Getting right back on the horse. I'm finding the delightful thing about the South Beach Diet is the ease with which you can get right back on. Inspired by Kalyn's love of the silicone muffin pan, and equal love of the egg muffins (she's given us recipes with delicious counterpoints of same), I thought I'd try my own variation, and of course get my hands on one of those silicone pans!

Right off I can say that the silicone muffin pan is an immediate hit with me. The muffins held their shape and popped out quite easily with a little push from a spatula. It cleaned up in a jiffy too!

The recipe for these egg muffins is astoundingly simple. First I sprayed the clean silicone muffin pan with Pam spray, then I took one bunch of green onions, chopped and divided them evenly in the pan. I used just the green ends, and saved the white bulbs for other purposes.

Next I put a tablespoon of Mexican mix low-fat shredded cheese on top of the onions. You'll want to fill the cups about 3/4 full before adding the eggs.

Then I simply cracked an extra large egg into each. I then placed it in a pre-heated 375F oven for 25 minutes.

And out popped the finished egg muffins.

Which I then plated with a sprig of fresh mint growing on my deck. See the layers? The eggs were very shiny, the 'egg wash' effect, and there was a thin tough coating around them, similar to cellophane. I think I should have cooked them a little less (the egg yolks were completely done), or perhaps put a little bowl of water in the oven so there would have more of a poaching effect. At any rate, when you cut into them, the insides were tender, and the flavors of the cheese and green onions were a nice complement. Tableside, I added a dash of "Real Salt" from Utah, which I've found pairs wonderfully with eggs, and freshly ground black pepper. My father invited me to add it to my permanent repertoire. For those that are eating carbs, these would be awesome between toasted English muffins!

I'm also submitting this post to the ever-enjoyable Weekend Herb Blogging event, this week hosted by Katerina of Daily Unadventures in Cooking. It is fitting that I should enter a variation of Kalyn's egg muffin recipe since she was the originator and creator of this event, not to mention the one who keeps its quality consistent. This makes it consistently enjoyable week after week too.

I'm rather inconsistent at entering posts to the event, but I always take a look at other's creations each week. Kalyn's blog, Kalyn's Kitchen is one of my favorite go-to spots as well, and I've become an even more frequent visitor since starting the South Beach diet as she makes it easy to find recipes that work well on each phase at her site!

My featured herb is green onions. These culinary workhorses are often taken for granted, and have a variety of names - scallions, spring onions and bunching onions are common ones. Some call them shallots as well. Green onions have nearly four times the vitamin C and up to 5,000 times the vitamin A (beta carotene) that is found in red, white, or yellow onions. Surprising for these green bits that are scattered about the plate for garnish, or added for a little mild onion flavor to various sauces, particularly Asian ones. A member of the allium family, the World's Healthiest Foods site talks about the health benefits in terms of the whole family of onions. Not a bad idea to keep these around and use liberally!