27 Feb Egg White Delish
Who says breakfast has to be a heavy meal? Of course, it can be anything we choose, but I know for me personally and maybe for you too, typically performing better at work or during the day’s activities without the sluggishness means keeping breakfast on the satisfying yet lighter side. Light yet substantial; light yet packed with energy. What if I told you we could accomplish all this in less than 25 minutes in the morning for the entire family or just ourselves in a few simple steps? We can do this by using the power of eggs. Just one egg packs a wallop of a nutritional punch. These are the types of “body blows” you want to take head on! One egg only has about 78 calories, and if you take the yolk out as we’re doing in this dish and leaving only the white, it drops down to 17. But let’s not rush to condemn egg yolks. Yes, all of the cholesterol found in an egg is in the yolk but so is most of all the other nutrients, and there are many. This leaves us with a great option, depending on our diet, of leaving in the yolk as we cook our eggs or as in this dish, taking them out. Here’s a taste 😉 of what I mean in the breakdown of nutrients in whites vs yolks: Protein – White 3.6g and Yolk 2.7g (this surprised me), Fat – White .05g and Yolk 4.5g, Calcium – White 2.3mg and Yolk 21.9mg, Iron – .03mg and .4mg, Potassium – White 53.8mg and Yolk 18.5mg, Sodium – 54.8mg and Yolk 8.2mg, B6 – White .002mg and Yolk .059mg, B12 – White .03mcg and Yolk .331mcg, Vitamin A – White 0 IU and Yolk 245 IU, Vitamin E – White 0mg and Yolk .684mg, Vitamin D – White 0 UI and Yolk 18.3 IU, and Vitamin K – White 0 IU and Yolk .119 IU. Over the years, I’ve heard the experts go back and forth on whether eating eggs is good for you. Some years ago, many were saying eggs are bad because of the cholesterol. That it was more than likely connected to heart disease. In fact, that’s probably when taking the yolk out of the egg became the popular thing to do. In more recent years, however, I’ve seen them reverse this and say that the cholesterol in eggs is a healthy cholesterol and that eggs are a great source of healthy protein, good fats, minerals and vitamins. There are even differing opinions on the number of eggs that should be eaten in a given day. Some have said that it’s safe to eat up to 3 eggs a day while others, including The American Heart Association and Australia’s Heart Foundation, say that number is more like 6 to 7 a week which comes out to about 1 a day. Jo Ann Carson, professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, says: “Eating an egg a day as a part of a healthy diet for healthy individuals is a reasonable thing to do”. Basically, enjoy them but don’t overdo them. I had a friend in New York City when I lived there years ago that got into juicing. He had read about all the benefits of putting Vitamin A in the body so he concluded that the best way to do this was to juice carrots and drink them everyday and throughout the day. Well you can probably guess what happened. Yup, you got it; he got sick from Vitamin A poisoning. He literally turned orange. He started to get orange blotches all over his skin and the whites of his eyes turned an orange tint. All the guys at work told him, “hey man, that doesn’t look normal”. He went to the doctor and sure enough, he had poisoned himself. The doctor said he was suffering from Vitamin A poisoning. Anyway, I said all that to say this: Enjoy eggs and all their power depending on your dietary goals and experiments of course, but realize that good cholesterol and fats can turn into bad if it’s over done. And that’s true for many things.
Well enough of our chit chatting; let’s get to the food! This recipe is quicker than most which makes it great for breakfast especially during the week. It’s delicious, quick, creative, and beautiful. So give it a try! Oh, and by the way, Kingston told me he liked this way of cooking eggs and that it was good 😊.
Prep time: 5mins Cook Time: 17mins Total: 22mins Calories(without optionals): 46
Ingredients:
2 cups spinach
Optional: shredded cheese of your choice
Optional: different meats of choice chopped
1 Roma tomato chopped
2 cups egg whites
Salt to taste (preferably sea salt)
Pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Spray the muffin pan with Pam in cups depending on number of servings you’d like
- Pack each cup with spinach (I sliced leaves to fit nicely)
- Optional: experiment with different cheeses
- Optional: experiment with different meats like chopped turkey, ham, or bacon (cooked)
- Sprinkle chopped tomato in each cup
- Pour in egg whites to almost rim of each cup
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Bake at 350 degrees for 17 ½ mins
- Use a small spatula to run around between the egg and the muffin container, slide out, and serve
