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.
Hi, if I don’t have cottage cheese nor ricotta cheese, can I use Greek yoghurt as a substitute?
I would use shredded cheese instead. Yogurt will make it difficult for them to cook all the way through.
1
I added shredded zucchini, carrot and extra cheese for my daughters batch in the hopes of packing as many veggies in a tiny bite as possible. The extra cheese helped cover up all those extras and she had no idea (YAY!). For my husband and I, I chopped bell peppers and added those to everything else and used half the amount of cheese. Both came out amazing! Plan to make these often. Thanks for the recipe!
Hooray! I’m so glad to hear all of this!
This is a staple of my 1.5 year old’s lunches. We always have them in the freezer! I’ve made them both full size and mini size, and with butternut squash and broccoli.
Hooray! Keeping them in the freezer is such a smart idea for easy lunch packing!
How did you alter the recipe to make 12 full size muffins?
I’ve just made these with my 3 year old. Do you think they’d be okay to give to a 9 month old? I can’t see why not, but just want to check I’m not missing something
Absolutely should be fine! I’d cut them up into smaller pieces. enjoy!
Has anyone ever tried these (or similar) in a microwave? If so, approximate time? My 1y10m is requiring more snacks at daycare and i’m trying to avoid breads as option so early on, so very keen to try this. Thanks!
I haven’t tried this exact recipe in the microwave, but it’s have scrambled an egg that way. You could stir in a little bit of a cooked veggie and cheese into an egg, place into a heat-safe bowl, and microwave for 30-60 seconds stopping to stir halfway through. I don’t think you’d have the same muffin consistency as if you bake them in the oven (it would be softer) but it would be faster!
Thank you for sharing this! From my experience, I learned that talking to your toddlers the right way is crucial for their thought process, their mindset, their behaviors, their social skills, and their mentality and happiness in the future. I was having problems with how to raise my toddlers until I came across a parenting course by my dear friend Chris Thompson. They even have FREE amazing video lessons! I recommend you check it out:
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Excellent, delicious sort of like the sous vide eggs that Starbucks serves
Made these this morning, they were a big hit! I used grated carrot and butternut squash which gave them a really nice color. Thanks for the recipe!
The title references powdered kale but the recipe doesn’t. ?? Thanks!
I just made these and yum!!! I just threw in some soft sweet potato. My toddler is not a fan yet but maybe I will experiment.
What can you use instead of the butternut squash?
You could try finely chopped zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, grated carrot, grated sweet potato, frozen peas…
I just made these and they are delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
Can these be frozen?
Yes! They freeze really well. Let cool completely, then store in the freezer in a zip top bag with as much air removed as possible. Reheat for 15-30 seconds in the microwave (and check to make sure it’s not too hot since they heat up really fast) before serving.
I made a batch of these last night — Violet ate 1/2 of one straight away! (And I ate two, because yum.) My mini-muffin tin holds 24 muffins, so I doubled the recipe and had to extend the cooking time to 28 minutes. (I also swapped in ricotta cheese for the cottage cheese because it’s what I had on hand.) Super delicious!