Trying Some "Clean Simple Eats"

Nine times out of ten, when it comes to exercises, cardio routines, and recipes that I want to try, I turn to Pinterest. BUT I do reserve the right to change that up and I'm glad I did. 

Instagram was the key to finding these new recipes. She's @cleansimpleeats and I've been following her for a few months now after Heidi Powell (wife of trainer Chris Powell and co-host of "Extreme Weight Loss" - a show that I'm absolutely addicted to) re-posted a recipe for some healthier Valentines Day cookies. She always posts delicious looking foods and, what I especially like about her posts, she posts the recipe in the comments so you don't have to go tracking down a website (turns out websites don't translate to hyperlinks in Instagram).

Today she posted what she called "Skinny Banana Cookies" and I decided today was the day to try and re-create her delicious looking treats for myself and see if they actually worked. There was another post for "Sausage and Hash Egg Muffins" that she'd posted a while back and, because I'm trying to find protein-filled, healthy yummies to include in my hubby's breakfasts and lunches, attempting to make the muffins was added to my to-do list as well.

First up to bat:

"Sausage and Hash Egg Muffins" from @cleansimpleeats

1. Preheat oven to 375F

2. Crack 18 whole eggs in a large bowl and beat

3. Add:    1 grated sweet potato

                 2 chicken sausages, chopped

                 2 cups spinach, chopped

                 1 Tbsp dried, minced onion

                 Salt and pepper to taste

                 Shredded cheese (optional)

4. Grease 24 foil muffin liners and scoop about 1/3 cup mixture into each liner

5. Bake 30 minutes. 

Store leftovers in fridge.

I started off with the eggs, per her instructions. I don't think I've ever cracked so many eggs in my life. Holy Protein, Batman.  After using an entire carton of eggs (turns out in Canada, Costco sells eggs in boxes of 18 so I was in luck), I peeled a sweet potato and grated the whole thing directly into the eggs.

Next came the chicken sausage. I tried to cut each one up into semi-small pieces so that each of the 24 muffins would get at least two or three pieces in it. As a side note, I bought these at Safeway but I'd been at Costco the day before and noticed that they had some turkey & chicken sausages and you get eight sausages for the same price that you'd get a package of four from Safeway so if you're planning on making these muffins on a regular basis, I'd suggest going the Costco route and either freezing or refrigerating the extra and using it for the next batch.

The spinach, onion, salt and pepper came last and I mixed it all together. In retrospect, I should have added more salt and pepper but I figured that it would be safer to add too little than too much. In the taste-test portion of this experiment, my sister-in-law cut the muffin in half and added more salt and pepper to each side and it made up the difference.

When filling up the muffin tins, the recipe calls for using about 1/3 cup. Keep in mind that the eggs are going to expand during baking so you don't want to fill them all the way to the top of the liner. The first few muffins that I filled I used exactly 1/3 cup and then had to fix them later because there was WAY too much egg and they may have exploded in the oven and no one wants to clean that up. I went back and fixed the first few and ended up using a little less than 1/3 cup in each muffin.

Here's a helpful hint: they raise up when they're cooking but a few seconds after you take them out of the oven, they settle a little bit. I took this picture after they'd already fallen but they still look pretty good.

As a born skeptic, I'm always cautious when I try to replicate the recipes of others. I feel like no matter what I do, mine never end up looking the way they are "supposed to look." Here is the picture she posted along with the recipe:

And here is a picture of what I made: 

Taking into account that I grabbed the smallest one of the batch to sample and acknowledging that her picture was taken outside with better lighting, I'd say that they aren't a far cry from each other!! Win!! 

Two of my sister-in-laws helped with the taste test and they both said that they were good. As noted before, we all added some extra salt and pepper and I will probably put ketchup on some of the ones I eat in the future (but I put ketchup on almost everything so that's not a comment about needing to change the taste of it) but I thought they were really good, easy to make, and I'm a huge fan of the nutrition facts:  

Protein: about 6 grams

Carbs: about 1 gram

Calories: about 65

I'm chalking this one up to a Instagram WIN and sending props to @cleansimpleeats. 

Stay tuned to see how the "Skinny Banana Cookies" turned out :-)