Mini Breakfast Soufflés

So yeah...  I've been away for a little while and the first thing I post when I come back is...  another egg dish.  :-)  First of all, if you're anything like me, this should not bother you.  Eggs are delicious, recall be damned.  I will literally order something off a menu at a fine dining establishment solely because it is topped with a poached egg; that just sends it over the top for me.  Eggs are also my most favorite thing to have for breakfast.  I don't know about you, but I have a big appetite at breakfast time.  Especially these days since I've been trying very hard to eat a bit less and lose some weight.  Once morning rolls around, I'm ready to tear into some food.  And, while figuring out how much or little I truly needed to eat throughout the day to get me through my long days of work, school, workouts, etc., I discovered that I need to eat a substantial breakfast to start my day right.  Now by substantial I do not mean a cheesy omelet with hash browns and bacon every morning (even though damn that's delicious).  I mean I need some protein and a complex carb with a little fat to get me going and carry me through until lunch.  I used to think that a 160 calorie biscotti and a coffee was enough for breakfast, but that just made me feel like passing out by lunch time, which led to a bad choice for lunch.  A couple of these mini soufflés with a piece of whole wheat toast is utterly perfect for breakfast and only 320 calories total if you put a little butter on that toast.  That's right, these mini breakfast soufflés are only 95 calories each.

So, before I get into how these are made, how have you all been?  What have you been up to?  I've been up to my ears in homework all summer because I chose to take accelerated 5 week classes back to back straight through summer.  These classes are sometimes tough because they try and pack all the work and reading you'd normally do over 3 months into 5 weeks.  That leaves little time for much else other than homework and the bare necessities like, I don't know, eating and sleeping!  I barely had time to cook, which was the worst part of all for me.  If I did cook, it had to be something quick and easy and on the fly... not very conducive to food blogging.  I also didn't have time to be very active because of all of the homework, so if my ass wasn't sitting at my desk at work, it was sitting in my chair here at home with my laptop on my lap, getting bigger.  So, I now find myself with a handful of pounds to lose to get back to my happy weight.  So, since this was my last summer of accelerated classes and I now have a little more free time, I have decided to start logging what I eat and working out regularly.  In 12 weeks, I'm hoping to be well on my way back to the hottest self I can be ;-)  For all you iPhone peeps, I'm using the Lose It! app if anyone's interested. If you follow me on Facebook or on Twitter, you'll see my updates every time I workout or gain/lose weight.  Feel free to direct message me if you'd like to be Lose It! loser friends ;-)

So, moving forward, whenever I can I will try to include the calorie count per serving on the food I post here. I'm not promising that will always happen because sometimes the information is not available or it's just too much of a pain in the ass to figure out.  But since I'm more often than not figuring it out for myself, I will be sure to share that info with you as well.  I want my readers to stay slim and sexy after all!

Ok, so you wanna see how these babies are made, or what?




To make 12 soufflés, you'll need to use 8 eggs. Now, what you put into that egg mixture is entirely up to you. I have calculated the calories for the ingredients you see in the picture below, so if you change them up, that calorie count may change, but you at least have a ballpark figure to work with. In this batch, I decided to use black forest ham, sharp cheddar cheese, crimini mushrooms, compari tomatoes, jalapeño, bell pepper, onion, and fresh basil. Finely dice everything so you get a little bit of everything in each soufflé.



Crack the eggs into a bowl and scramble them up thoroughly. Season the eggs with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Add the diced ham, 1/2 of the shredded cheese, and the basil to the eggs and stir to incorporate.

In a separate sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the diced jalapeño and bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms to the pan. Sauté for a few minutes to release any water they might be holding on to; then add the mixture to the egg mixture and stir again.





Grab a regulation sized muffin pan and spray it with cooking spray. At the bottom of each cup, add a few diced tomatoes. Next, using a regular sized ice cream scoop, add the egg mixture to all 12 cups evenly. You should have just enough.



Finally, sprinkle the other half of the shredded cheese on top of all the cups.



Bake the soufflés for 17 minutes in a 400 degree oven, or until the cheesy tops start to brown. Take them out of the oven and if a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean, they're done. Top them with chopped chives while they're still hot.





If you want the centers to be a little less moist, bake them at a slightly lower temp for a slightly longer period of time; like maybe 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Also, if you want them to be spicy, I would use two jalapeños instead of one.



While these were delicious and super easy to grab and take to work for breakfast, they weren't spicy enough for us. I would highly recommend doing the two jalapeños if you want them to be spicy at all. Other than that, I loved them! So make some up on Sunday so you have something good to take to work for breakfast, too!

Reader photos of this recipe:

Prepared by Janine(@jrl23 on Twitter)