Egg Muffins: 3 Easy Meal Prep Ideas

The author photo session for the New Yorker piece was Friday afternoon at three PM. The photographer was a freelance shooter from the magazine’s Nashville-area photographer pool who’d been hired specifically for the November-issue contributor portraits. He arrived at the apartment with three cameras, a portable lighting kit, two reflectors, and a Vanderbilt-press-pass that he showed me at the door. He shot me in the apartment kitchen for two solid hours — standing at the counter with the chef’s knife on the cutting board, sitting at the dining table with the leather Moleskine cookbook open behind me, leaning against the windowsill with the late-afternoon October light coming in over my shoulder. The photographer said the final photo would be black-and-white because the magazine’s contributor-page convention is monochrome.

I do not love photos of myself. The shoot was uncomfortable in the way photo shoots are when you don’t know how to arrange your face for a camera. The photographer was patient and professional and did not make me feel weird about being uncomfortable. He told me as he was packing up that the magazine would send me proofs to approve before the photo went to layout. I trust the photographer.

Sunday I made egg muffins for the meal-prep week ahead because Dustin and I are both running heavier reading loads this semester than we’d had freshman year, and weekday breakfast keeps falling off my schedule when I have to make it from scratch at seven AM before a nine-AM seminar. Egg muffins are the right meal-prep solution: bake a dozen on Sunday, store in the fridge, microwave one for thirty seconds on weekday mornings, eat with coffee while reading the assigned essays.

I made three variations Sunday afternoon to keep the week interesting. The base recipe for all three is the same: eight large eggs whisked with a half-cup of milk, salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Divided across twelve cups of a greased standard muffin tin (about two-thirds full per cup — the eggs puff up during baking).

Variation one: spinach-and-feta. A handful of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and squeezed completely dry — wet spinach makes wet muffins) and a half-cup of crumbled feta divided across four of the muffin cups. The Mediterranean-leaning version.

Variation two: bacon-and-cheddar. Four strips of bacon cooked crisp and crumbled, plus a half-cup of grated sharp cheddar, divided across four of the cups. The classic American breakfast version.

Variation three: ham-and-Swiss. A half-cup of diced cooked ham (deli ham is fine; leftover holiday ham is better) and a half-cup of grated Swiss cheese divided across the remaining four cups. The diner-leaning version.

Bake all three at three-fifty for twenty minutes until the eggs are set and the tops are slightly puffed. Cool five minutes in the tin before running a butter knife around the edges and lifting each muffin out. Cool completely on a wire rack before storing in zip-top bags in the fridge for up to four days, or in the freezer for up to two months.

Reheat in the microwave for thirty seconds from the fridge or sixty seconds from frozen. The muffins emerge tender, savory, and exactly the breakfast you want at seven AM with a cup of coffee.

Same egg base, three fillings, twelve muffins, three-fifty for twenty. Here’s the build.

Egg Muffins: 3 Easy Meal Prep Ideas For Breakfast

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 8 large eggs
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Nonstick cooking spray
• Variation 1 — Spinach & Feta: 1/2 cup fresh spinach, roughly chopped; 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• Variation 2 — Ham & Cheddar: 1/3 cup diced ham; 1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• Variation 3 — Veggie Loaded: 1/4 cup diced bell pepper; 1/4 cup diced onion; 1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously spray a standard 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray, making sure to coat the sides well so the muffins release cleanly.
2. Whisk the base. In a large bowl or large measuring cup with a pour spout, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder until fully combined and slightly frothy.
3. Fill the cups. Divide your chosen mix-ins evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about one-third full. Pour the egg mixture over the top, filling each cup to about three-quarters full—they will puff up as they bake.
4. Bake. Bake for 18–22 minutes, until the centers are set and no longer jiggly and the tops are just lightly golden. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
5. Cool and release. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then run a butter knife around the edge of each cup and lift them out. They should pop out cleanly if the pan was well-greased.
6. Freeze for later. To freeze, arrange cooled muffins in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze for 1 hour until solid, then transfer to a zip-top freezer bag. Store up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen in the microwave for 60–90 seconds, or in a 325°F oven for 10 minutes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 85 | Protein: 7g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 2g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 210mg