Eggs

Back when I was an engaged lady, I read lots of statistics claiming that most women gain an average of 10 pounds after marriage.  As Seth and I had already been living together for 2 years, I dismissed these studies, thinking that since we already had our eating and workout habits well established, we would be immune. Boy, was I wrong.

First, there was the absolute joy of being finished with wedding planning.  No more stressing over details, no more trying to looking fabulous in my dress!  Top that with the even greater joy of being married to my wonderful partner and what do you get?  Weight Gain.

Added to that, the wedding occurred 6 weeks into my first semester of grad school.  The remainder of the semester royally kicked my butt and any semblance of a workout plan went right out the window.

So here we are, 5 months post wedding and I am 10 pounds heavier.  Stupid statistics.  And not being one to sit around and complain, I have embarked on the South Beach Journey.

With the back story now told, I must confess that I don't really like eggs.  I feel that the best way to eat an egg is in cake or brownies or ice cream or cookies.  And yes, I will eat an occasional omelet, fried egg or scrambled egg.  But eggs are not something I will touch on a weekly basis.  This does cause a bit of a problem for South Beach, especially at breakfast time.  But I have found a solution!

Enter the mini-frittata!

There are many different ways you could make these, but here's how I did it.

Ingredients
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 package of frozen spinach, defrosted and drained
4 turkey sausage patties, cooked and diced
1 cup of mushrooms, sauteed
1/2 cup of feta cheese
1 tsp oregano
12 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 375

Mix together the tomatoes, spinach, sausage, mushroom, feta and oregano.  In a separate bowl, scramble the eggs.  Add the eggs to the tomato and spinach mixture (let this mixture cool a bit before adding the eggs).

Line a muffin tray with cupcake liners.  Fill liners with mixture about 3/4 of the way full.  For me this made 18 mini-frittatas.  I even had enough mixture left over to fill two individual souffle cups.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the eggs are set and slightly brown on top.

Some really great things about these eggs:

• Because there is so much other stuff in them, I can barely taste the egg
• They reheat really fast.  I pop two in the microwave for 45 seconds and am ready to go.
• They taste great with a cup of spicy V8 juice.
• They're totally versatile- you could do really any mixture of veggies, low fat cheese and lean protein and get a great breakfast.  

Anyone else done South Beach?  Any fun recipe ideas?