Easy Baked Eggs

This fall, hubs goes to law school. I am so, so excited for him, and so, so sad for our collective pocketbook. We'll have to cut our food budget dramatically. So what will that mean for our food future? Well, cheese will be mostly out -- it just costs too much to support my cheese habit. We'll probably have to eat less meat as well. Soups, rice, and pasta will definitely be over-represented. Still, I hope some new adventures will come from our budget cuts. Maybe we'll get to the farmers markets for fruit and vegetable seconds. Maybe I'll bake all of our bread instead of buying it. Maybe I'll start canning and making jams and/or peanut butter. Only time will tell, so stay tuned and feel free to offer any super-cheap suggestions. Otherwise, the next four years may yield only posts detailing different flavors of ramen and the many frozen vegetables that can be added to them to spruce them up!

Speaking of super inexpensive, delicious, easy food, another great breakfast we have pretty frequently is oeufs en cocotte.

Oeufs en cocotte is super easy. All you need is 30-35 minutes, and only about 5 of those minutes are hands-on time. Ingredients are as follows for two people:
2 eggs
Butter
Herbs
Cream (optional)
Cheese (optional)

Butter up two ramekins and pre-heat the oven to 350. Crack an egg into each ramekin, top with a dab of butter and herbs. I use dried thyme and basil, but anything you really like -- including fresh herbs -- should work fine. If you want, add about a tablespoon of cream to the top; I usually skip this step because we don't keep cream in the house. If you love cheese, sprinkle about a tablespoon of cheese on top of each egg. Put egg ramekins in a bake-safe container (I use a brownie pan) and pour hot water into the pan around the ramekins, so that the water reaches just above the level of the eggs in the ramekins. The water is necessary for the eggs cook evenly all the way through in the oven. Without it, the eggs will cook on the outside and get tough before the inside is fully cooked. Pop the whole contraption in the oven and cook for about 17-18 minutes. Don't worry if the very top of the baked eggs are a little wobbly when you pull them out, they'll solidify if you let them sit and cool for a few minutes.

Yummy and easy!

Ease: 9
Taste: 9
Comfort: 8.75