Today we’re going to talk about eggs, or rather about if you don’t like eggs, and what’s a good thing to have for breakfast in that case – what’s a good way to use eggs, so that they don’t taste too “eggy”? Here are creative ways of using them so that you still get the protein and the benefits like choline from eggs, but you don’t have to just have scrambled or fried eggs. Maybe those are things that you don’t enjoy. I seem to go through phases. Sometimes I don’t mind eggs for breakfast, and other times I really can’t stomach them, though I still enjoy the sides like grilled tomato, mushrooms, zucchini, and avocado. All those things are great, but it’s hard for me to have eggs with them.
So, let’s talk about some ways to use eggs in your breakfast even if you don’t like them. We want to try to incorporate them into dishes where their flavor is a little masked, or complimented by other ingredients. One thing you can try is adding lots of other ingredients so that the egg is more in the background. If you’re making scrambled eggs, you can add things like hot sauce, salsa, tomato or red pepper, or basil pesto. If there’s one of those you really enjoy, then try to mask your eggs with it.
If you make an omelet with lots of vegetables like chopped zucchini in it, then the egg is less noticeable. Put some bacon in it, as well as some grated cheese and some spices. You can make egg muffins like mini frittatas in a muffin tray in the oven. You can add pieces of sausages, bacon, onion, cheese, or whatever you like to them. Then the eggs are less noticeable.
Another way to use eggs is to make fried rice. For that, you scramble your egg and chop it into small bits, and then mix it in with some leftover rice. Add some soy sauce, and a few vegetables that you enjoy, like grated carrot and grated zucchini. Grated vegetables are good for the rice because they cook fast.
You can use unusual bread options with the eggs, like pita breads, or even nachos. You can put your scrambled eggs inside the pita bread with vegetables or meat. You can even try making a breakfast pizza using some pizza dough. Add egg, cheese, and vegetables on top.
Egg frittatas can be delicious. Add as many vegetables and meats as you like. You can use mince meat, you can use bacon, sausage, and cheese, and the same vegetables we mentioned before – zucchini, tomato, mushrooms, or any ones that you enjoy. Make that into a frittata or a quiche, and it’s a lot less eggy.
You can make french toast. Use a good sourdough loaf, take a couple of eggs, whisk them up in a bowl with a little bit of milk, and then dip your bread in. A flat bowl will work well. Put your bread in, soak it, put it into a hot pan, and flip it. After it’s done, put a little bit of salt on it, and maybe some maple syrup. This one is a great option because it definitely doesn’t taste like egg. You have to decide what your degree of dislike is and how far you want to go, from really well flavored eggs with other ingredients to something that’s completely different to egg.
Something else you can do with eggs is custard. Make a delicious custard on the stove top and keep little cups of it in the fridge. It’s got some great egg in it. You can bake eggs into things – they’d be the binder and the raising agent, and you won’t taste them too much. You can do muffins like banana or blueberry muffins. You can make pancakes. We make pancakes in the Trim Healthy Mama style, in which you use equal amounts of cottage cheese, eggs, and oats, and then you add a bit of salt and other seasonings in there. We don’t separate the eggs and use only the whites or the yolks; we just use whole eggs.
Things like protein bars or breakfast bars can be made with eggs, as well as brownies and waffles. Batter for crepes has eggs in it too, as does pancake batter, as I mentioned. You can do vegetable fritters, pancake style – cheese and zucchini fritters. You make the batter with flour, water, and eggs, and then you add grated zucchini, grated cheese, and some seasonings. Then you just cook that by the spoonful into fritters. Those are amazing. You can also do corn fritters. I’ll put the recipe at the bottom of this post.
Here are a couple of other ideas. In carbonara pasta, the egg cooks into a silky sauce, and you can combine it with cheese and bacon. I don’t know if you like that for breakfast. There’s egg drop soup, which is light and brothy, not very eggy. Another dessert like custard is chocolate mousse, although I doubt if you’d have that for breakfast, but it does help you to have your eggs during the day.
You can blend a raw egg into a protein shake. It’s best to make sure your eggs are good quality, from a good place, and then you can blend them into your smoothies, maybe a banana smoothie. You can add nut butter, cocoa powder, and fruit, and you won’t notice it. You can put it on top of a piece of steak, and spread the yolk out very much when you’re cooking it, then it’s not very noticeable. It’s similar to an omelet, but well cooked so that you don’t notice the yolk.
Here are some ideas for if you really don’t want to have eggs, but you still want to have a good, nutritious, and protein rich breakfast without eggs. An obvious thing for this is dairy. You can have greek yogurt with berries, granola chia seeds, and some maple syrup. You can have a cottage cheese bowl or smoothie where you mix or blend cottage cheese with some fruit and some nut butters. You could do a savory version where you mix it with tomatoes and peppers. You can even make something like an omelet if you mix up some tomatoes and vegetables like zucchini with some cottage cheese, and then gently fry it a little bit on a low heat.
There are also smoothies in general. You can use Greek yogurt in them, or any other kind of yogurt that you enjoy. You can use milk in them, or one of my favorites, coconut cream. You can mix coconut cream with berries and maybe a little honey as a sweetener to make an amazing smoothie. You could make one out of coconut cream with banana and nut butter. Do any kind of smoothie you enjoy. I also like to do a nut smoothie where we blend cashew nuts with either strawberries or pineapple, about a cup full, and a little bit of orange juice or pineapple juice. That’s a really amazing smoothie. You need to blend it a lot so that the nuts become nice and creamy, but it’s a great breakfast.
Obviously, you can use things like tofu if you’re into that kind of thing. Scrambled tofu has a similar texture to scrambled eggs. Smoked salmon is a great breakfast option. I like to have little slices of smoked salmon with some cream cheese inside – you could probably use cottage cheese as well. I like to have some baby cherry tomatoes with it, and a bit of salt and pepper. That’s very yummy.
You can do protein muffins. We make muffins from freshly ground spelt flour, which is quite high in protein. Any kind of muffins that you enjoy are a great option. You could also try an English style breakfast without the eggs; just all the other delicious things. I mentioned a couple that I enjoy. You can have toast with jam and butter. You can have fried mushrooms, grilled tomato, bacon, grilled sausage, and even some zucchini – all the things that you would have on a big, lovely breakfast plate, but just leave out the egg. Sometimes you find you don’t even need it.
So, for those times when you’re feeling a bit off egg, there’s lots of ways you can make up for it. You don’t have to eat it all the time. It’s good to have a break from eggs every now and then and try some different style breakfasts.
Another thing you can use for protein is cheese. We’ve spoken about cottage cheese, but you could do a slice of toast with melted cheese on top. You could have some mince with grated cheddar on top of it. You could have some crackers or muffins with little slices or pieces of cheese. Use different cheeses that you enjoy. Maybe you can have some soft goats’ cheese or something like brie, and some hard cheeses as well.
We don’t have to stick to the mold for breakfast – we can do whatever feels good. Maybe you feel like a fruit salad. These days, I often feel like eating fruits for breakfast. Just cut up some grapes, some strawberries, and some apples, and have an amazing fruit salad. The blended cashew smoothie – we call it cashew custard – actually tastes amazing poured over a fruit salad. That’s a really nice thing to have.
You don’t need to have a high protein breakfast every day if you don’t feel like it. I really feel like fruit combined is so good for you, and it’s supposed to be a complete protein anyway, because of all the different amino acids you find in it.
Just enjoy your breakfast, and break free from the mold. I know they say it’s healthy to have some good protein, that it’s healthy to not wait too long after waking to have your breakfast, and it’s good to have your breakfast before coffee. We can be aware of all those things, but it doesn’t have to be a rigid law.
Sometimes we can just do breakfasts that we enjoy. If you really want to go French, you can try some croissants with jam, or any kind of French pastries. Try chocolate pastry – go wild sometimes.
Cashew Custard
- 1/2 cup raw cashew nuts
- 1 cup orange or pineapple juice
- 1 cup pineapple or strawberries chopped (frozen is good)\
- (add a few ice cubes if your fruit wasn’t frozen)
- Blend together in a blender until smooth, adding water as needed (a bullet works well)
- Pour into a glass and sip slowly (remember its food, not a drink) or pour over fruit salad.
