Chile Relleno Egg Bites

**** See Below for Dairy Free option, these are also Vegetarian ****

Prep Time: 5-10 Minutes 
Cook Time: 20 Minutes 

Are you obsessed with egg bites and chile rellenos? If so, you need to try these egg bites with a Mexican twist. I don't know if you've ever made a chile relleno, but it's not the easiest or fastest dish to make, sometimes I want something fast and tasty. That's kind of how I came up with these egg bites. I was craving a chile relleno, but I didn't have the time to whip my eggs and I didn't want my chiles to go to waste. I decided to turn them into a breakfast meal on the go. These bites are super quick and easy to make, best part is you can enjoy for the full week or you can freeze and defrost them as you go. 

Ingredients: ​

2 poblano or california chiles 
8 cherry tomatoes, you can also use 1 roma
3 teaspoons garlic powder
4-5 pasture raised eggs
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Queso fresco cheese or Feta
1/2 cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
   OR  ( for dairy free version see below lines) 
Instead of cottage cheese and heavy whipping cream use: 
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4 tablespoons Miyokos cream cheese
1/3 cup dairy free milk 

Trust me when I say that Miyokos cream cheese has a tart taste which gives this dish the extra taste it needs if you decide to go dairy free. You can use any one you want, but I highly recommend this one.

Nut milks work the best, I like to use Elmhurst hazelnut or Two Tress Almond milk. These only contain nuts, water and sea salt. Or you can make your own if you have the time and are feeling adventurous. 

Steps: 

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.​

First I like to wash my produce by soaking it in water and baking soda or vinegar for a minute, no need to go longer. After you wash your produce you want to rinse and dry. 

Cut up the chiles and tomato into small dime sized squares. In a medium to large bowl, add chiles, tomato and sprinkle in the garlic salt and mix it evenly season. 

If you consume dairy, follow these steps, if you're dairy free, skip this step and go on to the next one. 
In a separate cup add in the cottage cheese and heavy whipping cream, mix and add this to the bowl. 

** For Dairy Free option follow steps below** 
In a separate cup, add Mioyoko's dairy free cream cheese and nut milk of choice. I warm this in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the vegan cream cheese so that it mixes easily with the milk, you want it to create a cottage cheese like consistency, so don't fully melt the vegan cream cheese. If your microwave is higher power, use less time. The best way would be to warm the nut milk on the stove top in stainless steel sauce pot. Then add in vegan cream cheese again till it forms a cottage cheese consistency/ lumpy. 

Then in the large bowl with chiles and tomatoes add in the dairy/ dairy free mix. Mix all these together. 

Use a muffin/ cupcake non-stick baking sheet , I like to still coat butter of choice, use non dairy butter for DF version. You can also dust arrowroot powder over butter. 

Add in mixture 3/4 of the way to each slot. Then for the dairy version I like to sprink queso fresco cheese on top of each cup cake slot. Place in oven and let bake 18-20 minutes. You can use the cupcake trick to test that they are ready. I like to stick a tooth pick in the bites, pull out, if there is egg residue, then they are not quite ready. Once there is no residue from this trick then your egg bites are ready. This mixture should make 6-8 egg bites. 

Let cool and then enjoy, store in fridge or freeze. Would not let store in fridge longer than 4-5 days. 

Another reason I love making these egg bites is to easily ensure that I have breakfast for the entire week. If I know I'm going to have a heavy work week, then I will make these on Sunday night, because I know I can stretch them for the week. You can also double or triple the recipe, freeze the remainder if you plan to have more than a work weeks worth of egg bites. BAM...breakfast on the go.