Category Archives: eggs

Food Storage Tips

There's nothing worse than having to throw out food because it's gone fuzzy or mushy. It's even worse when it's something that you purchased organic because that means you paid an even higher price for it. With proper food storage habits you can make sure that your food lasts as long as possible.

It's easy to wind up with an abundance of fresh produce for a number of reasons:

it was on sale
you've just visited the farmer's market and it looked inviting
you have a CSA share and have limited control over how many tomatoes they give you (when tomatoes are in season of course)
you have a home garden and discovered the awesome power of a single zucchini seed.

Whatever the reason for having a bountiful supply of fresh food (or even dairy, eggs, and foods of that nature which can also spoil), it's important to know how long it can be stored for. It's also a great idea to understand proper food storage. After all, knowing which things go in the refrigerator, what has to be wrapped, and the best way to wrap it, can be the difference between eating what you paid for or creating expensive compost.

Buying organic

As you go through this infographic below keep in mind that there are a significant number of items which need to be purchased organically.

The Dirty Dozen:those 12 fruits and vegetables which need to be purchased organically in order to avoid pesticide residues) – This list changes annually, be sure to revisit it every year
Dairy products: All dairy should be organic in order to avoid the artificial hormones (rBGH), antibiotics, and pesticide and GMO-laden feed that is part of conventional dairy
Eggs: Whenever possible eggs should be sourced from someone who has free range or pastured hens, in order to produce the healthiest egg. Farmer's markets can be a great source for this, or ask around. Many more people are beginning to raise chickens at home for the eggs. When it's prime season, at one egg per chicken per day, they may have extras to sell

Storage

One final note, I really don't like to wrap food in plastic. Plastics, containers and wraps, are comprised of chemical compounds that are hormone disrupting. For more information about why plastic, and especially BPA, are harmful for you watch my interview with Lara Adler. For storage if you must wrap use plastic, place wax paper over the food first and then wrap over that. If at all possible try using glass or steel containers.

Source: Fix.com

World Egg Day

by Miraeggs, gluten free, recipeseggs

October 8 is World Egg Day. Over the years eggs have gotten a bad rap. We've been told that we shouldn't eat them, or we should eat them but throw out the yolks, now they're okay to eat (avoiding problems with suppliers that is). I think a lot of people are still very confused about eggs and whether they are okay to eat.

Eggs are a great food. Yes, they have cholesterol in them, but it's healthy cholesterol and something that our body knows how to process. A single egg also contains six grams of protein for only about 70 calories. That's quite a nutritional package. They also provide brain-boosting choline as well as lutein which can be helpful in protecting against cataracts and macular degeneration.

Just as important, eggs are delicious, versatile, and easy to prepare. In honor of World Egg Day, here's a recipe for a Breakfast Quiche Muffins modified from the excellent Crustless Quiche recipe by Jeffrey Smith.

Breakfast Quiche Muffins

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

4 slices preservative free bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup mushrooms, diced and sauteed
2 spring onions, diced
4 eggs
1 cup organic cottage cheese
1 cup shredded organic cheddar cheese
1/4 cup brown rice flour (can use whole wheat if GF is not a concern)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
generous pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Grease two muffin tins and set aside
Beat together eggs, cottage cheese and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
blend in bacon, mushrooms, and spring onions
In a separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients before adding to mixture
Spoon mixture into muffin cups
Top with remaining shredded cheese
Bake until tops are golden and quiches are slightly firm when touched 15-20 mins
Remove from oven and cool in the tins for 5 minutes before serving

Notes

Notes:

These can be frozen and reheated at 400 degrees F for 5-7 minutes
It is possible to use other vegetables
Add 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs for added flavor

Superfoods Trending Down

by Miraeggs, fruit, immune system, legumes, nuts, super foods

According to a recent news article, superfoods are trending down. Not all superfoods, just the ones that have been the media darlings, acai, goji berries and the like. I actually like this trend because as I wrote previously (back in 2008 I might add) we don't need to import superfoods. Bringing them to your table from other countries that adds to the environmental impact of sourcing them. We would do better to utilize those that are readily available. It's more sustainable, eco-friendly, and also easier on your wallet.

What are superfoods

While there isn't a true definition for a superfood, it's generally accepted that they are foods with high levels of vitamins, minerals, and/or antioxidants. Eating them is supposed to be beneficial due to their increased nutrient values. To take advantage of their health benefits, choose local, or domestic, options.

Domestic superfoods

Berries– with lots of fiber and antioxidants they're great and easy to add to the diet in cereal, yogurt, salads, plain, anytime.

Eggs – high in protein (1 egg provides 6 g) with lutein and zeaxanthin (good for your eyes) eggs are nourishing, versatile and satisfying.

Nuts – raw and unsalted are the best. Soaked nuts are optimal for good nutrition. Providing monosaturated fats they are a great heart-healthy choice. Add them to foods such as cereals or baked good or take some along for healthy nutrition boosting snack.

Broccoli – yes, it is a super food. With an amazing nutritional punch, it provides not only fiber and a wide range of vitamins, but it also has sulforaphane which is a potent cancer-fighting detoxifier.

Beans – with a hefty dose of fiber and iron beans are an all-around good for you food. Soups, stews, and dips are a great way to add them to your meals.

Beta-carotenes – okay so this isn't a food but rather a group of foods. Found in orange foods (think sweet potatoes, winter squashes, carrots, etc) and dark leafy greens (the chlorophyll hides the color) like kale, spinach, collards, and more betacarotene is a powerful antioxidant that supports immune system health, reproductive health, and it's very good for your eyes.

So while imported superfoods may be trending down I'm rooting for an overall upward trend in the concept of nourishing foods.

The Egg Saga Continues

by Miraeggs, recall

If you have access to the internet it's pretty much a given at this point that you know about the enormous egg recall. You may even have heard that the salmonella contamination actually went back as far as 2008.

Obviously this issue raised a lot of questions about sanitary practices, animal health management, and even about FDA/USDA oversight or lack thereof. I'm sure a lot more people are either not eating eggs or considering raising their own chickens. And I talked with a number of people who wondered how price the cost of eggs was going to go once the full recall was in effect. Especially if you are buying free range, organic eggs you are already paying a premium. One person even jokingly asked me if I thought there would be a bailout of the egg producer since, “We've already bailed out everyone else who made huge mistakes and [hurt] the consumer in search of profits.”

I confess I wondered what was going to happen with all those recalled eggs. Hundreds of millions of eggs were recalled. That's a lot of money. Well, it turns out those eggs are not going to be destroyed or flushed down the drain or disposed of. Stephen Jannise of Distribution Software Advice has written an article that explains how all those eggs are going to remain in the food chain. They're going to be sent to “breakage plants” where they will be pasteurized to “clean up” the pathogenic bacteria and then it will be turned into egg product such as egg beaters or the “scrambled” eggs that appear in many buffet breakfasts. Stephen does an excellent job explaining the recall (there's also a good graphic showing the egg distribution) and I encourage you to read the article.

The FDA is now considering requiring that all eggs be pasteurized before they are sold. I'm not a big fan of this. First of all, when pasteurizing an egg, even though it's not cooked, the proteins begin to bind together. Secondly, although there are no studies that I can find I know that pasteurization can have a negative effect on dairy. Furthermore, I agree with the tone of the article linked to above. The FDA, instead of looking at the enormous supply chain, overcrowding, unsanitary, inhumane conditions, and the lack of oversight wants to over-regulate it and require pasteurization. I see that as a problem.

More importantly I'm not convinced that there won't be a problem with the pasteurization process, meaning some contamination might still make it through. I wonder how much of this liquid egg product will wind up in the food chain for use in baked goods and other commercial applications.

At this point I believe the safest thing is to only get fresh eggs from sources you trust, not to eat liquid egg products, and to avoid scrambled eggs from commercial establishments.

photo: Stephen Depolo

Gluten-free In An Rv

by Miraadditives, breakfast, eggs, family, gluten free, immune system, pantry, recipes, vacation

Increasing numbers of people have food allergies, sensitivities or intolerances these days. There are a lot of theories as to why this is, but the bottom line is that it can make it very difficult for folks to eat outside their home. Maintaining a healthy pantry is critical for these folks, as is an awareness of what to look for when eating on the road.

Now that summer is over and the kids are back in school, it's time to get back to the regular routine while daydreaming of summer vacations. My friend Tina recently shared the story of her family and their ability to take a long-awaited cross-country family vacation. It's wonderful that they were able to achieve this dream, and a definite testament to how much advance preparation they had to do to be able to make this trip a reality.

Traveling gluten-free and dairy-free definitely changes what you do and how you do it. Our family has dreamed of a cross-country trip for years. Those dreams were challenged by the fact that my husband is very sensitive to gluten and dairy… even a crumb or drop can leave him with asthma and GI problems for weeks. We decided that the best way to travel would be to take our kitchen with us and do most of our own cooking. With the help of a friend who lent us their RV we were able to do finally make our dream come true and take this trip.

Starting from CT, going across the northern states, down California, then returning via the southern states and up the eastern coast it was a wonderful adventure. We were so happy our dream could become a reality and we had a great time. However we definitely had to consider how we would feed my gluten and dairy-free husband along the way.

Carefully considering our menus we pre-stocked the kitchen with gluten and dairy-free staples we knew we could have a hard time finding on our travels across the country. Not every area of the country offers a wide range of dietary choices and not every store has things like:

rice/potato pastas
gluten-free pretzels
gluten-free bread crumbs
gluten-free bread
dairy-free buttery spread
gluten-free chicken broths
gluten-free, dairy-free cold cuts
gluten-dairy free brownie mix
gluten-dairy free cake mix (we had some birthdays to celebrate along the way)
corned beef without anything added in (in the midwest a lot of stores only sold corned beef with everything already added in and we couldn't trust it)

Our dinner meals were usually a meat (chicken, steak, pork, burger), sometimes breaded with veggies or a stir-fry with brown rice.

One family favorite is a breakfast that we usually have in the winter before spending the day snowmobiling out in the cold. It's tasty, filling, and an easy on-the-road breakfast.

The Berge's Hash and Eggs

Can of corned beef (plain, no potatoes added)
4 potatoes (or as many as you feel is adequate for the # of people you have), diced
3-4 T. olive oil
1 onion, diced
ground pepper, to taste
onion powder (optional)
eggs (1 or 2 per person)

Put the onion in a frying pan with a 1 T. oil until softened.
Add the potatoes, more oil if needed, and cook until potatoes start getting soft.
Add the corned beef and brown it all (no need to add salt since the corned beef has it already)
Season with pepper and more onion powder if needed

When the hash is browned remove from the pan and set aside
Cook the eggs (we like sunny side up)
Place eggs on top of the hash and serve

It's so delicious and for lunch you can get by with just a piece of fruit and some nuts or other light meal… works great when you're travelling around for the day.

My husband's diet influenced us in other ways as well. We ate “out” at a restaurant only twice during the five weeks we were on the road. Before being seated we would ask our server lots of questions about whether they could accomodate us; if they said they could, we would try it. However there was always that feeling of playing “Russian Roulette” with his GI system since you're never really “sure” that the chef and wait person “get it.”

While we were on the road we would seek out health food stores and would be in heaven if we found a gluten-free bakery or somewhere with treats (we were on vacation after all!). We were surprised to find that out west people do not know what italian ices are. There's a market to be tapped there, for sure!

We talked a lot about how it would be great if there were some quick, healthy drive-thru type places where gluten and dairy free people could find food. Unfortunately it doesn't exist, even the salads are usually tainted with croutons and/or cheese. It was eye opening how much harder it is to travel when you don't fit into the majority.

Travelling with food allergies can be a great experience if you plan ahead on how to find or make foods that work. Yes, it would be nice to be able to eat out a little more often while on vacation (food is half the fun of vacation!) but we were able to manage. The good news is that the States seem to be getting more aware of food allergies and it is definitely easier to find gluten-free and dairy-free foods than it was 10 years ago.

photo courtesy of: Bill Ward's Brickpile

Pavlov’s Chickens

by Miraeggs

I'm always amused when I see the cartons of eggs in the grocery store proclaiming in bold print “vegetarian fed.” Chickens are not vegetarians. As a matter of fact they do better if they get to scratch, run around in the sunshine, and eat bugs and worms. It's part of their natural diet. And the healthier the chicken, the healthier the egg that it produces.

You can always tell a healthy egg because it's a much better color, it's firmer and holds together better, and, most importantly, it tastes better. If you don't believe me I encourage you to find a friend who has chickens or pay a visit to your local farmer's market and buy some.

The chickens that you see on the left there are Josephine and Daphne, they belong to my friend Peggy who has joined the growing trend of backyard chicken keepers. More and more folks are deciding, especially in light of the very scary egg recall that they would like to raise their own chickens. This way they know what the chickens are eating, how healthy they are, and they'll feel better about eating eggs. As people join the trend more communities are passing legislation to allow keeping chickens as pets (usually limiting the number, sex – no roosters, and henhouse location). There's even a website devoted to urban chicken farming.

Peggy shared the following humorous story with me about her chickens, proving that in addition to making you breakfast they can also help reduce waste.

“Embracing a more alternative lifestyle we recycle, garden, compost, and now raise chickens. After being city dwellers most of our lives, raising chickens is new to us, but so far so good.

For health reasons, we spent many months on a strict diet that did not include grains and our oatmeal had gotten buggy. We thought, ‘Chickens love bugs and grain. Why not give it to the chickens?' We tried it out by giving them just a small amount. They gobbled it down as fast as they could. This was also about the time our first hen started laying. As a matter of fact, I had started giving them some of the oatmeal when I collected that one precious egg.

Now when they see me come out to the hen house, they come running from all points of the yard and patiently follow close by. They chatter at me, as if to say, “You can pour us some Oatmeal now. Right here would be good. We sure like Oatmeal.” One hen even tolerates me petting her, if there is a remote chance she will get some of that tasty treat.

It's interesting that all the books we have read say that we can expect about 4 eggs per week per hen. Since they have figured out that they get oatmeal when I collect the eggs, we now get one egg per hen every single day. So we're calling them, Pavlov’s Chickens. As with most pets, we think we are successful in training them, but who is actually being trained, since laying eggs comes naturally for a chicken? And what are we going to do when we run out of buggy oatmeal?“

If you think you'd like to raise chickens there are a couple of good books to get you started.

And then, of course, you'll need a couple of good cookbooks to go along with the all the eggs.

Fabulous Frittata

by Miraeggs, recipes, vegetarian

I recently had lunch with a friend and we enjoyed a wonderful frittata as part of our meal. Frittatas are such a great dish to serve; they are easy to make, delicious and take very little time to put together. We had a spinach, red onion, red pepper, oregano, and parmesan frittata. Frittatas come together so quickly and are so versatile that you can't miss when you make one.

Eggs are not only delicious, but they are also a great food to have in your diet. A protein powerhouse, two eggs contain 12 grams of protein. They also provide iron, calcium, and vitamin A. One of the best things about eggs is that they're so versatile. Eggs can be served a wide variety of ways; you can serve them poached, hard cooked, soft boiled, fried, over easy, scrambled, as an omelette, the list goes on.

This Simple Summer Frittata is one of my quick and easy favorites. It comes together very quickly for a fuss-free, easy meal. And leftovers, if there are any, are just as delicious as the first time you serve them. Add this to your repertoire for quick summer cooking and you'll always have a go-to lunch or dinner that's sure to please.

Simple Summer Frittata

2019-06-01 17:02:00

Save Recipe

Ingredients

6 eggs
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1 cup leafy greens, washed and cut into ribbons
1 cup diced red onion
1 red bell pepper, large dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp fresh oregano
3-4 fresh basil leaves, torn
2 tbsp fresh grated parmesan
salta nd pepper to taste
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

preheat the oven to 400 degrees F
lightly oil an oven proof pan
saute red onion, bell pepper mushrooms and garlic
set veggies aside
wilt the leafy greens and set aside
whisk together the eggs and cottage cheese
re-oil the pan, turn to medium heat and pour in the eggs
as soon as the bottom of the frittata starts to set turn the heat down to med-low
sprinkle the cooked ingredients on the setting egg mixture
top wit herbs, salt, and pepper
when the bottom appears to be fully set sprinkle frittata with parmesan
remove pan from stove top and place in over
bake approximately 10 minutes until frittata is slightly puffy
remove from over, cut and serve

The Ingredient Guru, Mira Dessy https://theingredientguru.com/