For the last few months, nearly every week, I make a vegetable and egg casserole. Or in our house, we call it an egg bake. I make it on Sundays, and it stretches most of the way through the work week. I mostly make it for Hubby, so he has a quick, easy, and healthy breakfast without needing to take a lot of time. But I also enjoy a piece myself!
If you’ve ever heard of the Medifast Diet, there is a term they use called a “lean and green.” This is a meal that is just built on protein and low carb veggies. Sometimes you might add in an “option” or two like a healthy fat, a fruit, whole grain, etc. It’s basically a way to think about structuring your meals without needing to count calories. And it works pretty well!
For a “lean and green” meal, the protein amount varies by fat content (5-7oz). The veggies should be 3 “servings.” One serving is 1/2 or 1 cup, depending on how dense the veggie is. Leafy greens = 1 cup. Tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, carrots, etc = 1/2 cup.
I spent some time dialing in a recipe structure for my egg casserole that I could get to turn out every time, would taste good, and would be a full “lean and green” serving. I think I’ve finally nailed it, so I wanted to share it here! Be sure you take note of the cooking method in the recipe. I have found that the key to ensuring a good egg casserole when using so many veggies is in this cooking method. I had a lot of trouble with watery eggs, difficulty baking, even overflowing (!) until I dialed in this step.
Greens and Protein for the Egg Casserole
For the greens section I like to use chopped frozen spinach, and broccoli rice as a base for the veggie component. I tend to stock up on both so I can vary which I use, or sometimes use a combination! I estimate these to be 1/2 cup per “green” serving, so for the spinach, 4 cups = 8 greens. For the broccoli, 3 cups = 6 greens.
Mushrooms and bell peppers also make a nice addition to the casserole. I tend to use those regularly as well. 1 cup sliced mushrooms = 1 green, and 1/2 cup diced bell pepper = 1 green.
The protein is a combination of eggs, egg whites, low fat cheese, chicken or turkey sausage, and sometimes nonfat greek yogurt. I’ve shared some of my example combinations to build this vegetable and egg casserole in the recipe below – enjoy!
Equipment
- Saute pan
- Small square or rectangular baker: 2-2.5qt
Ingredients
Protein - 4 Lean and Green Servings, so 4 proteins total
- 6 eggs (2 protein)
- 1 cup egg whites (1 protein)
- 1 1/4 cup low fat shredded cheese (1 protein)
Greens - 4 Lean and Green servings, so 12 greens total
- 16 oz bag frozen spinach, ~4 cups (thawed, 8 greens)
- 2 cups mushrooms (sliced, 2 greens)
- 1 bell pepper ~1 cup (diced, 2 greens)
Protein - 6 Lean and Green Servings, so 6 proteins total
- 6 eggs (2 protein)
- 2 cups egg whites (2 protein)
- 1¼ cup low fat shredded cheese (1 protein)
- 5 oz browned chicken or turkey sausage (1 protein)
Greens - 6 Lean and Green Servings, so 18 greens total
- 16 oz bag frozen spinach, ~4 cups (thawed, 8 greens)
- 10 oz bag frozen broccoli rice, ~3 cups (thawed, 6 greens)
- 2 cups mushrooms (sliced, 2 greens)
- 1 bell pepper, ~1 cup (diced, 2 greens)
Other optional ingredients for flavor
- 1 jalapeno (if you like spicy)
- ½ yellow onion (diced)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- Herbs of choice (oregano works really well in this dish)
- Crushed red pepper (to taste, another option if you like spicy)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Prep and Saute the Vegetables
- Thaw out the frozen veggies and use a colander or other method to squeeze out all the excess water. In liue of thawing and draining, you can also add them frozen to your saute in Step 4, and cook longer until all the liquid has cooked off.
- Chop/slice the other veggies you plan to use, i.e. mushrooms, bell peppers, jalapenos, onion, garlic, etc.
- Saute the veggies from Step 2 with a dash of salt until all their water has released and they are fully cooked down.
- Add in the thawed veggies to the saute pan. Mix and cook until they are warmed through and any excess water is evaporated.
- Taste and adjust for seasoning: salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, herbs.
- If adding sausage, it should be browned ahead of time, then added in at this step.
Whisk up the Egg Mixture
- Whisk together the eggs, egg whites, cheese, and greek yogurt if using.
- Season the egg mixture with salt, pepper, and any other desired herbs/spices (sometimes I'll use a little here of whatever also went in the veggies). I've found that when using breakfast sausage as part of the protein, dried sage adds a nice flavor here. For salt, I use kosher salt and add 1 pinch/serving - this seems to be about right, since it's a bit hard to taste at this step!
Combine the Ingredients
- Mix the sauted veggies in with the egg mixture, and stir to combine thoroughly.
Bake the casserole
- Poor into a greased (oil-spray works well here) baking dish. For 4 servings, I use a small 9"x6" rectangular baking dish. 6 servings fits well into a 9"x13" dish. If you're going smaller, a 9" pie dish will work nicely for 3 servings.
- Bake at 350°F. For a 4 serving sized egg bake, 45 minutes does the trick. For larger/smaller adjust by 10-15 minutes up/down. Bake until the egg bake is firm in the middle and the edges are slightly browned.
- Let cool, and slice into pieces - I typically cut 2 pieces per serving. So for example, I would cut the 9"x6" pan into 8 pieces.
Notes
- Try different flavors of sausage to change the flavor profile of the dish, or add in extra heat with a spicy Italian sausage.
- Mix in some Greek yogurt - replace up to half of the shredded cheese by weight with Greek yogurt. This makes the texture of the casserole a little lighter/almost fluffy.
- Broccoli florets instead of riced broccoli
- Other greens instead of spinach, like kale or swiss chard
- Eggplant
- Cauliflower
- You can even try roasting the vegetables instead of sauteing them, to get a different flavor profile.
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