The Incredible, Edible Egg

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
Photo by nuttakit

To the egg commission:  Please don't sue me for using your tag line!  I'm saying good things about your product, I swear!

Eggs are the ultimate frugal paleo food.  Even superstar eggs, the ones laid by chickens that are happily living the chicken dream are affordable, even at twice the price of "regular" eggs.  My favorite way to procure eggs?  My mom owns a few chickens and they lay more eggs than she and my step-dad could ever possibly eat.  So about once a month or so I get to score an 18-ct pack of farm fresh eggs.  Yum!!!  And pretty easy on the budget, too...

My go-to breakfast is a fried egg (in butter), with a slice of ham (browned up nicely in the leftover butter, oh yeahhh).  This typically keeps me full until noon or later.  If I'm forgetting to eat, you know I'm in a good place!  I do feel like I should be including some veggies in this breakfast.  Part of my morning challenge is getting two kids ready for the day, and taking the time to properly feed myself can sometimes be a last-minute task.  Eggs fry up easy and it doesn't take me long to scarf them down, so this works.  Trying to chop veggies might be a bit more than I can handle some mornings.

This leads itself to an obvious solution, doesn't it?  Chop the darn things the night before!!

Here's one of the first things I learned about eating paleo on a budget:  If you don't plan ahead, you're screwed.  It's that simple.  I plan out the family's meals once a week and create the grocery list based on that plan, including options for snacks.  I will definitely have a lot more to say about this later, but let's get back to eggs, shall we?

If you're only eating eggs for breakfast, you are missing out big time.  We eat eggs pretty much around the clock.  Eggs with bacon or other assorted meats plus fresh fruit is a favorite super easy and cheapo meal in this house.  We also started buying double the eggs and hard boiling half of them to keep around as snacks and fast meal options.  (Note:  If you do this, LABEL LABEL LABEL the container you are keeping the hard boiled ones in to avoid a Ramona Quimby moment.)  I personally don't care for the taste of hard boiled eggs, although having them around makes it easier to make deviled eggs and I love those.  The hubby and the kids all like the boiled eggs though, and I don't have to nag the hubby about packing a healthy lunch.

While leafing through one of my magazines last night, I found hidden amongst all the recipes for various pasta-based dishes a little gem:  spinach and goat cheese frittata.  (Note:  I lean more toward the primal side of things, so I do include full-fat cheeses in my diet occasionally.)  It looks like the only tweak it needs is to substitute the olive oil for butter (you do know you shouldn't cook with olive oil, right?). I think that will be on the menu next week.

So tell us... what kind of eggs do you buy and what's your favorite way to cook them?