put a fork in it: Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce

When I embarked on my food blogging adventure my wonderful friend gave me a book by a very popular food blogger, Deb Peleman. Deb’s blog is called SmittenKitchen.com, and she has WONDERFUL recipes for the tastiest things. Buuuut healthy food is not really on her radar. It’s more about her love of food, and “creating and finding the best of the best and adapting the recipes for the everyday cook”. I would say… she helps the everyday cooker, cook gourmet meals at home.

I have been reading her cook book before bed; similar to some who might read novels before bed… weird I know, but I love food! One thing she talked about was her love of tomato and egg combination. One morning last month I had this idea for poaching eggs in tomato sauce. I thought I had read about in my Smitten Kitchen book, but looking back through I couldn’t find the reference. The problem is I read so many cook books, blogs, and foodie magazines, that I often have trouble remembering where I saw a recipe I want to try! EITHER way… this recipe I am giving my inspirational credit to Deb and her Smitten Kitchen.

Tomato sauce and eggs is not something I think about when I think of breakfast foods, but boy-oh-boy was this deeelicious.

Side story....

I am a big fan of Eggs Benedict and usually order it when we go out for breakfast… something I have recently been ordering is Eggs Florentine (the veggie version of eggs benedict), adding the ham/Canadian bacon, with hollandaise sauce on the side (I’ll admit I may be a server’s worst nightmare). That combo gives you the best of both worlds, the veggies from the Florentine, the ham from the benedict and the bad-for-you-hollandaise on the side. Win. Win. Win. Typically Eggs Florentine comes with tomato and spinach… so I would say that this Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce could be an interesting adaption of my Eggs Benedict obsession. But who knows?

This recipe is an easy morning fix, but hearty enough to be served any time during the day. However this is not my healthiest creation, the three big downfalls, calories, cholesterol, and SODIUM!! If you want to cut back the sodium/calories I would recommend (1) only using ½ the parmesan cheese or completely cutting it out, (2) use egg whites instead of the whole egg and (3) exchanged the jarred tomato sauce for homemade or low sodium tomato sauce. Like anything canned/jarred, prepared tomato sauce has large amounts of sodium.

On the plus side, this recipe is packed with fiber and protein and will keep you full well past lunch!! I hope you enjoy it!

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 372 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 297

Calories from Fat 105

% Daily Value^*

Total Fat 11.7g 18%

Saturated Fat 4.5g 22%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 179mg 60%

Sodium 1181mg 49%

Total Carbohydrates 32.8g 11%

Dietary Fiber 4.9g 19%

Sugars 13.1g

Protein 19.3g

Vitamin A 85%	•	Vitamin C 22%
Calcium 34%	•	Iron 26%

Nutrition Grade B+

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce

Serving Size: 2 people

Ingredients:

2 Eggs

1 Whole Wheat English muffin

2 tbs Parmesan & Romano Cheese

2 cups Spinach

2 cups Prepared Tomato Sauce (my favorite Classico Tomato Basil Sauce)

pepper

DIRECTIONS

In a medium skillet, turn heat to medium heat and add tomato sauce. Heat tomato sauce until it is lightly boiling.

Add eggs to skillet, lightly season with pepper and cover.

Cook the eggs until desired “doneness”. I like my eggs to be medium, with the yolks thick but runny. Typically when poaching eggs I cook them until the yolk become opaque and when shook still jiggle. (Very scientific I know).

While eggs are cooking toast English muffin.

Once toasted, cover the english muffin with parmesan cheese.

In a microwave safe bowl, add your spinach, and microwave for about 20-30 seconds or until the spinach becomes slightly wilted. *Note you could skip this step, and put the raw spinach on the english muffin. I prefer to heat the spinach up because it condenses down once it’s heated, and you can fit a whole cup of spinach on each ½ of the muffin.