Today’s STM submission comes from Christie Tracey, one of our favorite Whole9 guest bloggers (A House Divided) and Whole30 expert. Christie posted a spinach muffin recipe (inspired by the fabulous Melissa Joulwan) on her blog that got our readers’ attention, and provides such a quick, easy, and delicious way to get you (and your kids’) veggies in at breakfast that we had to re-post it for you here. Christie’s blog is a treasure trove of Paleo resources, recipes and inspiration, so after you whip up her spinach muffins, head on over to ChristieTracey.blogspot.com and check out all of her Paleo recipe offerings.
Steal This Meal: Egg and Spinach “Muffins”
Ingredients:
- 4 pastured or Omega-3 eggs (yes, yummy yolks and all!!)
- 4 9oz bags/boxes of frozen spinach
- 3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
- 1-2 Tb Italian Spice Blend (or your own blend of oregano, basil, etc)
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- Sea Salt to taste
- Red Pepper Flakes to taste (if you like spicy stuff)
More veggies, please!
Directions:
- Defrost spinach in microwave
- While spinach is defrosting, beat your eggs well
- Drain spinach REALLY WELL!! (I like Melissa’s tip of cutting a small hole in the corner of the bag, and then squeezing it like your life depends on it until you can’t get any more water out)
- Dump spinach into a bowl and stir in minced garlic & spices/seasonings to taste**
- Add beaten eggs to spinach, and mix well
- Spoon evenly into 12 muffin pan holes, and pack down a bit
- Bake in the oven at 350 for 30-35 minutes.
- Pull out of oven and turn pan upside down onto a cooling rack so that “muffins” can cool.
These will “deflate” a little as well, but not much if they are cooked well enough. The final pic is of one of my “muffins” after a night in the fridge. These are REALLY YUMMY straight out of the fridge. And on a side note – I have NEVER been a fan of frozen spinach, but I really, really liked these, so give them a try even if you’re not a fan of the frozen stuff – I think that they’ll pleasantly suprise you!
This "muffin" is so healthy, it's Whole30 approved!
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Yay! Foodie collaboration.
I’m going back to revise my recipe and change the ingredients to whole eggs instead of whites. The “whites only” thing is an artifact from my Weight Watchers days. BOO!
This reminds me: I haven’t made these in a while, and they are awesomely delicious. I’m going to defrost spinach RIGHT. NOW.
Great recipe! We make these with a little less spinach and add leftover ground beef(grass fed) or bison and some diced jalapenos (if you like spice). We keep a bag of these in our freezer and find that they microwave well if we need breakfast in a pinch.
Hey Melissa – Yes, SO much yummier w/ the whole eggs ;) – But thank you for the inspiration for this recipe – I make it every single week – REALLY! The “muffins” make great snacks and breakfasts in a pinch!
Mike – Ive made mine w/ GF Ground Beef several times – Great suggestion! They’re a lot more filling with the meat in there too. Recently, I’ve been splitting my batch in half and putting GF Ground Beef it one half and making the other half without. The ones w/ meat are perfect for breakfast, and the meatless ones work better for me when I’m short on the green stuff and trying to squeeze a little more in with a meal :)
Christe,
Bacon is not bad in these either! Great blog by the way!
Wow, This sounds great, and yummy! I bet my kids will love them!
Is there a reason for using frozen spinach over fresh? We tend to always have fresh spinach in the house for use in salads, but never frozen. I need to head over to the grocery store on the way home tonight, so I’ll be picking up some frozen spinach so I can try these out in the morning. Plus, I’ll be able to put my home-grown oregano and basil to more use :)
Thanks!
Here’s an idea for an Indian version reminiscent of saag or palak:
Add some fresh pureed ginger and replace the italian seasoning with garam masala (you can make your own. Wikipedia says “Some common ingredients are black & white peppercorns, cloves, malabar leaves, long pepper (also known as pippali), black cumin (known as shahi jeera), cumin seeds, cinnamon, black, brown, & green cardamom, nutmeg, star anise and coriander seeds.” Just dry-roast a few of these ingredients in a saucepan for about 30-60 seconds, allow to cool then grind them up.)
If you want it a little “creamier”, add a tiny bit of coconut milk when you add the eggs.
Thank you, very useful. I wasnt actually a big fan of Spinach for many years ( understatement, I hated the stuff), but after shacking up with a vegetarian I kind of had to put up with it, and have gradually come to love the stuff. Spinach curry is undoubtedly my absolute favouritest! I even found an entire spinach recipes website which is my new favourite site now, you should have a look!
Van,
Thanks for that link, I’ve bookmarked it for later :)
I tried these spinach muffins, and they were okay, but not as great as I thought they’d be. I think more egg and less spinach would better, and I really liked the idea of adding some ground beef and/or bacon. I found, that made as described, there were, like a lot of things, a whole better as a vehicle for hot sauce, salsa, and cheese :)
Think I’ll give them a try – -but how long will they keep in the fridge? can I freeze them?
Thanks ,
M.
This is the best breakfast idea ever! I’ve been worried about how to manage breakfasts and tested a modified version of these muffins this week. I used ground beef (gf of course), mushrooms, half the spinach, and Indian spices (since I had them handy), and Duck eggs (6 because I used the large muffin tins).
WOW! They are tasty and fantastically filling for breakfast with a handful of berries. And now I’m thinking of pre-making everything in muffin tins. :)
Possibly the most versatile recipe I’ve ever seen. :)
Hi! I made these “muffins” yesterday and I can barely get em’ down. Any ideas on what I could do with them…ie: break them up and put it with (fill in the blank). Please let me know. SO not a fan!
Thanks,
Christi
Christi,
My personal opinion is to hop on over to EverydayPaleo.com and search for Sarah’s egg muffin recipe. It’s much better. I found this recipe entirely too bland.
One I’ve played with a bit is an adaptation/mash-up of a couple different ideas:
– Take slices of deli ham (trim to appropriate size if necessary) and stuff them into the muffin tin holes.
– Grate some sweet potato and onion, and sautee them together with a bit of coconut oil or even a little bacon fat.
– Scoop some of this mixture into each muffin cup on top of the ham
– Crack one egg into each muffin cup over the sweet potato/onion mixture
– Bake in the oven on 350 for 10-20 minutes to desired level of “doneness”
– Eat a few, refrigerate a few, freeze a few :)
This one is easy to play around with. Crumble some bacon on top of the eggs, season the sweet potato with cinnamon and/or nutmeg, etc.
Good luck, and let us know how it turns out :)