Perfectly Paleo Pizza Egg Cups

Honestly, one of the things about the paleo lifestyle that I miss the most is pizza. It’s the perfect food, it’s portable, cheesy, crunchy and just plain yummy. However, it’s just not a food that fits into my new healthy lifestyle. This recipe is in our regular rotation now because it tastes just like pizza! Seriously.

As a full time working mom I have time constraints in the morning. We have been making egg cups for about 6 months now and they are such a huge time saver! You can mix and match ingredients to your liking without really ruining it. We’ve lined the muffin tins with strips of bacon baked halfway then filled them with veggies and poured the eggs in and baked them.

Here is my version of the Paleo Pizza Egg Cups, inspired by Stupid Easy Paleo .  I know what you’re thinking, the broccoli sounds weird. Trust me, you don’t even taste it in there. My kids didn’t even notice! This is a sneaky way to get some extra veggies in painlessly. The sausage is totally optional, but is a great way to bump up the protein content.

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Perfectly Paleo Pizza Egg Cups

Ingredients

• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• ½ cup sweet onion chopped
• 2 tsp coconut oil
• 3-4 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup cooked broccoli chopped
• 1/3 cup sliced black olives
• 8 large eggs
• 2 tbsp coconut or almond milk
• 1 tbsp Wildtree pizza seasoning*
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1/2lb italian sausage (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350F. I use silicone liners like these  on a cookie shee. Grease them lightly with coconut oil. You can also use a 12 cup muffin tray with or without liners. Set aside.
• In a skillet over medium-high heat, melt the coconut oil, add the onions and mushrooms, cooking and stirring until the moisture is drawn out and the mushrooms begin to brown slightly, about 8 minutes. Add the broccoli and black olives to pan, stir to combine then shut off the heat and put aside.
• In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the milk, pizza seasoning, salt and pepper.
• Spoon the veggie mixture and sausage evenly into the muffin liners until they are about ⅔ full. Spoon approximately 1/2-1 teaspoon of the tomato paste on top of the veggies and spread it. Don’t obsess about eveness.
• Now, pour the egg mixture evenly into the muffin liners until it’s about ¾ full.
• Bake the egg muffins for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.

Notes

*If you don’t have Wildtree pizza seasoning, use 1 tsp garlic powder + ¼ tsp dried basil + ¼ tsp dried oregano.

Bees, Bicycles and Blueberries

We had quite the parenting breakthrough this past Memorial Day Weekend that we really gave each other a pat on the back for. All 3 of our kids had issues that we resolved in under a minute and darn it, we’re proud!

We were camping as usual and with the outdoors comes all kinds of exposure to insects, including everyone’s favorite… BEES. Our middle kid Nolan has always been deathly afraid of bees, wasps, hornets etc. and he usually avoids going outside at all because of them.

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There were a few buzzing around our campsite and as usual Nolan was running into the camper for cover. My hubby Darren decided to have a once and for all talk with him in hopes it would solve the phobia Nolan had with the buzzing creatures. He explained that, “Bees are more scared of you than you are of them. They don’t want to sting you, because when they do, they die.” It was pretty amazing how that little 1 minute pep talk worked! He spotted one later that day and said, “You don’t want to sting me bee. I know you don’t!” My hubby is a freaking genius for thinking of a way to really put his mind at ease!

Now, our oldest son Colin is the pickiest eater I know (besides my BFF Rachael) and won’t eat any kind of berries. When I served lunch on Monday I served fresh blueberries which were perfectly ripe (I’m not a huge blueberry fan, and even I liked them!) and he was refusing to eat them as I suspected he would. I asked him if he was allergic or if they made him throw up knowing the answer would be no to both questions. He said that he just didn’t care for them and he didn’t like how when he bites down on them they pop and squish out in his mouth.

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I shared with him something that I’ve learned in the last 2 years of my own health journey, sometimes you eat things even if they aren’t your favorite. You eat them because they are good for your body. Wouldn’t we all skip vegetables and eat ice cream because it tastes better? Of course we would! I don’t like vegetables all that much but I eat them because my body needs all of the health benefits they have to offer. I explained the health benefits of blueberries, that they are high in antioxidants and fiber and that if he tried eating more than one blueberry at a time that the squish factor would become a non-factor. Would you believe he ate all the blueberries on his plate?!? He said I was right, that they weren’t so bad and the squish factor was gone with several in his mouth at one time. Boom! Problem solved! We now have a blueberry eater, gotta work on strawberries next!

So the final challenge for the weekend was working on Violet to get her training wheels off. We’ve taken them off several times before only to have a complete meltdown and have to put them back on. We’ve bribed her with everything under the sun and always failed. The last time we had tried was when my mom here visiting from California and she basically had it but got scared and shut down. I knew she was close and that we just had to work on her confidence. So Monday I made a promise that I knew would get her moving that I just may regret saying. I told her we’d get a dog if she got it that day. I know, I know. I was asking for it. The whole family has been on me about getting a dog and I am NOT a dog person. I am a cat person and now I’m outnumbered. I knew the day would come and I’d have no choice so I used the dog as a bribe. Shame on me.

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We got her training wheels off and her helmet on and one push and she was gone. No time to get a video or anything. She was driven by the puppy bribe and that was that. I was a goner. The rest of the afternoon the kids begged to go get a puppy that day. Oh boy. Conversations about finding the exact right pet and at the right time ensued. Off to petfinder.com I went on my phone. Ugh. She also earned a new helmet, cute eh?

So I guess the moral of this story is, be careful what you wish for! Now if only Darren would stop being afraid of bees… Guess I need to have the same 1 minute pep talk with him!