up around 3:45 AM to be at work by 5 AM, so he is long gone by the time I wake up in the morning.  I can't tell you how many times I have walked into the kitchen to find a plate in the sink with the remnants of a corn dog and tater tots, or fish sticks, or macaroni salad, or something else bizarre to eat at 4 AM!  He would rather cook this in the microwave than make a bowl of cereal, or toast, and egg or two, or oatmeal, which is what I typically have.

I had a chat with him this morning over breakfast, which was yummy breakfast burritos, love them!  I told him I have been noticing his breakfast dishes in the sink.  ...And with neither of us getting any younger, maybe he should make better breakfast choices?  Oh, and by the way Honey, I love you ;)  I got nothing other than what I expected, however.  A slight narrowing of the eyes looking at me from over the rim of his raised coffee cup, which was stopped half way towards his mouth, lol. 

But, after 17 years together, we are pretty much past the "I can't say what I really mean because it makes us uncomfortable" types of conversations, and are more into the "this may sting a bit, but I say this out of love" types instead.  After all we're both grown-ups, right...?  I know he wasn't exactly thrilled with this topic, but he is smart enough to realize that #1, it's the truth, #2, it's a good idea, and lastly #3, I am right ;)
Sadly, knowing all this he was not happy with the options I provided him!  So after having a lazy Sunday and going through the fridge this evening pulling out the leftovers for dinner, I had an idea.  We had some leftover ground spicy breakfast sausage from this mornings burritos, a few slices of bacon from yesterdays BLT's, and we just bought a bunch of eggs today.  The perfect fixings for a yummy breakfast!  Plus, my friend Tammy and her teenage daughter had been making a breakfast casserole on the weekends to eat all week long, when they are in a hurry and running out the door in the mornings.  Have you ever seen these on Rachael Ray's TV show?  I loved the idea, and have wanted to try them, but just never got around to it, so that was my inspiration.  Simple, portion-controlled, and yummy, perfect!

I tossed a couple chopped potatoes in the micro, and started sauteing an onion on the stove.  When the potatoes were mostly cooked, I added them to the pan to brown them a bit, and added some salt, pepper and garlic.  I layered the potato and onion mixture first, added some thawed and drained chopped spinach, then the leftover sausage and chopped bacon.

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I topped it off with a bit of shredded cheddar cheese, and then poured on the eggs.  I mixed up 18 eggs and had enough stuff to fill my muffin tin twice!

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They baked for 30 minutes at 375 degrees, and were done perfectly.  Aren't they pretty??

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Now my wonderful husband has 24 of these babies to keep him from going hungry at 4 AM.  Should last him for a few days ;)

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