Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar are perfect to make on the weekend and eat all week for a quick breakfast. These tasty muffins have a tiny amount of flour, but they’re still low in carbs; see notes to switch out the flour for a version that’s Keto and Gluten-Free!
PIN Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins to make them later!
Back in the days when I had to rush out the door to go teach school every day, easy grab-and-go breakfasts were a must to have in the fridge. I made my regular Egg Muffins over and over, (and I confess, I’d eat them in the car on the way to work.)
Then I discovered high protein breakfast muffins with cottage cheese and came up with several variations of this tasty easy breakfast, including these Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar. Imagine a biscuit married an omelet and they had a child, but the child got a few more omelet genes than biscuit genes; that’s what these tasty muffins are like.
Now I’m more likely to eat breakfast in front of the computer than behind the steering wheel but it still seems hard to sit down and eat a proper breakfast. Even if your mornings are more relaxed, you’ll love these easy cottage cheese muffins with ham and cheddar for a breakfast muffin with a delightful taste and texture.
What ingredients do you need?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- finely diced ham
- grated sharp cheddar
- green onions
- cottage cheese
- grated Parmesan
- White Whole Wheat Flour (affiliate link), or see Keto and Gluten-Free options below
- Almond Flour (affiliate link)
- baking powder
- salt
- eggs
- water
Can you use other cheese or meat in Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins?
There are endless variations of cheese or meat that will work in these breakfast muffins, or switch the meat for vegetables and make a meatless breakfast muffin if you prefer. Check out my other versions with Bacon or with Mushrooms and Feta if you want to see some other combinations I’ve made.
How low in carbs are the breakfast muffins with Ham and Cheddar?
These delicious breakfast muffins made with cottage cheese have only 7 net carbs and 17 grams of protein!
How can you make the breakfast muffins Gluten-Free and even lower in carbs?
If you check the nutritional information you’ll see that the small amount of white whole wheat flour doesn’t add many carbs, and the flour does give a nice texture to the egg muffins with cottage cheese. But if you need a version that’s gluten-free or Keto or don’t want to use flour I’d recommend replacing the flour with Flaxseed Meal (affiliate link) or Hemp Seeds (affiliate link), or maybe a combination of both those. There’s also a delicious gluten-free breakfast muffin on the blog that was partly inspired by this recipe.
Want more ideas for Breakfast Muffins?
Check out Low-Carb Muffins and Breakfast Muffins for more tasty muffins to eat for breakfast! And you can use Low-Carb and Keto Grab and Go Breakfasts for more breakfasts to eat on the run!
How to make Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- Cut up ham into small cubes, slice the green onions and measure out the grated cheese.
- Combine the cottage cheese, Parmesan, White Whole Wheat Flour or Flaxseed Meal or Hemp Hearts if that’s what you’re using, Almond Flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and water in a bowl.
- Then stir in the diced ham and grated cheese.
- Put the batter into large Silicone Baking Cups (affiliate link) that you’ve sprayed with non-stick spray.
- Bake at 400F/200C for 25-30 minutes, or until they’re lightly browned on top.
- Muffins can be kept in the fridge for several days and reheated in the microwave.
- One of these large muffins is a perfect breakfast for me, but you can make smaller ones if you only have small baking cups.
More Easy Breakfast Recipes from Kalyn:
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe for Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup finely diced ham (see notes)
- 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar
- 2 T sliced green onions
- 2/3 cup cottage cheese
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour (see notes)
- 2/3 cup almond flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 3 T water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Spray large Silicone Baking Cups with non-stick spray or olive oil, or use foil muffin cups. (I would spray those too.)
- Dice the ham, slice green onions, and measure out the grated cheese.
- In mixing bowl, combine cottage cheese, Parmesan, white whole wheat flour (or Flaxseed Meal or Hemp Hearts), almond meal, baking powder, salt, eggs, and water.
- Mix until well combined, then gently stir in ham, sharp cheddar, and green onions.
- Divide batter between six muffin cups.
- Bake muffins 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned on top and set. (If you’re going to be microwaving, I would bake about 25 minutes, for eating immediately I would use closer to 30 minutes.)
- Muffins can be refrigerated and reheated in microwave. Be careful not to microwave too long or they will get tough.
Notes
To make a version that’s Keto and Gluten-Free I would replace the white whole wheat flour with Flaxseed Meal (affiliate link) or Hemp Seeds (affiliate link), or use a combination of both.
I used large Silicone Baking Cups to cook these muffins, and I’d recommend those or foil baking cups for these muffins so they don’t stick to the pan. If you only have metal muffin pans, spray well with non-stick spray or you’ll have a hard time getting the muffins out of the pan! If you have smaller silicone baking cups you can make 12 small muffins instead.
You could use turkey ham if you prefer.
Recipe adapted from Cottage Cheese Muffins at 101 Cookbooks, original recipe by Rose Elliot.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6
Serving Size
1
Amount Per Serving
Calories 265Total Fat 18gSaturated Fat 6gUnsaturated Fat 10gCholesterol 154mgSodium 566mgCarbohydrates 9gFiber 2gSugar 1gProtein 17g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar are quite low in carbs even with a small amount of flour. Use white whole wheat flour, lean ham, low-fat cottage cheese, and low-fat cheese if you’re making these breakfast muffins for the original South Beach Diet. With those choices, this would be a good breakfast for phase 2 or 3. See the notes in the recipe for using Flaxseed Meal or Hemp Hearts to replace the flour for a version that’s Keto and Gluten-Free.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Breakfast Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe for Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins was posted in 2007 and I’ve been making them regularly since then! The recipe was updated with better photos in 2015 and it was last updated with more information in 2024.
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