Ham & Egg Cups

These have quickly become one of my favorite dishes to make on an almost weekly basis for several reasons.  First, they take under half an hour to make - prep and cooking time.  Second, they're delicious!  Third, they travel well and are really tasty cold.  I actually made some for my weekend at Coachella and would eat one every night as soon as I got back to the hotel.  The perfect late night snack after a day of dancing in the desert sun.  This recipe is yet another success from my now-favorite Paleo cookbook: Paleo Comfort Foods.  I would suggest using ham sliced fresh from a deli counter instead of the round, pre-cut stuff you find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.  This is mostly because fresh-sliced pieces are normally bigger than their pre-packaged counterpart, giving you more to work with when it comes to filling the muffin cups.  I actually ended up having to use the pre-packaged stuff once and it was so much smaller that I had to use two pieces per muffin cup and it was a bit of a pain trying to cover all of the surface of the muffin cup as well as leave enough room on the sides for the egg to sit in.  I've thought about experimenting with some of the ingredients, but, as my boyfriend Jeremy says, "don't mess with perfection".  And these are pretty perfect :)

EQUIPMENT:
12-cup full-size muffin tin
oven
small pan for sauteing

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 cup shallots, finely chopped
12 large eggs
12 slices ham
clarified butter (or coconut or olive oil)
coconut oil to coat muffin pan

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Saute shallots and mushrooms in skillet with butter.

3. Coat muffin pan with oil and place ham slices in cups.  I would suggest cutting each ham slice from one edge to the center with a sharp knife so that the ham is easier to fold on itself and fit into the round muffin cups.
4. Place some of the shallot/mushroom mixture into each ham-lined cup.
5. Crack an egg into each cup.
6. Cook for 15 minutes or until edge of ham is slightly crisp.

I usually cut this recipe in half and only make six cups since I'm the only one eating them (although I usually let Jeremy have a couple, cuz I'm nice like that).  These keep well in the fridge for about a week.  I wouldn't suggest re-heating them because...twice cooked eggs are just not very good.