When I sat down to write this post I promised myself I wouldn’t get up on a soapbox. But then I remembered my recipe was based on eggs. Whole eggs. Including the delicious and nutritious yolk. And out my soapbox came! My apologies in advance if you are already on the egg yolk train – skip to the bottom for my recipe for Egg Muffins. If you’re on the fence about animal fat, or simply want to understand how we got into this messy situation where eggs went from being a daily staple, to the most toxic food ever, and then back to health food again, keep on reading!
Eggs are an amazing food. They are jam-packed with nutrients such as B vitamins, protein and healthy fat. Unfortunately these poor little guys have been vilified by inappropriately designed studies that associate dietary saturated fat and cholesterol with elevated levels of systemic cholesterol and heart disease. The primary study (from the 1960’s) responsible for this nonsense was designed as such:
Rabbits were fed varying levels of cholesterol dissolved in a peanut oil medium. Observe.
There is SO much wrong with this I get angry just thinking about the damaged lives this ridiculous study caused. The three main issues I have with this study are:
- Rabbits are herbivores. They don’t eat animal products and are therefore not designed to digest, absorb and utilize the nutrients that come from animal products. (Unlike humans who use cholesterol to make sex hormones, vitamin D and our brain!)
- Peanut oil is an omega-6 (pro inflammatory), polyunsaturated fat that is very susceptible to oxidative damage. When unsaturated oils become oxidized (damaged), they become free radicals which steal electrons from unsuspecting cells and DNA, turning them into free radicals as well! This vicious chain reaction wreaks absolute havoc on the body!
- Saturated fat wasn’t even used!!
Arrrgghhhh.
Ok, let’s get down to brass tacks. In 2010 the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (read: the royalty of nutritional medical literature) did a meta-analysis of the current literature. What that means is they looked at every published article on saturated fat and if there is an association with cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. This is their conclusion:
“A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.”
There you have it folks! Saturated fat is not the devil! Bacon, butter, eggs, ribeye steaks – suddenly back on the table!!! Now I don’t know about you, but I would have thought this news would spread like WILDFIRE. Why didn’t it? I don’t have the answer for you, but I would be willing to bet there were certain establishments that could stand to gain from squashing this delicious piece of data…
Side note: anyone else LOVE the implication that the garbage vegetable oils we’ve been using in lieu of real fats may be causing damage?
So, the good news is, eggs and bacon are back in, egg-white creepy liquid in a carton and “facon” is out! (fake + bacon…see what I did there?) Just one caveat – animal products, especially ones containing fat, are only as healthy as the environment they are raised in. Choose grass-fed, pastured or organic meat please!
Gracefully steps off soapbox…
Fried eggs and bacon (or breakfast sausage), over sweet potato hash browns, is one of my absolute favourite breakfasts! We pretty much have that every single Sunday, except for the occasional batch of plantain pancakes (stay tuned for that recipe). But unfortunately not every day is Sunday. Alas, if only we could brunch every day. So instead, I eat Egg Muffins!
This recipe is my go-to for a quick, nutritious, savoury breakfast. I’m partial to savoury breakfasts these days, but if you’re jonesing for a sweet breakfast instead, check out my Coconut Milk Parfait. A few of these make a great pre-workout snack or meal; a delicious lunch for kids at school; the perfect snack for busy mama’s; and simply the best breakfast for taking in to work! You can eat these cold or reheat them and they last up to a week in the fridge. I usually make a double batch because I know we’ll eat our way through 1 dozen in only a few days.
- 1 long skinny sweet potato, roasted
- 6 extra large eggs (increase to 7 or 8 if eggs are smaller)
- ¼ cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tbsp cooking fat (bacon grease, butter, lard, tallow, coconut oil)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- ¼ cup onion, diced
- ⅓ lb ground meat (or leftovers)
- ⅓ cup leafy greens
- sea salt
- pepper
- Preheat oven to 375F. Line muffin tin with silicone liners.
- Slice a roasted sweet potato into 12 slices. Place in bottom of muffin liners.
- Combine eggs, coconut milk, sea salt and pepper. Whisk. Distribute egg mixture evenly amongst silicone liners.
- Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp cooking fat in a pan over medium heat.
- Add garlic and onion. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add ground meat, sea salt and pepper. Cook through. (If using leftover meat, omit this step.)
- Divide ground meat evenly amongst egg.
- Add greens to the same pan. Sautee briefly until wilted. Approximately 2 minutes. Add to egg cups.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until egg is set.
Line muffin tin with silicon liners, slice pre-roasted sweet potato and place in bottom of liners.
Crack eggs into bowl, add coconut milk, sea salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Distribute evenly amongst silicone muffin liners.
Add garlic and onion to pan. Sautee for a few minutes. Add ground beef and cook through.
Divide meat equally amongst egg-filled muffin liners. I used approximately 1 tbsp ground meat per cup. 
Sautee veggies in the same pan. Add to muffin cups and bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes.
Egg Muffins are done cooking when they are slightly firm to the touch and they start to pull away from the sides.
So tell me – what’s your favourite way to eat eggs? Share in the comments below!
