Well, I managed to survive my first week back at work. Thank you to everyone who wished me well and offered a prayer. I really appreciate it. Making my transition a little easier was my pleasant surprise at the windowed office with a nice view. Yea trees and grass!
The drive is pretty substantial and it’s a good thing I drive a hybrid because otherwise a big chunk of my paycheck would go just for gas! The longish drive gives me the opportunity to listen to audiobooks again. This something I did years ago and really enjoy because it’s a great way to multitask. (I get my books either from the library or from www.audible.com) Right now I am reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. It’s one of those classic novels that I somehow managed to NOT read during school years. There’s a movie coming out in November so I figure now is the time to do it. Hopefully, the 38 hours (yes, 38 hours!) of audio will make my commute more tolerable.
One of the things I have noticed about being back at work is how awkward it feels to sit for most of the day. I SIT in my car then SIT at my desk for hours then walk to lunch or to a printer occasionally but mostly….I SIT. For the last two plus years I have been active from sun up to sundown. Aside from sitting here at my computer writing or editing photos, I am almost always standing or walking. So this is going to take some getting used to. Hmm. Maybe a standup desk is in order….
Here’s a shot of my feet from Saturday morning. It felt so wonderful to get back into my Lululemon leggings and Vibrams after a week of high heels and business suits. Aaah, heavenly comfort on a frosty morning.
After this photo was taken I popped down to the local farmer’s market and found a few lovely ingredients for paleo breakfast. The following recipe for basic paleo egg muffins comes from those ingredients and my need to make breakfast fast and easy now that I’m more pressed for time. It’s one of those recipes that has the potential to get really fancy with the addition of various spices and veggies. I’m keeping it simple because this is the way my kids seem to like it best.
You can make these egg muffins ahead of time then reheat in the morning for a quick meal at home or on the go. All you need is a pound of (ideally organic pasture-raised) pork breakfast sausage and a dozen eggs. With just those ingredients and a little oil, salt and pepper you’ve got breakfast – double it and you have enough for a few days.
Basic Paleo Egg Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork breakfast sausage (pasture-raised, organic if possible)
- 1 dozen eggs
- ghee, coconut oil or other fat of choice
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Crumble and brown the pork sausage in a frying pan or cast iron skillet.
- In a medium/large bowl scramble one dozen large eggs and season with salt and pepper.
- Grease the cups of one muffin tin with oil.
- Place equal amounts of browned sausage in the bottoms of the muffin tins.
- Pour the scrambled eggs evenly on top of the sausage. The mixture will come almost to the top of the tin.
- Cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
- Use a knife to loosen the egg muffin from the sides of the pan. (They came out pretty cleanly for us.)
If you want to get a little fancier you can add some fresh herbs and/or veggies. G and I love basil and fresh tomatoes so we commandeered half of our second batch.
Tomato and Basil Paleo Egg Muffins
Just finely slice (chiffonade) leaves of fresh basil (about 1/2 teaspoon per muffin) and cut one or two grape/cherry tomatoes in half and place on top of the paleo egg muffin mixture prior to placing in the oven.
Here’s the finished product.
G’s actual quote was, “these are about a 1,000 times better than I thought they would be!” Interesting. I’m not sure why he thought sausage and eggs wouldn’t be awesome but I’ll take the compliment. He was very excited about these egg muffins and the boys loved the basic ones too. I live in a house full of guys and this recipe does seem to be bona fide “guy food”.
I haven’t tried freezing these yet. But I’m guessing that would be an option. Leave me a comment and let me know if you make egg muffins for a busy week and what veggies and spices you use to change it up.
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Sounds yummy – will have to try them. So where are you working now? Best wishes to you as you get adjusted!!!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
I made them this morning and they’re delicious! Thank you. I used ground beef and added Southwest seasoning from Penzeys Spices. I also added garlic to the eggs.
It’s so easy, high in protein, portable, and tasty. Thank you for a great recipe. I’m looking forward to trying different combinations!
Excellent (or eggcellent *groan*)! That was fast. Penzey’s is awesome. I need to place an order soon and I’m going to get the Southwest spice this time. Sounds good. Thanks for the feedback.
Looks yummy. I had made another version several weeks back but gave up because they kept sticking to the muffin pan, and the time savings in food prep disappeared because of the time it took to clean the pan. How did you manage to get them to slide out of the pan easily? Did you use coconut oil?
Julie,
I melted a little ghee and used a silicon brush to oil the cups. I used a knife to go around the edges after about 5 minutes of cooling. I was afraid they would stick and that would be a pain but they didn’t. Of course the sausage is fairly fatty so maybe that helped matters.
Lea
I did the same thing with a silicone baking brush, but used grape seed oil instead, staying non-dairy and almost entirely flavorless. Also, my pan is a Calphalon nonstick. I didn’t even use a knife, mine came right out!
Try parchment paper muffin liners. They keep your pan spotless and tea lease completely from the egg when they are out of the oven
I make a lot of these types of dishes, though usually in a big tray then cut into slices. I love grated zucchini (courgette).. use a couple of little ones so you get lots of the green skin but very little of the watery white flesh in the middle. Cheese of course is also a natural thing to add to these.. either spread through the mixture or just a little sprinkled on top. I’m a bit fan of onions too so I would throw these in, though they need to be cooked first… white or red (which turns purple if you want some colour). Bacon is the other obvious and yummy choice! =)
Woooow. Looks Wonderful. I haven’t fathomed that I could make something like this since the Egg McMuffin days ❤
Very good! I added a little smoked paprika and rosemary to the mix in addition to your recipe. They were phenomenal!
Yum! I’ve been wanting to do a variation of these. I think I’ll use elk sausage.
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My husband and I made them last night, using 1/4 of a big Costco package of sausage (but that was a lot of sausage to de-case!) We threw in a diced yellow bell pepper, a big handful of some leeks we had leftover (in lieu of some onions), and a big handful of diced mushrooms. Sauteed it all together, and it made enough for 24 muffins! We took half of the mixture and froze it for a future batch. Just wanted to share that the big 4-pack of Costco breakfast sausages is a great way to make a lot of these guys!
I sure do love Costco so thanks for letting me know. I’ll stock up on the sausage next time.
Do these taste very egg-y? I don’t like eggs, but I’m trying paleo and need to find something to eat for breakfast. Think I’ll like these?
These do taste pretty eggy. If you really don’t like eggs it might not be the best thing for you to try. On the other hand, it has a pretty strong sausage flavor too so it’s less eggy that standard scrambled eggs. It’s hard for me to know what you would like but this is definitely a strongly egg-flavored recipe.
Thanks for the reply! I went ahead and tried this anyway, with what I had available. I used ground beef instead of sausage and added onions and grated sweet potato just for the heck of it. They weren’t too eggy, but next time I think I’ll use sausage to give it more flavor. I’m new to this paleo thing. Thanks a lot for the recipe.
You’re welcome. And yes, the sausage has so much spice already added to it that I didn’t need to add much more than that. Ground beef would probably need more salt, etc… to balance it out.
I’ve made something similar before but then completely forgot about them. Thought they were more complicated so Googled just to check and arrived here. I’m looking forward to reading your blog, but for now I’m just reminding myself of the simplicity of paleo eating, thank you. Today, I’m making mine with free-ranged, bacon, salted, but nothing else added, from the farm of a friend, and a sprinkle of black pepper plus a cherry tomato and cheese version for my vegetarian ‘paleo’ offspring.
Sounds delicious. Welcome to this site!
Just found your blog looking for an egg-muffin-type recipe. Made these today with sausage, chard, and (of all things) pomegranate seeds. YUM. There was a tiny bit of pink stain on one muffin, but most seeds came through intact, still bursting with juice. I know it sounds crazy, but the sweet, juicy/crunchy seeds are wonderful with the savory sausage and texture of the chard. Not sure if heating them nixes out some nutrition, but I’m liking it. Thanks for the ideas!
Wow, Angela, what a creative recipe! I like the sweet and savory combinations too. Thanks for your comment.
Stumbled access this recipe, as my husband and I are new to paleo! (one week and I am down eight pounds!) Well batch one is in the oven still but they look and smell fabulous. I used coconut oil, sel gris, paprika, and yummy pork sausage. Excited to explore the options for two busy individuals! Thanks for posting, God Bless and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of your posts!
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Has anyone tried making this recipe with just egg whites?
Why would you do that? The yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg– the whites do not have much nutritional value by themselves, just a lot of sodium. Discarding the proteins, amino acids, and dozens of other nutrients found in the yolks has absolutely no benefit– for anyone. Eat those yolks! They’re so yummy, and from a nutritional standpoint, practically a miracle food!
I make them with frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, green onions (scallions) and chopped red bell pepper. Sometimes I’ll add a bit of feta cheese. Been making them for about 8 years now, since I found the recipe on South Beach Diet site.
I’m going dairy free for this month but I would love to try this with Feta as you suggest. Sounds delicious.
I like to make my omelette with cheese, spinach, tomatoes, and pico de gallo, so I’m going to try that in muffin form.
Sounds like a great idea!
Just about to make some of these as part of my 5th day of Paleo
. Checkout my blog for my quest to lose a ton of weight!
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UK here and just made these, mine did stick a little bit so next time I’m going to try parchment paper. They do taste brilliant though
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I have frozen egg muffins many times. They reheat nicely if thawed first. Note: freezing them does change the egg texture a bit. They are a bit less fluffy after being frozen. But they still taste great. And they are quite yummy with feta as another person suggested. Thanks for a great discussion and so many fantastic ideas!
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A couple of questions:
1). If you use cheese, when do you add it? In the eggs when scrambled? Or on top before baking?
2) How do you store these to heat later? In ziplock baggie?
3) How do you reheat them? Oven?
These look delicious and I expect they’re good cold for taking with you.
I made some tomato & courgette (zucchini in American English) muffins yesterday and I can confirm that they were NOT nice cold this morning – waaaay too watery. Less veg, more egg next time.
I made mine using a silicone cupcake mould, these negating the need for oil of any kind – they just pop out easy peasy.
As for storage, it’s flipping freezing in the UK right now so I just left mine on the side to cool down overnight, covered with a tea towel.
To reheat, pop them in oven or the microwave, however the microwave is likely to make them soggy… so experiment! That’s what cooking is about after all. If they’re disgusting just feed to your dog, they’ll love them!
First I must say I’m new to Paleo and find your website inspirational. I made the egg muffins last night and they were a big hit. It was nice to have something quick to take to work this morning. I can’t decide what to try next your pork loin or garlic chicken.
How long do these keep in the refrigerator?
Dennis,
I estimate about 3 days.
Any word on the best way to freeze/reheat these?
Just to be clear, you do not actually cook (“scramble”) the eggs first, correct? Just beat them with a wisk as if you were going to scramble them?
Terri,
Maybe I should say “whisk” the eggs then pour into the muffin tins and they will cook in the oven.
I just made these, added some finly chopped, veggies (brocolli, spinach, onions and zuchinni). Made my own sausage too! I am not a big egg fan but love these… two muffins and I am full and ready to take on the day!
Thank you so very much for sharing!