Golden Gratin Egg Muffins

 

Do you need a little wiggle room for your favorite sins?  Like, sinfully rich dark chocolate or red wine and crusty artisan breads!  Well ok then, let's talk healthy, nutritious, savory and easy. 

 

My Golden Gratin Egg Muffins are a meal in themselves.  How can it be sumptuous, yet low in cholesterol, high in protein, big on flavor and bursting with fresh garden vegetables and easy?  I'm gonna tell you just how I came up with this savory decision!.

 

My Egg- brainer came to me when deliberating over the Thanksgiving leftover saga.  As I stared down the ziplock bag of stuffing in the fridge,my eyes glanced to the item residing in a tall yellow container commonly know to man-kind as Egg beaters.

Well the light bulb went on in my brainer...and a recipe was born.  Why not use a tablespoon of  stuffing placed neatly into the bottom of a  well greased cupcake tin, then start layering the egg mixture along with leftover turkey pieces some cranberry, egg beaters and top with cheese. The aroma of  these Golden Muffins baking in the oven brought everyone in the kitchen as if they were in a trance!~!  Simply stated, the aroma of these Egg'rs in the oven will have everyone in the house on alert and arriving in your kitchen to just tear em' up!  They are just that good.

So try this out.. tweek my recipe to your liking with health and taste preferences.  The version you see below is brimming with fresh zucchini and red peppers that are in season.  This gorgeous twosome dance well with melted swiss cheese and a savory crust of pumpernickle and rye croutons I used as my crust. 

Did I mention they freeze beautifully?  Yep - 2 in a ziplock, pop in the freezer and send em' off with hubby to work.

                                Golden Gratin Egg Muffins 

 

*Preheat oven to 400.

*Lightly spray cupcake tins with oil

**Makes 12-18 individual servings

 

Ingredients

1 quart Egg Beaters Southwestern flavor

8 oz. shredded lite swiss cheese {or your pref. of cheese type}

1 green zucchini squash  sliced thin

1/2 cup of chopped sweet red bell peppers

2 cups of cubed wheat, pumpernickle or rye breads

Note - stale breads work best - I keep a stash of them in the freezer for bread crumb making

OR: You can  substitute Stove Top Stuffing rather then the cubed bread idea.

1/4 to 1/2 cup of chicken broth

Sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese

 

Place your bread cubes in a mixing bowl and add in the chicken broth a little at a time.  When the bread is sticking together without being to wet, your ready to go.  Sometimes it's a 1/4 cup of broth sometimes its more. Now place a tablespoon or so of the stuffing mixture into the bottom of the cupcake tins.

 

Pour into a separate bowl the quart of Egg Beaters, add in the peppers, swiss cheese and zucchini.  Feel free to whisk in a bit of milk for a lighter consistency.  Spoon egg mixture into each tin a little more then 3/4's full.  Now grate a bit of fresh parm over the top of each muffin.  Place the egg filled tins onto a cookie sheet in case of spillage.  Bake 25 minutes or until puffed and golden.  Remove from oven and let cool on a cooling rack  in a non-breezy area.  You can expect the Egg muffins to fall a bit once removed from the oven. Don't worry, they are still gorgeous!!  Once cool enough to handle run your knifes edge around the edge of each Egg muffin to loosen from the pan.  Remove egg muffin from the tin and "dig in"!

 

Alternates: 

* Add a tablespoon of melted "I Can't Believe It's Butter" to the bread crumb mixture, if your feeling like calories and fat aren't on the agenda for the day.

* Try this dish with your favorite leftovers.  The leftover turkey and a 1/2 teaspoon of cranberry sauce  with whole cranberries in it was just delicious and don't forget the swiss cheese baked in! Wowza!!

There's a million ways you can go with this and none of them equal a mistake in the kitchen.

Enjoy!