I don’t know about you, but getting my kids ready and well-fed in the morning before school can be more difficult than it needs to be! I find myself having to beg them to get out of bed, get ready and come down in time to actually eat something sensible without swallowing it.
Studies show that kids that eat breakfast actually perform higher academically and athletically. They function better, have more concentration and energy and are generally in better health overall. This is a habit you want to ingrain in your kids at an early age since as kids approach adolescence, they are more prone to skip breakfast altogether if this habit wasn’t in place during their school-age years.
I find that the mornings run most smoothly when I have a plan and when I have breakfast mostly pre-ready, just taking a few extra minutes to get it on the table. My kids are not big egg lovers and only lately have been eating it when it is mixed with a lot of toppings, hiding the ‘eggy’ taste.
On the weekends, I love to experiment with different frittata recipes and my kids have been scarfing it down. Since this is too time-consuming for weekdays, and I don’t want them eating cereal every morning, I came up with a way to put my kids favorite frittata recipe into baked muffin cups that I can make a dozen at a time, freeze and pull out and reheat for a couple minutes on busy mornings.
This frittata egg muffin recipe contains protein (which I find to be more filling than carbohydrate rich breakfasts) and a ton of vitamins and minerals from the tomatoes, onions, pepper and spinach. I make this on a Sunday night or whenever I have some extra time and keep a few in the refrigerator for the following morning and freeze the remaining muffins for later use. They can be frozen up to one month and I found it best to individually freeze them in plastic wrap and store the muffins in a gallon sized Ziploc bag.
Servings: 12 egg muffins
[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]
- 9 eggs (preferably organic)
- 2 small potatoes
- 15 grape tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 1/2 red pepper
- Handful of baby spinach
- 1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Mexican or mozzarella)
- 1/8 cup milk (preferably organic & whole)
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- Olive oil spray
- Salt & pepper to taste
[/ingredients]
[directions title=”Directions”]
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Peel and slice the potatoes into 12 (one to line bottom of each muffin)
- Steam or boil the potatoes until fork can pierce through potatoes approximately 5 minutes
- Chop onion, tomatoes, pepper into small pieces
- Heat skillet with 3 tbsp. olive oil and sauté onions until translucent, approximately 5 minutes
- Add pepper to skillet, followed by tomatoes and sauté another 5 minutes
- Chop spinach and add to skillet until spinach wilts
- Remove skillet from heat
- In separate bowl, add splash of milk and 9 eggs and beat
- Add the veggies from skillet to bowl of eggs
- Grease all sides of muffin pan containers thoroughly with olive oil spray
- Line each muffin container with 1 slice of potato and sprinkle potato slices with sea salt
- Add 1/3 of egg mixture to each muffin container
- Sprinkle cheese in each muffin container
- Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes until egg sets
- Enjoy!
[/directions]
For more recipes like these check out my book, “Busy Mom’s Cheat Sheet: Raising Happy Healthy Kids”, now available on Amazon.