Popeye Breakfast Cups

I call these a "grab 'n go" kind of breakfast.*

Eat that spinach, "Popeye"!

When anything looks like these look, my husband quite quickly shifts his 'hunger/eating gears' into leary/suspicious mode.  I plated up two for him.  Knowing I was baking some peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies at the time, he looked at these 'spinach specimens' and asked,  "How about for every one of those I eat, I get two cookies?"  I answered, "Fine. It's a deal!!-- I'll just make sure the four cookies are really small."   LOL!!!   (Fact is,... once he got over the part of seeing so much 'green', these were better than he expected them to be! )

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 slices lean bacon, fried crisp, blotted dry and crumbled.  Set aside.  (I think these would be so good with browned/drained pork sausage used in place of the bacon!_
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 10 oz. fresh baby spinach, chopped (since this isn't 'garden season', mine came in a 10 oz. bag).
• 4 large whole eggs
• 5 large egg whites
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (I prefer non-aluminum kind)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup medium cheddar cheese, cut into little cubes.  (Brie cheese can be used instead of cheddar.)

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 375 ° C.
• Spray a 12-ct. muffin tin with cooking spray.
• Heat a pan on medium heat.
• Snip bacon slices into small pieces (1/2 to 3/4").  Fry until golden and crispy.  Blot bacon on paper napkin/paper towel. Set aside.
• In same or larger fry pan, and using just a little bit of the bacon grease (or olive oil), cook onion until transparent/tender; add garlic and cook for only 1 more minute (garlic burns easily).  
• Add the fresh baby spinach to the onion/garlic pan (it will look like too much spinach, but it isn't).  Add a little water if the pan is too dry. 
• Bring to a 'boil' and let spinach boil for about 2 minutes, until wilted down and softened.  You don't want to boil this to the point of it turning 'dark and slimy' (that's a rotten description, but it works!).  If you've added water, thoroughly drain in a colander.
• Add the crumbled bacon to the spinach/onion/garlic. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, beat together the whole eggs and the egg whites, the cream, baking powder, salt and pepper until very well blended.
• Pour the beaten egg mixture into the spinach.  Add the small cubes of cheese.  Mix gently, but well.
• Scoop the mixture evenly into the sprayed muffin cups (preferably, leaving 1/4" space).

• Bake on middle rack for 20-25 minutes (start checking after 15 minutes to see how your oven is doing with these), OR until golden brown and a bit firm to the touch.
• After cooling for about 15 minutes, I went around edges with a knife and................. they came out!  (Why is this 'removal thing' sometimes a suspenseful moment!?)

Personal opinion:  I took a little taste of one when fresh out of the oven and didn't care for what I thought was a stronger spinach taste.  After 30-minutes, that all changed!  Now, I was better able to taste the other flavors inside. 

 

*The above recipe was adapted (changed) from one on Special Food Recipe's website.  From the descriptions they use, I am guessing that they're English or in another country that uses similar verbage. (?)