Breakfast Veggie Bake Surprise

One of the best ways to start a day is with a healthy breakfast, we all know that. But one of the best ways to start your day is also with a delicious breakfast. And delicious doesn’t always means super healthy – I’m thinking of you, french toast, pancakes with syrup, greasy bacon egg & cheese sandwich, cake. Cake for breakfast is probably not a good idea health-wise.

So my mission was to combine the healthy and delicious all in one breakfast. I had a bunch of veggies in my fridge and I started chopping away while thinking of the best way to make this into a breakfast dish. And that’s how the Breakfast Veggie Bake Surprise was born.

I know, you might not want to hear the word ”surprise” when it comes to your breakfast. But trust me on this – some food surprises are good. This dish was delicious, crunchy, flavorful, very healthy, and we each had well over a serving size of all kinds of vegetables for breakfast. I’d say that’s a good way to start your day.

Breakfast Veggie Bake Surprise

Makes: 2 servings (can easily be doubled!). Total time: 40 minutes.

• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 8 stalks of asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces, ends discarded
• 4-6 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small bell pepper (I used red), chopped ito 1/2 inch pieces
• 10 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4-6 slices of ham, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 eggs
• 2 slices of whole wheat bread or 1 whole wheat bun/roll
• 1 oz cheese (I used sharp white cheddar), sliced into thin slices
• 1 tablespoon butter, thinly sliced into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste.
• Optional: 1 tablespoon chopped parsley or chopped green onion
• Optional: truffle oil to drizzle on the finished dish

Special equipment: oven-safe bowls to make individual portions, or prepare all the veggies in an oven-safe skillet or cast iron pan so you can transfer it to the oven to bake the egg.

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray your oven-safe bowls with non-stick spray. Place one piece of bread at the bottom of the bowl, or if you are using a bun, place one half of the bun on the bottom of the bowl and squish it down a bit. Place the butter slices on the bread/bun.

2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the chopped onion and the chopped asparagus. Saute over medium heat for 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Add the sliced mushrooms and ham. Saute for 3 minutes, or until the mushroom start to sweat. Add the sliced tomatoes, and saute for 1-2 minutes.

3. Transfer half the vegetable mixture to each bowl – add the vegetables on top of the bread. Place half of the sliced cheese on each serving around the edges. Make a small indent in the middle of each bowl and crack an egg into each bowl. Season again with salt and pepper, if desired.

4. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until the egg whites are cooked and the yolk is runny. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes so the bowl cools down.

5. For serving, drizzle with truffle oil and/or sprinkle with some chopped parsley or green onions. Serve with toast for dipping into the runny egg.