Southwestern Egg Muffins
Full of black beans, peppers, and southwestern spices, these make-ahead egg muffins are the perfect low carb, high protein breakfast!
There are an awful lot of lifestyle changes that happen when you have a baby. It’s easy to think about the big ones – the ones you spend 9 months contemplating.
Travel just became a whole lot more complicated. No more spontaneous late nights out without a sitter. No more sleeping in after a late night out. (Or more likely, no more sleep – period.) You trade in the New York Times bestseller list for Llama Llama and the Pout Pout Fish and a tiny clutch for a giant diaper bag.
One of the changes that I didn’t really think about ahead of time relates to food. (Which is funny, because I obviously think about food a lot.)
As childfree adults, we were able to eat whatever we wanted for dinner. You know – the nights you just can’t be bothered to cook. Everyone has their go-to non-dinner dinner, right? For my husband, it’s a bowl of cereal. For me, it’s a bowl of air popped popcorn covered in chili powder.
These were the standard “stuck at work until 9pm” or “just got home from vacation and haven’t been to the grocery store yet” dinners. And then one day, you have a baby who suddenly eats real food and needs an actual dinner and *poof* without thinking about it, the hodgepodge snack dinners are a thing of the past.
And don’t get me started on breakfast! I’m not much of a breakfast person – I don’t really like most breakfast foods. I’d much rather bring a hardboiled egg or yogurt to eat at work than sit down and eat first thing in the morning.
But again – toddlers expect breakfast as soon as they wake up. (Truth: Ryan’s first word of the day is often “pancake?!” when I go to greet him in the morning.)
So how does a non-breakfast eater manage a breakfast-loving toddler on hectic weekday mornings before heading to work? By keeping a freezer stash of egg muffins — specifically, these southwestern egg muffins.
I double the recipe and make 24 at a time, store them in gallon-sized freezer bags, and pull one out each morning. Easy-peasy!
Plus, southwestern egg muffins are a breakfast that I feel good about feeding my toddler. Eggs are rich in protein and a great source of healthy fats and cholesterol, vital to that little growing toddler brain.
I pack these full of red peppers (one of his favorites), black beans (another favorite!), and some garlic. Like me, Ryan loves bold flavors, so I always add in some cumin, chili powder, and smoked paprika.
Toddler food is notoriously boring when it comes to flavor, but it doesn’t have to be; this is the perfect time to introduce a variety of spices! And then, since Ryan likes a little heat, I always stir in some of my favorite chipotle salsa.
Of course, don’t think that these are only good for toddlers – they make the perfect adult grab-and-go breakfast, too! I love our southwestern egg muffins for my mid-morning breakfast. And so perfect for a brunch gathering – a plate full of egg muffins, surrounded by fluffy waffles and fruit salad. Heaven!
Eat them hot right out of the oven or freeze them for later. To freeze, I set them side-by-side on a cookie sheet and place them in the freezer for a few hours, until frozen solid. Transfer the frozen egg muffins to a freezer bag and tuck away for up to 3 months.
For best results, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake at 350 °F for 8 minutes, or until heated throughly. You can also microwave straight from frozen, although the texture turns a little rubbery. My toddler never minds, though, so for him – I go straight from the freezer into the microwave for 45 seconds, onto his plate.
Breakfast literally takes under a minute. Working mom win!
Southwestern Egg Muffins
Full of black beans, peppers, and southwestern spices, these make-ahead muffins are the perfect low carb, high protein breakfast!
Ingredients:
- 12 eggs
- 1/2 cup salsa
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup black beans
- 3 green onions, diced
- 1 cup cheddar or Mexican blend cheese, shredded
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Spray a 12-well muffin tin well with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and salsa together until yolks are broken and well combined. Stir in the spices.
- Divide the chopped vegetables, beans, and cheese among the 12 wells of the muffin tray. Pour in the egg into each muffin cup, filling almost to the top. Stir each well with a fork to coat vegetables and beans with the eggs.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until egg muffins rise and set. Allow eggs to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then run a knife around the edge of the wells and remove with a spoon.
To freeze muffins, place in a single layer on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 2-3 hours, until frozen solid. Transfer to a gallon-sized freezer bag and store for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake at 350 °F for 6-8 minutes until heated through (recommended) or heat in microwave for 1 minute.
Love this southwest twist to the usually bland egg muffins. The spices, cheese, beans, pictures….love it all;)
This is just BRILLIANT, Julie. Not only did you just describe my life most days (hello, toddler mom life), but you solved a breakfast quandary I was having. I have a feeling Lady Baby is going to love these muffins!
Two egg-covered thumbs up from Ryan over here! Seriously though, ANYTHING to make mornings even a little easier is a huge win in my book. Why are mornings always so hard?!
These muffins are a great start of the day. Now, my day can start packed with proteins, Julie!
I love make ahead egg muffins. Like you, I’m not a breakfast person. While I love breakfast foods, I don’t have time to sit down and eat a proper breakfast so most days, I just skip it. As for my kids, it’s cereal, waffles and pancakes. If I served them any type of eggs, they’d look at me like I was crazy. However, they both love Southwestern flavors, so I’m giving these a try on them! Maybe even my picky eaters will eat them!
I hope they help with your picky eaters! Not liking eggs is so foreign to me – I’m not a big cereal/pancake/waffle person, so eggs are my breakfast standard!
I’m a breakfast person just don’t want to have to make it in the morning. So this breakfast muffins are perfect for me since I can make them up ahead. I love the flavors you put in these. Going have to try this soon. Oh, and your popcorn with chili powder sounded pretty good to me 🙂
Lol- I’m pretty sure my first word of the day is.. “coffee?” I love make ahead breakfasts because I’m a terrible early morning food prepper! And even though I love breakfast, I fairly often completely forget about it. I need to do better about making it ahead of time like this!
My kid LOVES having eggs for breakfast (actually we all do) , and I was just in search for new recipes we could try. These egg muffins sound just right. Well balanced healthy meal… delicious!
I love this..! This is so my family on the weekend… regular days is Oats or Cereal but weekends we need a good brunch and this is perfect.
HAHAH…yes I remember those days of little ones very well. Sometimes you don’t even have time to eat…let alone cook. I love this type of dish. You can eat it at all meals of the day. I am like you, breakfast is not my thing either. Brunch…now we are talking…and this would work perfect there too.
This kind of muffin is my JAM! I love having something really tasty to grab and go. I’m a huge fan of southwestern flavors, too!
Make ahead breakfasts are the best and anything with southwest flavors and ingredients is sure to be delicious in my book so these look amazing!
How did you know I was looking for something just like this? I plan on doing something like for quick lunches. Our lunches are terrible and when there isn’t something easy in the fridge, well, we eat what we shouldn’t. Thank you for heading me in the right direction.
I just have to say that these are genius! I am not much of a breakfast person either, and I love that they are freezer friendly and so easy! I can’t wait to try these out!
I love low-carb high protein breakfasts on the go! These would be perfect for lunches and after school snacks too and the fact that I can make a big batch and freeze is a plus!!!
Yes, great for after school snacks, too! We’re not at that stage of life yet, but these will be perfect when we get there.
I just made something similar with potato hash, eggs, cheese and a bunch of fresh veggies and herbs. Can’t wait to try this southwestern version for breakfast this weekend!
I love portable breakfast options – they make mornings so much easier! The southwestern flavors in this sound delicious.
SO much easier. I’m sure lots of people eat leisurely weekday breakfasts at the table… but I am not one of those people. Haha!
We’re big fans of egg recipes made in the muffin tin. They never last long enough to store for long around here, it’s good to know that they freeze well!
This looks so yummy! I never have time for a real breakfast so having a batch of these in the freezers is an excellent idea!
These are gorgeous! I love a egg muffin just like the next guy, but I have never considered making them for my blog. I just can’t get them to look pretty like yours. Bravo – I can’t wait to try the addition of black beans and cumin in my own version.
I’ve been making them for years trying to figure out how to get them to be a little less ugly, haha! I swear the secret is in this beat up old muffin tin – my newer, insulated tins never yield pretty egg muffins!
We come from a family where we don’t eat eggs, but I have started feeding eggs to my boys. I am so handicapped when it comes to making anything with eggs that I only feed them boiled eggs. They love omelettes when they eat it outside and always have asked me to make something else with eggs. This surely does like a very easy recipe to make and I can make it in one shot and freeze them to feed them through the week.
This is such a great and easy way to feed eggs to your boys, especially since you can make a big batch all at once!
I so understand how life changing having a child is! I sometimes get stuck when it comes to feeding my fussy-pants toddler, I must try this recipe, I think she will like it, so far I have not been very lucky with giving her eggs, she used to love them, but suddenly she decided not to anymore. Perfect breakfast!
Love breakfast muffins and this is such a great idea to use leftover salsa into something so delicious and healthy. I’m sure my hubby would love them as well as he loves eating eggs for breakfast.
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