Breakfast Puffs
Haha! Here's my first post on my Simple Dinners are the Best blog, and it's a breakfast recipe! Well, the best time to prepare for breakfast is right after dinner, because...Who has time for breakfast?
That's often my excuse, but there's no denying that you FEEL BETTER all day when you nourish your body in the morning. Breakfast is the most important meal....blah blah blah...and all that.
So, here's one of my favorite things for weekday breakfast - and it can even double for a Simple Dinner, too: Breakfast Puffs! These are nothing more than a little, hand-held mini-casserole that you make in a muffin tin. If you want to have them for dinner, awesome. They make a luscious, warm dinner with a cup of tomato basil soup on the side, or a light salad. So there. This is about dinner.....AND breakfast, see?
My motto for good eating is, "Be Prepared."
The great beauty of casseroles (besides taste & tummy satisfaction) is the way they add to the efficiency of your kitchen. In other words, they're cheap. Take those leftovers that you might otherwise waste - add something to bind it all together (in this case eggs) - bake - and, VOILA! A cheap, wholesome, homemade nourishing meal.
The key ingredient here is bread. Hey - don't throw away old bread! That's wasteful, it's like throwing a handful of money in the trash. If the bread has begun to mold - no worries! Just trim off the bad parts. Get in the habit of cutting up and saving your old bread in a ziploc bag, or other freezer container. Then, when you're ready to make something, it's there for you.
Other things to save: bits and pieces of cheese, meat and vegetables - these can go in the freezer also, ready to be added back to all kinds of dishes.
Most cheeses can be mix up beautifully, with the exception of blue cheese, perhaps. Again, don't throw away the scraps - if the cheese has a little mold on it, it's not trash, ok?! - cut the mold off and use what's in the center. You'd be amazed how good it is to mix up the little ends of cheese that are left over - gruyere, chevre, jack, parmesan, havarti, cheddar - somehow they taste wonderful together, complex and flavorful. You pay a lot for good cheese, don't throw your money in the trash.
MINI casseroles like these Breakfast Puffs help you control portion size, and they're super convenient for small households of one or two people. Once baked, mini-casseroles freeze well and are quick and easy to re-heat.
Without further ado (because I know that you want to make these NOW) here's my method:
Breakfast Puffs
- Oil a muffin tin - I use one for jumbo (double-sized) muffins, but any size will do. I use coconut oil, but you can use any kind of lightly flavored or flavor-less oil, or butter.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F
- In a big bowl, mix together:
Stale Bread: To have enough to fill a tin, it takes about 4 - 5 cups of chopped bread. This time, I had old croissants (yummy!!). It works just as well with any type of bread or rolls, but you will get a heavier, heartier result if you use heavier bread. Fluffier bread=fluffier puff.
Spinach: I used about 4 cups of chopped baby spinach, fresh. You could use thawed frozen spinach (drained well), or a lesser amount of fresh. You could use arugula, or chard, or any number of other things...but do add greens, because they're really good for you, and you're probably not getting enough.
Diced Vegetables (and/or meat): I used about 1 cup of finely diced green and yellow bell pepper, because that's what I had on hand. You could also use up to 2 cups of veg, and add diced onion, red peppers, artichoke hearts, olives, tomatoes, cooked potatoes, peas, etc. Use your imagination, try combos of what is in your refrigerator needing to be cooked. *I made these without meat, but you could add leftover chicken, fish, bits of prosciutto or ham, shrimp, crabmeat, tofu, sausage, etc.
Herbs & Spices: I used about 4 tablespoons of dried basil, 1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper. If you have fresh parsley, basil, oregano, etc. - chop it up and throw it in. A few shakes of Tabasco is also very tasty.
Cheese: I went a light on the cheese this time, trying to keep down the fat & sodium a little bit, since I was using butter croissants :-|
I added about 2 tablespoons of crumbled fresh goat cheese, and another 1/2 cup of cheddar and monterey jack, mixed. You could add up to 1 cup, or 1-1/2 cups, depending on what you like.
Toss together well, then ADD:
Eggs & Milk: Whip up 5 or 6 large eggs, with about 1 to 1-1/2 cups of milk. Yes, you could use egg whites only. You can also add half & half or cream, if you've got it on hand, and you want the richness. Pour this mixture over the ingredients in the bowl. Mix well. At this point, you can cover the mixture and allow it to sit overnight in the refrigerator to absurd the liquid. OR, you can do as I did, and allow it to stand for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. The idea is to allow the liquid to absorb into the bread.
Fill the muffin tin, each cup to about 3/4 full. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven when the centers spring back slightly from the touch. Cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Freeze what you don't use right away.
To reheat, remove a puff from the freezer. Allow to thaw in the refrigerator overnight. OR, zap in the microwave for about 40 seconds, then warm on a tray in the toaster oven.
Makes 12 regular sized puffs, or 6 jumbo.
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