Egg Dishes

Raising our own chickens, we get a lot of eggs.

Well, during the spring and summer months we get TONS of eggs.  Once the weather gets cooler and the days get shorter, that number decreases, but.... still.... during those few months we have more eggs than we can usually eat.

I should sell them or give them away, but I usually don't.

Due to this combination, I've had to get creative in making meals out of eggs.

Initially, simply making scrambled eggs, fried eggs, quiche, and the occasional omelet seemed to suffice.  However, now we have more chickens and the kids are 'tired' of regular ole' eggs.

I'll admit, when the girls were first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, eggs for breakfast became a 'thing'.  You see, the typical cereal with milk caused such spikes in blood sugar that I felt compelled to try 'protein' type breakfasts.  What better option than eggs?  Especially since we had plenty of them.  It wasn't long, some (particularly Selah) began to rebel against their 'egg breakfasts'.

Now?  Eggs are still not a highlight of her day when I serve them up.

So... I've tried to get creative in the egg dishes I make.

I hate to think of tossing eggs b/c they've gone bad but I also quite dislike the idea of slaving over a hot stove making fried eggs only to have most of them end up in the chicken scraps b/c the girls didn't 'like' them.

Quiche is a safe alternative and I do make this on occasion.  Although, now with 2 with celiac in the family a simple crust is harder to come by.  Crustless quiche - although an option, isn't quite as liked in our household as the 'old standby'.

Soufflés are another option that gets attention once in a while, but again, variety is the spice of life, right?  And let's face it, Soufflés are VERY similar to crustless quiche when it's all said and done.  (At least to our family.)

German pancakes makes it's way into the repertoire as well -- it uses a fair amount of eggs.  However, we've discovered the gluten free option doesn't quite stack up to the gluten filled type so..... it's not always a hit in our house -- at least not to the degree it used to be.

Recently I made Creamy Italian Baked Eggs.  A much less 'breakfast' type meal and more of a savory dish than most of the other options.

I personally really liked it.  Adding garlic toast on the side made it quite the satisfying dish.

The thing I liked most?  It was SUPER simple.

It required marinara sauce, milk, parmesan cheese, eggs, salt and pepper.  WHAT?  Is that it?

Perfect.

Lucky for me we had left over spaghetti sauce from our spaghetti dinner on a previous night so... Voila!

I layered the leftover sauce on the bottom of the baking dish; then, spooned in a few tablespoons of half-n-half (fewer carbs and a richer taste) over the sauce; next I sprinkled parmesan cheese over both; after that, I cracked eggs in rows into the mixture in the baking dish; finally, a little salt and pepper atop the eggs.  Done!

The oven was already set to 450 so I just popped the baking dish into the oven and waited the 15 minutes for the eggs to cook.

In the future I may cook it a little less so the yolks aren't quite so done, or maybe cover with foil to see if that helps as I do want the whites fully done, but otherwise?  YUM!

The garlic toast on the side in addition to some rice pudding -- dinner was a hit.

What egg dishes do you like that are 'not the usual suspects'?