almond-crusted egg florentine with heirloom-ish tomatoes

this past weekend, i found a new-to-me Instagram account that i just knew i had to follow.
not only do i like the girl's photos, but i seriously want to make every.single.recipe she's posted.
she knows how to take some pretty fabulous food shots, too--an area in which I could use more than a little help.
and those of you who are health-conscious will love this...most (if not all) of her recipes are paleo.  she has a range of food issues in her family--from celiac disease to type 1 diabetes--so we are talking healthy food here.  but don't let healthy be interpreted as tasteless.  because that just simply isn't so.  not here.

tonight, i made her recipe for almond-crusted egg florentine with heirloom tomatoes.
i mean, i mostly made it.
i did the almond-crusted part...and the egg part...but i'm fairly certain there was nothing heirloom about my Aldi-bought, 99¢ a pound, Roma tomatoes.

it was fabulous.
i mean, it was really, really, REALLY good.
my hubby told me how good it was while he was eating.
and then an hour or two later, he stopped what he was doing just to tell me again how good it was. 

so.  here you have it. {{my notes/variations follow the recipe.  because you know me--i can never make a recipe exactly as it reads.}}

@snailsandponytails's Almond Crusted Egg Florentine with Heirloom Tomatoes {{copied directly from her IG post}}
12 pastured eggs whisked and set aside.
In a large cast iron skillet, chop 2 small red onions, place in skillet with a couple Tbsp. of olive or coconut oil.  Add a 10oz. bag of chopped spinach, a pinch of sea salt, and a tsp. each of garlic powder and herbes de Provence.
Saute until softened.
Spread veggies evenly over bottom of pan {skillet} and pour eggs over.
Top with thinly sliced tomatoes.
Bake at 350º until almost set.
In separate bowl, mix 1 cup almond flour with about 3 cloves of grated garlic, 1 tsp {or to taste} red chili flakes, a pinch of salt and black pepper. Then add ½Tbsp. olive oil and mix with your hands.
Sprinkle evenly over egg bake and broil on high for about 10 minutes or until set and crumbs are slightly browned. 
Enjoy!

☞i always like to have leftovers, so i actually doubled this recipe, and baked it in TWO large cast iron skillets.
☞i browned a pound of organic chicken breakfast sausage in a skillet...then divided it evenly between the two skillets...turned them both on medium-ish heat and tossed in the red onion and spinach.  i also added colored bell peppers here.  this past weekend, at the grocery, i grabbed sliced mushrooms, planning on adding them when i make this again this week. i think this step right here is where you can get the most creative.  you could toss in any variety of vegetables--sautéed zucchini, chopped asparagus, diced tomatoes (perhaps try to avoid a bit of their watery juices), diced sweet potato (ooooo!  *that* idea just popped into my head...and i know immediately that i'm also adding that when i make it this week)--use your imagination!!!  the more the merrier!
☞i used fresh minced garlic (not garlic powder), eliminated the herbes de Provence (because i didn't have any), and tossed in some freshly ground black pepper and Italian seasoning.
☞i added a few extra eggs...because my skillets were deep enough to do so....and...leftovers.☺
☞for the "bread crumb" topping, i used half almond flour/meal and half coconut flour.  
i *loved* the sweet-ish taste that the coconut flour gave.
☞in the topping, i didn't have grated garlic on hand...and was too lazy to use my microplane.  so i used garlic powder.  i also used ground cayenne pepper rather than the red pepper flakes (but only a ½tsp. cayenne pepper per skillet).
☞my skillets baked for 25-30 minutes before they were ready for the breading.  next time, i think i should put the breading on when the eggs are still a bit more "wet" on top...a lot of the breading didn't "stick" and fell off when i served it up.  the breading is one of the best parts...you don't want to lose it!
☞even though i had my broiler setting on low, and i had the skillets on one of the lower oven racks, the topping still browned *very* quickly.  keep an eye on it.  it probably won't need the full 10 minutes.

i'm a tweak-er...a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type cook.  i throw in whatever sounds good to me at the time, rarely keeping record of measurements or amounts.  i hope the notes above are helpful, but if you have questions, feel free to shoot them to me in the comments below...or you can contact me on my IG (@tweetpotatopie).

(to be fair, i should also mention that some of @snailsandponytails's recipe inspiration came from the cookbook Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone.)