Life Changing Eggs

Dear Em,
I've always liked eggs. Sunny side up has been my favorite for as long as I can remember, but I am a horrible egg frier. I hardly ever seem to be able to flip the egg without breaking the yolk. Scrambled eggs have long been my go-to when I'm cooking (Daddy is much better at mastering drippy yolks). I can make a complete mess of things, & the food still tastes good. For years I would add a quarter cup of milk to two eggs, sprinkle in some cheese, mix, cook, & enjoy light & fluffy scrambled eggs.

Then one of my best friends taught me about clear-out-your-leftovers scrambled eggs. It is so easy & ingenious, it's kinda crazy I never thought of it myself. It's pretty much the same scrambled egg recipe, except you also add leftover food from the refrigerator. Do you have veggies that will soon go bad? Chop them up & make a healthy, vegetable scrambled egg. Do you have black beans & tomatoes & salsa? Make spicy, Mexican inspired scrambled eggs. Sometimes I use spinach & mushrooms from a leftover salad. There are endless ingredients that work quite nicely.

While Daddy will sometimes make my first love- sunny side up eggs (& cheesy egg sandwiches), clear-out-your-left-over scrambled eggs had become my new favorite to make. UNTIL this past weekend- when my life was changed by eggs.

I was looking through the long list of online recipes that I have bookmarked but never gave a second though to. I've felt like we've been in a little bit of the same food rut & wanted to try something new. It was breakfast time. So, I scrolled to a baked eggs recipe from Minimalist Baker I had bookmarked.

Except for a few things...
1) I'm not opposed to using things that are ready made, & since I hadn't planned to make this recipe I didn't have all of the ingredients anyways. So, instead of making my own sauce using crushed tomatoes, I used pre-made pasta sauce while still adding the other ingredients.
2) In the spirit of clearing out the leftovers in our refrigerator, I added ingredients that I thought would work like fresh basil, chopped peppers, & goat cheese (because everything tastes better with goat cheese).
3) True to from, I didn't thoroughly read the directions & started mixing ingredients together without really paying attention to how & when the recipe called for it. Whoops. So, instead of having baked eggs with drippy yolks on top of all the other ingredients, I had more of a scrambled mess. I actually tried the drippy yolk version the next day, but I think I liked how the the scrambled mess came together a little better. It was just a little more difficult to be able to tell when the eggs were cooked through.

So, with that I give you a slightly modified, mind-blowing recipe...

Messy but Life Changing

Baked Eggs Recipe

Modified from Minimalist Baker

Ingredients

- 1/4 white onion, diced

- 1 large clove of garlic, diced

- 1/2 tsp sea salt

- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

- 1/2 tsp paprika

- 1/4 cup pre-made pasta sauce

- 1-2 eggs

- OPTIONAL: several fresh basil leaves, diced green & red peppers, goat cheese, & other left-over-in-the-refrigerator ingredients that might work.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees & lightly grease an oven safe baking dish.

2. In separate bowl add onion, garlic, sea salt, red pepper flakes, paprika, pasta sauce, & any optional ingredients (If you want more of a scrambled dish, add the eggs as well). Stir together.

3. Place mixture in a shallow oven safe baking dish. For drippy yolks, crack egg on top of mixture.

4. Bake for 10-20 minutes or until desired doneness. For drippy yolks, egg whites should be cooked through but yolks still soft.

5. Add toast if you like for dipping.

Seriously, my mind was blown. This was fancy restaurant quality yumminess. It was so savory & hearty, a perfectly comfy breakfast to warm you up on a blustery winter day. Unfortunately, I don't really see you sharing in my egg happiness. You don't really like eggs or pasta sauce or onion or garlic...really any of it. Lucky for me, that means I won't have to share.

I love you so,
Mommy