Boiled eggs & dried fruit

2010-06-29T21:29:00.001+10:00

Last week I tried a variation on an old favourite.

In the good ole days, I used to take a couple of boiled eggs in to work and grab some vegies to steam from the nearby supermarket. Surprisingly, I find steamed vegies very easy to take first thing in the morning, much more so than later in the day. Problem was, my colleagues weren't so happy with the smell of steamed cabbage. I guess there's no accounting for taste.

This time I decided to try a boiled-eggs-and-dried-fruit combo.

The boiled eggs I made with one of my favourite gadgets - my egg-maker.

I love it. It makes eggs perfectly to the hardness or softness I desire. And when the eggs are cooked, instead of making a horrible burning smell, exploding the eggs and ruining the pot, it beeps at me in a very obnoxious manner, so that I am forced to turn it off before burning and exploding takes place.

A couple of boiled eggs, some almonds, walnuts, dried apricots and figs packed very nicely into a conveniently lunch-box-sized lunch box.

So, the question was: would this satisfy me until lunchtime? The answer was: sort of.

Unfortunately, the eggs were a bit not yummy. They wouldn't peel properly, which is very unusual for eggs cooked in the egg cooker - more often than not when you crack the shells, they slide off easily in two halves. This time most of the white came off on the shell, and they didn't taste quite as yummy as they should have. Not yucky, just not yummy. Methinks the egg company took liberties with the use-by date...

Overall, the meal was quite ok - the apricots, I think, were important in the nice tart contrast they provided. Healthwise, there is protein in the eggs, perhaps a bit much fat in the nuts - but good fat - and balancing carbs and fibre in the apricots and figs.

I tried again with fresh eggs the next day, and it wasn't bad, but there were some hunger pangs floating around before lunch (quashed by another coffee - good for not feeling hungry, bad for sleeping).

Of course, then I was stuck with four eggs in which I had little confidence. Fortunately, I have a dog who not only loves boiled eggs, but who also loves slightly dodgy stuff, given the attention she pays to indescribable things in the park (usually indescribable due to their state of extreme dodginess, which means you can't really tell what they are).

However... by the end of the week I was back to the bacon and egg foccacia, remembering, after the first, glorious, greasy bite, to pull the fat off the bacon. And that is still my benchmark for fullness and tummy-happiness. Particularly in the depths of winter.

Verdict: 7/10

The most important meals of the day

2010-06-20T15:08:00.000+10:00

Most people are familiar with the concept of first breakfast, but for many, second breakfast remains largely unexplored.

First breakfast is important to me - it's a quick bite very early in the morning, scoffed down before rushing off to the gym or taking the dog for an hour-long walk. It has to sustain me. It can't be anything too difficult to stomach at stupid o'clock in the morning, and in summer is usually a bircher muesli which I prepared earlier, or, in winter, quick oats which cook while I dress.

Second breakfast, however, is more problematic - it's the breakfast I have several hours later when I get to work. This is the breakfast that determines my hunger-and-junk-food levels for the rest of the day.

If second breakfast is tasty and filling, for example a bacon and egg sandwich, chances are I won't be very hungry at lunchtime, will be satisfied with a bowl of soup, and then a small dinner in the evening.

If second breakfast is pissy and pathetic, for example a bowl of cereal or some toast, I will be starving in an hour, will probably nip down for a piece of cake at morning tea time, have an inappropriately unhealthy lunch and then eat crap all evening.

The problem is, bacon and egg sandwiches are all very well and good, but the bacon always has all its fat, and for some reason they all seem to have cheese these days, which I'm not against in principle, but it detracts from the eggy-bacony-ness that is the reason I'm there in the first place. I can order one with no fat and no cheese, but who can be bothered waiting for it when there are emails waiting upstairs?

So that's what this blog is all about - finding the perfect second breakfast, one that is satisfying in a tasty, stomachy, office-suitabley, easily preparedly, easily transportabley, and healthy way.

second breakfast blog

Boiled eggs & dried fruit

The most important meals of the day