Baked Eggs with Tomato and Green Pepper

Have you ever baked an egg? I have not. I have scrambled, fried, and baked USING an egg, but I have not actually ever baked an egg. Who would ever think of putting an egg in the oven as a main ingredient to a dish? Surely not I! Until now!

This was the first Christmas that Sophia and I did not live at my parents house. I cannot imagine what Christmas morning with just my parents and younger brother was like at their house. My mom had asked me if they could come here to see Sophia open her presents and while I completely understand wanting to experience that joy and magic of Christmas morning through a child's eyes, I did not allow it. I was excited to have a special morning with my baby, plus I didn't think it would be fair to make Sophia wait until guests arrived to open the gifts. Since I was little, the first child awake would wake the whole house and the gift opening would happen immediately. However, I did make Sophia wait for me to brush my teeth and make a cup of coffee before beginning. Lucky for her, we have a Keurig which takes about 30 seconds to brew. I invited my parents to join us for a Christmas breakfast so we could have some quality time together before we all headed over to my sister's house for dinner.

I knew I wanted to make my apple-cinnamon pancakes and serve pork bacon. The apple-cinnamon pancakes are made by adding my homemade applesauce to the pancake batter, easy peasy! I very rarely buy pork bacon. For health reasons and taste preferences; if I cook bacon, it is always turkey bacon. My mother is not a big fan of the turkey variety, so I wanted to treat her to some pork. Then I stumbled upon baked eggs while browsing Pinterest. Every recipe I found told me to crack an egg into a muffin pan over top of some diced up veggies. The pictures with the recipe show the final product looking like a sunny side up egg. I like to eat eggs over medium, but my mother will not eat anything runny at all. This recipe seemed so convenient, since I could cook them in the oven while concentrating on the food I had going on the stove. I decided I would beat the eggs so they would bake scrambled or omelet style. I used 10 eggs and added diced green peppers, diced tomatoes, and half a very finely diced onion. I sauteed the veggies before I added them to the egg to enhance the flavor and so they were not too crunchy. I poured the mixture into a muffin pan and let it bake on 350 for 20 minutes. If you are doing these scrambled styled, like I did, you can check for doneness the same way you would a cake. A butter knife will pull out clean if cooked completely.

These eggs were a hit! The 10 eggs filled up 12 muffin cups, so each little egg circle came to a little over one egg. I'm guessing you could make fewer eggs stretch if you beef them up more diced veggies or maybe even some bacon or sausage. They are like mini omelette's without the tricky flipping (or fattening oil) involved. Double bonus: I had leftovers to eat for lunch for today's Meatless Monday!!



My brother, Mother, and me in my kitchen Christmas morning.



Just a little Christmas funny. This cracked me up when I read it.