recipes

Ride Food: Mini Egg Muffins

/ Ashley Wingert / 4 Comments

I can’t believe I forgot to get pics of this (actually, yes, I can…I don’t end up taking pics of half the stuff I should be), so just take my word for it they look pretty cute.  Next time I make them, I will snap a few pics.

Note: I haven’t made these for an actual ride yet…but I’ve been doing rides long enough that I know what food I like and don’t like, and I’m pretty confident these will end up on my “must-have ride food” list.

The original recipe called them “mini egg frittatas.”  I’m calling them egg muffins, because they’re made in a mini muffin pan.  The idea behind them is simple…scramble some eggs, toss some stuff like cheese, meat, veggies in there, mix it all up, pour it into mini muffins, bake, eat.  They’re like crustless mini-quiches.

They probably took me about 15 minutes to put together, due in large part to the fact I kept getting interrupted by stopping and taking care of my box turtle.  Next time, it won’t take a whole lot more time than whipping together a batch of scrambled eggs…which usually involves at least chopping/slicing ham and cheese.

And the next morning, I grabbed one of the leftovers…and they were delicious cold!  That clinched it: I’m going to start making these for ride breakfasts.  I already eat cold hard-boiled eggs as the main part of my ride breakfasts, and always have trouble choking down that strong, dry yolk.  (Go figure…the one and only time I ever have trouble eating, it’s ride mornings.  Of course.)  These are moist, the eggs are well blended, and they can be as strong or as mild as you want to make them, depending on the additives.

And if I’m already taking the time to make hard-boiled eggs, wait for them to boil (and not forget about them), then wait for them to sit (and not forget about them), making these probably won’t take a whole lot more time.  And they don’t have to be peeled before eating.  (The only negative is it means I don’t get to make deviled eggs or egg salad the way I typically do with my ride leftovers.)

This first batch I made, I added spinach-artichoke chicken sausage that was already precooked and I just chopped it into small cubes, parmesan cheese, and roasted broccoli all chopped up.  They’re little, so make sure whatever you add has been pre-chopped into small pieces.

Here’s the actual recipe, with some suggestions for add-ins:

Mini Egg Muffins
6 eggs
¾ cup parmesan cheese (the powdery, crumbled kind, not large shavings)
1 T mayo [this is to help bind the egg together…you don’t taste it]
1 T Dijon mustard [could be omitted if you don’t like the mustard flavor or it makes it too strong]
1 T flour
Pepper
Salt
Various additions:
1 chicken sausage, chopped into small cubes
Crumbled sausage or chorizo, pre-cooked and drained
Bacon, pre-cooked until crispy, then crumbled
Roasted broccoli
Spinach
Artichokes
Red Pepper
Sun-dried tomatoes
Basil
Goat Cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Ham, chopped
Swiss Cheese
Preheat oven to 350*.
Mix eggs until well-beaten.  Add next six ingredients and stir until combined.  Add selected additions and mix to combine.  Pour into a greased mini muffin pan.  A gravy ladle works well for filling the individual muffin wells.  Wells can be filled to the top.
Bake for 15-18 minutes.
Remove from oven and let sit for about a minute, then run a knife around the edges of the wells to loosen the egg muffins.
Makes one mini-muffin pan, or 32 mini muffins.  A typical serving is 6-8 mini muffins.

When I Don’t Ride…

/ Ashley Wingert / 1 Comment

…I cook.  In between all the other necessary tasks of life.  Like sleeping.

I love to cook.  And I’ve probably explained over a dozen times why I don’t want to make a career out of it: It’s something I really enjoy doing.  The kitchen is one of my happy places.  I don’t want to ruin that by having it become something I have to do.  Maybe that’s weird — after all, isn’t the pinnacle of job searching finding something you actually like to do and then get paid for it?  (Says the perpetually self-employed, jack-of-all-trades freelancer.)

But I digress.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah…I love to cook.

We’ve been having a colder and wetter earlier than usual winter this year in Arizona, which has sent me scuttling into the kitchen for warmth and sustenance.  Today’s offering?  Red Velvet Hot Cocoa.  I love all things red velvet, and even have a pancake adaptation.  So this ended up being right up my alley.  I’ve already been making homemade hot cocoa, so it was easy enough to adapt the basic recipe and turn out this delightful treat.

(No pictures, sorry…one, I’m a bad food photographer.  Two, my camera and computer are temporarily not speaking to one another.)

So I’m sort of a bad person to get recipes from…my approach to cooking is very much that of an inexact art versus measured science.  (Except baking.  I still measure when baking.  Otherwise, I subscribe to the “pinch of this, touch of that” method.)  So I tried to guesstimate on amounts when recreating this recipe.  Adjust the agave to your preference…I don’t like my cocoa super-sweet.

Red Velvet Hot Cocoa
(per serving)
3/4 c milk
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T blue agave syrup
red food color
heavy cream (less than 1/4 c)
1 T cream cheese

Heat the milk in a saucepan on the stove. While it’s heating, mix the cocoa powder and agave together until it forms a chocolate syrup. May need to add a touch of water, or more agave to taste. Add food color to get desired shade of red. Stir into milk and keep heating until steaming. As it’s heating, whip the cream cheese into the heavy cream, along with a drizzle of agave. Keep whipping (or use electric mixer) until you get whipped cream. Pour chocolate mix into a mug, top with the whipped cream — the cream cheese gives it the “cream cheese frosting” effect.

It’s a fabulous “special occasion” drink.  Rather rich and I certainly couldn’t drink it frequently.  But it’s the kind of recipe that would lend itself well to to being a holiday tradition sort of drink.  Red Velvet Cocoa for Christmas Eve, anyone?
I’m going to start posting a few recipes here and there, especially things that I’ve found work really well at rides, either as pre-ride dinner or on-trail food.  I can’t survive on the Gu-and-Gatorade ride diet, so if you’re looking for real food idea, check back here!