Egg in a Turkey Basket with Cheese and Spinach

After the success of the Egg Muffins I had been making them off and on for awhile. But I saw this cute egg cup on Pinterest and thought I would give this version a try. The deli meat essentially holds the full egg together with whatever other ingredients you want to add. I chose spinach and swiss cheese!

Turkey slices in the muffin tin

Simply put the deli meat slices into the muffin tin (I doubled up since we use thin sliced meats). 

Add the other ingredients you would like in your egg in a basket (I used chopped spinach and swiss cheese). Ignore the other muffin tins, I decided to make egg muffins to freeze in the spare muffin tins. 

Then add an egg to each deli meat basket. So good! (FYI: the egg muffins were just egg whites, cheddar and spinach). Pop them into a 400 degree oven for 12 minutes and you're done! 

I topped them with salt, pepper and some parmesan cheese. 

Hm...with easy crusty bread. So perfect together.

I actually cooked them for 13 minutes. I regret this. I love a good runny egg and they were a little over cooked for me. If you like a more set egg yolk (like in this picture), then I would suggest 13 minutes.

I served it with fresh baked Easy Crusty Bread which I made with olives in it! We had an amazing brunch!

I made the spare egg muffins since I wasn't sure how well the egg yolks would freeze (or how safe that was). Have you ever frozen slightly runny egg yolks? Does it turn out OK when you reheat?

Baked Egg Cups From Thesimpledelights.com

12 Eggs

12 thin slices of deli ham (round)

1/2 Cup of your favorite cheese (I used Parmesan)

1/2 Cup diced scallions

Fresh cracked Sea Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400.  Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.  Lay a piece of ham in each hole creating a little ham cup.  Crack one egg into each hole and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake the eggs for about 12 minutes…until the white is firm and the yolk is still nice and runny.

Carefully remove each egg from the muffin tin and top with grated cheese and scallions.  Serve hot!  Yield: 12

Five minute Garlic Feta Dip. Just Three Ingredients!

As always, I'm running late and forgot to make an appetizer for a house visit. How I'm always forgetting one last step or ingredient is crazy but apparently consistent for me. Well, this weekend we went over to our cousin's house and volunteered to bring over something to snack on. I had totally forgotten and looked in to the fridge to see what we could bring. Feta Dip!

I recalled this pin I saw and checked to see if I had everything. It was so simple, I thought for sure I would be OK. So if you have a bunch of feta in your fridge, good oil and garlic you can make the base of this easy dip. After those ingredients the rest is to get fancy!

It asked for 8 oz of feta. two cups was very close to the 8oz I measured on my food scale

I used a ton of garlic, like three cloves. Recipe says to use only one but we love garlic! 

Add feta and oil to the mixer and go at it! I added half the oil in initially and then added more in slowly but ended up using it all! 

That's it! Simple right! The recipe calls for lemon but we thought it was already a bit sour.

I cut up some cucumbers for a light snack

Here's the recipe from SweetPaul.typepad.com

Lemon and feta dip
Serves 4

8oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil+ extra for serving
fresh thyme

Place feta, lemon zest and juice, garlic and olive oil in a blender and blend until smooth.
Spoon into a bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with thyme.
Serve with grilled tomatoes and grilled pita bread drizzled with olive oil, salt and thyme.

Low Carb White Egg Muffins

I love eggs and the idea of egg muffins made so much sense to me, I was very excited to try it.

Recipe from snacking in the kitchen: 

Ingredients
1 pound Italian Sausage (sweet, mild, hot variety depending on your preference)
1 cup broccoli florets
8 large eggs
1/4 cup milk (or half and half depending on how you're feeling that day)
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese as needed

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Italian Sausage for about 5 minutes, or until the sausage is no longer pink. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly spray a 12-cupcake pan with oil.Spoon out the sausage and broccoli mixture evenly into each cupcake.
5. Ladle the egg mixture over sausage and broccoli. 
6. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.  


My Trial! 

1. I made only six muffins (what would I do with 12?!?)
2. I wanted to use mostly egg whites (so I used 3 whites to 1 full egg)
3. I used grilled buffalo chicken vs sausage
4. I used onion vs broccoli
5. I used cheddar vs parmesan cheese
6. No oil
7. I forgot to half the milk and the baking soda (oops!)

So over night I marinated the chicken. I used this other pinterest posters suggestion on how to get juicy chicken off the grill (cut small slits in the chicken and marinade it for at least 6 hours). It worked but I would have to remember to marinade before hand that's rare.

Marinated over night in Frank's RedHot Wings sauce. 

Grilling. You can see the cuts I made to make it juicy

Chicken cut up after the grilling, so juicy!

I grated up some cheese to go on the tops of the muffins. Another pinterest suggestion was that I could freeze blocks of cheese. For cheddar it turns out that the flavor is OK but if you wanted to slice it up and put it on a cracker, my frozen cheddar crumbled. So I shred it instead! I also cut up some onion. 

Grated Cheese

Cut up red onion

Mixture of eggs, mild and baking soda

Right before going into the oven

Not as appetizing as the pinterest pic but it was good! 

I'm not sure if it's because I added too much milk, I used only egg whites or if there were too many ingredients in the muffin tin but they did come out a little wet. Still yummy like an egg omelet upright. 

I ate one the next day after microwaving for 30 seconds and it was delicious! 

I'm going to freeze that last two and see how they stand up against the frost. Experimental cooking! 

Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza Crust

My favorite website (Pinterest) has introduced me to the idea of a low carb pizza crust. I love it! 

 Original Link source: eat-drink-smile.com

I feel like this is one of the MOST popular pins out there. Who wouldn't like a low carb version of one of America's favorite meals.

Weeding through the comments....
Cons/Questions/Suggestions (there are literally over 500 comments so I stopped after about 300):

•  Substitute Cheese? 
• Yes! Experiment and try!
•  Main issue: Sogginess. Cannot hold pizza slice like traditional pizza.Never gets crispy like a traditional pizza.  Have to eat pizza with a fork due to sogginess. 
• Perhaps too think? Use a method to make the pizza level. 
• Make smaller pizza to avoid sogginess
• Use parchment paper to flip the pizza during baking step to make the center firmer.
• Put cheese topping on before the sauce to reduce moisture
• Don't cook the cauliflower too much (a firm not soft texture)
• Poke a hole in the middle (pizza doughnut vs pizza pizza)
• Use more cauliflower vs egg vs cheese
•  Suggestion: brush it with olive oil before baking
• No microwave
• Steam the cauliflower then rice it, works the same
• Sticks to surface
• Use non-stick foil
• Use parchment paper
• Use Silpat
• Egg beaters vs Egg
• Yes!
• Make it taste less like cauliflower?
• Add more spices to the crust mix
• Some one made it with vegan cheese but it was really soggy they ate it with a spoon

My Trial! 

Trial #1, that is....

• I used foil with a ton of cooking spray. 
• Riced and microwaved the cauliflower as instructed
• Made smaller pizzas vs one large pizza
• Attempted to flip the crust 3/4 of the baking process

Fail. It ended up sticking so much to the pan that I couldn't even flip it! I remade the "pizzas" with what I could flip and ate pizza mush for dinner. wah wah. 

Second attempt:

• Use a Silpat/non stick foil and cooking spray
• Did NOT cook the cauliflower at all 
• Made smaller pizzas vs one large pizza
• Flipped pizza midway during process

Success! We made amazing little pizza that were crispy and delicious! I did buffalo chicken, mushrooms, red peppers and cheese for this one. I also use a spicy pasta sauce vs pizza sauce (I think pizza sauce is too sweet).

Rice-ing of the cauliflower

Cauliflower and Cheese - just add Egg and mix it all up! 

Removed at 8 minute mark in order to flip

Done! It stays together!

You can even eat it like a pizza!

Do you have a favorite low carb meal?


Recipe (source eat-drink-smile.com):

ingredients:

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)

pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

directions:

To "Rice" the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!

*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.