15 // MEALS MADE EASY MONDAY
MEALS MADE EASY MONDAY
How to cook the most PERFECT hard-boiled egg! Your new go-to, meat-free, no-fuss, prep-ahead protein...that is easy enough for even a toddler to peel!
There is no better time than Easter to introduce EGGS away from just at the breakfast table and outside of the Easter basket!
Hear how to cook the most PERFECT hard-boiled egg with Ashley's 5-5-5 method. It will quickly become your new go-to, meat-free, no-fuss, prep-ahead protein to add in at lunches...and as a bonus, it is easy enough for even a toddler to peel. This way, you and your family can start enjoying hard-boiled eggs straight out of a bento box or with your favorite snacky lunch.
So whether your child refuses most animal products (and complete proteins for that matter) or is on a saying "no" to sandwiches streak, this episode has you covered.
With a kid-friendly form of protein that is easy to make and even easier for them to peel independently, this method is going to be a game changer for you and your family this Easter season (and in all those that follow).
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] Mama, are you struggling with how to feed your kids? Right? Do you wish that there was a way to help your child try new foods? Do you look at a pantry cluttered with pirate, booty and a fridge full of the same food every week? And wonder how you're going to get your family's meals off the hot mess express.
[00:00:16] I know what it feels like to scroll through all the feeding accounts on Instagram and to see a bunch of boujee food that my family would never eat. And I too have pinned all the healthy recipes with good intentions, but zero execution. I understand as a busy mom of three, that it can feel really unattainable, especially on the days when I'm exhausted.
[00:00:34] I have a short fuse. He really disliked an easy button and the date way, well, that's where these meals made easy episode ideas come from with everyday ingredients that you already have on hand. You have one meal or snack idea week that's dietician, mom approved and is going to fit in your family's busy life.
[00:00:52] So get ready to press, add to cart and to make meals and snacks easy again. Hey there. And welcome back for another meals made easy Monday. I am excited to chat about this because if you listen to the first episode, you know, that I covered. Kind of in a more broad sense, I could get very granular talking to egg talking about eggs with y'all.
[00:01:13] But last week I kind of gave her a little bit of a preview of what, in the feeding space we talk of as food chaining. And a lot of that is that we add variety using the foods that our children already have learned to like, and so we help them learn to like more variety by kind of adding links on the chain, to the foods that they already like.
[00:01:31] So in the example of last week, if. Loves scrambled eggs. Think of what links you can make to that, to continue to kind of bridge off of it so that your child likes lots of different types of scrambled eggs or lots of different types of eggs. And this really helps us prevent food Jags for one where our kids get really stuck on a certain food offered a certain way, but also it so that if our kid burns out on say scrambled eggs, we don't lose.
[00:01:56] Eggs altogether as a loving food. And so one of the variations of eggs I wanted to dive into today, knowing that lots of families will be dying eggs in the coming days. I wanted to discuss hard-boiled eggs. If you followed me for any amount of time, you know that I talked about her boiled eggs often because they are a staple around here.
[00:02:16] But today I want to move beyond thinking about hard-boiled eggs as a breakfast. As we talked about eggs being at breakfast food last week. And instead I want to pivot and help you see how you can food chain eggs to include it at different times of day in the form of something like a hard-boiled egg.
[00:02:32] And so this is a great way to get some really easy protein in at lunch as adults, you know, we may think of egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, a Cobb salad with a hard-boiled egg sliced up. These are all great options to introduce your kids to depending on how adventurous of eaters they are. But I want us to walk through how we can make the best hard-boiled egg today so that your kid can easily peel and eat it at lunch.
[00:02:59] Whether you pack one in like their bento box as a really simple protein option, or you want to have it at home as something that they can have on their plate at lunchtime. I do like buying some of the pre peeled hard-boiled egg packs. We buy them at our Costco. They come in packs of two. Those are super easy, slightly less Economical's and making them yourself, but it is a really convenient option.
[00:03:23] If you say, don't have time to boil your own eggs. However, if you like. Felt a little frustrated that you had not perfected the boiled egg. My mom has it down to a science and she does it on the stove top with a pot of boiling water. And she does some great me. I think with kids, I just forget about the eggs.
[00:03:43] They either boil too long, or my husband prefers even more of like a soft boil. Anyways, I don't feel like I'm ever that successful with them, but I have found a foolproof method that I want to make sure you're aware of whether you're boiling eggs to die for Easter weekend or whether or not you just wanted to try boiling eggs and adding them into your meal and snack routine.
[00:04:04] So I'm going to go ahead and dive in to what I what I call and what I often have seen called the five, five. Boiled egg method. So the hard-boiled egg using this method. You will need an instant pot. If that's not something you have, I encourage you to find your favorite method using like a pot of water or whatever alternative works best for your family for us, because we do have an instant pot.
[00:04:30] I use it to boil eggs often, and the way that we do. You can write down, write this down. If you want. There's going to be 5, 5, 5 that you need to remember. And that's five minute increments. So first and foremost, we are going to add the trivet inside the instant pot, or we're going to add a cup of water and really I've found that it's just a cup of water, no matter how many exits.
[00:04:52] But we are going to keep the eggs in a single layer. So if you want to boil four or you want to boil a whole, doesn't, it really doesn't matter. You can, most instant pots are large enough that you can get a dozen eggs in in a single layer. So you want to put those in the single layer and then secure the lid and you're going to put it on manual high pressure.
[00:05:09] For five minutes. So you're going to manually set it for five minutes. Obviously. It makes sure to close the valve. I've made that mistake before, but you want to close the valve, set that for five minutes. So that's your first five while that's cooking. This is something that I'll share a video of doing this with my daughter on my Instagram, because this is a.
[00:05:26] Super kid friendly. We know that kids love timers. Kids love pouring water. If your kids are wanting to practice kind of handling a delicate egg, doing the science experiment of what happens between our raw egg, whether they drop it on accident and you get to discover what the inside of a raw egg looks like, or are they just already know from making, say scrambled eggs, this is a great way to food chain for them to help them see the connection between.
[00:05:51] Scrambling and egg up to maybe cook on the stove top, versus what happens when we put it in this magic pressure machine. So include your kids as much as possible that you can have them put the lid on, set the timer and then help transition them to getting an ice bath ready, because you'll need that in a little bit.
[00:06:09] So after the timer goes off for. You do want to do a quick release, just make sure, especially if your kids are helping you, that you're using like a long wooden spoon or something to keep their hands back from the steam being released. So you want to do a quick release and again, have them set a timer this time.
[00:06:25] It won't be on the instant pot that maybe like on the oven or on the microwave or manual timer that you have. Or if you have like a sand timer at meals, that'd be a great option, but you want this for five minutes and this is where you're going to give the instant pot five. To release the steam and the pressure and the eggs to cool down just a little.
[00:06:44] And then at the end of that five minutes, that's the second series of five minutes. We are going to transfer them to an ice bath. And that's the final five in our 5, 5, 5. So he transferred the hard boiled eggs to the ice bath. And again, you can set a timer for this. This is where I tend to just forget them because life and by the third five, you know, my kids have usually we already transitioned onto another.
[00:07:08] And there are less interested in it, but at this point you can put them in the ice bath, go ahead and transfer them to the fridge you just don't want to have. Once the ice bath melts, you don't want to leave them out at room temperature for too long. You want to make sure you get them in the fridge, but the real point in sharing this is because once you are done with this, these are the easiest hardware.
[00:07:27] You will have ever appealed in your life. It will save you a ton of time, a ton of frustration and a ton of money from buying like pre boiled eggs. But even more, I don't really give your kids something hands-on. So if your kid is learning to like eggs in different forms, leverage this Easter season and opportunity to boil eggs and dye them and enjoy them in different ways.
[00:07:47] But then as you have this hard boiled egg, whether you choose to eat the diet eggs or not in my family, we don't because they tend to get hidden and smashed and all the things. But you know, you can use this as a great opportunity to begin to expose your kids to a different form of eggs and to see where their interests may lie in this as with all learning it foods.
[00:08:07] I think the more that you can get your kids hands on and engaged in the process of preparing them as we discussed with these 5, 5, 5, Is great. Another next step I would say is to make sure that you have an egg slicer at home. This doesn't need to be any fancy. There are some that are really cute. There's also plenty that you can find like at Walmart or target or the dollar store.
[00:08:28] Serve the exact same purpose. And as soon as your kids see how quick and easy these eggs are to peel the egg just pops right out of it. You can invite them to slice it even again, even if they're not ready to eat it yet, you can invite them to slice these. So if you don't have a go-to method for hard boiling, Be sure to try this 5, 5, 5 method, incorporate your kids as much as you feel comfortable and have the mental capacity to do so.
[00:08:54] And then report back to me. I would love to hear or to see on social. If you want to tag me to see how this method goes for you, especially as y'all get boiling eggs for the upcoming Easter. If these meals made easy ideas are helping you in any way, or this show is encouraging you and the messes and the mealtimes of motherhood.
[00:09:13] I would love to hear about it. All you need to do is scroll down on apple podcasts and tap, write a review. I check each and every one of these and they truly bust need to read and to know how the show is helping shape your family's relationship with food so that I can continue to create content that serves you best.
[00:09:30] Thank you. For taking the time to leave me a review. And I look forward to seeing you back here next time.
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