I can’t tell you how big a fan I am of breakfast.  No matter how early I have to wake up for work, my first priority every morning is a healthy balanced breakfast to start my day off right.

A lot of people, my mother included, are not breakfast people.  They swear that they save calories and feel better if they skip out on a morning meal.  Although I can understand their logic, I will say to you breakfast haters that recent research favors those of us in the breakfast club.  In a study published in Obesity, researchers found that high caloric intake at breakfast in comparison with dinner resulted in much greater weight loss in overweight and obese individuals.  More on this to come in a future post.

I know that I cannot convert all you breakfast haters by citing a single study; however, I ask you to give breakfast a second chance, and if you can’t get on the breakfast train just yet, try out the brunch club.

This egg dish is heavy on the veggies and heavy on the spices, making for a scrumptious and nutritious  start, middle, or even end to your day.

Baked Eggs over Spicy Red Pepper Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 1/4 onion
• 3 mini sweet peppers or 1 red bell pepper
• 5 cherry tomatoes
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• pinch salt
• pinch ancho chili powder
• pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup cooked quinoa
• 2 eggs
• chopped fresh parsley (to taste)

Directions:

Chop onion and peppers into thin strips.  Cut cherry tomatoes in half.  In a large frying pan or cast-iron skillet, place veggies with olive oil over high heat.  Add salt, chili powder, and pepper.

Cook over high heat stirring only occasionally.  You want your veggies to be slightly charred for added flavor.  Once your veggies are charred, turn the heat down to medium/low and add cooked quinoa and stir in with veggies to heat up.

Crack two eggs over the quinoa veggie amalgam and cover with top.  Allow to steam for 8-15 minutes until your egg yolk is still runny, but the white has set.  You can steam for longer if you prefer your eggs over-medium or over-hard.

Remove from oven and top with fresh parsley. Serve with your favorite cup of coffee.