Lemon Berry Breakfast Soufflé Bites
& another year behind me
Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every week! Paid subscribers get even more on Saturdays — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!
CATCH UP!
My birthday was on Tuesday, and each year, I care even less about it than the year before. I think that’s a common sentiment for most people as you get older, but I’m not someone who generally feels stressed about aging (at least not yet). Birthdays are just not the milestones I feel like celebrating anymore — unless it’s my child’s. Then I’m paying attention to each week and each month, and I can only imagine how I feel when he makes it to a year.
The actual morning of my birthday was extremely hectic. We were trying to head out the door to take Sagan to his passport appointment — which should have been scheduled month’s ago — and Willow was giving us trouble, I was trying to finish up filming a video, a plant fell off the shelf, and Sagan was hungry right when we needed to leave. We made it to the appointment, but both Grant and I were feeling cranky.
Eventually, the day turned around, and I got to do the few things I cared about doing: playing with my baby, eating sushi for dinner, and watching the Tell Me Lies finale in bed with Grant.
This weekend is my sister’s baby shower, and I’ve been cleaning out Sagan’s closet to give her all the items I don’t need anymore. I get emotional pulling out his small clothes that he no longer fits into, even though with each new month, I find that it really does get better and better. Being a mother has made me so sentimental.
The loquats on my tree are starting to come in, and I can’t wait for them to ripen so I can make some jam and upside down cakes. It’s yet another marker of the passage of time — the loquats only sprout once a year, and it feels like just last year I was harvesting them from the tree, in between nesting and preparing for my life to change. My wistfulness for the passage of time only exists because this past year has felt so good, and I only mourn it because it’s so fleeting. But I also have so much to look forward to. And for that, I am grateful to continue to get older.
THINGS I’M LOVING
I’ve been rotating between coffee, matcha, and tea in the morning, and I started recently dabbling in making hojicha lattes. If you’re not familiar, hojicha is a type of Japanese tea — it’s actually green tea that has been roasted, and it has a really unique nutty, flavor. It has a lower caffeine content, and it’s prepared similarly to matcha with a whisk and water. I like to mix it with one shot of espresso to get that extra caffeine boost, and it tastes great with some oat milk or whole milk and a little sweetener.
Some options for buying hojicha:
Ippodo (I think code KALEMEMAYBE still works for 15% off!)
My favorite girl dinner lately: Patagonia Provisions Lemon & Herb Mussels and Sourdough Crackers with Sharp Cheddar! Eating this makes me feel like I'm on a seaside vacation. When it comes to tinned fish, mussels are so underrated! They're high in protein, iron, and B12, and I love that these are packed with thyme and lemon. Their sourdough crackers got me through pregnancy, and they're still one of my favorite accompaniments to this day.
This is the year of the loungewear for me. I’ve been really into matching PJ sets and comfy clothes to wear around the house that also help me feel a little more put together. I love this sweater set from Gap Factory — it’s 100% cotton and so cozy. I bought it in navy, but it looks like they only have both pieces of the set in brown. However, they are sold separately, so if you just like the sweater top or the sweater pants, you can just purchase one component (and the blue pants are still available).
DISCOUNT CODES!
Supplements
KALEMEMAYBE25 gets you 30% off your first order with Ritual!
Use my link to get up to 45% off Grüns gummy vitamins!
KALEMEMAYBE gets you 15% off Armra Colostrum!
CARINA gets you 15% off Perelel Vitamins
Food & Drink
KALEMEMAYBE gets you 10% off Fishwife products
DRIZZLE gets you 20% off Little Zing Mustard
KALEMEMAYBE gets you 15% off Kola Goodies tea lattes
CARINA20 gets you 20% off Primal Kitchen products
KALEMEMAYBE15 gets you 15% off Flour & Water products
CARINA20 gets you 20% off Juliet Wine!
CARINAWOLFF gets you 40% off your first order with Hungryroot!
CARINA20 gets you 20% off of Algae Cooking Club
Use my link to get 30% off your first order and a free gift from Thrive Market
KALEMEMAYBE10 gets you 10% off Culture Pop Soda
CARINAWOLFF gets you $30 off your first box + free croissants for life from Wildgrain
KMM25 gets you 25% off your whole order at Ground Up Nut Butters
KALEMEMAYBE gets you 15% off Ippodo Tea (my favorite matcha)!
Home & Other Products
CARINA10 gets you 10% off Starter Kits from Branch Basics!
CW15 gets you 15% off Bon Charge Red Light Therapy
Use my link to get 20% off at Canopy
CARINA10 gets you 10% off at Print Fresh (100% cotton pajamas)
Use this link to get 10% off your order at Tubby Todd!
RECIPE!
I’ve been experimenting with a lot of egg bites this month, and I couldn’t shake the idea of making a sweet version. Egg bites are just cottage cheese and eggs blended with various toppings, so I figured I could turn it into a breakfast “soufflé” by adding some sweetener, lemons, and berries.
The key to getting these the right consistency — fluffy and airy instead of crispy and frittata-like — is using a hot water bath, which steams the eggs. For this recipe, I baked with the water bath for the first 25 minutes, and then for the last 10 minutes or so, I got rid of the bath to finish cooking the soufflés. This helps them puff up a bit and lightly browns the top while keeping the middle soft.
I used these silicone molds to bake the eggs, and I definitely recommend them, since the egg bites pop right out without any issue. They do make slightly smaller bites, so you’ll end up with 16 egg bites. I’ll usually eat 3-5 at a time for breakfast! Or you could snack on them throughout the day.
I love that these have both protein from the eggs and cottage cheese and fiber from all the berries! A great way to start your morning!
Lemon Berry Breakfast Soufflé Bites
Ingredients (makes 16 small egg bites)
8 large eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 cups blueberries
1 cup raspberries
Oil spray
1. Preheat oven to 325 F. In a blender, add eggs, cottage cheese, honey, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Blend on medium for about 30 seconds or until everything is just combined and frothy. Don’t blend more than you have to — this prevents your soufflé bites from collapsing later.
2. Spray your silicone molds with oil spray (I used olive oil), and place on top of a baking sheet with rimmed edges. Pour the egg mixture into the molds about 3/4 the way to the top, and then add the berries.
3. Pour enough hot water onto the sheet pan to cover the bottom of the muffin cups. Carefully transfer to the oven, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the baking sheet with the water, and return only the silicone muffin molds back into the oven. Bake for 8-10 more minutes until the tops of the soufflé bites are puffed up and just starting to turn golden.
4. Remove from oven, and let cool for 5-10 minutes before removing the soufflé bites from the molds. They should pop out easily, but you can also use a knife gently lift them out.
You can store these in the fridge or the freezer and pop them in the microwave to enjoy them!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!
Last week, paid subscribers received another 30-minute meal! This week, we are putting tinned fish to work with this salmon bowl topped with the most delicious honey soy mayo sauce that really ties everything together!
Just a reminder that anytime you become a paid subscriber, you get access to ALL of the past recipes in the archive. You can always do a free 7-day trial as well!
Adding a sweet touch is so creative, yum!