Baked Breakfast Eggs with Ham

Oooh, yea.  It was delicious.

Alright, truth is I've tried a half dozen "baked egg muffin" types of recipes from many paleo blogs--basically portable baked eggs of all shapes for take-along breakfasts.  But I haven't been liking the recipes out there very much.  So then I took matters into my own hands and I made my own quiche recipe--delicious, BTW, but a lot of effort because first you have to make the nut-pastry and bake the pie shell.  I'm a lazy cook.  Sometimes I feel like cooking fancy, fabulous things, sometimes I just want food.  This past week, I just wanted food.  Portable food, because I pack both my breakfast and lunch and take it into work with me.  I tend to eat a lot of hard-boiled eggs because they're so easy.  But this week, I got banned from eating at my desk because my food was "so stinky" all the time.  Lesson learned.  Do not pack hard-boiled eggs with homemade cabbage in sesame oil and vinegar.  Way too potent smelling for most people at that time of day.  I saw several co-workers gag before I was banned.   Sure, it entertained me, but then I had to think up something less stinky to tote to work.

So the Baked Breakfast Eggs recipe was born.  And I could cook it on Sunday and eat all week!  Ok, part of the week.  Because I have to feed Steve, too, and six slices only gets us Mon-Wed.  Ah, well, close enough.  Maybe next time I'll throw in 8 eggs and get us fed to Thursday.  Maybe there'll have to be an IF day, because I can't wrap my head around having to cook more breakfasts mid-week. 

Anyhow, this went over much better at the office.  And I liked it both cold and slightly re-heated.  Win-win!  And it was pretty simple.  Sure, I roasted my own peppers, but you could buy them already roasted, if you're not trying to be cheap like me.

Baked Breakfast Eggs with Ham

First, roast your red pepper.  You can roast several and save the others for later.
Raise the rack in your oven, heat your broiler to high.  Place whole (clean and dry) peppers on a cookie sheet and set under the broiler.  Keep an eye on them and turn frequently to blacken on all sides.  once blackened on all sides, remove from oven and place in a ziplock bag to cool (this will allow moisture to form which helps the skins slide off easier).  Once cold enough to handle, slide skins off and discard.  You can store the roasted peppers in a tupperware container in the fridge for about a week.

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1 small to medium zucchini
• 1 small onion or 1/3 spanish onion
• 1 lb cooked ham
• 6 eggs
• 2 tbs heavy cream or coconut milk
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• coconut oil to grease pan

Method:

Heat oven to 350 degrees (make sure you've moved your rack back down to a normal position).

Grease an 8x8 casserole dish with the coconut oil.  Chop your ham, zucchini and onions, cut the roasted red pepper into thin strips. 

Layer into the casserole dish; first roasted red pepper strips, then onion, then zucchini, then ham.  Wisk eggs with spices and cream/coconut milk.  Pour evenly over other ingredients.  The eggs will cover most, but not all, of the layers.  Don't worry, the egg will expand and glue it all together.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until egg is set all the way through.

Variations:

Try this with breakfast sausage in place of the ham, and mushrooms in place of the zucchini.  I really liked this combo, too.