Browned Onion Kugel

Here is a tasty vegetarian dish that's pretty easy to put together.  I love them - I passed up a free bagel with cream cheese today because I knew I had some left over in our fridge to eat when I got home.  Aleks eats them and says he enjoys them, but never seems very excited about them.  I usually serve them with a salad for dinner.

The original recipe is on epicurious.com:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Browned-Onion-Kugels-231507

~10 oz medium egg noodles*

1/4- 1/2 c unsalted butter

3 cups chopped onions (2 large)

1 1/4 cups sour cream

1 1/4 cups small-curd cottage cheese (10 ounces)

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook the noodles until they're done.  

Cook the onions in butter over medium high heat until they are translucent and fairly brown - about 20 min.  Stir together remaining ingredients, then add cooked noodles and onions.  

Spoon into 12 buttered muffin cups (you'll probably have some left over, just cook in another buttered or stick-proof baking dish).  These will puff up a bit while they cook, but then they'll sink back down, so feel free to completely fill the muffin cups.  Bake at 425 for 20 min or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

*Note, the original recipe calls for 6 oz of noodles, but based on the reviews I've always increased the amount I've used and liked the results.  I'm guessing I use about 10 oz.  Basically, I make a 12 oz bag, then save out some plain for Will to eat in his lunch the next day.

Because of the sour cream this isn't the healthiest recipe.  I'm going to try to sub yogurt for all or some of the sour cream next time I make them.  Honestly, if I can do that successfully, and make these healthier they will rank up there with yorkshire pudding in my book in terms of taste good/fill you up for a while/reasonably healthy/easy to make comfort food.

These also travel fairly well and (surprisingly) reheat really well, so they're good for lunch the next day.