One-Bite Wonders

I have been saving this recipe in my arsenal for the next time I throw a baby shower. I do that fairly often. I see a recipe and think, "that would be perfect for a (fill in the blank with your choice of occasion - baby shower, Super Bowl party, cocktail hour, you name it). I am constantly researching new recipes and sometimes I see things that may not be right at the moment but will be one day. To me, these little treats seemed like the perfect snack to adorn a table full of miniature treats geared toward women's palates.

Since I had tons of leftover baked ham from New Year's Day, I figured this would be the perfect time to test drive this recipe. Although there were no pregnant women in site and no talk of diapers, I still made them for an afternoon snack for Forrest and he loved them!

Mini Frittatas with Ham and Cheese
Adapted from Cooking Light December 2001

Yield

8 servings (serving size: 3 frittatas)

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 2/3 cup chopped reduced-fat ham (about 2 ounces) or left-over baked ham
  
• 1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat extra-sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  
• 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 large egg

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion (very finely chopped because the frittatas will be small and you don't want big chunks of onion); sauté 2 minutes or until crisp-tender and lightly browned.

Add ham; sauté about 3 minutes.

Remove from heat; let cool while you combine the other ingredients. Combine eggs, pepper, thyme, cayenne, and cheese in a large bowl;

stir with a whisk.

Add ham and onion mixture,

stirring with a whisk. Spoon mixture into 24 miniature muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Each cavity will only hold about two teaspoons of the mixture. It won't seem like enough but remember they will puff up during cooking. They do end up fairly small, but if serving as an hour' derves they are the perfect size for a one bite treat. If you want them bigger, like the size of a mini cupcake, they only fill 12 of the cavities in the mini muffin tin.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until set.

These mini-frittatas were delicious. They were surprisingly moist and very flavorful. I loved that they only had one yolk in the entire recipe. I much prefer the flavor of egg whites over the yolk. They were so packed with filling that the egg was not the most important element of the recipe anyway - the onions, cheese and ham were the stars of this show!