eggs – Faith, Hope & Quinoa

Why hello there!

Oh my goodness this weekend was absolutely wonderful. I have so much to share and even more pictures that will put a smile on your face. And come on how does a weekend get any better then your best friends wedding and a visit from your long lost sister!!

I had to share just one picture of these 2 beautiful women! Don’t fret, a whole post (or 2) about Linda’s wedding is to come! But truly it was such a blessed day filled with so much love and laughter and now she’s a married woman!

Well on to the recipe recap, if I can stop daydreaming about weddings…

This week I reviewed a mini egg bake recipe!

There may have been a little bit of a break down in the system, which lead to minimal photo evidence that I actually made the recipe but scout’s honor I did make them!

I volunteered to make a brunch for the bridal party on Linda’s wedding day and thought these little nuggets of deliciousness would work perfectly. Due to getting my hair and make-up done and my lack of time management. I had to throw the recipe together quicker than anticipated which resulted in only a few pictures of the process (sorry!).

I browned the sausage (I used venison sausage) the night before.

And stored it. I took out the hashbrowns the night before (Ok I BARELY did this, which would have been a catastrophy) I’m not good at reading and prepping for recipes before hand. So that was a strike against these amazing muffin cups. You can’t just make them immediately you have to prepare.

Then the morning of the wedding I combined the hash browns and butter with salt and pepper and pressed them into the muffin tins. I used a generous amount of pam before putting the hash browns (that were bursting with butter) and the muffins still stuck like crazy: Strike 2!

My sister helped me to crack the eggs and mix the diced pepper and green onion with the eggs. Then I added the cheese to the veggie and raw egg mixture.

I then baked the crust for about 14 minutes. By no account were the hash browns golden brown, but I was moving full speed ahead. I took out the hash browns, added the precooked venison sausage and added the egg-mixture before popping it all in the oven.

Pouring the egg mixture into the muffin tins was probably the most challenging part of the recipe. I poured the egg mix into a measuring cup with a pour spout to attempt to make it easier, but it didn’t help. It was very MESSY.

Basically ended like this.

Back to the muffins, It took longer than the 13-15 minutes for the eggs to set in the oven. So I put them in for another 5 minutes.

The end result was an utterly delicious mini egg bake with about half of the hash brown crust left in the muffin tin.

Ease of following recipe: The recipe was very simple and the ingredients were easy to find and affordable, both pluses! However, you do need to thaw the hash browns and brown the sausage beforehand.

Overall impression: The taste was second to none. I would highly recommend it based on the combination of flavors. However the muffins really stuck in the pan and so when you take them out the bottoms weren’t flat. This detracts from the appearance of the muffins (but not the taste).

Scrap it or Save it: I would….SAVE it! I am a sucker for anything with eggs, sausage and potatoes. Package it into cute little muffins and it doesn’t get much better.

Things I would change: I would use bigger muffin tins. Our tins were like halfway between mini muffin tins and the regular. Also, add more eggs because I ended up running out of eggs and ended up with a few hash brown and sausage patties. I also would bake the hash browns longer and invest in a nonstick pan if I was going to get serious about it.

When I make this recipe again I also might sneak some more veggies into it, just because that’s what I do!

Hope that helps!

~Alyssa

So living on a budget is pretty crucial when you are in Grad school, planning a wedding, and being gluten-free doesn’t help matters either. So here are 5 staple foods that I alway have that are super affordable and give you the vitamins and minerals to fuel your body properly so you aren’t on the blood sugar roller coaster all day long.

1. Eggs: some would consider them the perfect food. They have fat which will keep you full longer and protein. And let me just say eggs go with EVERYTHING. Lately I have been enjoying them on top of a bed of roasted vegetables (whatever I happen to have at the moment) and the yolk is a great creamy sauce. Yum!

2. Beans: My staple is Bush’s reduced sodium Black beans. Now even though they are reduced sodium you always want to rinse the beans to get all the black gook off of them. Rinsing helps to get rid of a lot of the salt content. You can add beans to salads, eggs, my personal fav: sweet potatoes, etc

3. Frozen Fruits: You all know how much I love my oatmeal, but fresh fruit especially in winter can break the bank so I opt for frozen raspberries. They taste the same and offer the same vitamins as fresh raspberries at a fraction of the cost. They go great on top of overnight oats (which you will soon hear about, I promise).

4. Spinach and sweet potatoes: For some reason these 2 vegetables in my mind are categorized together. Sweet potatoes/yams are usually only 99 cents a pound and they’re huge! I like to roast them whole or cut them to make sweet potato fries. And spinach is just a necessity it can go in eggs, base of salads, in pasta-dishes. It is a superfood that does it all. And bonus is filled with Iron, folate and MANY other vitamins.

5. Oatmeal: So you all know my love of oatmeal and you can get a giant tub for around $4 give or take a little depending on what off brand you get. Start off you day with a filling bowl of deliciousness, instead of sugary cereal that will you leave you hungry in an hour.