Cheese and Bacon Muffins

I AM SOOOOOO SICK OF EGGS!!!

Poached eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, baked eggs, hard boiled eggs, omelettes... I can't handle them any more! So I wanted an alternative SAVOURY breakfast recipe that I could grab and run, and that would not make me GAG!

I also had a craving for savoury muffins. Mmmmm... cheesy ones...

So I made these!

Cheese & Bacon Muffins

Ingredients:

3 Rashers of bacon

1 Medium Zucchini, grated

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

1 and a 1/2 cups of Grated Cheddar Cheese, loosely packed

2 cups Almond Flour/Meal

3 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Garlic Powder 

100mls Milk

3 eggs

Paprika to sprinkle

Substitutions - 

Vegetarian - leave out the bacon and add more zucchini, or spinach

Cheese - Due to the bacon and the cheese, these babies have the potential to be quite salty. If you are concerned, substitute half, or even all, of your cheddar for mozzarella. Also if you are using pre-grated cheese from the supermarket, you may want to use a bit less.

Nut Free - use 1 and a 1/2 cups of GF flour or wheat flour, or coconut flour. If you use coconut flour you will need to increase the wet ingredients as it is much more absorbent. Try adding extra milk and some oil, preferably coconut oil. I will try and make a nut free version soon and post the recipe, as it will be a bit different!

NB: I make my own baking powder to avoid the aluminium and additives in the commercial stuff. It's basically just 1 part Baking SODA to 2 parts Cream of Tartar.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Remove the rind (or not, if you particularly like it) from your bacon and dice. Fry over medium-high heat until it starts to brown. Squeeze the moisture our of your grated zucchini. I spread mine out between two paper towels, then between two folded tea-towels and press down firmly until the paper towels are soaked through and the tea-towels are a bit wet.

In a mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients well. Mix together eggs and milk, and then stir into almond flour mixture until well combined. Add bacon, zucchini, cheese and chives, and mix gently but well. Drop heaped dessert-spoon-fulls into a prepared muffin tin or paper muffin liners, sprinkle the top with paprika (trust me on the paprika), and bake for about 40 minutes. My oven is quite slow so please check yours earlier than this though as I don't want the responsibility of yours burning! :). I use a slicon tray which pretty much nothing sticks to. If you're using a metal one I would suggest lining with paper muffin/cupcake liners just to be safe, as almond meal muffins won't come away from the edges like wheat flour ones do.

Makes 12 medium sized muffins.

Enjoy WARM! You can freeze these individually so you can grab one when you want it and zap it in the microwave or pop it in the oven for a few minutes to warm and crisp up!

Jas xo