Sunday, March 3, 2013

Meat + Egg Protein Bites.

I am finding that I have very little time for cooking now that I am in medical school, and I've been searching for easier and easier ways of eating home cooked real food that doesn't take a lot of time, or create a lot of dishes, which I will inevitably have to do myself.


One evening as an experiment (and since I was short on time), I took some grass-fed ground beef which I had defrosted, stuffed it into a mini muffin tin, and baked it. Turns out my experiment worked very well, and I decided to do it on a larger scale.  This time I used a normal sized muffin tin and cracked an egg on top - a definite success!

This is the what the underside looks like :)

This recipe is so easy because all you have to do is take your meat of choice, section it into a muffin tin, press down and bake! In less than a half hour you have easy bites of protein which can be conveniently topped on a salad, warmed with a side of veggies, or eaten quick and on the go. I seasoned mine with only a little bit of salt, but feel free to sprinkle on top whatever spice you fancy. Cheese and ketchup were my other experiments, which turned out great too! Please note - do not grease the muffin tins, there is enough fat in the meat and there will be no sticking. The meat actually shrinks away from the sides and will look like it's "swimming" in fat when you take them out of the oven. I really like this because you can so easily lift out each little bite / piece and place on a paper towel, and then discard (or save) the meat fat / tallow that has rendered out of the meat!


Meat + Egg Protein Bites.
    makes 1 dozen

    1 lb  grass-fed ground meat - I used pet burger 
    12  pastured happy eggs
    sprinkle unrefined sea salt
    spices - optional
    ketchup - optional
    cheese - optional

To make your protein bites:
  1.  Evenly section out beef between the holes of a normal sized muffin pan.
  2.  Press down with your fingers. Add optional spices or cheese.
  3.  Crack an egg on top. Sprinkle each with unrefined sea salt
  4.  Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees (don't believe mine is convection), for 25-30 minutes. Bites will be ready when eggs are cooked through. Remove from oven and promptly grab bites out of the tin with tongs, placing then on a paper towel drain. When cool, store in a glass container in the fridge for grabbing whenever you need some protein :) ENJOY!


Even though this idea is quite simple, they taste so good. It would be possible to make this with ground chicken, turkey or bison, but I would suggest greasing the sides of each muffin cup with olive oil first; these meats have very low fat content and therefore may stick.

 I hope you find these a useful addition to your food plans for busy weeks :)

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