Small steps food series

Breakfast
Icon-Frying-Pan

Eggs for the win!

I love eggs. Absolutely love them. I have a saying - ‘have an egg, have a meal’. It’s because they are the most versatile ingredient in my kitchen. If there’s eggs, I can make something, any meal of the day.

Sunny side up, poached, boiled, baked, scrambled, frittatered, quiched (made up words!) - you name it - eggs can make it. There are so many ways to enjoy eggs and the best part is that they take NO TIME at all to cook.

And just remember - like all real food - QUALITY DOES MATTER. Organic free-range are the best. Caged are bad and free-range labelling can mean a whole lot of different things. I know, I know. It’s confusing.

Thing is, whatever the chicken eats, we eat. Just like humans are what we eat - so are chickens. If they are fed hormones and antibiotics - the hormones and antibiotics will be in the eggs and the chicken meat.

It’s why I recommend making friends with chicken people LOL! Having a friend who is constantly giving away eggs is what I call a #friendwithbenefits.

Jokes aside though….

The price of organic, free-range eggs is higher. I get it. And our family go through a lot of eggs. But in my wholefoods journey I have found that the organic labelling on animal products gives me a huge bang for my buck. I choose to put my money here. You don’t have to.

Let’s look at some fun ways to make eggs!

Recipes to try
Omelette

*Serves 2

Ingredients

3 Eggs
Butter to grease frypan
Fillings of choice – Spinach, avocado, tomato, tuna, leftover meat or veggies

Instructions

1. Add a dollop of butter to a frypan and heat to a med-high heat

2. Whisk up eggs

3. Pour eggs into pan and cook until almost set

4. Put filling on top of one half of the egg in the pan and fold the other half over the top.

Enjoy!

Baked Eggs

So I’ve pretty much created the simplest baked eggs in the world and my husband agrees it tastes totally cafe worthy – not kidding.

INGREDIENTS

  •  1 tbls olive oil
  • 1/2 onion diced
  • 2 garlic cloves sliced
  • 3 pieces of good-quality bacon diced
  • 1 tin diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup passata tomato puree
  • 1 heaped tsp Italian herbs
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar ACV
  • 1 tsp rapadura sugar (brown sugar if you don’t have it)
  • 1/2 tsp Good quality salt
  • 4 eggs
  • Avocado and feta (optional)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Warm olive oil in a pan over moderate heat. Add onion, garlic and bacon and cook gently (don’t burn the garlic!)
3. Once cooked add tomatoes and passata. Get it bubbling away and then add salt, sugar, herbs and ACV.
4. Let it reduce slightly (maybe four-five minutes on the stove) then transfer to an oven proof dish – I used a square ceramic dish
5. Make little holes for the eggs, drop them in and pop in the oven for around 10-15 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.
6. Add avocado and feta over the top if you like – you could add anything! Leftover chicken and haloumi would be amazing. Serve it on a bed of baby spinach and a side of crusty sourdough. Options are endless… Change herbs to change the flavour.
Boiled Eggs

Here’s a little guide about cooking cooking times. Remember - the timing starts once the water is boiling. Put eggs into cold water and on a high heat and then start counting once it’s boiling. I take the eggs off the stove when it’s come to the boil and wait out the times. Don’t forget to transfer to cold water as soon as they are done - to stop the cooking process.

2 minutes – The white isn’t fully set and the yolk is totally raw.

4 minutes – The white is fully set, but the yolk is thick and runny.

6 minutes – The white is fully set, and the yolk is mostly set, but still a little runny in the middle.

8 minutes – The white is fully set, and the yolk is set, but tender.

10 minutes – The white is fully set, and the yolk is fully set.

Ideas:

Add hard boiled egg to avocado and feta and spring onion and sliced bacon and smash it all up together, drizzle with olive oil and squeeze lemon juice and serve on baby spinach.

Slice boiled egg and lay on top of a piece of organic sourdough toast spread with avocado and tomato. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Poached Eggs

I’ll leave it to Jamie to teach you how to poach eggs. Watch here.

And here's a delicious addition to your poached egg (or any egg for that matter)...

Simply heat 1 tbls butter or coconut oil in a pan, add a crushed garlic clove and then a handful of mushrooms and chopped zucchini.  Once cooked add two big handfuls of baby spinach and cook until wilted. Yum yum yum!

A short watch
Christine Cronau

A few years ago I interviewed Christine Cronau - we talked about fat. She follows the Low-Carb High-Fat diet which is not for everyone and I never recommend any specific style of eating. But listen to what she says about the history of the low-fat movement and the most SIMPLE way to add a little more fat to your breakfast.

Want more? View the full interview with Christine here.

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