Sausage and Egg Cups

I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this idea, although I'd like to think so.  But it did occur to me of my own merit, so I'll let myself think it. 

I have a husband who, outside of meat and cheese, has a very limited scope of food, and unless I intervene, breakfast will consist of a frozen burrito, leftover pizza, even Ramen noodles.  If it's processed or packaged it is, by his definition, a top choice for breakfast.  Oatmeal, cereal, fruit...these things do not in his mind constitute food, unless to feed to farm animals.  I guess opposites attract! 

I've learned over the years not to force him to breakfast on any of the "weird health foods" that I and our children enjoy (pancakes and waffles and oatmeal are weird foods? Really?) Instead I try to tweak his favorite foods as healthily as possible.  Call it stealthy healthy.  One thing we can both agree on for breakfast is eggs and sausage or bacon, using products that are as free from additives as possible. Though they probably shouldn't be eaten overly often, these foods contain protein, and they're filling enough to keep my husband going until lunch time.

The above concoction is something he can grab in the morning and heat up, which is of utmost importance to him on a work day, and it's portion controlled.  What's of utmost importance to me is that in order to help him avoid eating processed foods, I can be true to my non-morning person persona and not have to get up extra early to cook breakfast!

Use pastured eggs or local eggs if you can find them, which will be far healthier than your average store bought egg.  This recipe is also gluten and carbohydrate free for those of you to whom that's important.  I like this as well, because I feel Americans as a whole consume far too many foods consisting of flours, to the detriment of our health, and anything we can do to cut back is nice. 

Next time I'd like to sneak in some asparagus and shredded parmesan cheese between the sausage and egg layer.  Mmmm.  There is probably no end to how you can mix up this recipe, so go ahead and create your own version.

Sausage and Egg Cups

1/2 pound ground breakfast sausage

1 dozen eggs (large work best)

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Divide the sausage into 12 pieces and spread out over the bottom and slightly up the sides of 12 muffin cups.  Put in the oven and bake for five minutes.  Take out the muffin pan.  Crack one egg over the top of each sausage patty and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Return to the oven for ten or more minutes, until the egg whites are firm.  It's important that you don't bake it so long that the yolks are dried out, as the eggs will continue to cook after they're out of the oven.  Also they will cook a bit more when they're reheated, so leave them a bit soft at the center, unless you are eating them right away and prefer them firm.

Let cool and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.