HEALTHY EGG BAKE | spinach, mushrooms & cottage cheese recipe

Hello my friends, it's Dani, and today I am sharing yet another easy, healthy, delicious, high-protein breakfast idea with you. This is a creamy, fluffy, cottage cheese and vegetable egg bake that's layered with spinach, mushrooms, onions, and feta cheese. So it has a little bit of a Mediterranean flair. And much like a breakfast casserole, it's the perfect make-ahead breakfast for busy weeks and also works really well for a brunch or as a light lunch. Now I have found that cottage cheese is a real superstar if you're looking to bump up the protein content of your breakfast recipes. You can do so many things with it. You can add it on top of toast, you can add it into your pancakes, you can scramble it into your eggs, or you could just enjoy it in a bowl with some fresh fruit over the top. So it's definitely a great staple ingredient to keep on hand if you're looking to bump up the protein content of your breakfast, which can help to support your health, wellness, and or weight loss goals. So I'll start by preheating my oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. And then I'm using a 9 by 13 inch baking dish, and I'm just going to grease it with a little bit of butter, or in this case, a lot of butter. You could also use some coconut oil or some cooking spray. You just want to make sure that you grease the pan so that the eggs don't stick when they cook. Then the only other ingredients I need to prep for this recipe are a handful of vegetables, starting with one small onion. Next, I have some cremini mushrooms, eight ounces to be exact. Now mushrooms are extremely absorbent, so I prefer not to run them under water because they do tend to absorb that water and then they get a little bit waterlogged. So instead, I like to just take a damp paper towel and I just wipe any dirt or debris off of the mushroom. And then once they're all clean, I trim the stems and slice them. If you cannot find cremini mushrooms, a white mushroom would work just as well. And then finally, I have five cups, which is one box of baby spinach. I love buying pre-washed greens like this at the grocery store. It's very convenient and it makes it very easy to work greens into your everyday recipes. So with the spinach, I just like to give it a rough chop just to break it down a little bit and then our veggies are ready to go. Now over at the stove, I've got a nice big nonstick saute pan. I'm going to heat that over a medium heat. Add in just a teaspoon of olive oil, just a little bit. A little goes a long way. You really don't need that much. And then once that's heated through, we're going to toss in the chopped onion along with the sliced mushrooms. And then I'm just going to give that a pinch of salt and let that cook for about six to eight minutes. I'm going to give it a stir throughout. And what you're looking for is for those onions to become translucent. They're going to be nice and tender, as are the mushrooms. Then that's how you know you're ready for your spinach. So you're going to pour that baby spinach into the pan. Looks like a lot, but as we all know, it's going to wilt down. I season that with a little bit of salt, a little bit of black pepper. Then I'm going to turn the heat off and gently toss this together. The heat from the pan, the residual heat, is enough to wilt the spinach down. So I'm just going to turn it off, get this all really well incorporated, and you can see how quickly the spinach wilts down. I'll take the veggie mixture and I'm just going to transfer this into our prepared baking dish. And really what you want to do is just kind of spread it evenly over the bottom layer of the dish, like I'm doing here. And then I love to add some feta cheese to this dish, right? Again, it's got that Mediterranean flair. So you just want to sprinkle a couple ounces of crumbled feta cheese over the top of the vegetables. And you know I am a big fan of buying my feta cheese in block form. It has a lot more flavor and the texture is a lot better as well. And it's super easy to just crumble yourself. So if you can find it in the block, try to buy that instead of the crumbles. Now for the eggs, you're going to need one dozen eggs for this recipe, so 12 whole eggs. Now keep in mind, you could also use egg whites in a dish like this, or you could do a combination of whole eggs and egg whites. This would be a great option for anybody who wants their cottage cheese egg bake to be even higher in protein and a little bit lower in fat. And remember, anytime you're swapping egg whites for whole eggs, you need two egg whites for one egg. Now I like to whisk the eggs right about now, just help break those yolks down. It makes it a lot easier to incorporate the rest of the ingredients once this is whisked together. Okay, then we have the star of the show, the cottage cheese. I'm adding in one and a half cups of low fat cottage cheese. You could absolutely do no fat or full fat, depending on your preference or depending on what you have on hand. They would all work. Not only is the cottage cheese going to help to bump up the protein content in this recipe, but it also adds the best flavor and the best texture. It makes it really fluffy and creamy. Now personally, I love the curds of cottage cheese. I love when the eggs are baked and you have those little curds baked throughout. But if you don't like that texture, you can take the cottage cheese and egg mixture, just the way it is right now, pop it into the blender or use a hand immersion blender and blend them together. Then it will be really smooth and creamy and you won't have those curds. You won't even know it's in there, but it's still going to help to make the final product really fluffy and delicious. Whichever you choose, once you've got your cottage cheese and your eggs in the bowl, you're going to season this with one teaspoon of garlic powder, one teaspoon of onion powder. Then I have a small pinch of sea salt. We've been adding salt along the way, plus feta's pretty salty, so we don't need too much. And about a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. I'm going to stir everything together. You just want to get all of these ingredients really well incorporated. Make sure the seasonings are whisked throughout. And then I'm going to pour the egg mixture over the veggie mixture that we have ready to go. Once I have it all in the pan, I like to just use a fork and just move those vegetables around a little bit, trying to pull them up to the surface so that you can see them. It's fine if you don't, but it is more beautiful if you do. From here, I'm just going to pop it into the oven. Remember, we have that at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and I'll let it bake for 30 minutes. You're looking for the egg bake to become golden brown around the edges and set through the center. Once it's ready to go, you want to let it sit for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Just let it rest before cutting into it. And then you can absolutely serve this right away, or you can transfer it into some airtight containers and have it stored in the fridge for a grab-and-go breakfast throughout the week. It will happily last in your fridge for up to five days. I like to cut it into six pieces, in which case each piece has just about over 20 grams of protein per serving. And then I'll often eat it with an extra dollop of Greek yogurt or some cottage cheese over the top, a drizzle of hot sauce, and then I might have some fresh fruit or whole grain toast on the side. Doing this bumps the recipe closer to 30 grams of protein, which you all know I am working very hard to do at mealtime right now. It is light, it's fluffy, it's creamy, it's so good. So delicious. And I just love the combination of spinach, eggs, and feta cheese. It is so good. And my husband does too. He always says this is one of his favorites, isn't it, Ben? Mm-hmm. It's one of his favorites. So this is a great example of an easy, whole-food, high-protein breakfast idea. If you guys want to see more recipes like this, let me know down in the comments below, and I will be sure to create some more delicious ideas for you. In the meantime, if you enjoy this, make sure you take a moment to like this video, subscribe to the channel, and hit that notification bell so you never miss a new recipe. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Dani Spees, and I'll see you back here next time with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers!