Recession busting pepperoni and 3-cheese bake

Egg recipes are simple, healthy, mostly pantry-based and they taste great.

And better yet? Eggs are a great ingredient for tight budgets and tight belts. At only 16 cents and 70 jam-packed-with-protein-calories each, eggs are super value all around.

Once you get the technique of this egg dish down pat, you can mix it up. Just remember to pre-cook any vegetables with high water content or else it will be soggy city.

Make it gluten-free with a quick substitution of brown rice flour for wheat flour. My apologies to lactose-free folks out there: it's the cheese that makes this dish sublime!

6 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp each: baking powder & salt
1 cup each: cottage cheese & grated mozzarella cheese, divided
6 sundried tomatoes, sliced into slivers, divided
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
3 bocconcini ball cut into 15 slices (about 2 oz)
18 pepperoni slices

1 Pre-heat oven to 350F
2 Beat eggs well. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt, cottage cheese, 3/4 of mozzarella, half of the tomatoes and basil.
3 Pour eggs into a greased 9” glass pie plate. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella. Top with bocconcini, pepperoni, remaining tomatoes and basil.
4 Bake for 35 minutes or until golden and firmly set when tested with a toothpick.

Makes 6 servings.