Breakfast For Pennies!
Isn't having no time for breakfast in the morning annoying!? I mean we 'could' all get up earlier, so to give us time to make a healthy/delicious brekkie couldn't we, and I'm sure we've all tried that, but let's be honest, how long does that work for, a day, maybe a couple, then the realism that an extra 30 minutes in bed is far preferable kicks in... I get it.... but what if you could make breakfast ahead of time and pop it in the freezer, and have it from freezer to plate in under 2 minutes?
Yup, my answer to this issue, is the breakfast eggy muffin... and it's easy to make, can be as healthy as you want, and can be super cheap too!
Here's what I do... I take a look in the freezer and fridge and pull out anything I think would be nice with egg for breakfast. Today I had bacon and sausage in the freezer (yellow sticker bargains naturally), plus, (yellow sticker) mushrooms I wanted to use up in the fridge, plus a couple of, (yellow sticker), onions that needed using up as well. I also had 30 eggs I picked up, up you guessed it, as a yellow sticker deal and so decided to use the lot! I also used a 150g bag of reduced fat cheddar, I picked up as a multi-buy offer from the supermarket.
So how did I make my eggy muffins? I cooked the bacon and sausage in the oven and once cooked I chopped them up into little chunks, (don't maker them too small, you want a bit of texture). I then cooked the onions and mushroom together in a little oil until cooked through, and then drained off any excess liquid from the mix, as too much liquid will result in a soggy muffin, which is not so nice!
I broke all 30 eggs, and whisked them up with a decent amount of salt and pepper, but of course you can add what ever flavourings you like, dried chives work amazingly well!
Once whisked I took a muffin pan, but you can use whatever you have, a cupcake tin works just as well, and made sure the sides were slightly oiled to make removing the muffins easier once cooked. (They may fall apart if they stick!)
I then added a teaspoon of the bacon, sausage and mushroom mix into the bottom of each muffin compartment and topped it up to just very slightly below the rim, with the egg mixture. I then added a pinch of cheese to the top of each muffin and popped in the oven, (around 190c / 375f), for about 15 mins. If you prod the muffin with a cocktail stick and it comes out clean, then it's cooked. If you are using a smaller tin, then check them after about 10 minutes.
Once cooked the muffins will deflate a little, and at that point, with a spoon, gently lift them out of the tins and pop onto a cooling rack, until they are cool, (or eat now if you want them then and there!). Repeat the steps with any left over ingredients.
At this point you can eat them straight away, pop them in the fridge or put them in the freezer. I go with the freezer option. The beauty of these is that they reheat super fast! I find 2 muffins, take around 90 seconds in the microwave, to go from frozen to hot and ready to eat, although times will vary depending on your microwave.
This means that you can enjoy a hot, homemade, and as healthy as you want, breakfast in just a couple of minutes. You can also take them with you to work, and normally by the time you get to work, they will have defrosted , and you can just reheat them for around 60 seconds, in a work microwave, and enjoy a hot snack whenever you want it!
It's cheap to make too. My total ingredient cost for making these was £2.60, and it made 30 muffins, making them 9p each! Now obviously I've cheated a bit by using yellow sticker ingredients, which has brought the cost way down. That said, even if you are buying ingredients at full price, the average cost is probably around 30p per muffin. If you use up bits from the fridge, leftovers etc, this will reduce the cost down. You are only limited by your imagination, I've had these made with cajun spice and chorizo, goats cheese and basil and simply just cheese, and all were delicious, so just experiment! They are basically crustless quiche's, and so if stuck for ideas, google quiche recipe ideas, and adapt the recipe and turn it into eggy muffins!
These are so much better than buying breakfast while out, cheaper and potentially tastier and healthier too! These are super filling, I'm a gutsy so and so, and it kept me fuelled up for hours.. Just make them when you have a spare 30 minutes or so, freeze them and you have brekkie for the week! The kids like helping to make these as well, so makes a fun weekend project!
Enjoy!
