These Mini Egg Muffins with cheese and veggies are a go-to for quick and easy toddler breakfasts on busy mornings. These savory muffins are packed with nutritious ingredients and are so quick to bake up—and they work so well to make ahead.
Mini Egg Muffins
Rich in protein and fats that toddlers need, eggs are a wonderful toddler food. You can make a batch a batch of the egg muffins one day and keep them in the fridge until you need them. My family loves eggs all sorts of ways, but I love this recipe since they are so perfect for quickly reheating come meal time.
Having these breakfast egg muffins in the fridge, just ready and waiting to be reheated for a quick breakfast (or lunch) is a total time-saver.
They’re also delicious enough to make for a holiday breakfast, such as Easter or Christmas, to share with the whole family.
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Ingredients You Need
For this recipe you’ll need the following ingredients ready to go.
- Eggs: The base of this recipe is large eggs. You can use whichever type you prefer.
- Cottage cheese: This adds moisture, calcium, and protein to the recipe. It blends right into the batter.
- Shredded cheese: You can use cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, or another shredded cheese your family enjoys.
- Shredded butternut squash, grated carrot or minced broccoli: Or another vegetable that you like.
- Minced or grated fresh onion or onion powder: Either of these add a little more flavor to the mixture.
- Parmesan cheese: I like to add Parmesan cheese (or Pecorino Romano) cheese for additional flavor in these egg muffins.
TIP: These are packed with protein and have a nice dose of veggies in the mix that are easy to chew. And they boast a solid dose of calcium, plus vitamin A from the eggs, cheeses, and squash.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s a look at the process involved in this easy recipe so you know what to expect. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full recipe.
- Stir together the ingredients.
- Add your veggie of choice
- Spoon into the greased muffin cups.
- Bake! Remove from oven, let cool for about a minute, then use a knife to gently loosen the cups from the pan. Cool a bit and serve warm or store to serve later.
TIP: The batter comes together really quickly as all it requires is some easy grating and stirring. You can whip these up whenever you have a spare 15 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
We like these with both grated raw or leftover roasted butternut squash and sweet potato, shredded raw carrots or chopped broccoli florets. Use whichever you have or prefer. You could also add snipped spinach or kale or finely chopped bell pepper or mushrooms.
You can cut in half or serve whole for baby to gnaw on baby led weaning style. Their semi-soft texture also means that they are great for babies, younger toddlers or toddlers still getting the hang of more complex textures.
(In fact, this was the recipe that helped a friend of mine start to wean her daughter off of a feeding tube!)
When buying eggs for toddlers, know that from chickens with access to grass and pasture typically have more of these healthy poly- and monounsaturated fats than conventional eggs. Look for the terms u0022free rangeu0022 and u0022grass-fedu0022. Eggs—any way they are raised!—are also a good source of B12, which is particularly important for toddlers who don’t eat meat.
The batch is relatively small so you won’t have leftovers lingering forever (though they actually freeze really well should that be an issue). Store them, once cooled, in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days. Serve cold or warm for a few seconds in the microwave.
Each is a two-bite affair for my girls and they almost always insist on dipping them in salsa or ketchup. (I love them on top of salads!)
I’ve made this recipe a lot over the years and the one time the muffins stuck was when I brushed on oil, rather than using nonstick spray. So do use the spray if you can. And use a good nonstick muffin tin.
You’ll also want to let them cool for a few minutes in the pan, then use a paring knife, if needed, to help loosen the edges.
How to Store
Store them, once cooled, in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days. Serve slightly warmed up or at room temperature.
Best Tips for Success
- We like these with both grated raw or leftover roasted butternut squash and sweet potato, shredded raw carrots or chopped broccoli florets.
- Add snipped spinach or kale or finely chopped bell pepper or mushrooms to these egg cups if you’d like instead of squash.
- Chop up as desired for babies or younger toddlers.
- You can also pack these mini muffins in a packed daycare lunch or school lunch.
- Chop them up over salads for your own lunch.
- Try mozzarella instead of cheddar. Try ricotta instead of cottage cheese.
- Double the recipe and bake a whole pan of 24 mini muffins at once.
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I’d love to hear what you think of the recipe, so please comment below if you try these!
Mini Egg Muffins with Cheese and Veggies
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon onion, peeled and grated (or ¼ teaspoon onion powder)
- 1/2 cup butternut squash, finely grated (or leftover diced roasted squash, minced broccoli, grated carrot, or minced spinach)
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese (drained if needed)
- 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease 12 mini muffin cups with nonstick spray very well.
- Stir together all ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Spoon into muffin cups, filling about to the brim.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden brown around the edges.
- Let cool for about 5 minutes in the pan before serving to allow them to firm up a bit. Use a paring knife around the edges to help remove them if needed Serve warm or at room temperature.
Video
Notes
- Store in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container or store in the freezer in a zip top bag and reheat for 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.
- We like these with both grated raw or leftover roasted butternut squash and sweet potato, shredded raw carrots or chopped broccoli florets.
- Add snipped spinach or kale or finely chopped bell pepper or mushrooms if you’d like instead of squash.
- Chop up as desired for babies or younger toddlers.
- You can also pack these egg and cheese mini muffins in a packed daycare lunch or school lunch.
- Chop them up over salads for your own lunch.
- Try mozzarella instead of cheddar.
- Try ricotta instead of cottage cheese.
- Double the recipe and bake a whole pan of 24 mini muffins at once.
Nutrition
This post was first published September 2017.
These tasted great but realized after that if you are using regular cottage cheese, Cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese they must be very high in sodium which made me not want to give them to my 11 month old. I will make them again if I can find a sodium reduced cottage and Cheddar cheese. It would great if the recipe mentioned this.
I hear that concern, but if you look at the nutrition info at the bottom of the recipe, you’ll see that it’s not actually very high since it’s per serving. And if you consider it in context, it is a fine food to include as some sodium from foods like cheese is okay. More info on that in this post: https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/babies-and-salt/
Are these or any other of your make ahead breakfast muffins freezable? If so, how long?
Yes, they all are. Let cool and add to a freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible and freeze for up to 6 months
so easy and delicious. my 1 yo loves them- and so do we.
I wasn’t sure why the recipe called for so much onion powder and why the flavor was overtaking the whole dish… when I realized I put a whole tablespoon in instead of 1/4 tsp! I also added a third egg because the batter was so carrot-y. Minus onion-gate, I think it would have been really good. Would add some pepper to round it out, but otherwise will try again.
The recipe tasted great, but it was a total pain cleaning the muffin tin. Do you have the same recipe with it being in a pie pan instead?
My daughter liked eggs at 5-6 months and then never wanted them again, she’s now 15 months so I gave these a shot, unfortunately a no-go for now but these are so tasty and easy to make that I’m going to keep trying! My husband is weird with cheeses if they’re not on pizza (he’s a weirdo who doesn’t like cheesecake and cream cheese) and he thought these were delicious (BEFORE I told him there was cottage cheese in it, LOL – now he won’t eat them). Oh well, more for mama!
Oh gosh, I am glad you’re enjoying them though!
Hello! Would it be weird to use almond Silk yogurt in place of cottage cheese? I got a lactose intolerant kid but would like to add the protein. Thanks!
Hi- It might be weird. I’m not sure if that would bake the same way. You could omit the cottage cheese and add 2 additional eggs though which would keep the volume the same and replace any lost protein.
how many eggs do you use? I assume 12, but I didn’t see a number on the recipe.
The full recipe is at the bottom of the post!
I have made this recipe twice so far- once with spinach and once with broccoli. Both times were delicious – my husband and I love them! My two year old son is resistant to eating eggs but I’m hoping he will come around. I will keeping offering, and it’s still a great exposure.
These are awesome!! My 18 month old son liked these and usually he’s hit or miss with eggs. Also, my husband loves them! Can you make adult size versions of these without having to adjust the recipe or change the cooking temp?
I’m so glad! Yes, you can make them in a standard muffin tin. You would to bake them longer, but everything else would be the same. Maybe 22-24 minutes!
I just made a double batch and they are fantastic! For some reason the bottoms are sticking to the pan though even though I let them cool. I used a spray and I have a pretty good nonstick pan. Not sure what I did wrong. They taste great though and my toddler loves them!
If you’re adding more veggies in addition to butternut squash/sweet potato, should all the veggies be 1/2 cup total?
Yes, that would keep the proportions the same.
Hi, forgive my stupid question but I’m from England!…
What is a 1/2 a ‘cup’ of butternut squash? Any measurement in grams? I have big frozen chunks so I imagine if I fill half a cup with that it will be wildly different from half a cup of cottage cheese (grams of each would be better?!)
Many thanks!
Hi- I’m working on adding metric (it’s a process!) but about a handful would be the easiest way to gauge that right now.
Thank you so much for the reply! I googled it as I really wanted to try these and Mr Google said 100g so I went with that…
and they came out great! Thanks Amy!!
If I add broccoli do I need to cook the broccoli first?
No, not if it’s chopped into very small pieces.
Yummy. Kid approved and easy to make!