Skillet Muffins

Skillet Muffins!!!  These protein and nutrient packed little muffins will give you that boost of energy in the morning, at 3pm or even on your drive home from work!  Eggs are truly incredible.  If you are a person that does not like the taste of eggs, you are going to love these, because they don't really taste like eggs.  They taste like AWESOME!  And everyone should get the opportunity to taste awesome!  These Skillet Muffins do NOT have flour in them which makes them Gluten-Free.  If you are confused about Gluten, then please watch this short clip on what it really is: 

Let's start with the ingredients that are in these:

1/2 Small Onion (white or yellow): yellow onions are sweeter than white onions

1 Small Clove of Garlic

8 Cherry Tomatoes

1 Half Bunch of Asparagus

1/4 Cup of Parsley

1/2 of a Red Pepper

7 Nitrate-Free Sausage Links

8 Organic Cage Free Extra Large Brown Eggs

1/2 Cup Organic Whole Milk (Vitamin D)

1 Cup Colbie Jack Cheese

Salt & Pepper 

This is what you will need to make Skillet Muffins:

Oven 

Non-Stick Muffin Pan

Glass Bowl

Prepware Measuring Cup (You know...a measuring bowl that you can pour liquids out of without spilling all over the counter?)

Whisk

Cutting Board

Chef's Knife

Cheese Grater

Small Saute Pan

Kitchen Tongs

(Optional) Cooling Rack

Zip Top Bags

2 Paper Towels

Oven Mitt

Ready....Set....GO!

Start by preheating the oven to 350

While the oven is preheating, grab the cutting board, veggies and Chef's knife and start chopping the veggies:

Beautiful!  Now, take the muffin pan and line the inside of the cups with the veggie mixture, so the veggies cover the bottom of the cups.

Great!  Next, crack open 8 eggs and put them in the bowl.  To avoid getting shells in the bowl, crack open the egg on a flat surface.  I usually crack open eggs on the cutting board; doing it this way reduces the risk of raw egg getting on the kitchen counter....which drives me crazy!! GERMS!!  After the eggs are in the bowl, pour in 1/2 cup of milk and whisk until blended.  Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper to the mixture.

Oven is probably still preheating. Let's move onto the sausage links.  Open the package of sausage links and cook half the package, or 7 links.

I added a little bit of EVOO into the pan, because these links were not getting those yummy brown marks on them.

 One the sausages are cooked, place them on a paper towel, so that some of the grease is soaked up.

Instead of burning the heck out of your fingers (like I did), wait until the links have cooled and then chop them up.  

Bust open the brick of colbie jack cheese and grate about a cup of it off.  Clearly, from the picture below, that is less than a cup of cheese.  Why are we grating cheese?  Why can't we just buy that bag of sprinkle cheese in the store that is already grated and always on sale?  I'll tell you.  I haven't found one single brand of pre-shredded bagged cheese that doesn't contain ingredients that are not only harmful and not digestible by the human body, but actually cause the cheese to not melt as well.  Preservatives...gross.  Cellulose is one ingredient that is derived from wood pulp and/or cotton.  Humans cannot digest this.  Cellulose is added to shredded cheese to keep the strands from sicking together.  If you notice when you grate cheese, the cheese sticks together.  You WANT that.  That is real cheese.  I have found this ingredient even in Organic Shredded Bagged Cheese. A tip for buying cheese...buy cheese that has CHEESE as the first ingredient.  Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Culture, Sale and Enzymes are ok as well.  

By now, the oven is probably preheated.  Pour the egg and milk mixture from the bowl into a prepware measuring bowl.  Now pour the mixture into each of the muffin cups.  Leave about a half and inch to an inch from the top, because your Skillet Muffins will magically rise a bit!  Top each of the muffin cup mixture with the grated cheese and place on the bottom rack in the oven:

Cook for 15-20 minutes.  I can tell you that 20 minutes cooks these skillet muffins to the point where there is a little bit of browning on the bottom.  I would maybe cook them for 17 minutes next time.  But, each oven is different.

Put on your fancy oven mit and take the muffin pan out of the oven and place on top of the stove:

Take your kitchen tongs and press lightly on one side of a muffin.  The muffin should slide up.

Now, grab the muffin lightly with the kitchen tongs and place onto the cooling rack:

This is the bottom of the Skillet Muffin after cooked for 20 minutes at 350.

Cut open one and EAT IT!

Wait until the Skillet Muffins are completely cool before completing the bagging and storage step below.  If you bag these when they are still hot, the steam inside the bag will cook them more and you will end up with rubbery Skillet Muffins.  No like.

Depending on how many you want to eat at a time, put that many in a zip top bag and store in the fridge for one week.  My 15 month old will eat one with his 2nd breakfast. Yeah, he is a bottomless pit.  I will typically eat one in the car on the way to work...sometimes two depending on if I got the opportunity to eat dinner the night before or not.

To reheat: Place the zip top bag OPEN in the microwave for 20 seconds and cool for 30 seconds.  DELIGHTFUL!