Put an egg on it!

There are over 50,000 instagram photos with the #putaneggonit tag – and rightly so!  Eggs are one of my favorite and most misunderstood sources of protein, and from risotto to burgers to pastas to soups to toast, there are few savory foods that you actually can’t put an egg on.  They are the gold standard for protein, matching the essential amino acids humans need very closely, a concept also known as “biological value.”  All the micronutrients they contain – B12, riboflavin, selenium, and a bit of vitamin D – and about half the egg’s protein are found in the yolk, so never opt for just the whites!  Yes, there’s cholesterol there too, but pairing the eggs with high fiber foods like veggies and whole grains will prevent some of the cholesterol’s absorption, and most of your body’s cholesterol comes from what your liver makes, anyway.

Eggs for breakfast…lunch, or dinner, or snacks…

I usually aim to eat about a dozen eggs a week myself.  On mornings when I’m not at the farm (ie, waking up at 6!) and I get to sleep in a little, I’ll usually have an egg-based breakfast. (These are from my instagram feed over the past year!)

I’m lucky that PVF also does eggs, so I know the chickens personally (and they eat veggie scraps we grow!), but if you want to figure out how the eggs you buy at the grocery store are grown, brush up on some key definitions first.

Road trip to New England

A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I took a long weekend to visit Vermont and Maine…it was a ton of driving, and he threatened to stop at every Wendy’s we passed.  Luckily, I found a sweet little breakfast spot after we broke camp the first morning called No. Six Depot that satisfied the requirements of being quick, having good coffee, and offering some kind of nutritious breakfast in the pre-brunching hours.  Any menu that offers veggies in the AM is good in my books, and I ordered this lovely salad:

Since the RecipeRedux theme this month is food inspired by vacationing, I thought I’d share my take on a breakfast salad with eggs.  The eggs from Six Depot were perfectly cooked, and had a creamy tangyness to them that I thought might be a hint of vinegar, so I tried it this time with great results!  The trick is to fry the egg on one side (not too high to avoid browning), then flip and just after the whites have fully congealed, add a tablespoon or two of white vinegar. The rest is just assembly; greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and I added quinoa and parmesan cheese!