Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Nourishing Breakfast--Bird Nest Eggs and a Tip

I thought I'd have to bow out of this week's Real Food Wednesday, till I visited Katie's blog and saw her great egg recipes. I'm totally copying her egg motif! The theme of this week's carnival is healthy kid-friendly recipes.

I saw the idea for bird nest eggs on a childhood friend's facebook and made them myself. Big hit with my kids!

First make homemade hash browns. Boil potatoes--as many as you'd like. (I did this the night before.) Grate or shred. Salt and pepper, then brown in a skillet in coconut oil or butter. My cast iron skillet resulted in a nice crispy crust.

Separately, fry eggs over easy (remember, these need to be from pastured chickens for optimal healthfulness...I'm working on finding a source of healthy eggs). You'll want one egg for each person, per serving.

Arrange a pile of hash browns on each person's plate in the shape of a nest. Place a fried egg in the dished-out center. Now you have an egg in your nest!

You could also add some kind of yummy, healthful meat to your hash browns if you'd like. Ideally, this would be served with fruit and yogurt on the side, or something along that line.

My kids loved bird nest eggs. They were getting sick of scrambled eggs, so this was something that tasted different, as well as having an imaginative name!

On a totally different note, my kids are not picky at all and they love veggies. They really do. The other day my warped children were begging their daddy for the squash he got at the restaurant. They eat things other kids won't touch.

I've asked myself why. I think it's due to a number of things.

1. I exclusively breastfeed for 6 months. No solids, not even rice cereal.

2. I don't use baby food. From day one on solids, my kids are fed mashed up real food, fruits and veggies at first. (I avoid high allergy foods, of course.) They never know that Gerber Pineapple Delight exists. Their first food experiences are real food.

3. I don't fix "kid food." When we eat chicken, the kids don't get chicken nuggets, when we have spaghetti I don't order them pizza.

4. They don't have to eat what I fix if they don't like it or aren't hungry, but I don't fix special foods for them if they choose not to eat what is on their plates.

5. They have grown some of their own food. They might not like squash if their only experience had been the store variety, but when they had ownership in growing it, it became special. They watched and waited for it to be ready to eat, and since they grew it, of course they thought it was good!

Check out more great ideas at Cheeseslave.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work with your kid's nutrition!

We did the same 5 things and our 3 children are now young adults who are very healthy, lean(no "muffin tops" hanging out on their waistlines), and eat a variety of healthy foods. We have completely bypassed the "teen junk food" stage. We are very thankful for good health & good habits.

SueLovesCherries said...

I wish I had done that with my kids. I bottle-fed. But, in retrospect, it might not have worked - both my girls have Asperger's and being picky eaters (texture, smell, etc.) comes with the territory.

My mom made us eat everything, or we'd have it for breakfast the next morning - and we learned quick to eat what was on our plate!

Donetta said...

My hens are now a real treasue to teach the respect of good foods. The garden is a joy to kids who come for play dates too.
Recently a girl said "oh no I hate peas" then I had her pick one and try it, she was begging for more!

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