Meal-Prepped Breakfast Bites

I don’t know about you, but my mornings can be hectic.  It seems like there’s always a rush to get out the door.  Trying to figure out breakfast in the middle of that can be exasperating.  So, as a busy suburbanite on a budget, I started meal-prepping breakfasts for my family. 

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The base recipe for this meal-prepped breakfast is a breakfast casserole.  It’s pretty simply, consisting of eggs, starchy vegetables, meat, cheese (including cottage cheese for airy texture), and seasonings.  There are lots of different takes on this type of breakfast.  For me and my family, we use my mom’s breakfast casserole recipe.  But if you have a different breakfast casserole or quiche recipe you want to use, have at it.

You can also recycle leftovers into this recipe.  For example, my husband and I often end up with leftover steak street tacos (tacos de bistec) that need to be used creatively.  We host college students for a Bible study each week, and tacos are the easiest food to accommodate a variety of dietary restrictions, including our own.  But, if fewer people show up than we anticipated, we have more tacos than we can eat.  And while the beef, diced raw onions, and caramelized onions stay good in the fridge for a while, the queso fresco, cilantro, and avocado turn bad quickly.  So… I’ve taken to emptying the tacos and the fixin’s (sans avocado) into a mixing bowl with a dozen or so eggs.  Whisking those ingredients together, along with a few drops of the fiery salsa, makes for a delicious, Tex-Mex breakfast.

The key to making these quick meals in advance is using a muffin tray to make individual portions.  This allows them to bake up faster than they would in a casserole dish, and it saves you the extra step of cutting it into portions yourself. 

These egg-bite breakfasts also freeze well, so if you need to make a large batch ahead of time, you can freeze some for later.  To thaw them quickly, you can wrap an egg bite in a damp paper towel and microwave for thirty-second increments.  Or, you can just chuck the bag of frozen bites into the fridge and let them thaw overnight.  Whatever works for you.

For the adapted breakfast casserole, I start with turkey breakfast sausage, which I pan cook and chop into tiny pieces.  Once the sausage is cooked, I drain the broth and oil and allow to cool.  While the sausage is cooking, I also take frozen potato puffs and pop them into the air fryer.  This allows them to crisp up nicely without getting grease-logged.  Once the potato puffs are cool, I mash them up and mix them with the turkey sausage.

At this point, I may allow the sausage-potato mixture to cool in the fridge overnight while I go about other errands.  But, if I’m in a rush to get this breakfast made, I move on to the next steps.

Next, I mix in cottage cheese (as the curds provide a light, airy texture) and diced tomatoes and/or chilis (canned Rotel is my personal favorite, but my mom prefers diced chilis on their own).  I then mix in sharp cheddar and add generous amounts of salt and pepper.  If I’m feeling like some extra flavor, I toss in some minced garlic.  I’ll also add some salt and pepper to taste. 

Once all the “solid” ingredients are in, I add eggs one at a time until the mixture is pourable.  It may take a dozen eggs; it may take a dozen and a half.  Measure with your heart.

Once the mixture is ready, I pour into pre-greased silicone muffin trays (if you haven’t already, check out my post on while silicone muffin trays are the absolute best!).  Into the oven they go at 350°F for twenty to thirty minutes.  Check with a toothpick to make sure the eggs are set, then remove from heat and allow to cool.  One or two bites is a full serving.

If you’re feeling extra adventurous and want to make a mini-quiche, you can line the muffin tray with a tortilla (use a corn tortilla to keep this recipe gluten-free!).  You’ll need to make a cut in the tortilla, starting from one edge and moving toward the center, stopping about a third to a quarter of the way through.  This will allow you to place the tortilla in the muffin tray and fold the edges without creating too many wrinkles.  If you do this, though, note that the top edges of the tortilla—any part that isn’t touching the egg, but is left above the egg—may be prone to over-browning or burning.  Personally, I feel like the extra steps and extra time involved to make quiches instead of breakfast bites… just isn’t worth it.  But, hey—to each their own.

Recipe: Breakfast Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. breakfast sausage of choice

• 1 (16 oz) bag frozen potato puffs

• 1 (8 oz) tub of cottage cheese (curd size to preference)

• 1 can diced tomatoes and chilis

• 8 oz. shredded cheddar

• 12-18 eggs

• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Pan-cook the sausage according to package directions.  Chop the sausage into small pieces as it cooks,

• Crisp the potato puffs in an air fryer (if you don’t have one, you can crisp them in a pan or in the oven).  Mash the potato puffs.

• Mix the sausage and potatoes and allow to cool.

• Preheat the oven to 350° F and oil a muffin tray.

• Add cottage cheese, diced tomatoes and/or chilis, and shredded cheddar.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Mix well.

• Add the eggs, mixing as you add them, until the batter has a “pourable” consistency.

• Pour the batter into the pre-oiled muffin tray.  Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a breakfast bite comes out clean.

• Allow to cool slightly and enjoy.  Store in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to three months (more, if you don’t mind a bit of freezer-burn).

What do you think of these breakfast bites?  Do you have your own take on this recipe?  Let me know in the comments!