Recipes › Breakfast & brunch› Make-ahead egg and veg breakfast cups
Breakfast & brunch · Easy · Serves 12

Make-ahead egg and veg breakfast cups

Make-ahead egg cups baked in a muffin tin with spinach, peppers, and feta. Grab-and-go high-protein breakfast meal prep that reheats in under a minute.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-06-19
A small cream-speckled plate of make-ahead egg cups on a white marble counter: golden baked egg muffins flecked with green spinach, red pepper, and white feta, a few more still in the muffin tin softly behind, a small bowl of cherry tomatoes and a sprig of dill alongside. Soft morning light from the kitchen window.
Prep
10 min
Cook
22 min
Serves
12
Difficulty
easy

These are the breakfasts I bake on a Sunday so weekday mornings ask nothing of me. Eggs whisked with a little cottage cheese for lift, folded with spinach, peppers, and feta, baked in a muffin tin into tidy little cups. Two of them with a piece of toast is a real breakfast for about a minute of effort.

They keep all week and reheat in under a minute, which is the whole point. I make a double batch and stop thinking about breakfast until Friday.

“Eggs, cottage cheese, spinach, feta, baked into tidy cups. Grab two, reheat a minute, and breakfast is handled all week.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01Real protein in a grab-and-go format, from eggs, cottage cheese, and feta.
  • 02Make-ahead and freezer-friendly, and they reheat in under a minute.
  • 03Endlessly flexible. Any vegetable, any cheese, whatever's in the crisper drawer.
  • 04No crust or bread to go soggy or stale, just tidy little egg cups.
Anna, in a warm mustard top, pouring whisked egg and cottage cheese mixture from a measuring jug into a muffin tin dotted with spinach, red pepper, and feta. A whisk and a bowl with a little leftover egg sit on the marble, with her bright kitchen behind her.
Fill each cup about three-quarters full so they have room to puff.
Ingredients

For the egg cups

  • 10large eggs
  • ½ cupfull-fat cottage cheese
  • ¼ cupmilk
  • ¾ tspkosher salt
  • black pepper
  • 2 cupsbaby spinach, chopped
  • 1red bell pepper, finely diced
  • 3scallions, sliced
  • ¾ cupcrumbled feta
  • for the tinolive oil or butter
  • optionalred chili flakes

To serve

  • buttered toast or avocado
  • fresh fruit
  • hot sauce
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Heat the oven.
    Preheat to 375°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin generously with olive oil or butter, getting into every cup, or use a silicone tin.
  2. 02
    Whisk the eggs.
    In a large bowl or measuring jug, whisk the eggs, cottage cheese, milk, salt, and pepper until well blended and a little frothy. A few small curds of cottage cheese are fine.
  3. 03
    Fill the cups.
    Divide the spinach, red pepper, scallions, and feta among the 12 cups. Pour the egg mixture over to fill each about three-quarters full. Add a pinch of chili flakes if you like heat.
  4. 04
    Bake.
    Bake 20 to 24 minutes, until puffed and just set in the center. Cool for 5 minutes, run a knife around the edges, and pop them out.
    A pair of hands in a mustard sleeve lifting a freshly baked egg cup out of a metal muffin tin, the other cups still set in the tin.
    Cool them a few minutes, run a knife around the edges, and they pop right out.
  5. 05
    Store and reheat.
    Keep in a sealed container in the fridge. Reheat one or two for 30 to 45 seconds in the microwave when you're ready.
A close macro of make-ahead egg cups, one broken open to show the soft custardy interior flecked with spinach, red pepper, and melted feta, with golden set edges.
A note from Anna

The cottage cheese is the trick. It makes the cups lighter and more custardy than eggs alone, and it sneaks in more protein. Grease the tin really well (or use silicone) or you will fight to get them out. And pull them just as they set; egg keeps cooking off the heat, and overbaked egg cups go rubbery and weep water in the fridge.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    Buttered toast or half an avocado
    To round it into a full breakfast.
  • ·02
    A bowl of berries
    Something fresh and bright alongside the savory cups.
  • ·03
    A little hot sauce
    A few dashes wakes them right up.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Keep for 4 days in a sealed container.

Reheat: Microwave 30 to 45 seconds for one or two cups, a little longer from cold.

Make ahead: The whole point. Bake a batch (or a double batch) on Sunday.

Freezer: Freeze for up to a month. Thaw overnight in the fridge, or reheat from frozen for 60 to 90 seconds.

Recipe card

Make-ahead egg and veg breakfast cups

Make-ahead egg cups baked in a muffin tin with spinach, peppers, and feta. Grab-and-go high-protein breakfast meal prep that reheats in under a minute.

Prep
10 min
Cook
22 min
Serves
12
Total
32 min
Ingredients
  • 10 large eggs
  • ½ cup full-fat cottage cheese
  • ¼ cup milk
  • ¾ tsp kosher salt
  • black pepper
  • 2 cups baby spinach, chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
  • 3 scallions, sliced
  • ¾ cup crumbled feta
  • for the tin olive oil or butter
  • optional red chili flakes
  • buttered toast or avocado
  • fresh fruit
  • hot sauce
Method (short version)
  1. 01Heat the oven.
  2. 02Whisk the eggs.
  3. 03Fill the cups.
  4. 04Bake.
  5. 05Store and reheat.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

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