Easy Ham, Egg & Cheese Muffin Cup Breakfast

So I've been seeing lots of recipe posts on Pinterest for Ham & Egg cups. I'm all about finding different breakfast items that make my morning a little easier, that don't result in cold cereal. Don't get me wrong, we still enjoy breakfast cereal, but I like to mix it up - so we get some variety. Who wants to make a full on breakfast every morning. Not this lady! I'm not what you call a morning person. So I was excited to find these recipes for breakfast....easy, custom made to your liking, and you can make a bunch and store them in the fridge for the week. Yes, please!

End result: Delicious and easy!

Ingredients:
Ham (I had a packaged thin sliced honey ham. I used 2 slices per cup, so pending the size of the slice you might only need 1/2 a slice - 2 slices. I'd use black forest ham or similar in the future - just because I'd prefer salt vs. honey)
Eggs (for 6 muffins I used 4 eggs)
Milk 
Various veggies/cheese - veggies, cheese, etc. (I was out of veggies, so it was just cheese)
Various spices - what you normally season scrambled eggs with if any (I use pepper and Tastefully Simple's Onion Onion - basically a flavorful dehydrated onion seasoning)
Non-stick spray


Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray
3. Line your muffin cups with ham slices

4. Scramble your eggs as you normally would and season if you'd like

5. Add a light layer of cheese & veggies on top of the ham

6. Add scrambled eggs on top and fill to just below top of muffin tin

7. Bake for about 15 minutes (give or take depending on your oven). Bake until eggs are firm
8. Store left overs in the fridge.

Rosemary Bread Machine Bread

I had another successful run with my bread-machine! I made Rosemary bread using fresh Rosemary from our herb garden at home. It was very easy and the result was a bread similar in taste to the bread they serve at Macaroni Grill. Yum.

I'm missing the black pepper in this picture, but you get the idea.

I found a recipe on Pinterest and made some changes and came up with the recipe below. Of course there is variation from the original recipe! Like I've said in previous posts - I like to bake dangerously, and recklessly abandon recipes!

Rosemary Bread Machine Bread:

• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or bread flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Tastefully Simple Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning (can replace with  Italian seasoning)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper 
• 1.5 tablespoons fresh rosemary rough chopped (or 1 tablespoon dried)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Instructions: Add ingredients in the above order to your bread machine.

Bread Machine Settings: 1.5 loaf, white bread, medium crust.

Bread Machine Misadventures

I am the worst when it comes to baking. My husband knows this, and I know this. However, I am determined to try. So I've been trying my luck with my bread machine again. I've set out to find some easy, delicious, and cheap recipes to make my own bread in the bread machine. It's a bread machine...you add the ingredients of a recipe, and it does the rest. How can I fail at this? Don't worry, I found a way. 

Even when a machine does all the work for you, I still find a way to mess up a recipe, venture on my own, wing it, etc. That's why I love to cook instead - mistakes are forgiving and often welcome in cooking. Baking is by the book - and I like to live dangerously when I cook! 

So my journey begins with 2 out of the 3 loaves that I've made so far being fails. Here is what I've made so far:

Whole Wheat Honey Bread: FAIL!

I honestly can't remember what the recipe was that I found online. It was just kind of bleh. The honey was lacking and it was really dense. 

Onion Bread: SUCCESS!

I found this recipe in a bread machine recipe book from my parents old bread machine growing up. It had tons of flavor, very light/airy and had a great crust.  

Onion Bread

1 pound loaf. Do not use delay option. Add below ingredients to pan in this order.

2/3 cup water

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 tsp Tastefully Simple Onion Onion*

2 teaspoons margarine or butter, softened

2 Cups Flour

1 tbsp sugar

2 teaspoons dry milk**

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp bread machine yest or quick acting active dry yeast (1 packet)

Settings:

White bread

1lb loaf

Crust: Medium 

* I added this to the recipe

** I omitted this from the recipe, since I was out and it still turned out great.

Banana Macadamia Nut Bread: MAJOR FAIL!

No egg white & no macadamia nuts on hand = who needs those anyway! 

The recipe called for an egg white, and I realized after getting half the ingredients in the pan, that I was out of eggs. I quickly Googled a substitute, and found you can mix 1 tablespoon Flax & 3 tablespoons water. Great news! So I did just that. I got everything in the pan, only to realize I forgot to attach the mixing blade. Ugh, really!! So I dumped everything into a bowl, attached the blade, poured the dough mixture back into the pan, and voila...none the wiser, right?

WRONG!! What is this even? Can I even call this bread? 

Well, off to find new recipes and to enjoy my misadventures of baking bread in a bread machine!