These breakfast "muffins" or cups are sort of like mini crustless quiches, or an egg strata without the bread. They are very easy to make (quick prep, plus, it's one of those "bake at 350 til done" affairs,) and you can make them in small batches, so you can have them fresh more than once per week if you like!
It's worth mentioning that I use a nonstick muffin tin to make the little quichelettes. Also, I've used sausage and peppers, which are not really what I think of as quiche flavors. You can certainly use any combination of ingredients-this is just a blueprint. Bacon and leek would be yummy, as would spinach and bell pepper. Please, play around with these!
Ingredients
1 teaspoon of olive oil
3 green onions
1 red pepper
1 lb of light pork sausage
Grated cheese of your liking (or for ease you could use a grated one from the store, like monterrey jack, etc.)
Beaten eggs-figure about 1 egg for two quichelettes
Method:
1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop green onions and sautee with olive oil. After about a minute and a half, add the red peppers.
2.) Add the sausage and brown-no pink bits here, please. Also, while you might want to add a bit of black or red, pepper, I suggest not adding any salt-the sausage with be salty, and your cheese will also have some salt. You can make the recipe up to this point and then put the leftovers in fridge.
Mmmm sausage.
3.) If you're using a non-stick muffin tin, you won't need to grease it-if you don't have a nonstick muffin tin, grease it. Place about a tablespoon or a tablespoon and a half of the sausage mixture to the bottom of each muffin slot.4.) Add a pinch (to taste) of cheese to the top of the muffin tins.
5.) Top with the beaten eggs until the cup is just under full. you might grace the top of this with some more cheese (I don't, but do as you like.)
6.) If you are making them fresh, they will need about 10 minutes in the oven. If you're making a few the next day from leftover sausage, bake them for about 16 minutes.
Almost there....
7.) Let the quichelettes stand for about three minutes. After that time, they should come out very easily-you might try to "turn" them with a spoon or fork (I find that very, very effective.)
8.) Eat greedily.
Now where did I put my coffee?
2/13/14:
I made these again today, but since I don't have a muffin tin in my NYC apartment, I used my ramekins with leek, sausage and red peppers with some parmesan cheese.
Here's 3 quichelettes in various stages of prep: sausage/peppers, then cheese, and topped with egg.
Now all three topped with cheese, ready to go into the oven.
These puffed up beautifully! They are almost souffles today.
