Very Low Carb Muffin-Sized Egg Cups! (keto)

My masterpiece!

I like to bake/cook on Sundays, and make breakfast for my husband and I to take to work for that week, as well as lunches for myself (mealprersunday, woo!). Cooking at home is generally healthier than picking up breakfast on the way to work, and it's definitely cheaper!

For awhile, I was making banana-blueberry muffins with whole wheat flour. I did a lot of fiddling with the recipe, and while it tasted good, they were pretty dry.

For several weeks, I was making oatmeal-banana-peanut butter bars. Those were yummy and VERY filling and high protein, but also very high carb. These had no sugar added, they were sweetened with honey, and were delicious, but the base of it was rolled oats and peanut butter.

I have decided to cut down on carbs and am on the keto lifestyle, and wanted a healthy and filling breakfast for us, and decided on an egg cup! Basically an egg muffin cup, and could also be considered a small frittata.

But not a quiche! A quiche has a crust (like a tiny pie!) and typically has cream in the egg, to make more of a custard. A frittata is a thick omelette that is cooked on the stovetop and then often finished in the oven to get it nice and browned on top.

But an Egg Cup is neither of these! It's more like a frittata than a quiche, but the eggs are cooked in the oven. Though I did cook the other stuff on the stovetop, as they would not have been completely cooked through in the oven.

I only used 6 ingredients, plus spices I already had. At the bottom of the recipe there are exact nutritional info (math'ed all by myself), but each cup only has 89 calories, 1.5g net carbs, and 9g of protein!

I used half a cup of milk in the eggs to cream it up a bit, and the 1% milk I chose actually had 55 calories and 6g of sugar in just half a serving! You can save yourself the sugar and some calories using unsweetened almond milk, if you like, though it won't change the nutritional counts much overall.
EDIT: In the multiple times making these since this post, I have used unsweetened almond milk in these egg cups, and have changed the below nutritional totals to reflect that.

In some similar recipes, the cheese is halved, and with a meltier cheese like cheddar, you may prefer less.

TIP: When using ground turkey, the taste of the meat alone is fairly bland, and you can really make it pop with spicing. Hot sauce would be great in this recipe, chilli powder, some adobo, I used some coriander in mine. Have fun with spicing, just taste as you go to make sure the turkey has enough spicing. It may feel like a lot, but ground turkey typically needs more flavor added than other meats.

This recipe makes 24 egg cups! The nutritional info below is per 1 egg cup, but I actually do 2 per breakfast.

Low Carb/Keto Muffin-Sized Egg Cups with Spinach, Broccoli & Turkey

Ingredients:
-1 cup shredded cheese (I used 1 package of Borden low-moisture, part skim Mozzarella)
-12 extra large eggs
-1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
-Approximately 1 cup of broccoli (I used about half a head, chopped into very small pieces)
-2 cups of spinach (I used fresh, but frozen could also be used. 2 cups = about 2 big handfuls)
-1 package of lean ground turkey (I used Sandy Brook Farms, 93% lean, total weight was 20.8 oz)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. In a large skillet on the stovetop, start browning the ground turkey over medium heat. Make sure to break up the meat into small pieces, and spice to your taste. I added a lot of salt, pepper, garlic, coriander, and both onion powder and minced dried onion, as well as chili powder.

2. While turkey is cooking, chop broccoli into small bits and add to the same skillet. Add the spinach to the same pan as well. Spice as wanted. Let it all cook for another 3-5 minutes, stirring around the meat and greens occasionally. The meat should be cooked through and the spinach should be wilted.

3. In a medium sized bowl, crack 12 eggs and add the 1/2 cup milk. Add salt and pepper. Use a fork to mix and break all the yolks.
EDIT: I have found I use less cheese AND save on the macros by adding the cheese separately. This step used to involve adding the cheese to the egg mixture before adding to muffin pans.

4. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray (I use Pam with Olive Oil). Using a slotted spoon, add meat and greens from your pan to the bottom of each muffin cup, it will fill each cup about halfway.

5. Pour egg mixture into each muffin cup, about 3/4 of the way. If you used less meat than I did, you may find that there isn't enough egg for all the muffins! If this is the case (it happens to the best of us), simply crack another egg or 2 into your bowl, add milk, and finish off the rest of your egg cups.
Another option is to make fewer egg cups. I only need 20, but make the full 24 to have extras to take to work. If you make fewer, remove the meat and greens from unused cups and save for salads or munching later.

6. Once the egg mixture is poured into all the cups, the last step is to take mozzarella cheese and just by hand add some onto the top of each egg cup, and then use a fork to smoosh it down slightly into the egg.

7. Cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top. A toothpick should come out clean (not runny with egg). Let cool before storing.

I put 2 egg cups per small baggie and loaded them into the fridge after cooling. We have 20 for our breakfasts all week (2 per person per day), and I take the extras to work to share with colleagues. Husband and I actually just ate them cold at our desks, and they are just as yummy heated up. 

Nutritional Info:
PER EGG CUP:
89 calories per cup! 1.5g carb (this rounded it down, and below rounded it up, ha)!

 Nutritional info per ingredient: (Used MyFitnessPal recipe builder)

Update from author: This recipe originally had asparagus instead of broccoli, but I was not super excited about the asparagus by the end of the first week (it is not my favorite veggie) and in the weeks since, I've used broccoli instead. I went in and updated this recipe to reflect that.