With my husband’s birthday and Valentine’s Day falling so close together, I was on a food bender last week, making all of his favorite things back to back. The result was a refrigerator full of excellent leftovers that I adore in their most direct (read: repeat of last night’s dinner) application, but even more when I can repurpose them into something that is new and different.

One of Mr. Meat and Potatoes’ all-time favorite things is my stacked enchiladas with chili gravy. Mostly, it’s just that he wants a vehicle for that chili gravy, which, if I do say so myself, is better than a bath in caramel sauce. So when I woke up one morning and realized that there was leftover chili gravy in the refrigerator, I knew I had to give it a new home in our breakfast dish.

Let me begin by saying that this is not one of Mr. Meat and Potatoes’ favorite thing — it’s one of mine: baked eggs. If you have not done baked eggs before, begin today. It is easy, can look a little fancy, and holy cow, it’s good enough to count as dinner.

I usually do baked eggs with a little feta and some herbs and cream, but this time I thought I’d change it up and make a sort of “Tex-Mex” version. It did not disappoint. I might never go back to my traditional version.

This works well, of course, if you have chili gravy lying around in your refrigerator, and I usually do. But if you must make some, here is how:

*3 tablespoons fat from ground beef (or butter)
3 heaping tablespoons flour
Make a “roux” over medium-high heat.
Gradually add chicken or beef broth, up to 4 cups, stirring continuously, until you get your desired consistency.
Add in 3 heaping tablespoons of chili powder, a teaspoon of cumin, a dash of salt and a dash of garlic powder and whisk thoroughly, making sure there are no lumps.
Heat it up if you like with cayenne or hot sauce.*

Once you have your chili gravy ready (that recipe above will make a lot, by the way, and you will only need a few tablespoons for this purpose, so be happy and put it in the refrigerator for enchiladas in a few days).

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2014/feb/17/269174/

Baked Eggs with Roasted Red Peppers in Chili Sauce

6 eggs
1/4 cup roasted red peppers, cut into bite-sized pieces
6 tablespoons chili gravy
6 tablespoons milk or cream
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded (I used jalapeno cheddar because I like things spicy)
Salt and pepper

I do this in individual cups so as to be sure that no one’s yolk gets destroyed, but you could do it in a small casserole dish if you need to.

Plus, little individual egg cups are cute and people feel really fancy about them.

So, line up six ramekins, and into each one drop a tablespoon of milk and a tablespoon of chili gravy. Stir together.

Then lay a few pieces of red pepper in, and then crack in an egg. Sprinkle salt on the egg and gently use a spoon to pull some of the liquid from the bottom up around the white of the egg if you can. Don’t break the yolk!

Top with shredded cheese, and bake for 20 minutes. I like the yolk to be warm but not completely cooked through. You can adjust this time if you want a runny yolk or a hard yolk.

Full disclosure: for my baked eggs I roasted my own red peppers, only because I had a red pepper that needed to be used on the quick, but the jarred kind are perfectly acceptable.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2014/feb/17/269175/

Enjoy this next weekend. Invite your neighbors over to participate. They’ll be not only grateful, but ever-so-impressed. You don’t have to tell them it only took you five minutes to prep them.