Kitchen Sink Egg Cups

As often as not, when my husband leaves at 4am for an early flight, he's taken a couple of these out of the freezer, nuked for a minute, and eaten on the run. It doesn't take any longer to make a dozen at a time than to make a couple, and they freeze well. It's a great way to use up scraps of almost any kind of leftovers.

While there really is no recipe and no proportions of anything, here's the basic plan: Mix in a bowl: 12 eggs, then add a couple cups of any veggies you have on hand (onion, peppers, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, green beans, for example); a cup or two of cooked meat (bacon, crab, ham, turkey, deli meats, pepperoni, sausage, crumbled meat loaf, shrimp-- you get the idea) and a handful or two of shredded cheese, any flavor. Add salt and pepper, and pour into well-sprayed muffin cups, filling 2/3 full. Bake in a preheated 350 oven til centers are set, about 20 minutes for regular size 'muffins' or 30 minutes if using a giant muffin/popover pan. Plan on two per person.

To make just a few, use 2 eggs per person and adjust the other ingredients. Egg beaters works well too. You may find yourself making themed cups, such as pizza ingredients: pepperoni, mushrooms & mozzarella, and serving with a spoonful of warmed pizza sauce on top.

Shown in the photo above: red and green pepper, zucchini, fresh spinach, pepper jack cheese, bacon.

Spinach Pancakes

A perfect breakfast, dinner   side dish or simple supper entrée  for low carb dieters, South Beach diets, and healthy eating...not one bit of flour!  We love them for  breakast.   Quick to make, both  soft and crispy, and delicious. It's a nifty  way to get spinach into your kids. This morning I found we had no feta, and used shredded (NOT powdery) Parmesan cheese, which was  a super substitute,  and might  go over even better with kids. If you do use Parm  add a little salt to the batter, since ordinarily the feta would provide a bit  more  saltiness.  We like to  let extras cool completely on paper towels, then freeze with plastic or wax paper between the patties...they  are terrific reheated slowly  just for a  minute in the microwave.


Mix 8 beaten eggs with 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and WELL drained, and 1/4 c. finely chopped onion, . Heat 2 TB oil in a skillet on medium-high. For each pancake, pour about 1/4 c. of the mixture into the hot oil , wait a couple seconds to let the very bottom start to firm up, then  sprinkle about 1 TB of feta cheese over each.  (You'll need a total of 4 oz crumbled feta or about 1/2 c Parmesan).   Flatten  the pancake a bit with the back of a spoon before adding the cheese.   Cook 2 minutes or until golden; turn, cook til golden brown and a litle crispy. Serve topped with sour cream - use lite or low fat if you like.